The Big Bang Theory but with Ricky Gervais as the whole studio audience.

May 5, 2017 10:45 AM

The Big Bang Theory but with Ricky Gervais as the whole studio audience. Just as terrible as you can imagine it is.

That's it. It's The Big Bang Theory but with Ricky Gervais as the whole studio audience.

posted by bondcliff (63 comments total)

Oh yeah, it's a SLYT.
posted by bondcliff at 10:46 AM on May 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

we've found it: the worst thing on the internet.
posted by Old Kentucky Shark at 10:53 AM on May 5, 2017 [17 favorites]

HOW DOES THIS SHOW HAVE LEGS

wtaf
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 10:59 AM on May 5, 2017 [6 favorites]

Jesus Christ, Metafilter.

First the GOP Health Care plan and now this?
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:00 AM on May 5, 2017 [5 favorites]

This is what I feel in my head when I watch it already. This has brought my internal horror into real life.

This is the worst of the web.
posted by deezil at 11:00 AM on May 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

This is so terrible it literally made me laugh out loud.
posted by Mavri at 11:02 AM on May 5, 2017 [7 favorites]

Big Bang Theory feels like "nerd blackface" to me.
posted by zuhl at 11:03 AM on May 5, 2017 [65 favorites]

This is so terrible it literally made me laugh out loud.

Right!? It's "Isolated Running With The Devil vocals" level of terrible!

Which gives me an idea...
posted by bondcliff at 11:04 AM on May 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

OK, Gervais—you've finally convinced me. There is no god.
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:08 AM on May 5, 2017 [5 favorites]

I don't even know why I clicked.
posted by me3dia at 11:13 AM on May 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Makes you really confront how awkward and stilted "studio audience" laughter makes sitcom conversations.

If anyone I was talking to paused that much, I'd check them for head trauma.
posted by gurple at 11:14 AM on May 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

Would it be better or worse if it had been a Homer Simpson laugh track?

On the upside, if you think watching it was bad (I dropped out after forty seconds) just imagine how much worse it was to actually make the damn thing.

(I'll assume the one favorite as of now is as a store of ammunition.)
posted by IndigoJones at 11:15 AM on May 5, 2017

The show has no jokes, just dialogue interspersed with laugh tracks.
posted by GuyZero at 11:15 AM on May 5, 2017 [7 favorites]

I don't even know why I clicked.

Certainly doesn't help that this season has been terrible. (Was a fan back in the day...)
posted by Melismata at 11:16 AM on May 5, 2017

Can we get this with other distinctive laughs? I'm thinking Jimmy Carr here.
posted by Kyol at 11:17 AM on May 5, 2017 [9 favorites]

The laundromat I used to go to had two TVs, and at the time I went, one was always, always showing BBT. I used to watch the other one, which showed Spanish-language news, which I did not really understand.

What I'm getting at is that this might be an improvement over what went to air.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:21 AM on May 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't get why people are hating this. The Big Bang Theory is ridiculously, 70s-era-sitcom levels of unfunny, and someone has dubbed a person wetting themselves laughing over it to highlight the unfunny. Why is that so bad? Also Ricky Gervais' laugh makes me laugh. Sue me, MeFites. Sue me.
posted by billiebee at 11:24 AM on May 5, 2017 [16 favorites]

Disappointed that the entire studio audience was only replaced by a single instance of Ricky Gervais. Sad. I was looking for an entire audience of Rickies Gervais. It would have been... glorious.
posted by we halve sub sides to shole you at 11:24 AM on May 5, 2017 [50 favorites]

Hang on, I think I've missed the point of the hate. Time for gin.
posted by billiebee at 11:26 AM on May 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

I was kind of hoping for an all Gervais cast as well on the more inside personally.
posted by bonehead at 11:27 AM on May 5, 2017

Fake. No way Ricky Gervais would laugh that much at BBT.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 11:30 AM on May 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

kind of surprised people found a way to be disappointed by the Big Bang Theory / Ricky Gervais mash-up tbh
posted by bondcliff at 11:30 AM on May 5, 2017 [6 favorites]

Somebody tell Charlie Kaufman that "Being Ricky Gervais" would be like 1000X better
posted by My Dad at 11:35 AM on May 5, 2017

I don't understand why anyone intentionally watches that show.
posted by holborne at 11:36 AM on May 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

BBT is about the worst that TV has to offer -- always has been. I thought this video was great because it made the bad hard to ignore.
posted by dobbs at 11:39 AM on May 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Eh, the first couple seasons were reasonably funny, though with crappy gender politics. I don't know why people still watch it, though.
posted by praemunire at 11:40 AM on May 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Count me as a fan of the Ricky Gervais laugh. Half the fun of hearing Karl Pilkington say something bizarre is Ricky's reaction to it.
posted by good in a vacuum at 11:56 AM on May 5, 2017 [6 favorites]

I'm confused. Laugh track aside, this is a real show that real people watch on purpose?
posted by aubilenon at 11:58 AM on May 5, 2017 [5 favorites]

They get a million dollars an episode for reading those lines, folks.

yeah, that's about what it would take...
posted by Naberius at 12:03 PM on May 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

Eh, the first couple seasons were reasonably funny, though with crappy gender politics. I don't know why people still watch it, though.

It is your standard formulaic sitcom, only with nerd shibboleths. Some people just really are into the formulaic sitcoms, but are more into sci-fi than they are into the "traditional family" stuff, and so having them mention Star Trek and Comic-con rather than PTA meetings is refreshing.

Going on record as "not a fan" for both Ricky Gervais and Jimmy Carr's laughs. Although with Ricky, it seems to mostly be because I've not found the things he's laughing at to be all that funny, and actually find his taste in humor a little mean.

Whereas I find Jimmy Carr's laugh just viscerally annoying.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:09 PM on May 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

I really like their apartment though.
posted by T.D. Strange at 12:11 PM on May 5, 2017

Gervais' laughs sounded more sincere than the laugh track. I would totally watch a season of this.
posted by klarck at 12:18 PM on May 5, 2017

Gervais genuine laughter transforms into the most sarcastic laugh track ever. Genius.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 12:18 PM on May 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

Obligatory

(he doesn't completely succeed in taking the laugh track out. Still, half a loaf...)
posted by randomkeystrike at 12:25 PM on May 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Related: TV Ratings: ‘Big Bang Theory’ Falls to Series Low.
posted by effbot at 12:28 PM on May 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

When I read "whole studio audience" I was expecting 200 laughing Rickys, but just one is perfect. Thanks for this.
posted by davebush at 12:35 PM on May 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

I really like their apartment though.

This triggered a few questions in me - I wonder whose apartment would be my ideal living space?
Personally, I'm partial to Nick Marshall's (Mel Gibson, What Women Want) Chicago high-rise suite.

Then I commented - there's surely a Website dedicated to this.
And indeed I was right: Famous Floorplans

_/derail
posted by bitteroldman at 12:40 PM on May 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

Fake. No way Ricky Gervais would laugh that much at BBT.

I don't know. Every clip I see seems to have a shitty punchline attitude towards disability. That ought to tickle him.
posted by howfar at 12:44 PM on May 5, 2017

I'd rather see the Ricky Gervais laugh track added to something with no current laugh track, like Real Housewives of Orange County, or political confirmation hearings.
posted by we halve sub sides to shole you at 1:49 PM on May 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

effbot: "Related: TV Ratings: ‘Big Bang Theory’ Falls to Series Low."

Yes, but they still managed to win their time-slot. I wonder if this isn't more indicative of some larger trends in Neilsen's overnight TV ratings?
posted by mhum at 1:53 PM on May 5, 2017

I'd rather see the Ricky Gervais laugh track added to something with no current laugh track, like Real Housewives of Orange County, or political confirmation hearings.

The problem is that shows with laugh tracks are written with that in mind. It's why comments like this:

Makes you really confront how awkward and stilted "studio audience" laughter makes sitcom conversations.

If anyone I was talking to paused that much, I'd check them for head trauma.
gurple

aren't really fair. The dialogue for these shows is purposefully timed for the laughter, so of course removing or changing it makes the conversations seem awkward and strange.

You'd have the opposite problem trying to insert laugh tracks into video not timed for it: there wouldn't be many natural places to insert the laughter that doesn't run over the dialogue.
posted by Sangermaine at 2:04 PM on May 5, 2017

The "TV Ratings: ‘Big Bang Theory’ Falls to Series Low" link was stunning... the top broadcast network show on a Thursday night getting a 2.4 rating? I remember when ratings in the 30s were common (but it was when most of the audience was divided between 3 networks). TV as we used to know it is DEAD. And BBT is definitely part of the cause.
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:11 PM on May 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

Ah, but running over the dialog would, in those cases, be a feature and a sweet, temporary mercy.
posted by we halve sub sides to shole you at 2:12 PM on May 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

No, BBT is what's keeping network television (barely) going. So wish they'd put it out of its misery.
posted by Melismata at 2:12 PM on May 5, 2017

If anyone I was talking to paused that much, I'd check them for head trauma.

If they didn't have the pauses each episode would only be 9 minutes long.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 3:22 PM on May 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

Hi! I'm such a nerd I'm a rocket scientist! I enjoy BBT because I don't see enough people like me on TV. I also like that BBT references things that I know about and enjoy. My biggest concern is that the show will turn into one about three married couples once Raj marries Stuart.

Also, is the term "nerd blackface" something we need on Metafilter? I'm a nerd, but not a minority subjected to racism. That term is offensive. I get it, you don't like BBT. Go watch something else.
posted by Rob Rockets at 3:51 PM on May 5, 2017 [19 favorites]

I think THIS is how the next world war starts.
posted by Zack_Replica at 3:52 PM on May 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

Now record two people reading the comments on this thread, plus a laugh track.
posted by ardgedee at 4:23 PM on May 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

People don't realize, you know, The Big Bang Theory, if you think about it, why? People don't ask that question, but why is there The Big Bang Theory? Why could that one not have been canceled?

(I'm heartened that I am not the only one who loathes this show with the utmost passion. And I'm utterly and eternally confused that my parents, who both birthed a complete nerd and also think the Simpsons was too risqué in its time, love it.)
posted by Room 101 at 4:32 PM on May 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

You should hear that Ricky Gervais laugh track imposed over a Johnny Depp montage... more awkward than the Oscars!
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:48 PM on May 5, 2017

@oneswellfoop: Ratings 30 years ago represented total audience, ratings now are just adults 18-49. Translating to 30 year old methodology, BBT's 2.5 would be a 10.5 now.

Even with the "low" rating, the 2.5 was the highest rated show of the evening.
posted by mmb5 at 4:51 PM on May 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Gervais doesn't laugh, he cackles. He cackles worse than the Tappet Brothers on NPR. Cackling to me is nails on a blackboard, a stylus skating across a record, a talkative mountain lion. No way am I playing that vid. No sirree. (Of BBT, I have no opinion.)
posted by scratch at 4:54 PM on May 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

Ironically*, it's Ricky Gervais whom we have to thank for the absence of canned laughter in quality modern comedies.
posted by Flashman at 4:59 PM on May 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

It's surprising sitcoms like this actually still exist. Scripted TV comedy and drama has improved so much in the past 15 years, BBT feels like a grade school puppet show.
posted by davebush at 5:06 PM on May 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Didn't notice any difference.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 5:10 PM on May 5, 2017

Ironically*, it's Ricky Gervais whom we have to thank for the absence of canned laughter in quality modern comedies.

Maybe everywhere outside the UK. Here we've had non-laugh-track modern comedies since before 2001.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 5:19 PM on May 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

Can we get this with other distinctive laughs? I'm thinking Jimmy Carr here.

But wouldn't that just be the exact same high-pitched ha-ha-ha-HAAAA, over and over again?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 11:10 PM on May 5, 2017

Maybe everywhere outside the UK. Here we've had non-laugh-track modern comedies since before 2001.

Shall we all watch Spaced again this weekend? Shall we?
posted by howfar at 2:19 AM on May 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

I loathe BBT and Gervais alike. Yet put them together and the result is genuinely funny. It's like the French onion soup of comedy.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 11:33 AM on May 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

BBT fills the gap created when Everybody Loves Raymond ended.
posted by she's not there at 12:38 PM on May 6, 2017

Ironically*, it's Ricky Gervais whom we have to thank for the absence of canned laughter in quality modern comedies.

I mean, in the US, I might look at Scrubs, Curb your Enthusiasm, or Malcolm in the Middle, rather than a British show that didn't really cross over for some time. If not the Simpsons.
posted by kafziel at 6:23 PM on May 6, 2017

The dialogue for these shows is purposefully timed for the laughter, so of course removing or changing it makes the conversations seem awkward and strange.
Most of the scenes in the show are filmed in front of a live audience - so their laughter dictates the dialogue gaps in real time. In theory anyway - I guess the final laugh track is probably collaged from several takes and tweaked as necessary. There is an idea that an insufficient audience response is used as a cue to tweak the scene for later takes - but if the material stinks from the head down - then things must be trickier.

Here is an account of somebody who was in the BBT audience from its (comparative) hay-day back in 2011.
posted by rongorongo at 12:25 AM on May 7, 2017

Big Bang Theory feels like "nerd blackface" to me.

Likewise, Nobel Laureate George Smoot is clearly a Nerd Uncle Tom, and Penny and Leonard are essentially engaging in miscegenation.

Jesus.
posted by Guy Smiley at 12:00 PM on May 7, 2017