You know, Sheldon is a perfect (although exaggerated) example of an adult with Asperger syndrome. My 20 year old son has it. I probably have it too, but I haven't diagnosed.

"Soft Kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur..."

Ever since I first heard of Asperger's I've thought it would explain a lot about me. Pretty sure I wouldn't be diagnosed with it, but tend toward that end of the spectrum, for sure.

Are you overfocused and obsessed?

I do have a very strong need for closure and can get irritable if I'm interrupted at what I'm doing. Have taught myself to let that go. I did have trichotillomania for a while as a preteen, but realized what was happening and forced myself to stop. But no, I don't go to that extreme which is why I wouldn't be diagnosed as Asperger's. But the social awkwardness and oversensitivity to certain sensations are familiar.

He always has the best T-Shirts too!

I like the one that just has a lightning flash on it.

this is strange.
i feel like the big bang theory is old.
o.O
well at least not new.

Yeah, they've done about 5 seasons or so. But,it's not "old" because they are still making new episodes.

All in the Family is old.

I watched the show a few times a while back. I have a hard time watching shows with canned laughter so I never really got into it. I can't say I gave it much of a chance though

They have a live audiance.

Are there any shows these days that don't have canned laughter? Even the ones with live audiences do, is what I heard.

I think you're right about that which is why when I want to watch a comedy, it's usually a movie and not a tv show.

Why did canned laughter originally exist? Do we really need a guidance as to know when something is funny in a sitcom? Doubt it. I just don't get the canned laughter concept.

It's part of the "herd mentality". If others think it is funny, you will too.

The laugh track came about with the 'Hank McCune Show' in the early 50's, it was felt the show wasn't getting enough laughs, so the engineers came up with the laugh track to signal to the home audience when to laugh.

There are quite a few modern sitcoms that don't have a laugh track, The Office, The Middle, Community to name a few.

I'm glad someone mentioned the laughter.

I really don't like it. It detracts from the show.

I could not definitely figure out from listening whether it was a live audience or a laugh track - or a combination. I eventually decided it was most likely a horrible, fake sounding live audience responding to 'laugh', 'gasp', and 'say 'aawww' sympathetically' type cues.

I feel there is just no way that the laugh audio is 100% unedited, un-embellished, unprompted authentic responses of a live audience, though I'm not surprised a live audience is involved somehow.

Its really bad. Its distracting. Its insulting, because I know its manipulative purpose. It feels like an effort to compensate for the writing, and thus makes the writing seem worse, desparate.

Office and Community are not consistently funny to me, but when they are funny, they are awesomely funny. I love them! I let all the non-funny jokes pass me by in silence, with no insulting laugh track or audience track, and get to fully enjoy the joke I like. Not so with TBBT.

WithOrWIthoutYou,


I felt the exact same way as you after the first couple episodes I watched. The laugh audio made the show seem really, really stupid....while the whole reason i was watching it was in hopes for the opposite experience. I quit watching it and figured I'd never watch it again.


If you love geek humor, though, its worth giving it another shot. I'm glad i did. The laughter still annoys me, but I can tune it out a bit more an enjoy the awesome geek humor in the show.

A video showing each pic used in TBBT intro, with an label explaining what it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYpxKh7nKiI&feature=watch_response