What We Do and Who We Are: The Big Bang Theory

Sitting in lecture this week, as we discussed Marx and Engels and their Communist Manifesto, I was especially intrigued when we got to analyzing their concept of materialism and this notion that "a person's identity and sense of self is determined by what she does." This got me to thinking about a few things: is this really how we form our identity in a modern capitalistic society, by what we do for a living? Is this a problem? How is this portrayed or perpetuated in politics and culture?

The minute that this concept came up in lecture, and then when it came up in our section's discussion, my mind immediately went to the show The Big Bang Theory.

I am a HUGE fan of the show and I watch it religiously, but I got to thinking how this show (and most television shows for that matter) perpetuate this notion that our identity lies with our job. The cast of main characters on the show are Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, and Raj, whom all work at Cal Tech in Pasadena, California. Sheldon and Leonard are theoretical physicists, Howard is an aerospace engineer, and Roj is an astrophysicist. Penny, a waitress at The Cheesecake Factory and a hopeful actress, is also a major character on the show.

From left to right: Raj, Leonard, Penny, Sheldon, and Howard
from CBS' The Big Bang Theory

The show's audience has snowballed, with viewer numbers soaring in its sixth season to at least 20 million. It has been deemed "geek chic" by some and clearly an audience favorite. But why?

One article from NYDailyNews.com analyzes the show's popularity, attributing much of it to the quirky characters, the show's intelligent banter, the constant references to current technology, and the idea that the characters, who appear as outsiders, allow many to identity with the show. There it is- this concept of identity. And how, might you ask does Marx and his ideas come into this? Well, I prompt the question: would the show be what it is if the dialogue, the characters, the stories, the settings weren't built around what the characters do for a living?

Many a joke have been said that were reliant on the fact that Penny is a 'mere' waitress and unable to understand the complex physics jargon that the other characters casually toss around. There is constant humor found in Sheldon's lack of any social knowledge given the fact that he was in college and studying physics by the time he was 12. The list goes on and on. Further, in the show's pilot, when Leonard and Sheldon meet Penny for the first time, it comes up in the first lines of dialogue that Penny is a waitress and that Leonard and Sheldon work at the University. Each of these characters are identified in their society and even in their social groups by what job they do and where they do it. This all ties directly into Marx and what he is trying to combat, the idea that we are what we do.

Take, for example, this video that we saw in lecture, with Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times.

Then, look at this clip from The Big Bang Theory.

We used the Charlie Chaplin example in class to highlight Marx's concerns. Chaplin, while working on the assembly line literally just becomes part of the machine- he is completely defined not by his personality or even by his humanity. He is valuable simply because of what he does in the factory. Now in the Big Bang Theory clip, none of the characters are on the assembly line or becoming part of some sort of machinery, but they all represent the idea that they are what they do. Sheldon, obviously, is showing this most expertly. The comedy is built upon the characters dependence on what they do to support their identity. They are all scientists, thus Sheldon finds the jokes about physics funny. They like video games and Star Wars and comic books and technology: none of the characters waver on this. They all identify with each other and with society by what they do.

This image represents our tendency to identify ourselves
in society by where we work or what we do for work.

If we think about it and we can see such a phenomenon perpetuated in pop culture, we can't help but see it in our daily interactions. When we first meet somebody, what do we ask? Name, maybe age, maybe hometown, but their profession most definitely comes up. Even we, living the college life, do it. When we meet somebody new we go through the routine: my name is, my year at school is, I live here, and my major is this. We all do this unconsciously. Our job, our major, or the lack of a job or major defines who we are in society. In the most extreme cases, we are the characters in The Big Bang Theory: we find ourselves by finding a career.

Is this a problem? Was Marx right to try to combat this phenomenon? What do we identify with if not our job? How do we make a change? Why do we all love shows like The Big Bang Theory? Something points to the fact that capitalism, as Marx pointed out, has evolved into a force that has come to drive even individual ideas, because in our modern world, it seems as though we all really have become exactly what we do for a living.