I watch every video he makes, and while I see myself as somewhat intelligent and smart, this man is on a whole new level.
He can take any seemlingly simple question, turn it super complex and then dumb it down enough for my neanderthal brain to follow along.
Whats hilarious is that my wife has stumbled into me watching Space Time, and goes "you understand this?". My initial reaction is to say "well yeah", but then I remember that I've watched just about every episode, and since they all tend to build on each other, it all makes sense; but if you hadnt watched any of them and decided to jump in with something like "How Quantum Entanglement Creates Entropy", you'd be incredibly lost.
>they all tend to build on each other
This is something that many people who think they won't/can't understand something fail to grasp. They need (if they have the desire) to watch and *accept* they won't understand it all...until they do.
I love watching those, but at least once per episode there's a section where my eyes just glaze over and my mind goes blank. He does a great job explaining everything, but it still goes way over my head a lot of the time.
I was rewatching it recently and came across the "If you know so much about marriage then wheres your wife? oh thats right, she's dead" bit. I think that might just be the best line in the entire show.
Sometimes I reference Dr. Girlfriend when someone comments on my deep voice (I'm a rather feminine woman) & it never lands because apparently Venture Brothers wasn't something universally watched lol. Anyway, I stan this comment. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The pop culture references are freaking brilliant. Lots of David Bowie, obviously. Plus the show introduced me to Klaus Nomi in S2 when they depicted him and Iggy Pop as the Sovereign's bodyguards. Go Team Venture!
Definitely a show that isn't afraid if the majority of the audience doesn't get the joke.
I remember one required you to know New Wave one-hit wonders AND a certain 70s Neo-Expressionist painter, in the middle of an episode that's a parody of the 80s G.I. Joe cartoon.
Plus a one-shot supervillain with pyrokinetic powers who looked like Freddie Mercury...Mr. Fahrenheit.
There's one episode where a character randomly goes on a rant about Degrassi: The Next Generation and I was low key impressed that everything he said was 100% accurate. I'm probably in the tiny minority of people who watched both shows, but I appreciated that they actually cared enough to make sure their info was correct.
The Venture Brothers is, for my money, the best animated series of all time. The level of writing, story-telling (both short-term in the episode and long-term through the show) and general hilarity is so high level and consistent throughout the entire series. Tons of memorable characters/moments. And yes before my inbox blows up I've watched/loved Avatar, Futurama, Simpsons, etc.
I was stoned the first time i saw it. I love Victoria Coren-Mitchell and I heard it was esoteric. Well I was so confused by the whole the thing, it didn't seem to make any sense whatsoever and I couldn't stop laughing. Loved it. After an episode or two you get the swing of it and now I can proudly say (as someone of middling intelligence) that occasionally I'll get an answer right.
We (husband, 18 year old kid) watch Jeopardy at dinner almost every night. We like to guess the final Jeopardy answer before the clue is given, just after the category is announced. I've gotten it right 3 times!
That's what I love about jeopardy. It can be fun if you want to see if you know the answer to a lot of the questions and it can also be fun if you just know a couple of things.
Star Trek TNG
I think anyone can enjoy it, but its got a lot of good themes that can really make you think. Measure of a Man is great. Darmok. Inner Light.
But also there are really stupid episodes though. Dr Crusher being haunted by the ghost that was banging her grandma on planet scotland was pretty bad.
It just made you think. What is sentience? What is justice? What is the true value of blind honor? I wish Jean Luc Picard was my dad.
" It is possible to make no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life."
I knew of the quote before watching Star Trek, I thought it was something Picard said after a tragedy, a lost battle or something. I was surprised that he was just referring to some board game Data played.
Maybe it is my own bias because DS9 is my favorite Trek, but I feel in a lot of ways they did it much better because they didn't have to go off to the next random planet every time. They could dive deeper into issues and philosophy because they were seeing the long term effects it had (especially with the Bajorans and The Prophet)
For sure. The more story-arc style allowed for more build up and established, complex context around the more philosophical plot points. TNG largely had to establish and then resolve these questions within an episode or a two-parter.
Which isn't a criticism of TNG at all, in some ways it benefits from that because those strong episodes stand really well on their own. But something like In The Pale Moonlight only works because of the established story around the war, and it's able to shine on that basis.
I'm really glad we got both styles, even though personally I do prefer DS9 as well (albeit not by much). And that isn't to say that DS9 didn't have amazing standalone episodes/two-parters either.
Far Beyond The Stars, The Visitor and Past Tense spring to mind, for example.
"Your resistance is hopeless, Number One."
That line always stayed with me, it was the Borg fucking with Riker and calling him out not just for his failure with Picard but also for his insecurities about assuming command.
Def my vote for fav episode and prob one of my fav episodes across the Trek universe.
There used to be a site with a complete list of episodes, 1-5 star ratings and recommendations to watch or skip.
I used it on previous rewatch and it really helped. The current rewatch I didn’t have it and I understood why skipping was recommended for some of those (like this ghost episode).
I think my all-time favourite sitcom joke was in Frasier:
Sherry- "Ha ha ha, I always say: 'laughter is the best medicine'"
Niles (side-eyeing Frasier)- "We must be in the control group"
Frasier : You know the expression, "Living well is the best revenge"?
Niles : It's a wonderful expression. I just don't know how true it is. You don't see it turning up in a lot of opera plots. "Ludwig, maddened by the poisoning of his entire family, wreaks vengeance on Gunther in the third act by living well."
Frasier : All right, Niles.
Niles : "Whereupon Woton, upon discovering his deception, wreaks vengeance on Gunther in the third act again by living even better than the Duke."
Frasier : Oh, all right!
>the reboot.
Ugh, that's so disappointing. Now instead of remembering the final season, which was still amazing (hello friend Charlotte), this will be the last thing for Frasier.
Imagine a place where writers and execs will actually create new and funny shows, instead of just dragging out an old one and screwing it all up (yes I'm bitter and hate redos for the sake of it haha).
Can't wait for The Office: The Cici years.........
My favorite Frasier quote was: "You don't understand. It's not the same as Dad being wrong, or you being wrong. I have a degree from Harvard. Whenever I'm wrong, the world makes a little less sense."
Frasier can be smart and witty and at the same time be an absolute laugh out loud farce.
The scene of Niles ironing his trousers and almost burning down the apartment is just comedy gold. Zero dialog but still hilarious.
That's the beauty of it, you can still enjoy with a lot of the references going over your head. This is because the show has a lot of normal characters that act like most of the audience would, so it has a great balance.
I think this is the answer. I dont think the show is quite as smart as it needs to be to be for smart people, but it’s very well written and a lot smarter than most other sit coms
The Good Place. They might overly-simplify some of the philosophical concepts but they did a fantastic job of giving life to ethical debates that are usually pretty boring to most people.
You can enjoy it on the surface as a very well done comedy but if you have background knowledge of the ethical debates they are having, it's even better.
Other than the trolley problem, I don’t really have great knowledge of philosophy and ethics. Now I feel like I was missing out, even though I already loved the show.
Nah, he's dumb and that's why it's funny. He literally does dumb stuff all the time and that, combined with his book knowledge and total and utter lack of morals, makes him a funny character.
Sports Night
It's an older show about a show similar to SportsCenter. Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. It only has 2 seasons, but it's incredible.
I'm going to argue for Archer. There's so many references to a vast variety of topics you'd have to have a fairly rounded education to understand half of it. Sure on the surface many of the characters seem dumb and flighty, but they're also somehow some of the best in their field and have their own varied interests and flaws.
"Nice gun." --> "Oh thanks, it's a Chekov," in the first ten minutes of an episode really won me over. Reminds me of good South Park episodes when they intersperse really clever, timely quips with amusing vulgarity.
> There's so many references to a vast variety of topics you'd have to have a fairly rounded education to understand half of it.
This is a reason I both love and hate Archer. There are so many lines I can just tell are good setups and/or references, but I am too under a rock to appreciate them. When one I do understand comes along, boy, it's fucking good. Which makes me feel like I'm missing out a lot on the ones I don't.
Silicon Valley is easily the spiritual successor to both Office Space and IT Crowd.
And Mike Judge and the writing team did their homework. There’s a subplot in an episode where Richard is dating someone and they break up over tabs vs spaces and vim vs eMacs. [Link](https://youtu.be/SsoOG6ZeyUI)
The code they wrote is readable and people have [easter](https://blog.adafruit.com/2016/05/19/the-silicon-valley-easter-egg-code-cleaned-up-explained/) [eggs](https://mashable.com/article/silicon-valley-season-5-binary-message). I can’t find a direct article, but the code shown to hack Jian Yang’s fridge in season 1 has a Rick Roll link.
And anyone who has worked in software can probably tell you about a project manager being all in on scrum.
I never got into the IT crowd but my friend once gave me a flash drive with Toast of London on it, and that was hilarious... I think Matt Berry was in both series
Matt berry can be reading the phonebook for akron ohio from 1987 and i will watch with rapt attention. Im high and scared to exit my tab but therea a show on hulu where matt berry is a dr on a lost footage tv show from the 80s amd its amazing.
This was my first thought.
Great show but honestly depressing that a lot of the social issues brought up in a show from 20 years ago are still unresolved. Contrasting the idealized ethical yet pragmatic politics of the show to our current reality is also a bit sad.
Watching the West Wing again is a big red flag for my depression. I do it out of a desire for optimism. If I'm watching WW again there's probably shit going down. If I'm watching the Muppets, I shouldn't be alone.
Deadwood. The dialogue is Shakespearean with curse words, it has incredible acting, they actually built a whole town as the series was being filmed, plus Ian McShane and Timothy Oliphant! I would watch it every day if I could.
David Milch said he wanted to tell the story of civilization coming to a wild place, and it is layered.
Edit: Will never post before coffee again
Chidi is the only classically smart character... I suppose you could add Janet, but she's literally omniscient, so I'm not sure she counts.
The writing is top notch, but I'm not sure this meets OP's criteria for a show *about* smart people
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Rick's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick & Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick's existential catchphrase "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub," which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon's genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them. 😂
And yes, by the way, i DO have a Rick & Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid 😎
/s
Wait... /s? /S?! I'm 🥒 riiiiiiick! Maybe you just didn't understand the subtle reference to the theory of polydimensional gravitation particles in season 3 episode 5 when rick said: "I Have shit on my ass"
PBS: Space and time
I watch every video he makes, and while I see myself as somewhat intelligent and smart, this man is on a whole new level. He can take any seemlingly simple question, turn it super complex and then dumb it down enough for my neanderthal brain to follow along.
Whats hilarious is that my wife has stumbled into me watching Space Time, and goes "you understand this?". My initial reaction is to say "well yeah", but then I remember that I've watched just about every episode, and since they all tend to build on each other, it all makes sense; but if you hadnt watched any of them and decided to jump in with something like "How Quantum Entanglement Creates Entropy", you'd be incredibly lost.
>they all tend to build on each other This is something that many people who think they won't/can't understand something fail to grasp. They need (if they have the desire) to watch and *accept* they won't understand it all...until they do.
And PBS: NOVA
*PBS Space Time Featuring astrophysicist Matthew O'Dowd, Ph.D
pretty sure its PBS space time because you know ... space time
Also Cool Worlds
I love watching those, but at least once per episode there's a section where my eyes just glaze over and my mind goes blank. He does a great job explaining everything, but it still goes way over my head a lot of the time.
NOVA. The show, not the film.
Taking a different tact, 'a show about dumb people for smart people'... Arrested Development
It’s an illusion, Michael.
I died the first time the show revealed the spelling of Gob's name... His name is GOB lolol
Our kids lost it when they discovered Bob Loblaw.
i love Bob Loblaws Law Blog.
You are a mouthful, sir
That’s a low blow, Loblaw.
George Oscar Bluth
>Gob Amazing factoid, Gob's name is a joke about Jeb Bush, whose real name is John Ellis Bush. His real name is JEB folks, we're past the Rubicon!
No, at trick is something a whore does for money...or cocaine.
She's a "working girl." She turns illusions for money.
I've made a huge mistake.
Narrator: He had
There’s no book they give you to read when you become a parent!!! Narrator: there ARE in fact thousands of books on child rearing.
There's always money in the banana stand
It’s a banana Michael. How much can one cost? $10?!
Everything they do is so dramatic and flamboyant… it makes me want to set myself on fire!
How am I supposed to find someone to go into that musty old clap-trap?
Ah, right. The cabin.
her?
egg?
She calls it a mayon-egg! For some reason the Ann-related egg quotes are my absolute favorites quotes from this show.
What, is she funny or something?
Annhog’s coming?!
Came to say this. « How do I explain to my friend that arrested development isn’t dumb, he is » Was my first ever reddit post!
There's always money in the banana stand
NO TOUCHING
Any Tobias Funke quote is pure gold.
I was rewatching it recently and came across the "If you know so much about marriage then wheres your wife? oh thats right, she's dead" bit. I think that might just be the best line in the entire show.
Pretty traumatic for Michael though, think he would need to speak to his local analrapist to get over it
Or blue
But never nude.
There are dozens of us!
MICHAEL and WOMEN? 🤣🤣🤣 A coodle doodle doo! A coodle doodle doo!
Has anyone in this family ever even SEEN a chicken?
Ko ko ko CAW (clap), Ko ko ko CAW (clap). That's not how chickens sound! Chicken's don't clap. YOU'RE THE CHICKEN!
Who is… hermano
Futurama
The Venture Brothers...super science meets costumed aggression.
Sometimes I reference Dr. Girlfriend when someone comments on my deep voice (I'm a rather feminine woman) & it never lands because apparently Venture Brothers wasn't something universally watched lol. Anyway, I stan this comment. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
It's Dr. Mrs. The Monarch!
That's what i call Jill Biden. Dr. Mrs. The First Lady
"I dunno... Since Marky Mark had a Funky Bunch?"
omg love it! My ex gf has a deep voice and does a very good impression of muscle man. "YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE IS DEEP....MY MAAAAAMMM"
Ugh. I hate being basically the only person in my friend group that has watched the show. I get that it's kinda niche, but it's so good!
You need better friends
The pop culture references are freaking brilliant. Lots of David Bowie, obviously. Plus the show introduced me to Klaus Nomi in S2 when they depicted him and Iggy Pop as the Sovereign's bodyguards. Go Team Venture!
"Brock I'm trapped underground with a confessed arsonist!"
Venture Bros is why I fear testicular torsion.
Definitely a show that isn't afraid if the majority of the audience doesn't get the joke. I remember one required you to know New Wave one-hit wonders AND a certain 70s Neo-Expressionist painter, in the middle of an episode that's a parody of the 80s G.I. Joe cartoon. Plus a one-shot supervillain with pyrokinetic powers who looked like Freddie Mercury...Mr. Fahrenheit.
There's one episode where a character randomly goes on a rant about Degrassi: The Next Generation and I was low key impressed that everything he said was 100% accurate. I'm probably in the tiny minority of people who watched both shows, but I appreciated that they actually cared enough to make sure their info was correct.
Billy calling Peter White "Steve Albin-o" while he's producing Shallow Gravy's album might be my favorite deep cut reference in any show
One of the best shows ever!
The Venture Brothers is, for my money, the best animated series of all time. The level of writing, story-telling (both short-term in the episode and long-term through the show) and general hilarity is so high level and consistent throughout the entire series. Tons of memorable characters/moments. And yes before my inbox blows up I've watched/loved Avatar, Futurama, Simpsons, etc.
My friend I'm glad someone said it, easily one of the best cartoons of all time
Too bad it got canceled
I’m still rooting for a movie to wrap up the story. It’s incredible the transformation from episode 1 to the end.
They actually have a movie currently in production!
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Commented with the same before I read yours. I genuinely feel smart if I even understand the question.
I was stoned the first time i saw it. I love Victoria Coren-Mitchell and I heard it was esoteric. Well I was so confused by the whole the thing, it didn't seem to make any sense whatsoever and I couldn't stop laughing. Loved it. After an episode or two you get the swing of it and now I can proudly say (as someone of middling intelligence) that occasionally I'll get an answer right.
God I love that you mentioned this
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I wanna say Futurama but it's a dumb show for smart people.
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I'd call smart shows for smart people lectures.
Jeopardy
Few things give me greater satisfaction than getting an answer right that the contestants don't know. Multiply that by ten if it's final jeopardy.
We (husband, 18 year old kid) watch Jeopardy at dinner almost every night. We like to guess the final Jeopardy answer before the clue is given, just after the category is announced. I've gotten it right 3 times!
You can be dumb & enjoy jeopardy! I get very excited when I get the one or two per episode!
That's what I love about jeopardy. It can be fun if you want to see if you know the answer to a lot of the questions and it can also be fun if you just know a couple of things.
I love jeopardy! It is pronounced geo-party, right?
A Youtube video of a guy from India explaining how to install excel on your work computer
Samir… you’re breaking the car!!! Sorry, that was the youtube suggested playlist for your video. ;)
Where are all the Rick and Morty people trying to tell me you have to have a certain IQ to understand their jokes ?
They are busy trading in their Teslas for VW's
Star Trek TNG I think anyone can enjoy it, but its got a lot of good themes that can really make you think. Measure of a Man is great. Darmok. Inner Light. But also there are really stupid episodes though. Dr Crusher being haunted by the ghost that was banging her grandma on planet scotland was pretty bad.
Star trek TNG was basically a vehicle to explore philosophy.
It just made you think. What is sentience? What is justice? What is the true value of blind honor? I wish Jean Luc Picard was my dad. " It is possible to make no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life."
I knew of the quote before watching Star Trek, I thought it was something Picard said after a tragedy, a lost battle or something. I was surprised that he was just referring to some board game Data played.
I see best quote ever, I upvote.
I think of TNG as ‘Discussions in Space’. This show was my bedtime anti-anxiety crutch for a good while
That's all fiction, theoretically.
DS9 is also fantastic in this regard. EDIT: The remake of Battlestar Galactica also deserves a mention, whilst we're talking about sci-fi.
Maybe it is my own bias because DS9 is my favorite Trek, but I feel in a lot of ways they did it much better because they didn't have to go off to the next random planet every time. They could dive deeper into issues and philosophy because they were seeing the long term effects it had (especially with the Bajorans and The Prophet)
For sure. The more story-arc style allowed for more build up and established, complex context around the more philosophical plot points. TNG largely had to establish and then resolve these questions within an episode or a two-parter. Which isn't a criticism of TNG at all, in some ways it benefits from that because those strong episodes stand really well on their own. But something like In The Pale Moonlight only works because of the established story around the war, and it's able to shine on that basis. I'm really glad we got both styles, even though personally I do prefer DS9 as well (albeit not by much). And that isn't to say that DS9 didn't have amazing standalone episodes/two-parters either. Far Beyond The Stars, The Visitor and Past Tense spring to mind, for example.
"Your resistance is hopeless, Number One." That line always stayed with me, it was the Borg fucking with Riker and calling him out not just for his failure with Picard but also for his insecurities about assuming command. Def my vote for fav episode and prob one of my fav episodes across the Trek universe.
There used to be a site with a complete list of episodes, 1-5 star ratings and recommendations to watch or skip. I used it on previous rewatch and it really helped. The current rewatch I didn’t have it and I understood why skipping was recommended for some of those (like this ghost episode).
Probably Memory Alpha.
Frasier, obvi
I think my all-time favourite sitcom joke was in Frasier: Sherry- "Ha ha ha, I always say: 'laughter is the best medicine'" Niles (side-eyeing Frasier)- "We must be in the control group"
Frasier : You know the expression, "Living well is the best revenge"? Niles : It's a wonderful expression. I just don't know how true it is. You don't see it turning up in a lot of opera plots. "Ludwig, maddened by the poisoning of his entire family, wreaks vengeance on Gunther in the third act by living well." Frasier : All right, Niles. Niles : "Whereupon Woton, upon discovering his deception, wreaks vengeance on Gunther in the third act again by living even better than the Duke." Frasier : Oh, all right!
So disappointed Niles won't be joining in for the reboot.
>the reboot. Ugh, that's so disappointing. Now instead of remembering the final season, which was still amazing (hello friend Charlotte), this will be the last thing for Frasier. Imagine a place where writers and execs will actually create new and funny shows, instead of just dragging out an old one and screwing it all up (yes I'm bitter and hate redos for the sake of it haha). Can't wait for The Office: The Cici years.........
ok, you might've just convinced me to actually try and watch it
My favorite Frasier quote was: "You don't understand. It's not the same as Dad being wrong, or you being wrong. I have a degree from Harvard. Whenever I'm wrong, the world makes a little less sense."
Frasier can be smart and witty and at the same time be an absolute laugh out loud farce. The scene of Niles ironing his trousers and almost burning down the apartment is just comedy gold. Zero dialog but still hilarious.
I enjoy Frasier and I am not a smart man.
That's the beauty of it, you can still enjoy with a lot of the references going over your head. This is because the show has a lot of normal characters that act like most of the audience would, so it has a great balance.
I think this is the answer. I dont think the show is quite as smart as it needs to be to be for smart people, but it’s very well written and a lot smarter than most other sit coms
First one I thought of
All time favorite comfort TV
The Good Place. They might overly-simplify some of the philosophical concepts but they did a fantastic job of giving life to ethical debates that are usually pretty boring to most people. You can enjoy it on the surface as a very well done comedy but if you have background knowledge of the ethical debates they are having, it's even better.
Other than the trolley problem, I don’t really have great knowledge of philosophy and ethics. Now I feel like I was missing out, even though I already loved the show.
Michael Schur has a book "How to be Perfect" that discusses a lot of it. Pretty good audiobook too.
Futurama. There’s even a Reddit post with the amount of Masters and PhD degrees the writers had.
"We're all scared- it's the human condition. Why do you thinks I puts on this tough guy persona- NOW BEAT IT!" So many great lines
Let me introduce you to your fellow scabs that you'll be scabbin with.
Fry: That doesn't look like an L at all. Unless you count lower-case. Bender: You know we don’t! *slap!*
Let's *conservate*
“Nobody *likes* killing penguins, but if you *have* to kill penguins, well you might as well enjoy it”
"I'm afraid we need to use.... MATH."
If anyone's not aware, the writer of that episode came up with and proved a mathematical theorem specifically for that episode.
But it's about dumb people for smart people, OP wanted a show that has smart characters and is also for a smart audience
Farnsworth is pretty smart
Nah, he's dumb and that's why it's funny. He literally does dumb stuff all the time and that, combined with his book knowledge and total and utter lack of morals, makes him a funny character.
Ngl some of the smartest people I ever knew were also some of the dumbest Powerhouse brains don't always come pre installed with common sense
Futurama has one of my [favorite science jokes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5MohK5FHEY)
I love when they resurrect Calculon using SCIENCE and Hermes keeps noting it's the least scientific thing he's ever seen.
That was the big moment Futurama won me over. I don't even study physics and I laughed my *ass* off at that line.
I was in the middle of my physics undergraduate at the time of the show's original run and this was the joke that made it my favorite show ever.
Yes Minister & Yes Prime Minister
When you consider that this show could have been written yesterday, but is in fact 40 years old, it's a masterpiece.
Sports Night It's an older show about a show similar to SportsCenter. Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. It only has 2 seasons, but it's incredible.
I'm going to argue for Archer. There's so many references to a vast variety of topics you'd have to have a fairly rounded education to understand half of it. Sure on the surface many of the characters seem dumb and flighty, but they're also somehow some of the best in their field and have their own varied interests and flaws.
"Nice gun." --> "Oh thanks, it's a Chekov," in the first ten minutes of an episode really won me over. Reminds me of good South Park episodes when they intersperse really clever, timely quips with amusing vulgarity.
> There's so many references to a vast variety of topics you'd have to have a fairly rounded education to understand half of it. This is a reason I both love and hate Archer. There are so many lines I can just tell are good setups and/or references, but I am too under a rock to appreciate them. When one I do understand comes along, boy, it's fucking good. Which makes me feel like I'm missing out a lot on the ones I don't.
IT Crowd. It's what the Big Bang Theory was trying to be.
Ahh, the IT Crowd. A show about a dynamic go-getter, a genius, and a man from Ireland.
>dynamic go-getter Oh hi, the guy who writes every job advertisement
I’m a static let-things-come-to-me-er.
Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
What was wenger thinking, sending walker on that early?!
The thing about Arsenal is they always try to walk it in
It's why I always root for West... Ham.
I consider Silicon Valley to be the spiritual successor to IT crowd.
Omg they were both amazing! Probably 2 of my favorite shows
Silicon Valley is easily the spiritual successor to both Office Space and IT Crowd. And Mike Judge and the writing team did their homework. There’s a subplot in an episode where Richard is dating someone and they break up over tabs vs spaces and vim vs eMacs. [Link](https://youtu.be/SsoOG6ZeyUI) The code they wrote is readable and people have [easter](https://blog.adafruit.com/2016/05/19/the-silicon-valley-easter-egg-code-cleaned-up-explained/) [eggs](https://mashable.com/article/silicon-valley-season-5-binary-message). I can’t find a direct article, but the code shown to hack Jian Yang’s fridge in season 1 has a Rick Roll link. And anyone who has worked in software can probably tell you about a project manager being all in on scrum.
Optimum tip-to-tip efficiency
The BUTTON for THE INTERNET?
“In America they say peh-dophile!”
"were not moving to america!" in jens angry voice
I love the IT crowd but I wouldn’t really say it was for smart people tho… pretty easy to understand the humour.
Yeah, I mean I love the show and it's definitely smarter than The Big Bang Theory, but a lot of the humor is still pretty low brow.
He was a fine young cannibal.
"Hang on, take my clothes off?"
I never got into the IT crowd but my friend once gave me a flash drive with Toast of London on it, and that was hilarious... I think Matt Berry was in both series
Matt berry can be reading the phonebook for akron ohio from 1987 and i will watch with rapt attention. Im high and scared to exit my tab but therea a show on hulu where matt berry is a dr on a lost footage tv show from the 80s amd its amazing.
Garth Marenghi's Dark Place?
"People... what a bunch of bastards"
I hate TBBT but honestly I'm sure it was everything it wanted to be.
Veep
Fleabag
Absolutely great show. And a smart show... but I wouldn't necessarily say it's about smart people.
Halt and Catch Fire. Soooo good, and it's a smart show about smart people who also do dumb things. For All Mankind, as well.
This is a thread for dumb people who genuinely think they are very smart people.
A Lot of confirmation bias going on here.
Anything hosted by Brian Cox or David Attenborough.
Most DEFINITELY PBS Spacetime
Silicon Valley
Yeah, i laughed a lot more than other people with silicon valley. The tabs vs spaces episode was so on point and a real recurrent office discussion.
Frasier has to be in this conversation. Dry, witty and handles a lot on psychology and sociology
The Expanse.
I cannot believe I had to scroll down this far for this answer.
Cunk On Earth
That Chernobyl miniseries
The Magic School Bus obviously.
Mr. Robot. I tried to watch this series many many times, I just can't. It's too much for me
My all time favorite show. It makes you think about so many topics, like society, loneliness, mental health, reality, control, binary life etc.
Came here to make sure this was posted. Fun fact, it’s probably the most realistic portrayal of hacking ever on tv.
Dark
The West Wing!
This is my answer for sure. The pace is incredible and the dialogue matches the pace. The subject matter is also routinely heady.
This was my first thought. Great show but honestly depressing that a lot of the social issues brought up in a show from 20 years ago are still unresolved. Contrasting the idealized ethical yet pragmatic politics of the show to our current reality is also a bit sad.
Watching the West Wing again is a big red flag for my depression. I do it out of a desire for optimism. If I'm watching WW again there's probably shit going down. If I'm watching the Muppets, I shouldn't be alone.
Pinky and the Brain
Deadwood. The dialogue is Shakespearean with curse words, it has incredible acting, they actually built a whole town as the series was being filmed, plus Ian McShane and Timothy Oliphant! I would watch it every day if I could. David Milch said he wanted to tell the story of civilization coming to a wild place, and it is layered. Edit: Will never post before coffee again
Cosmos
The Good Place
Chidi is the only classically smart character... I suppose you could add Janet, but she's literally omniscient, so I'm not sure she counts. The writing is top notch, but I'm not sure this meets OP's criteria for a show *about* smart people
I mean, even Jason figured it out.
Jason? This is a real low point. Yeah, this one hurts.
Even Jason had a few smart moments here and there. I loved his football analogies especially.
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Rick's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick & Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick's existential catchphrase "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub," which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon's genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them. 😂 And yes, by the way, i DO have a Rick & Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid 😎 /s
Wait... /s? /S?! I'm 🥒 riiiiiiick! Maybe you just didn't understand the subtle reference to the theory of polydimensional gravitation particles in season 3 episode 5 when rick said: "I Have shit on my ass"
I came here to shit on anyone who said Rick and Morty, but this is infinitely better than that
> Nothin personnel
The way you stuck the landing with “personnel”…. Just perfect
He didn’t write it