It is interesting that you are pointing this out. It does represent a cultureal shift. Geeks are the new jocks, which is strange, but could be an indication of a new generation that enjoys Ayn Rand more than waiting in line for a Pete Rose autograph in Vegas. I've watched this show a few times, and I enjoy the humor, but I still find the entertainment to be too silly to invest any real time into.

raping and pillaging. businesses had to completely shut down...

Did you not see the news reports during the height of the Occupy Wall Street Movement? Mob violence and destruction of private proprty to name two features of their efforts. Tea Party people tend to be very respectful.

interesting points

I said fruit basket upset-

It does not matter what OTHER people do. I am sure that millions laugh at Homer Simpson, even if they do not understand Lisa's enrollment in the Ayn Rand Daycare where she learned the virtue of selfishness, or a thousand other literary references rolled into the show. My nephew went to college on a baseball scholarship. He finds me woefully ignorant about the game and wonders what I can find in it to enjoy.

All I know is that in Ann Arbor and Austin when I wanted to get BBT from the library, all the copies of all the seasons were checked out and I was waitlisted.

The first three or four seasons, the show was supported by a "Big Blog Theory" site by the series technical advisor, Dr. David Salzberg of UCLA. They worked hard to make sure that the whiteboards were meaningful.

Perhaps you have heard of "The CSI Effect" in which prosecutors complain that juries want physical evidence beyond reason. The leading researchers (Barak, Kim, and Shelton) found instead a "Tech Effect." We live in a society where everyone has programmable gizmos and gadgets.

In my last semester in graduate school, I had a class in "Ethics in Physics" and one of the physicists complained that as soon as he gives out his major, everyone wants to talk about quantum mechanics that learned from books like the "Dancing Wu Li Masters." It made him mad.

I think that presence of "Big Bang Theory" signals a cultural shift, a paradigm shift, reflecting our time as earlier decades found themselves in Friends, Happy Days, and Leave it to Beaver.
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"It's a fruit basket upset." I had to google and found it in Wikipedia: a children's game invented within a manga series, perhaps not traditional.

Labyrinth again? I should minus a point.

OWS = violence. Tea Party = civil discord. I doubt either will become allies.

I think they're laughing AT Sheldon....you don't need to understand what he's saying to do that.

I am still not clear what OWS stands for. I think it stands for the high-minded value of reducing corruption and money in politics. It also stands for basic whining.

The worst part of OWS is when they said, "I did everything I was told. I went to the school they told me to. I took the loan/aid package they recommended. I got good grades. I've interviewed where the career center told me to. Why can't I pay my bills!?" It never occurs to them to STOP doing what OTHER PEOPLE tell them to do.

They didn't have a central leadership, so they stood for many causes.

I have *never* heard them stand for violence. I would be shocked to learn they had more violence than any group of similar size.

As I said in a different topic, last year, the conservatives wanted to bring Julian Assange home and shoot him, but now they wrap Edward Snowden in the flag. President Obama has lost his left wing support while Nancy Pelosi and Michele Bachmann line up in support as the President defends the NSA.

But the deeper point is that it may no longer be possible for the Washington planners to fool most of the people some of the time. The jig is up.