By Samantha Apanasewicz
Pop Culture Columnist
Let’s start the semester off with a big bang, shall we? Pun intended. “The Big Bang Theory,” the most popular CBS network sitcom, recently entered my peripheral vision over the summer. Most widely available to stream on HBO Max, “The Big Bang Theory” was, and still is “the longest-running multicamera comedy in TV history” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
TBBT lasted a whopping 12 seasons; 12 years the sitcom remained monetized by the network. And, as the cherry on top of this already award-winning show, it was one of the few shows that was still filmed in front of a live studio audience, which I believe is the cornerstone to the show’s lasting success within pop culture. Unfortunately for Catholics, there is no place in pop culture for Christian values, and the TBBT set is no exception.
The twelfth and final season, aired in 2019, caused TBBT to be acclaimed as “TV’s highest rated comedy” according to the same Hollywood Reporter article. If this statistic isn’t enough to portray how far television has strayed from family-friendly content, I can summarize the premise of the show for those who are unfamiliar.
TBBT focuses on a friend group made up of doctorate professors at Caltech, or more commonly known as the California Institute of Technology. The show follows characters Leonard and Sheldon, who are new roommates in an apartment building. Additionally, there are two other characters who are a part of the friend group, Howard and Rajesh.
The majority of the show’s jokes are anchored around how the men are very nerdy and just plain awkward being around and talking to the opposite sex. Which is why, to add the humor, female characters enter the scene. Penny, Leonard and Sheldon’s new neighbor, stirs up drama among the friend group starting in the pilot episode.
To make a very long story short, women cycle in and out of the friend group quickly, producing much material for sexual innuendoes, with some aired and some implied sexual content. Somehow, the women still stay friends with the all-male friend group, creating a healthy space for hook-up culture to be blatantly inserted and encouraged. Not only is this overdramatization supported via the characters themselves, but the idea is also just too unrealistic to hold any merit.
So, the longest-running, most popular, and top-favorite comedy in all of television unabashedly encourages an unhealthy and undignified relationship with sex, hook-up culture, and most importantly, the dignity of the human person. I don’t think I’m the only one who sees what’s wrong here, or what this little snippet of pop culture shows about humanity.
I’m also not going to ignore the blaring irony that is the name of this show. “The Big Bang Theory” supports an incorrect and disrespectful view of the human person. The scientific idea of the big bang theory, the secular story behind Creation, is also against the teachings of Catholicism as well. How interesting.