For starters, let’s address the interactions of these two characters with their friends. On the one hand, we have Ted, a self-proclaimed nice-guy and romantic who is loyal to his friends. When you really look at it, though, he’s pretty much only friends with Marshall (despite Barney proving himself multiple times). Many times we’ve see Barney get excited about something and Ted, being the “voice of reason”, comes in and craps all over him. While I will allow that Barney is an exaggeration of a real person in that his schemes are often over the top, a friend doesn’t generally sit there on his high horse and judge his other friends like this. For example, there’s an episode where Barney breaks the Bro Code by sleeping with Ted’s ex, Robin. Ted gets so angry at Barney that he “breaks up” with him. So Ted is taking the high-road when he usually does nothing but crap all over Barney anyway. Ted, don’t pretend like you’re some great guy and that Barney is the bad person when you do nothing but treat him like a child and try to destroy Barney’s fun and games, screw you.
When it comes to Ted’s other friends, the episode usually
ends with Ted being the one to explain what the others are doing wrong and how
they should fix it. He usually does it in a condescending manner. In
particular, there’s an episode where Ted begins to date an ex-girlfriend named
Karen (played by Laura Prepon). While dating her, Ted becomes an insufferable
douche. During this time, he plays the same character as Sheldon (from BBT).
The difference here is that Sheldon is a genius and has actual knowledge to
back up what he says (thus being partially justified). Ted is just being a jerk
and nitpicking. Seriously, screw Ted.
Now let’s take a look at Leonard and his friends.
It’s true that the character of Leonard fulfills nearly the same role as Ted.
He often times comes down on the group as the “voice of reason”, and he routinely
gets condescending while he speaks to Sheldon. However, the parallel stops
there because Sheldon needs it. My
friend and comicologist Larry swears that he’s just as much at fault, but I
disagree. Sheldon is an over-the-top alpha nerd. The arrogance and know-it-all
attitude displayed by Sheldon leaves plenty of justification for putting him in
place. In just about every episode, Sheldon will have knowledge and science to
back up why he’s better than his friends at something, why they’re doing
something wrong, and what they need to do to in order to be correct. This kind
of behavior should be taken down a peg, and it’s good that there is someone
there to do it. Contrast this with Barney and it holds up much better. Barney
often times tell the others what they’re doing wrong, but most of the time he’s
totally making stuff up and the other characters know it. I would hazard to say
that most of the time, Barney is just trying to have fun and enjoy something that
Ted immediately craps on.
Leonard will occasionally come down on his other
friends in a manner similar to Ted. However, I believe that when Leonard plays
the “voice of reason” he’s legitimately trying to help these people. He can be
fairly negative to them, it’s true, but that doesn’t stop him from having fun
with his friends (or his friends having their own fun). With Ted, it seems like
he’ll only have fun with them on his terms. Friendship with Ted is about what
value you add to Ted’s life, while friendship with Leonard means he wants you
to try and act in a more socially acceptable way. Leonard is needy, and wants
to be loved by everyone (an explainable flaw after you meet his mother), which
is a trait that makes him more human. What’s Ted’s excuse for being an
insufferable douche?
Next, I would like to address the portrayals of the
characters as professionals. Ted Mosby is a questionably successful
architect-turned-professor. Leonard Hofstadter is a very successful
experimental physicist. With BBT, they have a fairly accurate depiction of what
being a doctor in physics means. It’s not something glamorous. In Leonard’s case,
he spends a lot of time setting up experiments using lasers and poring over
data. Sometimes it’s really not fun. Most of the time, no one has any idea what
you’re talking about. In one episode, they comment that Leonard has done tens
of thousands of trials with no statistically significant results… this happens.
Combine this with the portrayals of his colleagues, and you’ve gotten a pretty
accurate picture (maybe somewhat exaggerated) of what being a high-level
scientist is actually like.
Contrast this with the depiction of Ted’s job, which
they never seem to show in detail. Ted talks about being an architect, but it
doesn’t seem to be as much a part of his life as science is with Leonard; he
doesn’t seem to define himself by it. Sure, Ted busts out some random facts,
but those kinds of interactions rarely occur. Which begs the question: if they
can make Ted anything, why make him an architect? Well, there’s a very
interesting article here that explains a lot about Hollywood and architects. Let me give you the
highlights: people don’t really know what an architect does and Hollywood likes
the idea of an artist without the stigma of being an artist. The general belief
about architects is that they have a consistent, reliable job, and that they
spend most of their time doing creative work… it’s romantic. Think about it,
though… how often are new sky scrapers built? In reality, architecture is
filled with a lot of long hours of people going over schematics in extremely
fine detail. My point being, Ted’s job is not accurately depicted, and he isn’t
nearly as cool as he’s portrayed to be.
For the coup de grace, let’s talk about what are
these characters are like as people. Anyone who has watched these two shows
will tell you right away that Leonard is a huge nerd, and Ted is a hopeless
romantic. This is really the point that I want to make: for as awkward and
unapproachable as Leonard can be, he’s still a super nerd at heart. This is a
guy who made his profession looking at numbers. Contrast this with Ted, who
disliked his job so much (being an architect for a large firm) that he moved
into a position where he can, essentially, tell people the right way to think. Leonard
spends a great deal of time trying to be accepted by groups of people other than
the uber nerds because he genuinely wants to be liked. His difficulty in
expanding these horizons comes from the awkwardness of being an enormous nerd,
but he is always willing to accept new people into the group… even while the
others in his group may not be (check out the Halloween episode from Season 4).
With Ted, we see a similar insecurity… but why? The writers have tried to
portray Ted as some kind of nerd. After all, they’ve shown him loving Star Wars
and playing video games (a total of maybe 5 times). In reality, the guy is just
a regular dude who happens to like these things. He’s not an uber nerd who goes
to the comic book store at least once a week… he doesn’t even watch Star Wars
once a week (his admitted favorite movie). This is a guy who goes to the bar all the time, has NO problem talking to
random people or in front of groups of strangers (see the episode involving
Marshall’s wedding), and has NO problem talking to women. Is he really a nerd? Why
are we supposed to be sympathetic to a guy who is as successful as he is and has
had almost as many sexual partners as Barney? Remember the episode where Ted
dates a woman who wants to open a purse line? They literally referred to her as
“Blah Blah” for the show. In addition, there’s an episode where they go through
all these pictures of Ted with random girlfriends. It takes Lilly and her memory to remember most of their
names… Yeah, Ted seems like a real catch. For a guy with whom we’re supposed to
be sympathetic, he sure has an easy time treating women like garbage. While Leonard
puts genuine effort into being a better person, Ted is a giant douche.
Hopefully I’ve made my point: Ted is an a-hole and
Leonard can be an a-hole… but isn’t one. Of these two guys, it’s easy for me to
decide with whom I would want to spend time (yes, I know I’m a huge nerd… I
have a blog about it). It took me about 4 seasons to really see how obnoxious
Ted was, and I apologize to anyone for whom the show may now be ruined.
However, there’s still hope! You can watch a better show called “The Big Bang
Theory” in which the characters are more accurately portrayed as people, and
the show’s format is almost the same. What’s more, the show is actually about
the main character. Think about it, in the case of “How I Met Your Mother” all
they ever talk about is Barney and his adventures. It’s almost literally a show
about Future Ted narrating the crazy stuff Barney is doing and how Ted got
involved. From that perspective, isn’t the show more about Barney? I guess if
you’re in Hollywood you find a formula that works and beat a dead horse with
it.
If you disagree with me, please let me know… there’s
a handy comments box at the bottom. Tell me what you think… is Ted really a
douche? Is Leonard the douche? Where am I wrong in my assessment? What do you
agree with? Is there something you’d like me to address here that I didn’t?
Bring it up!
-Jack
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