Star Trek Movie On ‘Big Bang Theory’ April 26, 2008
by Rosario T. Calabria , Filed under: Humor, Star Trek (2009 film) , trackback
If you haven’t seen it, the CBS sitcom “Big Bang Theory” is a show about four nerdy scientists that is rife with references to comic books, sci-fi and especially “Star Trek.” The official show synopsis on CBS.com even refers to ‘Klingon Boggle.’ This week’s episode opened with a discussion of the new Star Trek movie. See video of that and more below.
Reference to Star Trek movie…are they surfing trekmovie.com?
Here is another clip from the same episode showing their Trek cred…
The same episode has more refs to Trek including ‘gold shirts’ and ‘red shirts’, you can watch the full episode online at CBS.com
Another Trek ref from a different episode of “Big Bang Theory”
“Big Bang Theory” airs Mondays at 8:00 PM on CBS, see official site.
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Yep, this will get us lots of new fans. :-)
so little commenting this morning
Wow… that is really lame?
Now I definitely don’t need to watch Big Bang Theory… A sitcom about ridiculously stereotypical nerds. Reminds me of Cavemen.
that is such a bad show
Great episode from a great show.
Riiiight. The two cliche nerdy guys who don’t get girls are unfamiliar with Britney Spears. And they’ve never seen any Looney Tunes or Brady Bunch episodes. Current pop culture references from today going over their heads? Fine. But please… These guys are, what? Around or approaching 30? They weren’t nerds at age 6. They would’ve seen those shows as kids.
I’ll admit the first conversation was kinda funny. Cuz they were actually making jokes about ST and not just taking it 100% serious. The same attitude many of us fans have.
I’ve seen a couple of these shows. I think its fairly funny. Perhaps because I consider myself nerdy too.
#6
Perhaps they’ve blocked out their memories of Brady Bunch et al. :-)
Is it any coincidence that the nerd with glasses looks like JJ Abrams?
#8
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought so.
Ugh, I hate just about all the mindless sitcoms currently on TV, but this reminds me why I don’t watch them. That was painful to watch…the “jokes” were lame and the canned laughter just about drove me insane.
Why are people allowed to make these shows?
So……stereotypical.
And stupid.
That wasn’t the best episode of the show I’ve seen, but the second half revolving around the Brain Bowl contest was a lot funnier, especially with Sara Gilbert guesting.
It’s also cool that the two main characters are named Sheldon and Leonard, a nod to the great writer/director/producer Sheldon Leonard of “Andy Griffith Show” and “Dick Van Dyke Show” fame.
“How I Met Your Mother” and “Big Bang Theory” are usually a pretty dependable hour of laughs.
Lately, CBS + Comedy = Thumb hitting remote
I’m glad Trek is getting mentions out there. Can’t say this show is anything that will be memorable. It’s just there as filler. My only current must see comedy is The Office.
And, of course, all of that is my opin-ee-on. Tax and tags apply; mileage may vary.
Did anyone see Walter Koenig on The Soup last night? Hilarious.
Big Bang Theory rocks! I can’t believe how uptight some of the people commenting are in putting it down. I love Star Trek but when I’ve been to Trek conventions I feel like I’ve entered the Twilight Zone and I’m surrounded by Sheldon and Leonard’s. Maybe those that are offended by this are so because it hits too close to home…omg. Nerds are awesome but please take your daily allowance of fiber :)
It’s just not funny. Change the channel to NBC and watch The Office and 30 Rock.
They are not laughing with you,
they are laughing *at* you.
This show is a rancid boil.
Actually, it’s offensive. It shows how fearful other cliques are of the educated classes. This show is from a past era.
Big Bang Theory isn’t Shakespeare, it’s harmless escapism…it’s mind-candy. It may not make me laugh out loud but it does make me smile on occasion. And Penny’s hot.
I’m a 43 year old geeky engineer, and FREAKIN LOVE this show. I haven’t missed an episode. This is actually one of the most intelligently written shows on TV. My 14 year old daughter is amazed that I get all the jokes! :-)
And yea… some of you REALLY need to lighten up a bit.. SHEESH
i agree….lighten up people it is just a tv show.
Big Bang Theory is a riot. My kids, wife and I always look forward to watching it on Monday nights. The cast is great and the writing is really witty. Maybe not James Joyce, but a great diversion nonetheless.
oh god it’s got a laugh track
Big Bang Theory is AWESOME!!
If you haven’t seen a whole episode, go on line and watch this one at CBS.com
In a previous epsiode, they were playing 3-dimensional chess on an accurately reporduced playing board.
Most episodes make me laugh out loud, and my girlfriend does too!!
Y’know . . . I liken this to the fact that when Family Ties came on, Michael J. Fox thought he was skewering conservatives with his portrayal of Alex P. Keaton, and they actually LOVED it.
If you don’t think BIG BANG is funny, then you probably haven’t seen it.
That business about teleportation is an old bit from Star Trek novels. It’s given in one of the early POcket Books as essentially the reason McCoy won’t use a transporter.
Was that supposed to be funny?
#3 “Wow… that is really lame?”
Sorry, you’ve confused me. In what way was that a question?
The problem is that shows like this promote stereotypes that can be really harmful in the workplace and in social arenas.
TYPICALLY LAME SITCOM “HUMOR”…
…although “Point Ears and Shapely Rears” made me chuckle. Was T’Pol in that issue…?
#10 – Canned laugher… whatever. The show is shot in fron of a live audience. The design of the set gives that fact away. All the walls are at angles to the real wall which allows the audience to see everything going on and to accomodate a three camera set-up.
If you’re going to make a comment at least do the reaserch so you are right in your bold “assumption”.
To see blantently obvious set designs relating to three-camera and live audience examples watch an episode of I Love Lucy and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The back wall is flat, the side walls are angled = LIVE AUDIENCE!
#32 – IN addition to what you said… my friends have actually attended a taping of the show. And tickets are available to the taping of the show.
“The problem is that shows like this promote stereotypes that can be really harmful in the workplace and in social arenas.”
Oh puhleeze.
Heh, that looks like a fun show! I’ll be sure to check it out. I’m sorry some of my fellow geeks can’t see the humor in it. I wonder if they’re any girl geeks in the show? We do tend to be under represented.
This show is about as funny as watching my balls being stapled to a plank of wood….
Jay, given your sense of humor, I’m not surprised you don’t get this show…
#37 dude… im British, we invented humour!
i think its great i look forward to each and every episode and i hope cbs keeps it going
34 don’t knock it until you’re on the receiving end. Then it’s not so funny. I know someone who’s unemployed because they didn’t fit in with their coworkers.
Sheldon’s right about the way a Transporter works. It was even dealt with in an ep of TNG. The one where Picard merged with an alien and transported to outerspace. The transporter’s memory still had a copy of Picard in it’s memory banks.
Im glad The Big Bang Theory was renewed for a 2nd season.
Both videos at the end are already taken down… Still, that show isn’t very funny.
The first one was funny. The other two weren’t.
As Trek fans – we all need to have a problem with this. If anyone here was ever wondering what ‘everyone else’ thought of you…now you know. Recently Simon Pegg and Patrick Stewart had to stand up for us, when we really need to do it ourselves. Star Trek is the most successful media franchise in history and Hollywood, as well as the general public, have little regard for it. In my opinion, because of Trek’s positive take on what could be, the world would be a better place if that changed. I’m pretty sure everyone here thinks it’s important that Trek goes for another forty years, and another after that. But it won’t happen if we as fans don’t step up. And it starts by having a problem with this ‘Big Bang’ nonsense.
Give me a break. We’re all a bunch of semi-autistic dorks. Why not be proud of it? I mean are you really going to tell me you all know captain kirk’s locker combination AND you’re total hipsters with hot girlfriends? Only on the big 7th grade playground called the internet could lies like that be taken seriously. I mean, we’re posting on a trekkie blog on a saturday. A SATURDAY.
Look, enjoy your little worlds and fun nerdiness. You may be dorks, but at least your not vapid fashionistas or GED burger flippers. There are worse stereotypes to belong to.
I liked the teleporation one; I liked the Trek movie one …
… but the “quiz” one feels like it was written by whichever member of the writing team doesn’t actually know any geeks … Nerdboys aren’t ignorant of pop culture as a rule … every geek _I_ know has a pretty strong opinion on Van Halen v Van Hagar, for example (and, being geeks, they can tell you about it for hours). Geeks tend to be pop-culture omnivores, at least in my experience.
And #45 … I’ve done signings at Trek-heavy conventions and been faced with panel-rooms full of Trek hardcores, and even in that super-concentrated Trek-ized environment, the “semi-autistic dorks” are a minority group (ever-present, no doubt, but still the minority).
yeah the thought of Sarek in a Vulcan fertility clinic firing off some knuckle babies is pretty funny, though i’m fairly easy to amuse. to each their own i guess, IDIC
I might just have to check this out. I’ve heard good things. Then again, it’s geeks being written for a non-geek audience. So, any conversations they may have have probably already been said by so many geeks so many times before. But, I will watch it first before passing judgment. This looks promising!
I agree lighten up. I don’t watch the show but that second clip was pretty funny.
The adventure continues…
Pop-Culture for $1,000 Alex…..
I knew the answers to those questions she asked before she even said what the answers were, does this make me a typical Star Trek fan ?
Not according to “The Mass Media”
Big Bang Theory is just another sit-com in a long line of sit-coms that have pegged us as “shut-ins” it’s nothing new, I expect as much from “The Mass Media” so I can gloss over the rampant “Trek Nerd” stereotype.
If we can’t laugh at ourselves every now and then we deserve this kinda “uber nerd” stereotype as we’d be taking ourselves far to seriously.
While I do agree that we do need to lighten up, I also see this as being harmful as folks will still view us as “folks who still live in their parent’s basements” a stigmatic view of the fandom as a whole seeing as a number of us are OVER 40 now and live on our own and even have our own KIDS and grand kids.
40 years is a LONG time to live in one parents basement, wouldn’t said parents be DEAD after that much time has passed ?
Like I said according to “The Mass Media” the answer would be no.
A realistic sitcom about Trek fans would be called 40something and deal with how fans deal with the real world of having a job, raising the kids, etcetera etcetera etcetera.
Would the networks make a show like that ?
Nope, not in our lifetimes, they rather view us as they always have.
That’s not going to change anytime soon, well, until a Star Trek fan becomes president of the U.S, and the chance of that happening anytime soon is really slim in this day and age.
Looks fairly harmless to me.
If one is comfortable being a fan, and has a life with which he/she is satisfied, a show like this should not ruffle a feather.
Some dress up as Klingons at Cons to hide from the outside world, and others do the same so they can get drunk and have sex before taking the kids to soccer practice the next morning.
Everyone has a nerd-like obsession, whether its sports teams, World of Warcraft, Trek, Corvettes, Led Zeppelin or Lord of the Rings. No biggie.
Wow! Some show referenced Trek! Who cares?
The issue is not 40 year old virgins, dressing up as Klingons, or pop culture references. It is Roddenberry creating something unique and essential. His franchise depicts cultural values that are not only different, but truly superior. Since the setting is the 23rd century, the most hardened conservative or strident liberal can watch and find these values appropriate. After all (they always say), we certainly will have that stuff figured out by then. And the best thing is that when kids see the show, they are exposed to something they will never hear about in school. Even though they may not be able to put their finger precisely on what’s so special, they get the idea. Star Trek is not an episode, book, or movie. Star Trek is a social imperative. That was the real issue when Berman decided to take the franchise off the rails. With all the social problems out there, people need to see a utopian take on the future. Just see it, not necessarily dress up or watch seven hundred hours of reruns.
Obviously Trek is not the entire solution to the planets ills. It would be nice, but it’s not. But we should consider that we may have a part, however small, of the solution. Everyone who visits this site is Star Trek – we all know the franchise would die without us. So I would hope all of us think of Trek as more than just a movie or hour of television.
I love this show! Cute and funny! Star Trek has always appealed to many various types of people, so having these characters liking Star Trek is not such a huge stretch, and is very harmless.
If these clips are indicative of the show, I’ll skip it. None of the “jokes” are funny and the laugh track is certainly annoying.
Hint to networks: If you need a laugh track, then your show probably needs better writing.
#55 – I guess that means Seinfeld and Cosby were out for you, as well. Doesn’t the term “live studio audience” mean anything?
I like the Big Bang Theory and find it refreshing to have a simple comedy. The Trek references were such a surprise! Kudos to the writers. Now I wish they’d have some slapstick humor, and it would be perfect.
OMG! Pretty soon, nerds everywhere are going to be protesting CBS for running The Big Bang Theory and its’ patently stereotypical viewpoints the same way black people did Amos ‘N’ Andy back in the day. The march on Washington will be catastrophic & a cry will go throughout the land to add another constitutional amendment banning the unfair treatment of both nerds and geeks alike.
My wife said, “I’m so glad I married you now. Thanks to you, I understand all these nerd references!” One of my proudest moments . . . LOL!
Seriously; we love the show. Sure it stereotypes nerds/geeks/overachievers/whatever. But it’s funny! It’s really funny now because I just read all the “haters’” posts in the “Sheldon voice!” Hahaha!
You sound just like your stereotype! :)
I could be offended by the show, but I prefer to view it as a celebration of my inner geek.
No matter what . . . “It’s just a TV show, damnit; it’s just a TV show!”
[And if you know that reference (And you know you do!), then you belong on this site and you should enjoy Big Bang Theory!]
:)
Actually, my earlier complaint was not for the stereotyping, but the over the top extreme that didn’t make logical sense. I mean, maybe I’m wrong but those geeks, nerds or whatever would know who Britney Spears is. And Tweety Bird, too. They may have just picked the wrong pop cultural references, but it just didn’t make sense.
OK, the Shatner/Stewart line made me laugh out loud.
Well. The chick is hot.
And the HALO episode is funny.
It reminds me of the show “The IT Crowd”
Hope to see more.
It’s a good show with one of the opening theme songs i’ve heard for years.
Can’t wait to see the episode when shown on Channel 4 (UK).
Kaley Cuoco is turning into one of the hottest women on TV. She was in ‘8 Simple Rules’ (which is currently being shown on FIVER in the UK) then the last season of ‘Charmed’.
Unwatchable.
Averaging 9 million viewers a week.
So stereotypical… even the girl. Pretty lame show.
I don’t care what you say, TBBT is fvcking hilarious. The argument is that they are “geeks” and they should have got references to Britney and Tweety, but these dudes aren’t just your run-of-the-mill nerds, they are experimental and theoretical physicists, and Sheldon in particular makes note of the fact that he poured himself into science from a very young age on several occasions. Besides, who cares if its an accurate portrayal of life is fvcking TELEVISION. There is nothing real-life about it, be it sit-com or reality tv, its entertainment=distraction from real life! Lighten up and laugh a little dumba$$es!
I have found that every single sitcom, drama, sci-fi show, etc., will include elements that either a) don’t really make sense or b) contradict information mentioned in previous episodes or c) circumvent logic for the same of comedy/drama/what have you.
Does it make sense that they wouldn’t know who Britney Spears is? Probably not. But it also doesn’t make sense that Penny can afford that apartment BY HERSELF on her measly salary.
I just finished watching the entire Seinfeld series and was surprised to learn that on MANY episodes, things were done for effect/comedy that didn’t truly make sense. Characters didn’t act like a person would act in “real life” because each show is a bit skewed. Even straight man Jerry would do something that wouldn’t make sense. Even secondary characters would react in such a way that was not logical. But it was FUNNY.
Same with shows like Friends. Just watched an episode where Chandler puts on women’s underwear and is left (with no other clothes) in the bathroom stall. Logic dictates that if I were Chandler, the first thing I would have done is take off the panties and throw them away because I’d rather be caught naked than in a hot pink thong. But then it would have take away from the comedy.
All shows do this. In The Office, there is no company in the world that wouldn’t have fired Michael Scott. Even if his branch is performing, he has been way too much of a liability. When Oscar could have sued and was sent on vacation, ANY company would have fired Michael. And when Dwight … hmm, I can’t remember what he did, but there was something that was so bad that he would have been fired on the spot. And Ryan would have NEVER been able to set foot in the office after the stunt he pulled. But who cares … it’s funnier the way they do it.
I think you get my point. Honestly, I think BBT is hilarious. I love the pop culture references and the discussions about science and sci-fi. And I think Jim Parsons is a fantastic actor … he can spot all this science babble like a pro … and how can anyone not find Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock funny? Oh … and that opening where they were playing the RPG and Howard sold his sword on ebay … priceless. And I have to say that the “time travel effect” in the episode where they acquired a replica from The Time Machine was perhaps the single most brilliant enactment I’ve ever witnessed.
For all you really nerdy guys out there who are offended, don’t be. I think it’s fantastic. I try to balance my geekdom, though. For example, I’m 35 but dating a 21 year old. I have a Mac, but am also a single father. I play Zelda, but also lift weights.
It’s all about balance. LOL.
I’ve watched this show since the first show and only loved it more and more. One can not help but like everyone on the show. Also besides just liking them you root for them also. There is great development, of our actors, I only hope that they draw things out like Penny and Leonard. Not to the rather too long length of the Niles and Dafney,it would of been much better had they gotten together a few seasons earlier. Also plenty of time to devote to each actor. Having many laughs along the way. Yeah for all the nerds and for that matter all the pretty blondes who went to community college. Hey I just stumbled on this web site looking for the site I saw before, selling season 2, for $21.00 something. Please post if you know the answer. Hint they sold different TV series and I think movies. Also to those who dwell to deep, if everything made perfect sense the show like life woldn’t be so funny.