The existence of Young Sheldon may be a pretty good punchline all on its own (it’s about Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, except now he’s YOUNG and has a BOW TIE), but in the midst of all the jokes about watching Young Sheldon, it’s easy to forget that… people do actually watch Young Sheldon. A lot of people. Like, it’s apparently the “most-watched comedy on television,” according to Deadline.
Also according to Deadline: CBS has ordered three additional seasons of the Big Bang Theory spin-off, meaning it will be on the air until at least 2024, at which point Young Sheldon (played by Iain Armitage, who is probably doing a good job and is not intended to be the target of any of our sarcastic jokes) will be a teenager—assuming the series follows the natural progression of time. You thought Sheldon was lovably precocious as an 11-year-old, getting ready to go to college, interning at a train museum, and learning how to ride a bike without training wheels (these are all apparently real plot points)? Well, wait until he’s a moody teenager, wearing black t-shirts, listening to heavy metal, and yelling at his mom about how she’s not bazinga and she will never be bazinga. Actually, that sounds pretty good. Maybe they could rebrand the show as Bad Sheldon and finally address his never-mentioned rebellious phase?