Like Nooj, I absolutely loathe the three-camera, laugh-tracked sitcom format, and unlike him, I haven't found enough in shows like HIMYM or Big Bang Theory to get past it and enjoy. I used to be able to choke down the format because that was just how TV comedy was done, but now that we've moved past it it seems like a pandering anachronism that shows just how condescending TV producers can be. I can't even really watch old sitcoms anymore either, with the one exception of Seinfeld--and to me that one demonstrates exactly how laugh tracks get it wrong. (I'm using "laugh tracks" here to include live studio audience laughter as well.) Because Seinfeld is the only modern sitcom I can think of that doesn't pander to the laugh track, and is willing to do the occasional throwaway joke or subtle bit of business, yet the laughs always feel earned (which is otherwise a huge problem with laugh tracks). With every other laugh-tracked show, there's only one type of joke you can do, which is the big, broad one-liner (and occasionally the slapstick visual gag). Because if it's not a "setup-punchline-drumbeat-LAUGHTER" kind of joke, it feels like a mistake amidst all the uproar. Which means that, for instance, half the jokes on Arrested Development and Community would never have happened if they were laugh-tracked. It's a supremely limiting form of comedy, and the main reason it's still around is because it's clear audiences subconsciously think of shows as funnier if there's a laugh track.
Ask yourself if one of the laugh-tracked sitcoms you enjoy would be hurt by being a cinematic one-camera show with no laugh track. Because I'm finding it hard to see how that could be.
As for big Bang Theory, I'm willing to have my opinion changed because I've only seen one or two episodes, but my problem with that show isn't "they portrayed geek culture badly!" it's that they seem to drop in geek culture as a punchline in and of itself, seemingly attempting to use it as a punchline for the 50-year-old watchers simply by existing, and a "hey, I get that reference!" moment a la Family Guy for the geeks. Yet there never seems to be any actual insight into what makes people's obsession with these nerdy things funny. It's just a string of pointless, superficial references. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that a show that attempts to portray a subculture provide some insight into that subculture.
