The Big Bang Theory and Popular Culture Concepts

The Big Bang Theory is a popular, relatively newer show that first aired on CBS in 2007.  The show focuses on a nerdy group of friends and their good looking neighbor, Penny.  In total their are five main characters, besides Penny, there is Sheldon, Howard, Raj, and Leonard.  With the writers' intelligent humor and nerd empathy, The Big Bang Theory has become one of the most popular shows on American television sets.

Stereotypes are prevalent throughout the entire show.  Much of the time these stereotypes are highlights around Raj being Indian or Howard being Jewish.  From the clip above, Howard makes a reference to getting a fake tattoo sleeve and how he can still be buried in a Jewish cemetery.  Another scene I watched had Howard and Raj in a church talking about a cross with Jesus on it.  Raj says to Howard, "None of our gods are like that", then Howard replies, "Yeah, that's the last Jew to do situps and look where that got him."  The dialogue is quite funny when someone knows of the stereotypes cast to Jewish and Indian ethnicity, however for someone not from America or familiar with the show, these stereotypes could be offensive and considered rude.  Whether the stereotypical humor is funny or not is up for debate, but the use of stereotypes affecting the representation of culture groups and how these culture groups are perceived by the viewers is pretty similar.  Much of the time the stereotypes in the show continue portraying negative images.

This concept leads into another one of the concepts mentioned in chapter 9 which focuses on the how migrants to a new culture perceive the new popular culture that goes along with the new culture.  "We can see that these popular culture images are often more influential  in constructing particular ways of understanding other cultural groups than our own (Martin & Nakayama pg. 372)."  This quote comes from the study of Katz and Liebes that focuses on immigrants living in the Los Angeles area that viewed the hit television show Dallas and how the show affected their interpretations of American culture.  This leads into The Big Bang Theory because of the use of the word "Cowboy" to address Americans by Raj.  This can be seen in the video clip that I posted.  Aside from this example Raj's parents in their brief appearances on the show occasionally reference American popular culture in their Skype conversations with their children. 

The final theme from the reading that I would like to discuss focuses on the lack of the Asian American culture in the show when the show is set up to play off many of the Asian American stereotypes.  As negative or misleading as they are, the stereotypes around the Asian American community are normally well known across society.  It is interesting that a show built around being smart and hard working doesn't show any aspect from this particular culture.  In no way am I saying it should be in the show or condone the use of stereotypes but from what I read in the book the Asian American culture does not make it into popular culture (Martin and Nakayama pg. 375).  This lack of Asian American culture can be seen in all modern television shows, I sat and pondered the last time I saw a show which focused on an Asian American family with no results.  With the population demographic ever changing, it will be interesting to see how popular culture here continues to change.  Aside from all the Intercultural Communication themes found in the show, The Big Bang Theory is a great show that everyone should watch!