Portrait of the Autist as a Young Man

Abstract

<p>In 2007 a network ensemble comedy about four scientists working at the California Institute of Technology premiered on CBS. Over the course of the next decade, <i>The Big Bang Theory</i> became one of the most watched shows worldwide, a landmark pop-culture product with a dedicated fan base that heralded the age of "geek" or "nerd" culture. For Vlad Dima, writing in the <i>Bright Lights Film Journal</i> in 2012 during the show's fifth season, the series was "a paradigm shift of big-bang proportions": "The show's main achievement . . . is to create an [sic] universe in which the outcast scientists, the <i>nerds</i>, function as the leading men" (original emphasis).</p>