> We aren’t laughing with Leonard, Sheldon, Raj and Howard. We’re laughing at them.
And what would be a sitcom where this is not the case? Let's take one of the tamest and more humane sitcoms, the Cosby Show. Even in this case, you are more often than not laughing at the characters (to be specific, at certain quirks in their personality), not with them.
Community is aimed at nerds to let them laugh at highly dysfunctional but lovable characters. The characters themselves aren't nerds. In contrast, TBBT lets normal people laugh at nerds.
I never said that one is bad and the other is good. I'm just trying to explain why nerds frequently prefer Community over The Big Bang Theory, when superficially The Big Bang Theory appears to be a show for nerds.
I can, which is why the IT Crowd was funny. TBBT doesn't contain caricatures of me, it contains caricatures of what someone who knows nothing about me thinks I am. Such a caricature does not resonate with me, so there is no appeal.
And what would be a sitcom where this is not the case? Let's take one of the tamest and more humane sitcoms, the Cosby Show. Even in this case, you are more often than not laughing at the characters (to be specific, at certain quirks in their personality), not with them.