I was just watching...

[Jamie123]

...The Big Bang Theory on All 4, and I've just noticed something. Whenever they are in Stewart's comic book store they are always able to open the comics and read them. Comic stores here are never like that. The comics are always sealed up in those plastic bags with white card at the back, so you never see more than the front cover. Are comic stores in America always so cavalier about who touches their comics, or is it just a TV thing?

Edited April 16, 2023 by Jamie123

[Vort]

1 hour ago, Jamie123 said:

All 4

https://www.channel4.com/

[LDSGator]

9 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

Are comic stores in America always so cavalier about who touches their comics, or is it just a TV thing?

that always bothered me too. In most comic stores I’ve gone to no, you can’t open vintage comics and just flip through them. 

[Ironhold]

On 4/16/2023 at 11:32 AM, Jamie123 said:

...The Big Bang Theory on All 4, and I've just noticed something. Whenever they are in Stewart's comic book store they are always able to open the comics and read them. Comic stores here are never like that. The comics are always sealed up in those plastic bags with white card at the back, so you never see more than the front cover. Are comic stores in America always so cavalier about who touches their comics, or is it just a TV thing?

No. 

Vintage comics that are sealed in bag are *never* to be opened up unless you pay for them first, as you reading them can damage the value. Opening them without paying generally means that you *will* pay for them or else the police will probably be involved. 

Now, new(er) comics are generally sitting on the shelves as-is, and so it's possible to read a page or two in order to determine if you want to buy them. Again, however, most stores frown on you just reading an entire comic and not purchasing it. (Yes, some stores will leave out overstock of comics from recent editions if they didn't sell their entire shipment, a way for readers to pick up multiple installments at once. I got an entire mini-series that way, as it turns out all six issues had overstock going.)

 

Also - the white bit of cardstock is known as a "backer board". It's used to keep the comics rigid and prevent damage from the comic being folded or bent. Most locations that sell comic books will also sell protective sleeves (in the US, you have "Modern Age", "Silver Age", and "Magazine" sizes; know which one you need before purchasing) and backer boards in bulk (say, batches of 100 per package) and some will also sell those cardboard long-boxes to help store your comics in. 

[LDSGator]

8 minutes ago, Ironhold said:

Opening them without paying generally means that you *will* pay for them or else the police will probably be involved.

Boom. Yup. 

[Ironhold]

Also, let me state this for the record: 

As someone who is himself on the autism spectrum, I can't stand Big Bang Theory, and Young Sheldon makes me wretch. 

These shows, like a lot of other modern "entertainment", uses autism spectrum to try and excuse incredibly awful behavior on the part of various characters. 

[LDSGator]

9 minutes ago, Ironhold said:

I can't stand Big Bang Theory, and Young Sheldon makes me wretch. 

Bro, as a comic book fan and major geek, I totally agree with you. Non comic geeks always tell me that I’d love the show, but the two times I saw BBT, I did not laugh a single time. 

[Vort]

7 minutes ago, LDSGator said:

Bro, as a comic book fan and major geek, I totally agree with you. Non comic geeks always tell me that I’d love the show, but the two times I saw BBT, I did not laugh a single time. 

Someone once called me "a real-life Sheldon", which was obviously meant as a mocking insult. I didn't care, but it did intrigue me enough that I watched some YouTube of BBT. It seemed to me like a generic laugh-tracked sitcom. The only thing that distinguished the writing was that the jokes (such as they were) were often themed toward physics or math. But they weren't particularly sophisticated, and often weren't even funny. So I'm left nonplussed by the show's popularity.

[LDSGator]

59 minutes ago, Vort said:

Someone once called me "a real-life Sheldon", which was obviously meant as a mocking insult.

I got that too, but just because we both like comics. Which means we are identical twins of course. 
 

I absolutely hate math and the only physics concept I remember is that if you drop something, it’ll probably fall to the ground. So the jokes were either above my head or just not funny. 

Edited April 18, 2023 by LDSGator

[Jamie123]

4 hours ago, Vort said:

Someone once called me "a real-life Sheldon", which was obviously meant as a mocking insult. I didn't care, but it did intrigue me enough that I watched some YouTube of BBT. It seemed to me like a generic laugh-tracked sitcom. The only thing that distinguished the writing was that the jokes (such as they were) were often themed toward physics or math. But they weren't particularly sophisticated, and often weren't even funny. So I'm left nonplussed by the show's popularity.

You're right it's not a deep or sophisticated show. What draws me to it (somewhat) is that its a comedy of the socially awkward and screwed-up, who find refuge in fantasy and in science. There's also a kind of "wish fulfilment" about it. I would love to live in Leonard and Sheldon's apartment (though without Sheldon - he'd drive me nuts) amongst all the whiteboards and books.

[Vort]

45 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

You're right it's not a deep or sophisticated show. What draws me to it (somewhat) is that its a comedy of the socially awkward and screwed-up, who find refuge in fantasy and in science. There's also a kind of "wish fulfilment" about it. I would love to live in Leonard and Sheldon's apartment (though without Sheldon - he'd drive me nuts) amongst all the whiteboards and books.

Sorry, I'm not trying to bag on The Big Bang Theory. I have lost my taste for most TV, especially traditional sitcoms, in the last three decades. I suspect that says more about me and my growing impatience as I pass through middle age than anything really deep about American sitcoms.

[Jamie123]

15 hours ago, Vort said:

Sorry, I'm not trying to bag on The Big Bang Theory. I have lost my taste for most TV, especially traditional sitcoms, in the last three decades. I suspect that says more about me and my growing impatience as I pass through middle age than anything really deep about American sitcoms.

Haha - you don't need to apologise - I didn't write The Big Bang Theory!

It's got me thinking though - this idea that "cool" people don't "do science" - or at least not voluntarily. I'm reminded of a totally bizarre experience I had when I was 17, and an apprentice at a large lighting company. Every now and then the apprentices would be taken on excursions, and on one occasion it was to Jodrell Bank.

Now Jodrell Bank (as you may know) is a large radio observatory. I was (and still am) very interested in astronomy so I was pretty excited. The trip itself was something of an anticlimax - I had imagined we would be touring the telescopes themselves and watching real astronomers at work, but the trip was actually just to the visitor centre. The high point was the planetarium show, but even that was a pale shadow of the one in London. When we were all on the bus again, the supervisor (who was kinda the adult of our group) came storming onto the bus saying "Who's got something that's not theirs?" It transpired that the docent had complained to him that a book was missing from the bookshop and assumed that one of us had taken it. He made us all turn our pockets out, but no astronomy books were forthcoming. The supervisor blustered up and down the aisle of the bus saying stuff like "I don't care who it is!" After about ten minutes of this he stormed off the bus and back into the visitor centre. He was in there for about a minute, after which he returned to the bus looking angrier than ever and told the driver to go. He gave no explanation, and there was much grumbling among the apprentices about "Who would steal a book about astronomy anyway?" The mood of resentment lasted until we reached the nearest pub, whereupon much beer was drunk and tensions eased. (In those days the laws against underage drinking were NEVER actually enforced.)

After that the trip to Jodrell Bank was often cited as the "worst outing ever". I have to confess it was rather poor (even without the stealing accusations) but for everyone else (nearly) it was more a case of " What idiot thought we'd want to learn about astronomy anyway?"

The Big Bang Theory though turns this attitude on its head. The nerds, far from being side characters added for light relief (like Eugene in "Grease" to give you one example), are centre stage. Its set in their world, in which "science is cool". They have character arcs. They learn and change and develop, while essentially staying nerds. Other characters come close to this - Frasier and Niles for example, or Ross from "Friends" but I'm not aware of anything that celebrates the archetypal nerd the way this show does.

What I really don't like though is the assumption that casual sex between dating couples (even on FIRST dates!) is the expected norm - but that's the case in just about every other comedy show. I don't know how true it is in real life - but I suspect less true than the media portrays it. Or at least I hope so.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Jamie123

[Jamie123]

On 4/18/2023 at 12:13 AM, Ironhold said:

These shows, like a lot of other modern "entertainment", uses autism spectrum to try and excuse incredibly awful behavior on the part of various characters. 

I foresee a day when TBBT will be banned for mocking autism, in much the same way "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" is banned now for making fun of gays and Asians. (The former is stupid since most of the cast were gay themselves, but the latter does have some validity - particularly Michael Bates' "Funny Indian" character.) 

[Vort]

34 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

I foresee a day when TBBT will be banned for mocking autism, in much the same way "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" is banned now for making fun of gays and Asians. (The former is stupid since most of the cast were gay themselves, but the latter does have some validity - particularly Michael Bates' "Funny Indian" character.) 

I think most Americans, certainly most traditional or conservative Americans, find the idea of government censorship based on political correctness or sensitivity to mockery absolutely anathema.

[Jamie123]

1 hour ago, Vort said:

I think most Americans, certainly most traditional or conservative Americans, find the idea of government censorship based on political correctness or sensitivity to mockery absolutely anathema.

I said "some" validity - you can at least see how offence *could* be taken. But banning something because "someone, somewhere could possibly be offended" is the thin end of a very long wedge.

(For the record I grew up with Michael Bates and his disgusting throat-clearing, and found him hilarious. Ditto Peter Sellers and *his* funny Indian - if you've never seen it, try watching "The Party". You'll be saying "birdy num-num" in an Indian accent for weeks!)

But don't be so sure that common sense will prevail. Remember the incident at Silly-Man College* at Yale, where the Master was verbally abused and eventually forced to resign, for telling the students to use their own common sense when choosing what to wear for Halloween (rather than following University guidelines, which forbade anything Native American). Once he was gone, they abolished the title of "Master" since it was clearly evoked some kind of white male plantation owner, and despite the fact that the heads of Oxford and Cambridge colleges have been called "Master" for centuries. Those students will now be skyrocketing Yale graduates, on their way to the top jobs.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

*Yes, I know that's not how it's really spelled.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Jamie123

[Vort]

59 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

But don't be so sure that common sense will prevail. Remember the incident at Silly-Man College* at Yale, where the Master was verbally abused and eventually forced to resign, for telling the students to use their own common sense when choosing what to wear for Halloween (rather than following University guidelines, which forbade anything Native American). Once he was gone, they abolished the title of "Master" since it was clearly evoked some kind of white male plantation owner, and despite the fact that the heads of Oxford and Cambridge colleges have been called "Master" for centuries. Those students will now be skyrocketing Yale graduates, on their way to the top jobs.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

*Yes, I know that's not how it's really spelled.

With no LOL or laugh emoji or anything but sincerity, I mourn at the weakening and apparent impending demise of this core root of Americanism. I am an American exceptionalist, not in believing that Americans were better than other peoples, or even that America was better than other nations, but in that the United States of America had been given a divine gift of liberty and therefore had the responsibility to spread that gift around the world. I think that, for all their mistakes and foolishness, previous generations of Americans had a surprising amount of success in doing this. But starting from some time after WWII, the rising generations of the time really lost their way. And here we are. Not sure how to move forward from here, except just to keep on plugging away, don't give up, don't let anything affect your joy in God and your fellow man. That last thing has proven hard for me, especially as I move into late middle age and the beginnings of actually being old, but I do believe it's the way to go.

[Jamie123]

29 minutes ago, Vort said:

That last thing has proven hard for me, especially as I move into late middle age and the beginnings of actually being old, but I do believe it's the way to go.

I believe you're older than me, Vort, but I don't think by much, and it's a sobering thought. Inside I still think I'm a boy. Maybe that's another appeal of TBBT. The characters (the male ones at least) are holding onto childhood despite pushing early middle age. Admittedly Sheldon is a professor, but you never see him weighed down by departmental meetings or marking hundreds of student assignments. The rest are all carefree postdocs with nothing to worry about but research, eating Chinese take-out and wetting themselves over the new Star Wars movie. For most of us this is wish-fulfillment.