The Big Bang Theory

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I was listening to sports radio this morning and heard the host apologizing to the listeners for “The Big Bang Theory”, a new CBS comedy about two stereotypical nerd/geniuses who share an apartment across the hall from the building’s newest resident, a very attractive young woman. (The specific quote: “I owe you some digital recording space for that one”.) My wife didn’t care for the show either, but I sort of enjoyed it much like I did Beavis and Butthead – in other words, I know people who are exactly like the two main characters, so I got a kick out of it.

So I wondered: why do so many people despise something I sort of enjoyed? I quickly realized that this show really has a very limited target audience, and I just so happen to fall into it: nerds with a sense of humor. The average person doesn’t get the nerdy references (like the guy wearing the 42 hat), doesn’t identify with the two main characters, doesn’t understand at all why a reasonably hot girl would give two such dorks the time of day, and ultimately couldn’t care less about the show. The average nerd does get the references, but has no ability to laugh at himself or those who are like him – for that matter, no ability to laugh at anything  . Seriously – crack a joke, any joke, and a true nerd will point out the slightest error in spelling, grammar, or logic, thereby sucking all the fun out of it. I wonder if this is a defense mechanism developed after constantly being given wedgies by football players in high school. Anyway, I digress…

So in conclusion, a show that makes its tiny target audience only sort of chuckle is doomed from the get-go. I give it six weeks, and that’s a shame because comedies on broadcast networks are nearly extinct. Yeah, I know there’s plenty of comedy on cable, but the vast majority of those shows seem to be trying to out-shock and out-offend all the rest, and that gets old and juvenile (to me, anyway) in a hurry.

Make me laugh, dangit!

Updates

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I didn’t have time to get my season predictions in before Week 1, so I’ll be cheating a bit – sort of – when I get around to it, hopefully before Sunday.  Cheating is OK though – just ask Bill Belichick.

I’m still pretty torn up about Kevin Everett.  I’m so glad he’s starting to regain some movement,  but he’s got such a long way to go that anything but cautious optimism is probably misguided.

I'm now a member of the Red Ring Club

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After months of teasing, my Xbox 360 finally bit the dust this past weekend. It locked up 5 or 6 times on Friday night while trying to play All-Pro Football 2K8, not even letting me get past the first quarter. The lockups continued on Saturday, culminating with the dreaded Red Ring of Death on Sunday morning. Not a big deal, because I had the warranty from Gamestop – I didn’t have to ship out my console to Microsoft and wait weeks for its return. I detached the hard drive from my lifeless white box and headed off to replace it with a working one.

Except it wasn’t quite that simple. I brought the replacement 360 home and plugged it in, and it was DOA! Red ring of death right out of the box. I looked at the console manufacture date on the back, and it said October ’05. Doubleyou-tee-eff. I know for a fact that particular Gamestop has sold out of 360′s at some point in the near past – how on earth does it end up with a 360 made before its release date? Microsoft, what are you doing sticking refurbished 360s in new boxes? To make matters worse, that was the store’s last 360 – and two other Gamestops that were called were out of stick as well. The gaming gods truly were frowning upon me.

Fortunately, the story has a happy ending. A fourth Gamestop location was called, and not only did they have them in stock, but it just so happened to be one that was manufactured in July ’07. Since it’s been produced after Microsoft finally acknowledged they had some design and reliability flaws, that means it should be more reliable and has a quieter DVD drive than the originals – and not only that, but it’s got an HDMI port too so I’m ready when the wife finally lets me get an HDTV. Huzzah!

I celebrated my return to gaming by thrashing maddhaze in Madden ’08 last night. Now I’m looking for more victims. :)

New House (and other updates)

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My TV, Xbox 360, Wii, and computer are now hooked up at the new house, so I think this means we’ve officially moved in. :) We’ve got lots of boxes to unpack yet, but we’re taking it slow. Lots of work has already been done, including a new kitchen sink and a new vanity, medicine cabinet, sink, and shower surround in the bathroom. This means that we’ve been so busy we barely have time to breathe. And by “we”, I really mean “my brother”, who’s been hard at work doing all that for us.

In other news, I cleaned out my dresser tonight and discovered I had 50 T-shirts. Who in the hell needs 50 T-shirts? No wonder I couldn’t fit anything else in there.

Football season is around the corner, and that means it’s time for fantasy football drafts… first one is on Sunday, then the draft for my league is Tuesday, and finally the office league draft on Labor Day night. I can hardly wait.

I’ll put up pictures of the new house at some point… when it’s presentable enough to take pics of :)

Some actual positive NFL news for a change

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When NFL players change teams, they often want to wear the numbers they’ve been using. The standard practice is for one player to pay money to the current owner of the number for its rights. As if it doesn’t already sound petty that multi-million dollar athletes extort money from one another for such a thing, there was actually a dispute over a number a couple years ago involving current Redskin Clinton Portis and former Redskin Ifeanyi Ohalete. Portis wanted Ohalete’s #26 and they agreed to a certain sum of money, but when Ohalete was cut by the Redskins, Portis stopped paying. (They eventually came to an agreement).

Ahman Green and Jason Simmons of the Houston Texans are apparently above such petty behavior. Green signed with Houston during the current offseason, but his #30 that he’d worn with the Packers for many seasons was already taken by Simmons. When he approached Simmons about a deal for the number, Simmons had a plan. Instead of accepting money, Simmons asked Green to make a $25,000 down payment on a home for a deserving single mom. A search was conducted, a single mother with a 7-year-old autistic son was chosen, and the checks (including a matching $25,000 from Texans owner Bob McNair, one of the classier owners in sports) were presented yesterday in an emotional ceremony.

In a sports world where athletes are routinely involved in criminal activities, such a story makes me happy to be an NFL fan. If only there were more players like Simmons, Green and Warrick Dunn of the Falcons (whose charity work Simmons’ idea just might have been inspired by).