Why The Big Bang Theory Is The New Friends

The Big Bang Theory is the biggest show in the solar system. With the cliffhanger-charged ninth season set to drop on September 21, Joe Madden tots up the parallels between the Central Perk gang and the Cheesecake Factory crew.

- Joe Madden

1. All the cool kids think it sucks...Admit to kinda-liking The Big Bang Theory in hipster-y company and you might as well confess to being a Dapper Laughs devotee. Just as Friends was, TBBT is a cultural pariah to many. “I don’t even know where to begin when talking about why I hate The Big Bang Theory so much,” rants a post on cooler-than-thou site Sick Chirpse. “It’s like a collage made entirely from turds and I’m trying to decide which turd is the most unpleasant.”

2 ...But it’s smarter and funnier than they give it credit for With its three-camera format,winking sex jokes and sentimental streak, TBBT was never going to be a critical darling along the lines of cerebral metacomedies such as Arrested Development or Curb Your Enthusiasm. But, like Friends before it, at its best TBBT takes standard sitcom tropes – misunderstandings, pratfalls, zinging comebacks – and fashions beautifully polished, brilliantly performed gags from them.

3. (Although yes, sometimes it does suck) Friends-haters had plenty of ammo: yes, the show was startlingly white, the characters’ ‘problems’ were very much of the first-world variety and the sugary schmaltz could be heave-inducing. TBBT can be similarly problematic: the writing is hacky at times; the laughter track gets OTT; and some of the jokes relating to Raj flirt with, if not racism exactly, then certainly uncomfortable stereotyping.