In the right hands, this setup would make for an incredible (and incredibly sobering) series finale. Think about it. Sixty minutes, cold open, all the credits and acknowledgements rolled at the beginning (you’ll see why in a second), no commercial breaks, and no laugh track–just a battery of brutal portraits of each character imprisoned in their existential and moral self-dread. And then everything cuts to black.
ETA: Official finale episode title: ‘Heat Death’.
He also created a nigh-identical smear with chocolate sauce during the second date.
The one sitcom that was absolutely hysterical because of its structure was ‘That’s My Bush!’ This is because it wasn’t making fun of Bush so much (although it also did that), it was mainly making fun of sitcoms themselves. Too bad there weren’t more episodes.
Oh man! I remember that! I fucking loved that! Who was behind it again?
No less than Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the South Park guys 
They are incredibly incisive writers and comedians. South Park is great but i would love to see them move onto something new
They are moving on. You’ve heard of ‘The Book of Mormon’, I presume 
Ha!!! That’s right! They can’t be so busy with South Park anymore, surely there must be time for “That’s my Trump!”
The world needs you Matt and Trey!
Big Bang Theory and Ricky Gervais? Proof that two terrible and unfunny things don’t cancel one another out to make something good.
Regardless of the respective quality of the shows, the other big difference is science geeks vs IT geeks. Not the same thing.
They actually said that they won´t parody the orange bastard as he himself is allready a parody and they can´t come up with anything to top the reality this man is.
It’s a sad fact. He is killing comedy. You can’t write this shit.
I forgot to mention, one thing that really annoys me about TBBT is what I call the Zoo effect.
Ever since the show started here in Germany I have noticed at my local comic shop people that definitively have nothing to do with comics that just came to gaze. You can easyly recognize them because they use the phrase “Comicbuchladen” which is the incorrect translation of “Comic book shop” used in the german dub of TBBT. They just come to stare at the nerds doing something funny. I swear to god, one of them actually said to his girlfriend who did giggle the whole time “Look”! Its a “Comicbuchladen” like in Big Bang Theory!" They browsed around and left slightly dissapointed since people were in ther to buy comics and games and not to put up a show for them. This is something that really angers me. I´m not a monkey in a zoo to be gaped at by idiots, I´m a normal nerdy guy who just wants to buys his comics in peace.
I never watched BBT but i never gave it much thought as to why. After watching that Ricky Gervais clip i can see why i was never drawn to it. There wasn’t a single joke in that clip!
It reminds me of a lot of canned laughter shows on British TV when i was growing up. It always amazed me how people can be fooled into thinking something was funny just by adding a laughter track…
That would be a sweet move, pulling a Seinfeld like that.
As I understand it, that audiience clip – the old ladies clapping in disbelief – is actually the completely misjudged audience the producers arranged for their first show.
That can’t be Ricky Gervais — he’s not laughing at his own jokes.
and would you please get some shirts that aren’t two sizes too small? you’re not built for that
Robert Webb said something similar in an article about Peep Show:
“Then again, there are the female characters. You hear TV producers sometimes talking about the importance of having “strong female characters”. This is balls, particularly in comedy. The female characters in Peep Show are not “strong”: they are idiots. As idiotic as the men.”
Which I also parsed from it that every character in a comedy should be noticeably thick (mentally), weird, silly, or some variation in order for it to work. Father Ted and Spaced, both of which I love death, follow this idea effectively, but not Big Bang Theory. At all.
It is, exactly as you put it @bigtrendy. Sheldon is the odd one out, and everyone else seems “normal” and ultimately, as a comedy, the whole thing’s a disjointed mess.
I’ve seen it 
But their main focus is still South Park, they have no intention of stopping that show any time soon.
Nor should they. I hope they keep doing it until they physically can’t. This show doesn’t get old, because those guys are fucking brilliant.
