Geeks like Community because it requires use of your brain and rewards you for having knowledge. This is a typical joke, never explained in the episode, which would be over the head of most viewers:
Isn't that true of TBBT? One joke I always remember is Sheldon telling Leonard that he shouldn't become romantically involved with a particular woman, because "her research methods are sloppy and she's unreasonably arrogant about loop quantum gravity". Most viewers probably haven't even heard of loop quantum gravity, and yet for the joke to be funny you have to understand Sheldon's occupation as a "classical" string theorist, and that loop quantum gravity is a competing theory that is supposed to supplant string theory, and around that time was being touted as the hot new thing.
Which is a bit more rewarding than a German not knowing the word 'schadenfreude'.
>Most viewers probably haven't even heard of loop quantum gravity, and yet for the joke to be funny you have to understand Sheldon's occupation as a "classical" string theorist, and that loop quantum gravity is a competing theory that is supposed to supplant string theory, and around that time was being touted as the hot new thing.
Most people who watch the show do not understand that. They still laugh at the "joke". You don't need that understanding, the joke to most people is simply "haha, the nerd won't date a girl because of some nerd thing she likes". There is a difference between making a joke based on something "nerdy" and merely making a reference to something "nerdy". TBBT does the latter.
>Please explain how the original statement that you responded to above is incorrect.
I quoted it in my response, it is easy to see: "yet for the joke to be funny you have to understand". That is false. The vast majority of the audience do not understand that at all, and yet find it to be funny. The fact that one of the writers slipped in a deeper meaning does not mean the joke requires that understanding, and thus does not support the notion that the show is targeted to people who possess that understanding.
I'd argue that Community is just a pop-culture reference show. That "knowledge" you seem so proud of is only useful for watching shows like Community (and maybe doing the crossword).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGd56epac5c