Of course the difference is "just" better writing, but it's still results in exact opposites. In both cases they try to laugh at geeks, in one of them it's in a way that makes geeks laugh, in the other it makes geeks cringe.

> The subculture of BBT is the pseudo-intellectual crowd who took biology 101 and are now experts in everything "science."

That's just the thing though, people can't tell the difference and I don't think the show even knows it, having all those characters around who apparently know very little about science but who are being portrayed as prodigies.

I learned about this show when friends told me "hey, you're a science type, you'll love BBT. It's so funny and clever!"

Then I watched it and it wasn't clever at all. But it is designed to look as if it is.

Well, there were a couple of good episodes. But overall no, it's not funny. Plus all the comic-book geekery made me cringe.

When will we get our own show where a vim user and an emacs user, both contributors to the linux kernel, have to share an apartment next door from a frontend web developer writing ruby in SublimeText?

You've probably missed the episode where they make fun off all the idiots who think the Elders of the Internet let the wireless Internet-Box leave Big Ben.

Interesting you bring that one up, cause I found parts of that episode brilliant and hilarious, but other moments kind of tedious and cringy. The idiots/supposedly "normal" people, weren't quite consistent in what they were clueless/knowledgeable about, IIRC. I'd normally overlook such a thing, but with the extreme levels of clueless required in this episode, it felt a bit off-balance. Though I don't know how exactly they should have fixed it without damaging the brilliant+hilarious Internet-Box premise.

Of course, it's wireless, everything's wireless these days!

It's not just better writing though, it's the difference between laughing with and laughing at.

BBT isn't just "not funny", it's actually rather obnoxious.