Was Howard Too Creepy In The First 3 Season Of The Show?

[gwhh]

Is it just me or was Howard TOO creepy in the first 3 season of the show?

 

 

 

[eparadis75]

No....

[Anomaly]

No, he's too typical now. He's become an average, run of the mill, unfunny background character... The same type I've seen a thousand times before and can see currently on just about any sit-com/rom-com. All the characters on TBBT used to be unique. Unfortunately, they're all being transformed into ordinary people... And they're taking the show with them.

[MJistheBOMB]

Is it just me or was Howard TOO creepy in the first 3 season of the show?

 

Maybe in real life I'd be creeped out by someone like that but for TV land, I like creepy, perverted Howard :-). Funny stuff.

[Anomaly]

Maybe in real life I'd be creeped out by someone like that but for TV land, I like creepy, perverted Howard :-). Funny stuff.

 

Exactly. Saying Howard was too creepy is like saying Cousin It had too much hair or The Fonz was too cool. These are fictional characters, not our next door neighbors.

[Lissie]

Maybe in real life I'd be creeped out by someone like that but for TV land, I like creepy, perverted Howard :-). Funny stuff.

I agree. And he was so funny !!

[Moonbase]

Exactly. Saying Howard was too creepy is like saying Cousin It had too much hair or The Fonz was too cool. These are fictional characters, not our next door neighbors.

 

Totally agree. Simon does a fine job of the 'new' Howard but it's not funny.

[phantagrae]

I don't think that the old Howard was necessarily too creepy--exaggeration is often used to underscore character.  But he was kind of a Johnny-One-Note, as Raj has been with his mutism and the is-he-or-isn't-he-gay jokes.

 

I like the new Howard, even if he isn't constantly trying unsuccessfully to hit on women in sad and desperate ways.  He still has his pervy way of looking at everything and he still has his funky bromance with Raj.

[Nina]

Creepishly hilarious! Especially when he would hit on Penny & other ladies. Now, he's one of the most mature characters on the show. Ironic. He has become so serious. I miss the old Howard. 

[Moonbase]

Creepishly hilarious! Especially when he would hit on Penny & other ladies. Now, he's one of the most mature characters on the show. Ironic. He has become so serious. I miss the old Howard. 

 

Howard as the goth! love it, he has a bigger wardrobe space backstage than the other guys. There were so many shiny shirts and dodgy outfits.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Moonbase

[CaitAmber]

I sort of miss eye-patch Howard! 

[Tensor]

He was creepy but in a charming sort of way. Now he's just kind of boring. <whip sound!>

I know we don't see eye to eye on the majority of things, but his was just flat out funny.

[Kasey]

Hey he can creep people out in six languages including flawless Russian...

[Anomaly]

I don't think that the old Howard was necessarily too creepy--exaggeration is often used to underscore character.  But he was kind of a Johnny-One-Note, as Raj has been with his mutism and the is-he-or-isn't-he-gay jokes.

 

I like the new Howard, even if he isn't constantly trying unsuccessfully to hit on women in sad and desperate ways.  He still has his pervy way of looking at everything and he still has his funky bromance with Raj.

 

At least he had a note... And what an entertaining one it was. Now, he's a no-note... A watered down background character in comparison. While he does still have the Raj bromance, I always looked at that as a very poor Turk & J.D. (Scrubs) rip-off. If that's what TPTB are relying on to tie the new Howard with the old, they chose the one device that was never done particularly well to begin with.

[Big Bang]

Is it just me or was Howard ALWAYS creepy haha

[queuetee]

The Howard character was just that=== a well  written TV character. It made no sense why Bernie fell for him so hard since he really wasn't that likable. Since she was scripted to marry him, they had to change him somewhat and that is what we have now----sort of a nebbish.

 

I think there has been talk in fanland about breaking up the marriage because it doesn't really work----it never worked because the relationship just made no sense, ever.

[Guest DroneInTheSun]

I'm gonna go against the flow there but I do not miss creepy Howard at. all. If I want to see white privileged males being creepily misogynistic, I can just talk to the first man I'll see in real life. Fiction is literally the only place where you can avoid gross guys so I'm happy that creepy Howard is finally gone. Because I do not find borderline rape jokes and sexual assault funny. At all.

I do miss Howard the thief though, who would use the Mars Rover to seduce a girl or steal a robot hand to pleasure himself.

[Europa]

The Howard character was just that=== a well  written TV character. It made no sense why Bernie fell for him so hard since he really wasn't that likable.  

 

Not sure I can agree.  Bernie found him confusing and weird at first and had to get used to his "humor."  I think their relationship and her understanding and affection for him can be summed up perfectly in this exchange from The Gorilla Experiment: 

 

 

Bernadette: Don't take him too seriously. A lot of what he says is intended as humor.

Penny: Yeah, well, I don't think it's very funny.

Bernadette: Me, neither. But, he just lights up when I laugh.

Penny: Howard, never let her go.

[queuetee]

I have to disagree that the quote you posted "explains" their relationship. B. says he isn't funny but he enjoys it when she laughs so she does( even though she knows he isn't funny) Again I have to say that it is not clear why she fell for him so hard.

[mjc45]

like the new howard-he as grown up the most

was astronaut , as hot wife

[Anomaly]

I have to disagree that the quote you posted "explains" their relationship. B. says he isn't funny but he enjoys it when she laughs so she does( even though she knows he isn't funny) Again I have to say that it is not clear why she fell for him so hard.

 

Because TPTB at some point decided to start transforming the characters from nerds/geeks into ordinary guys. You are absolutely 100% correct that it doesn't make sense, but (to paraphrase Yul Brynner in The Ten Commandments) so it has been written, so it has been done. It made no sense, it was a bad move and it has destroyed one of the show's better characters. There really is no reason for the upcoming Friends reunion, considering TBBT has transformed so completely into it's almost exact duplicate.

[idrive65]

Because TPTB at some point decided to start transforming the characters from nerds/geeks into ordinary guys. You are absolutely 100% correct that it doesn't make sense, but (to paraphrase Yul Brynner in The Ten Commandments) so it has been written, so it has been done. It made no sense, it was a bad move and it has destroyed one of the show's better characters. There really is no reason for the upcoming Friends reunion, considering TBBT has transformed so completely into it's almost exact duplicate.

 

I understand that you don't like the change, but I disagree that "it doesn't make sense."  A lot of uncool, nerdy guys that I knew in my 20s eventually matured and married attractive, smart women.  Some still do battlebots or whatever, but they've married, bought houses, started families.  Some started tech companies or advanced quickly in their field.  

 

I thought the unchanging lives of the Seinfeld characters was funny, but it was one-note after a while.

 

Actually, most guys in general aren't as horndoggy in their 30s as in their 20s, and if they are, it's pathetic and creepy.  (Charlie Harper, anyone?)  Which was Penny's point to Howard when she said it - he was too old to be acting like a hormonal college kid.

[rachelshamyfan]

He was creepy but in a funny way. The ways he tried to pick up women (the goth place and the eye patch move) its kinda sad we don't see that anymore

[Carlos]

I'm gonna go against the flow there but I do not miss creepy Howard at. all. If I want to see white privileged males being creepily misogynistic, I can just talk to the first man I'll see in real life. 

 

What a complete oversimplification of men, and with a hint of racism to boot. I couldn't disagree with you more.

 

 Because I do not find borderline rape jokes and sexual assault funny. At all.

 

Neither do I , but....what does that have to do with Howard?

 

 

I do miss Howard the thief though, who would use the Mars Rover to seduce a girl or steal a robot hand to pleasure himself.

 

He didn't steal the robot hand, he made it.

[Anomaly]

I understand that you don't like the change, but I disagree that "it doesn't make sense."  A lot of uncool, nerdy guys that I knew in my 20s eventually matured and married attractive, smart women.  Some still do battlebots or whatever, but they've married, bought houses, started families.  Some started tech companies or advanced quickly in their field.  

 

I thought the unchanging lives of the Seinfeld characters was funny, but it was one-note after a while.

 

Actually, most guys in general aren't as horndoggy in their 30s as in their 20s, and if they are, it's pathetic and creepy.  (Charlie Harper, anyone?)  Which was Penny's point to Howard when she said it - he was too old to be acting like a hormonal college kid.

 

Okay, maybe a lot of nerdy guys that you knew mature & settled down. TBBT is not real life, it's a TV show, and a comedy at that. Characters don't fundamentally change on sit-coms, especially ones that were originally well-conceived. When they do change, it's usually at the end of a show's run and it's not done across the board, fundamentally changing the dynamic of the entire show from that of a sit-com to a rom-com. With that, the type of viewer it appeals to will also change. TPTB having done that is what doesn't make sense to me. I can accept that the show no longer appeals to me personally. Again, it's only a TV show. I also understand they wanted the show to be more popular than it already was, so they watered it down, homogenized it and made it more mainstream. The thing is, TBBT was generating a lot of buzz and growing. I truly believe that had TBBT started out in it's current form, it would have been passed off as just another rom-com and failed.  I consider that selling out & ruining something that was at one time special. Maybe their plan was to hook a smaller, buzz generating type of audience, then switch to something more typical? At this point, TBBT feels more like a bait-n-switch to me than anything else.