The Big Bang Theory/Headscratchers

• A couple plot points centre on money issues for the guys (the time machine episode, for example). The thing is, they live in a very small apartment in a very crappy apartment building (or with their mother), yet are science professors at a university whose income should exceed $100,000 a year. That they are having financial troubles is rather hard to believe, especially considering Penny can somehow afford to stay in the same building.
  • They're researchers, not professors. And researchers make crap money (unless you're Brian Greene or Stephen Hawking). The money that research gets in most universities goes into their projects, not their pockets. From my post-collegiate years (admittedly as a mathematician, not a physicist, but they're pretty much the same thing when it comes to product) I lived like a pauper. I'm shocked that they have as much disposable income as they do. The episodes where Raj gets mentioned in People, and the Korean kid pretty much epitomises how the academic research world works. It's bragging rights for the institute and they'll pay you to keep you around.
  • Penny is abusing some rent thing or other, mooches a number of things off the guys (like their internet connection), and still can't make rent on a lot of months (with low tipping at the Cheesecake Factory, no acting jobs, or both). At least Leonard, Sheldon, and Raj are researchers that just work for the university (Raj's research being on a shoestring budget even before it was cancelled and he had to be hired on as an assistant for Sheldon), not actually professors, and all of them spend quite a bit of money on games, consoles, PC upgrades, comics, and collectibles. I don't know what Howard's excuse is, but does it ever mention whether or not his mom is employed? He might be paying for the mortgage, food, and utilities himself. And even though Sheldon is on a pretty high-ranking assignment, and probably gets one of the comparatively highest researcher salaries in the university, he has been known to say You Never Asked a time or two hundred. And since the guys order Chinese or Thai food four to six nights a week (and that's usually one of the things Penny just joins in on since it's been shown that she at least sometimes doesn't chip in for the cost of the order), that really adds up.
  • Sheldon has been shown a few times to have more money than he needs. He simply doesn't care about money.
    • In one episode it was shown that Sheldon doesn't cash all of his paychecks. He keeps them in a desk drawer.
    • In another, he loans Penny a wad of cash that he keeps in a novelty can of snakes. He explains that he makes more money than he spends and just has extra thousands lying around that she's welcome to. That brought the question to mind of why he would want a roommate, since he seems to be so annoyed by people and doesn't need any help paying the rent, which seems more glaring than why there are occasionally money worries in the cast.
      • Sheldon needs a roommate to deal with certain things he refuses to do, most prominently, driving.
        • Lets face it, Sheldon needs a room-mate in the same way a blind person needs a seeing-eye dog. He would be completely lost without him.
  • In the time machine episode, Leonard says that he doesn't have that kind of money to spend on a time machine; maybe he just sets a certain amount of disposable income per month and is hesitant to exceed that. As for Howard, it's never said that he lives with his mother for financial reasons; Howard is occasionally frustrated with his mother, but as a whole he enjoys being taken care of. As stated above, he may indeed be paying the bills, but either way it fits his "30-year-old teenager" persona. Raj has his own reasonably-well-furnished apartment, despite he and Howard taking turns as the workplace Butt Monkey.
  • Actually did some research on the whole topic when discussing this topic on another forum. Sheldon and Leonard have likely already finished their post-doc work and are on their Tenure Track. Sheldon, being older and acquired his doctorate earlier, may already be an Assistant Professor. According to this bell curve the average income for a Assistant Professor is $56,000, with anything above $80,000 being rare. Even Associate Professors only average $67,000. While certainly a very stable job it wouldn't make them extremely wealthy but would still leave a lot of disposable income for two single guys living in an apartment.
  • They also have a ****load of expensive modern electronics and technical equipment lying around, which is, all things considered, probably their first financial priority.
  • It is true that they are researchers, not professors (except for Wolowitz, who is an engineer). That said, they work at Caltech, one of the premier universities for physics research and appear to be highly accomplished (although not enough to get a Nobel Prize as of yet). They should be comfortable, but not rich. Given their lifestyle (eating out every day, tons of collectibles such as trading card games, video games and systems, comic books, DVDs, memorabilia, and their tendency to build crazy electronic devices in their spare time) it is not surprising they don't have a lot of extra income, even given that their monthly bills shouldn't be that high given that Sheldon and Leonard share the apartment, Wolowitz lives with his mother, and Raj has rich parents. As a side note on Wolowitz, it is a bit confusing when Bernadette gets her new microbiology research position (in industry, so she should make more than Sheldon/Leonard/Raj) and everyone acts like she will now be the breadwinner for Wolowitz. Except Wolowitz is an Aerospace Engineer who has worked on several distinguished projects including the international space station and has even been offered a chance to go into space. He should easily be the most well off among them (besides Raj obviously).
    • It's never been suggested that Howard is wanting for money, just that Bernadette will be making more than he will. This on its own could just come down to variance between the application of their fields or the money available from their specific employers. Maybe it would not be such in the real world, but it's not shown that Howard is poor or even that the difference between their salaries is very significant. It's also very likely that a large reason Bernadette's parents push her to get a prenup is because they don't like Howard very much. From Howard and Bernadette's conversation about potentially having children in the future, it appears that either of them could support the family financially if the other chose to stay home with the children.
    • Howard does have at least one expense the others don't, too. Unlike Leonard and Sheldon, Howard obviously has a massive wardrobe and both he and Raj are interested in (though not adept at) fashion. One of the bonus features included in the dvd sets shows that while there is one wardrobe room for the characters of Raj, Sheldon and Leonard, there is a completely separate room for Howard's wardrobe. On top of his many pants, shirts, jackets, shoes, etc, he also has hundreds of belt buckles and a fairly large collection of miscellaneous pins and accessories (which tend to be pretty expensive to collect). It's reasonable to assume that a significant portion of his salary is going toward these things, whereas Leonard and Sheldon seem to have a much more reasonable rotation of t-shirts, pants and jackets.
• That isn't the point, though. How is Penny affording this apartment with a job at the CHEESECAKE FACTORY?
  • Probably the same way other people afford apartments, with her PAYCHECK.
  • She may also be getting financial help from her parents. She's only 22 years old when the first season starts. Even though she is trying to be completely self-sufficient, it's not unreasonable to think that when she mismanages her money or gets in a serious bind, her parents loan her a little bit of money to get by until her next paycheck. Obviously they aren't giving her enough to completely live off of (or she wouldn't have had a few instances of thinking she would have to move), but that doesn't mean she's not getting any help at all from them.

• I saw the episode recently where Leonard finds out Penny believes in things like psychics, and other such mysticism. There is of course drama about this. At the end of the episode, he agrees try to remain open minded about all the things she believes in, which is fine. She, however, refuses to even consider the things he believes in as an alternative, like she won't even read a book about what may be wrong with her beliefs even though she expects him to listen to all her mystic crap. How is that in ANY way a balanced relationship?
  • This was acknowledged in the episode ("One of us has to keep an open mind"), Leonard just wasn't willing to push the issue.
  • Leonard has always been something of a pushover, he certainly tends to let Sheldon get his way with most things.
  • Yeah, and of course, if you're a scientifically literate, skeptical person who wishes to embrace the world as it is with as much knowledge as possible, lords knows it's definitely a rich font of comedy to put that principle aside in the name of sex. Oh, that wacky Leonard.
    • Leonard will do anything to "maintain his mating privileges", because he is just that much of a douche.
      • Right, the pretty girl is actually dating him and wants him...he should do everything to piss her off instead of keeping this good fortune going. (rolls eyes) I love how "wanting to please Penny" automatically = being a douche instead just A) A very insecure person.
    • He's a fairly socially inept physicist. In his shoes I'd come up with a reasonable theory of quantum entanglement to explain the ability of crystal balls to keep sleeping with the hot, blond waitress/actress-wannabe across the hall.
  • Besides, if she did agree to keep an open mind, that wouldn't necessitate reading up on "why she might be wrong". Just because Leonard agreed to keep an open mind doesn't mean that he will start following his horoscope's advice so her keeping an open mind doesn't mean researching why psychics might be lying.
  • The issue was less about, well, the psychic issues but more about how Leonard behaved, he was very disrespectful of Penny's beliefs. "The most annoying person last night was you, and that was in a group including Howard!" In fact, Howard's Venn Diagram demonstration to Leonard explained exactly what the "theory" of the episode was about, despite him making it simply about sex. The idea of someone who thinks exactly the same way you do, you're romantically attracted to and they're romantically attracted to you is going to produce a very small relationship pool. Penny doesn't really understand much about his job or hobbies but she accepts and/or likes that as part of the Leonard package (said as much in the Time Machine episode). Leonard suddenly hit a wall with accepting Penny's hobbies and he's left with a choice: accept that as part of the Penny package or probably lose her altogether. If he can grow to accept that about her, he might even grow to like that about her.
  • It's a Continuity issue. Sheldon planned to tone down Penny's irritatingly high-pitched laugh with chocolate and mild electric shocks. Leonard refused because he wanted the whole Penny package. But that Continuity was forgotten.
    • That's not what continuity means, it's about irreconcilable facts (ie saying Sheldon graduated from Harvard and later changing it to West Texas). Regardless, even in that scene where Leonard talked about wanting the whole Penny package he still hesitated when Sheldon brought up some of her annoying quirks.

• In the second episode, how did Leslie heat up the cup of noodles from the side with a laser without melting or burning a hole in the Styrofoam cup? I thought that the cup had simply been set aside, and I simply was not noticing the container in which she was heating it (particularly since Leonard mentioned that he had also used the same type of laser to heat minestrone, which usually comes in a can), but then the end of the scene shows her with the cup of noodles, and that... makes no sense.
  • Well, there are surgical lasers which can be calibrated to only burn at a certain point. They are typically used for tumor removal in hard-to-reach/dangerous-to-operate-on areas, like the brain. If the laser was calibrated to heat the direct center of the cup, you wouldn't have to worry about melting the container.
    • Am I the only one who noticed the mirrors/prisms that redirected the laser into the top of the cup?
      • Apparently. Thank you!
        • Umm,since lasers don't really stop, wouldn't that just punch a hole through the bottom of the cup?
          • It's a liquid. Reflection, refraction, diffusion and a bunch of other things happen when you run light through a liquid medium, particularly one that has stuff in it and that you happen to be heating.

• In "The Lizard-Spock Expansion" (also Season Two), the guys are shown to draw repeatedly playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock by all choosing Spock, when any of them is smart enough to know to immediately switch to Lizard or Paper and thus win against the remaining Spocks. Are they all such psychotic Star Trek fans that none of them can do this?
  • Yes. Sheldon always chooses Spock in Twenty Questions as well.
  • The most common opener in traditional Rock-Paper-Scissors is Rock. People know that, so they play paper to cover rock. Other people also know that so they throw scissors first. Which causes people to throw rock, etc etc. The entire game (even with the extra options) is one vicious, um, triangle.
  • Poor Predictable Rock

• In the first episode of Season Three, it is revealed that the data Sheldon gathered about magnetic monopoles (the entire reason they went to Antarctica) was falsified (if that's the proper term) by Leonard, Howard and Raj. Why is it Sheldon is the one who gets his career ruined, when it isn't his fault in the first place?
  • The most pertinent details are that first, it wasn't ruined. Sheldon was just wrong, and has a reputation for being an insufferable superior ass, and overreacted like a tool. This was exacerbated by the fact that he found time once they were in contact with society again to brag to everyone that he'd proven string theory, and was due a Nobel prize, etc etc. Basically, it wasn't as bad as Sheldon made it out to be (scientists get negative results all the time, that's part of the point), and it was only really bad at all because it was his fault.
    • This was the Base Breaker on the show for me - nobody deserves to have their life crapped on like that - nobody forced the other three to go with Sheldon, and nobody forced them to play that trick on him, either. We never saw what he did to annoy them, and they have all known him for six years anyway, it wasn't like he came as a horrible surprise. And I really couldn't deal with the fact that it was reset quite as easily - I'm fairly sure both Caltech and the NSF would have wanted to know the truth of events. You do not have two contradictory sets of results in quick succession, and then quit abruptly. I went from mild dislike of Leonard to utter hatred in the space of an episode here - he destroys his best friend's life (because how many friends does Sheldon have?) and then brushes it off because he's trying to get laid.
    • It's a miracle Sheldon isn't the target of this kind of retaliation...well constantly. Sheldon doesn't lack friends because "other people are just mean". He lacks friends because he's insufferably pompous, insulting, pedantic, holier than thou and has spectacularly poor social skills. We absolutely see what he did to annoy them - right from the first episode of the series and constantly throughout. Any annoyance I have with Leonard's actions usually stem from the fact that he doesn't just slap the shit out of Sheldon each time he slings a veiled insult or otherwise meddles self-righteously (with usually detrimental results)in his life.
      • He's all but explicitly stated to not even realize how much of an ass he is. He doesn't try to, he just practically doesn't have a choice. Also, is that how Leonard should treat the man who saved his life, and prevented him from selling off nuclear secrets, as well as declined to turn him in on charges of treason?
      • Firstly, despite what a good many people on this page say, Sheldon isn't unilaterally an ass because he doesn't get people. Sometimes that's true, but sometimes he just thinks he knows better than everyone else and sometimes he's being deliberately insulting. Those are the traits of a regular run of the mill jackass and they feature at least as often as the clueless reason. Secondly, saving Leonard's life etc doesn't give him carte blanche to make every waking moment of it a living nightmare. If we're sitting here talking about how all the other characters should be more mature, then Sheldon with no documented medical reason for his behavior and the biggest brain in the group, should damned well figure out how to be less of a jerk as well.
      • On the other hand they have spent 3 months in closed environment in limited group. The tensions do get up and there are similar problems (it is considered one of the problems with space travel - the people travelling on Mars in a closed environment could just start fighting).
  • On that note, in that same episode, Sheldon holds up the fact that Einstein got something wrong as proof that even the greatest minds make mistakes - and Kripke rejoinders that Einstein wasn't, in fact, wrong. It bugs the hell out of me that Sheldon didn't either point out that Einstein also thought that quantum physics were nonsense.
  • How is it not his fault? He was the one who was being an (more than usual) insufferable ass because the data he was getting wasn't the data he wanted (as pointed out above, proves he's not cut out for science). But most of all he was the boss in that situation, and he was dealing with his employees in an unacceptable manner. If you're working in a field where you are in charge of other people, then your skills as a boss are related to your job performance, and there is absolutely every reason that this should hurt Sheldon's career. Especially because it wouldn't have blown up in his face had he not been in such a hurry to get known. Sheldon was bad at his job and that is really something that SHOULD hurt his career.
    • So, this justifies a bunch of other scientists acting like immature a-holes? Instead of manning up and telling the guy to calm down, they conspire long term to scramble data? The issue isn't Sheldon being a loon, which everybody is aware of, it's THE OTHER PEOPLE REACTING TO HIM that is the problem. I sure as hell would not want to work with a scientist who messed with an experiment's results because he was feeling narked. I think the plot-line was poorly handled - If Sheldon had just had a tantrum because things went wrong naturally, I don't think there would be an issue, and Leonard would have some sympathy if he had to put his life on hold to talk Sheldon down. But because he caused the damage in the first place by being a whiny underhanded little creep, I just wanted to squash him, and all my sympathy swung firmly behind Sheldon. (I don't think I'm alone in that view, either.)
      • The fact is that Sheldon got a job dealing with two things: subordinates and data, and proved himself incompetent at both of them. As for telling Sheldon to calm down, what about Sheldon and the show for the first two seasons makes you think that would be possible or even slightly productive? Sheldon is responsible for how people react to him, just like everyone else in the world, and he has dictated that people need to handle him with kid gloves and underhandedness.
        • But we never saw this being played out. I am talking about a Bad Writing Decision that harmed perception of certain characters long-term for a proportion of the audience. Either you perceive Leonard as a put-upon Nice Guy with a weird room-mate, or you see him as a manipulative little jerk who never confronts the issue and adopts the coward's way out. Add to that, the fact that his criteria for a woman seems to be 'she let me' , and he'll jump through any hoop for that end... I'm not seeing a sympathetic protagonist here. That nasty little smirk on his face when he manipulates Sheldon over Missy sums him up.
          • In my opinion, the scene where 'she let him' does seem to be pointing out that Leonard isn't perfect and that he isn't always a sympathetic protagonist.
          • The 'she let me' scene says nothing about Leonard beyond the fact that he's willing to sleep with a consenting woman (who he's been crushing on and whose work he's admired for some time). In fact, that scene says more about Penny than it does Leonard. You don't get to break up with a guy because he says "I love you" and because Will Wheaton spins you a flimsy story to win a bowling tournament - then QQ because he isn't spending all his time heartbroken.
          • We never saw that small portion that takes place in the north pole, but we saw over and over and over again on the show how Sheldon deals with people, to where it really comes as no surprise that people don't confront the issue with him. Every time Penny does, it results in nothing but a huge fight and a temper tantrum from Sheldon. And it doesn't matter what you think of Leonard's taste in women where the issue is Sheldon and how he dictates people deal with him. If Leonard were to, as you suggest, confront the issue instead of adopting "the coward's way out" with Sheldon, what makes you think it would go any better than it does when Penny does it? Sheldon wouldn't change, he'd keep on throwing tantrums until Leonard stops or moves out. We've seen this, multiple times, with Penny. And in the real world, they always have the chance to just walk away. Not so at the North Pole.
            • Sheldon backs down when his mother tells him to, and Leonard manipulates him quite clearly over Missy. He does try to modify his behaviour when Penny tells him he's doing something wrong - and she was just as much into the vengeance in The Panty Pinata. My point is that people shouldn't back down from Sheldon, they should set him straight, but they don't, they whine and go behind his back. If you want me to believe in Leonard as a decent protagonist and a decent human being, he'd have to act like one. And not like the kind of scumbag that would repeatedly humiliate a friend, and then laugh at him about it.
              • You don't have to believe that Leonard is a decent human being to recognize that Sheldon is a jackass that wants people to treat him with kid gloves. They can both be scumbags who treat their friends like crap. Quite frankly, I totally fail to see how you can believe that Sheldon has any chance of being "set straight" when you saw his reaction to finding out that a store he liked to eat at went out of business. Or the Physics Bowl episode in the first season, where he refused to compromise on a team name and decided he's rather lose than let someone else give the right answer to a question.
          • To be perfect honest none of you live with Sheldon. You only get to see him for a half hour every week where his antics seem funny and charming due to the strengths and skills of the actor playing him. If you had to live with the guy 24/7 you'd eventually get sick of it and probably start acting a bit like Leonard and the other guys too.
            • Right. It Just Bugs ME that so many people forgive Sheldon anything because the character is so popular, but any questionable thing Leonard does is because he is a Terrible Person. The fact is this is a sitcom, and everything on it is played for laughs. It's a mistake to judge it by real-word standards. No one bats an eye at the sarcastic snark that flies back and forth with every line, but when you talk that way in real life you get your face smashed in, or at least really hurt your friends' feelings. It's one thing to expect the writing to be reasonably realistic, but it's unfair to apply a microscope to Leonard's character for the purpose of discrediting him while ignoring the traces of Comedic Sociopathy that are inherent in the form.
    • Sheldon legitimately doesn't understand proper human behavior and despite the fact that he thinks he's superior, he seems to legitimately TRY to be a decent person. I mean, I've only seen season 1 so far, so maybe his characterization's been derailed since then, but when he saw that Penny's apartment was a mess, he legitimitely seemed to want to help her out, despite not understanding how creepy that behavior was. Likewise, when he thought Daniel Kim was going to replace him, despite his lack of understanding of normal human behavior, he honestly seemed like he wanted to help his friends. Perhaps the best example is that when Penny told him that it buying a present for Leonard's birthday was a "non-optional social convention", he seemed more than happy with doing so, and then was glad to help fellow customers with their electronics. Does that sound like a bad person to you in the slightest? Me neither. I can think of numerous other examples, but the basic point is: Sheldon may be a bit of a dick a lot of the time, but he legitimately DOESN'T KNOW BETTER, meanwhile, Leonard, Raj, Howard, and Penny all know that Sheldon's a genuinely decent if heavily flawed person and should be more conscientious of his lack of understanding. It doesn't matter that Comedic Sociopathy is common in sitcoms or not, despite the fact that it's never been specifically stated onscreen, Sheldon has all the textbook symptoms of Aspergers Syndrome, or some similar disorder and it's like picking on a mentally challenged person when they act shitty towards him. Or, to put it in simpler terms: it's not cool in the slightest.
      • He legitimatelylegitimatelylegitimately does know that some of the things he does are offensive. The most recent episode revealed that he was grinding up insects into Leonard's food for an 'experiment'. There's no way to argue he didn't know that was an inappropriate thing to do, because he DID keep Leonard from knowing about it. There's also no way to argue that knowing when food begins to taste 'mothy' would have any real-life applications or be something Sheldon would consider an important contribution to science.
      • There is a very good reason to keep Leonard from knowing about the experiment - giving a blind taste trial. The whole point was to see when Leonard would notice, which is kind of undermined if you tell him right from the start.
        • And how would Sheldon react to being on the receiving end of that experiment? Sheldon freaks out when other people touch his food, let alone crushing up bugs in it.
          • Ah, but Sheldon would be absolutely clear on what he was drinking first. He'd probably ask if there were any ground-up bugs in it, even if it were just Mountain Dew.
      • Not only would Sheldon react in the extreme (to put it mildly) if the situation were reversed (and if the situation were reversed we would be instead talking about what a horrifically terrible person Leonard is for doing something so horrible to poor innocent baby Sheldon), but the implication is that this experiment took place some time ago. Regardless of doing a 'blind taste test' (again, for no scientific gain at all but perhaps personal amusement), once he finished the experiment he STILL didn't tell Leonard what he'd been doing. Considering how rarely Sheldon withholds anything that might suggest he's outsmarted one of the others, the only reason he would have not told Leonard about it afterward is because he knew it was a wrong, underhanded thing to do.
        • This revelation was actually a little bit of a wall banger to me due to the inconsistency. There is really no way Sheldon would have been able to conceal such an experiment for so long to Leonard without going insane in attempts to hide the secret. Leonard is supposed to be smart and would have seen Sheldon's puny attempts at hiding something miles away...
        • I agree with that. I also find it shockingly unlikely that Sheldon would have been able to do this without Leonard catching on. However, there are rare moments before this where his inability to deceive has been given a temporary break, like when Sheldon tries to get Penny off of Age of Conan by setting up an online dating profile for her AND actually arranged at least one date without her realizing what he was doing.
    • On that topic, how about The hot troll deviation. Sheldon finally gives up and lets Raj get a desktop, what does Raj do? He buys a giant desktop! Why make Raj such a douche in this episode, really why? I mean, Sheldon is crazy, unsympathetic and just plain infuriating sometimes, but he is Raj's boss, and he gave him the job at a time in which Raj was just about to be deported. So, Raj could just have been happy he got Sheldon to make some sense and allow him to get a desk...
    • I'm guessing that's easier to do in theory than in practice... having Sheldon as a boss would be stressful at the best of times. We've also seen how much he disrespects Raj and immediately dismisses Raj's contributions (which he was hired to do) when they don't align with what Sheldon has already figured out. Plus, Sheldon isn't just his boss -- he's also his friend -- which means they'll take liberties there that most people probably wouldn't with their employers. And Sheldon is so anxiety-ridden at the idea of even interviewing more qualified people to take to the north pole with him -- something that may have actually risked his life -- that it's likely he wouldn't fire Raj no matter what he did, because he'd rather keep the 'safe' choice he already knows than hire someone else to help him. And while Sheldon is certainly unsympathetic and a huge douche most of the time, I think he does still consider Raj a friend and probably has a few criteria for how to treat 'friends' that don't include having him be deported. Gratitude is something Raj would have felt to start with, but that quickly fades when faced with the day-to-day struggle of working with Sheldon that would have followed for the next several months.
  • The big thing is that faking his results was a prank they pulled long after the data they had been gathering proved to be inconclusive, Sheldon was the only one who was ignorant of the fact. They didn't ruin the whole damn experiment based on spite, even though the prank itself was (Experience has told me to never underestimate people. Such things, including ruining the actual experiment, have likely happened in the actual field). They meant to let him in on the joke before he reported his findings, but they underestimated how fast Sheldon likes to move.
    • Pretty much, this entire conversation just applied a special kind of Fridge Horror to The Big Bang Theory for me that I'm unlikely to get rid of for a while. Hooray.

• In "The Pants Alternative", does anyone other than me (Archduke Cthulhu) think that Leonard and the gang performed a damn big Moral Dissonance? They saw how alcohol made Sheldon and made no action whatsoever to stop him from humiliating himself. They could have stopped him before he took off his own goddamn pants! and in the morning Leonard and Penny were laughing about it being on youtube! Yes he's annoying, but there are lines that shouldn't be crossed, especially if he really can't handle alcohol well. Also back in season 1 Penny gave him liqour and saw what it did to him, she really had no clue of it?
  • Yeah, it's another case of the others being much worse to Sheldon than he is to them. Sheldon may be annoying and insensitive at times, but he generally doesn't mean much harm by it. Leonard, Raj, Howard and Penny, on the other hand, are just outright callous towards Sheldon for no reason, all the time. Frankly, I'm astounded that Sheldon continues to be friends with them.
    • Sheldon is 'annoying and insensitive' all the time and as often as not it's not because he means no harm but because he often thinks the emotional responses of others are beneath consideration. I'm astounded anyone is friends with Sheldon. Being socially inept is one thing, but also being pompous, holier than thou, controlling and constantly condescending does not a sympathetic character make.
  • Shutting Sheldon up when sober is a long and difficult process to begin with, and can you honestly say that you've never been in a situation where you've been so flabbergasted by the events occurring that you're not quite sure what to do? Sometimes, there's just nothing you can do; it seems like more of a case of bad writing than anything else.
  • I think some of us need to take off the Sheldon Fanboy glasses for a moment. It's ridiculous to complain about the isolated slights he may have to endure in any given episode as Sheldon wears insufferable jerkass as his hat and most of the humor in the show stems from the fact that all the other characters are forced to endure his poor behaviour in silence (because he doesn't know any better - even though he often does). It's played for laughs and the Sheldon character arguably keeps the show running, but lets be honest here, if this wasn't a sitcom he'd have long since alienated everyone else in the cast.

• In one episode, I believe it was The Love Car Displacement, Howard meets one of Bernadette's ex boyfriends and is intimidated because he is tall and handsome and presumably has a large penis. He has a fight with Bernadette later because he says that he didn't think "someone like her" would have dated a guy like that. What I don't understand is why he felt that way -- Bernadette is a beautiful woman, it stands to reason that she would have dated handsome men. What did he mean by "a girl like her"? Because she's short, or something? Because he really doesn't have a leg to stand on there.
  • B/c he thought she's a standard nerd girl, and nerd girl should go for nerd boy and not sucks up to the jocks.
  • Yeah, never mind that he chased after every hot chick that came along before he met Bernadette - she's supposed to look past a guy's face and body simply because she's a chick. Way to go with the Double Standard.
  • Complaining that Howard is exercising gender based and chauvinistic double standards is Completely Missing the Point rather thoroughly since that's his character.

• Why didn't Raj dress up as Martian Manhunter instead of Aquaman in "The Justice League Recombination"? It just seems strange that he would be willing to dress up as Wonder Woman to avoid his Aquaman outfit, but not consider Martian Manhunter. Also, these are exactly the type of people that would know who Martian Manhunter is. And that is just the original seven. There are plenty of other heroes who joined the league later (Plastic Man, The Atom, Red Tornado, Steel, Green Arrow...). Raj had plenty of alternatives if he did not want to dress up as Aquaman.
  • To be fair, Raj seems to enjoy dressing up as female characters. In the episode where their bowling team lost the game (and therefore the bet) to Stuart and Wil Wheaton, the group had to dress up as female superheroes and go to the comic book store. Unlike the others, who were embarrassed, Raj was pleased as punch and said "I feel empowered!" He also once said "just asking, dude. it happens." in reference to trying to titillate a girl by putting on a pair of her panties and jumping around which "wound up just creeping her out". It seems he has some cross-dressing tendencies and in this episode it sure didn't seem like he felt he was being forced into being Wonder Woman, rather he smiled happily at the prospect while being miserable as Aquaman. It may not be a 'last option' for him to be Wonder Woman.
    • Good point, but that makes it worse. There are plenty of female JLA/JLI members he could have dressed as (Fire, Ice, Black Canary, Vixen, Zatanna, Hawkgirl...).
    • Well, now, if we're down to asking why somebody dressed as Wonder Woman instead of the many other female superheroes in the JLA... It's Wonder Woman! Asking why he didn't dress as any other female superhero instead of Wonder Woman is like asking "Why would Raj (or any of the others) dress as Spock instead of any other character from The Original Series. The answer is: Because it's Spock! (Or in this case:) Because it's Wonder Woman!
    • Sure, Raj's first or second choices may not have been available, but isn't your fourth or fifth choice better than your last choice?
  • It could have been more the Aquaman costume he was forced to wear, which was purposefully as stupid as anything could be. And while Aquaman is of course quite badass in his own comics, among the Justice League he is hopelessly specialized. It's the Superfriends meme they were working with and Martian Manhunter wasn't ever a part of that.
  • Rule of Funny Goddamit! Rule of Funny!

• In "the Justice League Recombination", Stuart says he works 70 hours per week and earns $1.65 per hour. How does he live on $6000 per year?
  • He owns the store, so he might be oversimplifying something.
    • In a more recent episode, he mentions that he's currenly living in the comic book store for 'financial reasons'.

• In last night's (2/3/2011, "The Thespian Catalyst) Raj was talking to Bernadette. Did I miss an episode? Because he still has trouble talking to Penny, but he's talking normally to her.
  • He was drinking a beer at the time. Raj is only able to speak to women when he has consumed alcohol.
    • No, he was imagining the whole scene in his head.
  • Ah, that makes sense. I guess I didn't expect the Cheesecake Factory to serve alcohol.
    • It probably depends on the location. The one near me has suggested alcohol accompaniments next to menu items.
  • In one scene where he speaks to her, he's drinking a beer. Since he's shown several times that the placebo effect is enough to get rid of his shyness (non-alcoholic beer and rumcake will do the trick), it doesn't really matter how much he's had. In another scene, which is the first in the series of his fantasies, it's his imagination and as such he's not limited by his usual pathology (I remember because I had the same thought as soon as the scene started, then it was revealed to be fantasy and it made sense).

• Considering the layout of the apartment building Leonard, Penny and Sheldon live in, isn't Penny's apartment at least partly suspended over the road?
  • We never spend any time in the outside entrance of the building, usually just in the foyer. Penny's apartment also appears to be parallel to the stairway, as well as on the third floor. They don't really show much in the way of the actual floorplan of the building or the other tenants.
    • While trying to replicate the apartment building in The Sims, I was unable to figure out how this building is set up. Looking online at fansites and the BBT wiki, I've discovered that no one seems able to figure out the layout of their apartment. It seems to defy real-world physics, especially with the way the stairwell is positioned in relation to the two apartments. Probably this is best written off as a complication of being filmed on sets rather than in a real apartment building.

• Why in the newest season is Sheldon using a Mac of all things. Considering that he has repeatedly bashed Apple geniuses, and considers Windows 7 "too user-friendly" for his taste. It just smacks of the writers/producers not being bothered to avoid Everyone Owns a Mac anymore.
  • OSX Macs are *nix based, this includes a good deal of support for mathematical expression making it a good platform to put together the sort of short scripts that would be advantageous to a physicist testing a new theory. Of course the same support would be available on a Linux system, but then he couldn't play world of warcraft.
    • WoW works fine using WINE last I checked. And really, a geek like Sheldon would most likely dual boot Windows and Linux, the former for application compatibility and the later for advanced functionality. Geeks aren't typically big Apple fans, although the world is wide enough that there are plenty of geeks who use Macs. Moreover, given that the university probably uses either Linux or another Posix compliant system, it would make sense for them to have it on their home computers in order to more easily work from home.
      • What really bugs me is that it appears they all use Internet Explorer!

• While this troper loved the first Weaton episode (involving the card games), I didn't really care for how the card game was treated. It was specifically called a "customizable card game" but if it's so "customizable" how can Sheldon predict what other people put into their decks? Granted it could work if absolutely everybody in the tournament was netdecking perfectly, but not everybody does that and in just about every CCG people tend to include cards for"shock value" ie. cards that don't show up enough to be counted on. The only way I could see Sheldon knowing what people have in their decks is to have either looked at each and every one of them before hand or looked at the deck sheet.
  • I don't recall it being a customizable card game, and considering they were playing on a pile it's unlikely they would mix cards around if it was. There are several card games that a surprisingly complicated where everyone has to play from the same set.
  • It's entirely possible that one of the rules of this game is you must allow your opponent to inspect your deck before the round begins so they can be prepared for any cards you might bring out, i.e. I have a remove a monster from play cards so knowing you have a super dragon I may want to save that card for when it appears
• Sheldon won't drink coffee because he promised his mother he wouldn't "do drugs", and on the rare occasions he's unknowingly consumed it has had a comically out of proportion reaction to the caffeine. Yet he regularly consumes Coke and Mountain Dew (a soft drink that's actually popular because of its high caffeine content) with no effects whatsoever.
  • That could be the Placebo effect, or him just being affected differently by coffee.
  • Obviously, coffee is for hipsters and beatniks. Mountain Dew and Coke (presumably Surge and Jolt as well) don't count, as they're for respectable gamers and Men of Science.
    • He also says his mother has a "slight Dr. Pepper addiction", so maybe soda isn't considered the "hard" stuff.
• Whatever happened to Penny's acting career? It's rarely mentioned in the show now, even though the whole reason she moved to L.A. was to pursue an acting career. Yeah, we know she's a failed actor, but it feels like she isn't even trying to look for roles.
  • If anyone needed further evidence that the show is not very interested in Penny as a person, this ought to provide it.
    • She ISN'T trying to look for those roles, for the most part. But season 5 resolves this small issue.
  • Every few episodes they bring up the fact she is an actress, but a Running Gag is the fact she did not land any paying jobs until the beginning of the 5th season (she was even ready to quit and move back home). If she wasn't landing any roles what would be the point of bringing up failed auditions? They did that once in "The Cohabitation Formulation" where she mistakenly auditioned for porn.
• In the latest episode, Sheldon said he figured out a three-person chessboard. Now, I`m not a scientist or anything, I went to college for carpentry, not physics or advanced maths. So I have no idea what he was talking about when he went on about how he solved setting up the middle of the board or something. But I distinctly remember having a three-person chess/checkerboard when I was a kid, so I don't know what the deal is. It's already been invented. It's not the big thing he's treating it as.
  • I've one three-person chessboard too. It's probable that Sheldon thinks he deviced a better chessboard.
• In the first episode with Wil Wheaton, Sheldon says he wants revenge because he waited 5 hours for him to show up at a Star Trek convention, and he never showed up. Wheaton tells Sheldon it was because his grandmother died. At the end, he reveils he lied just so he could win the card game. But we never find out what was the true reason for Wheaton not showing up at the convention was, and suprisingly, Sheldon doesn't ask this.
  • What would be the point of asking? Either it was something small and unforgivable, like he didn't care about it or just wanted to laugh at his fans, or it was a genuine reason that Sheldon wouldn't believe anyway, since he was lying about his grandmother dying. Hell, he probably doesn't even remember, it was years ago and I imagine he's been to and skipped off from a ton of conventions.
  • Maybe the real reason is Wheaton is the Joker to Sheldon's Batman and his past is traditionally a mystery
  • Sheldon at some point mentions that "apparently it was cooler to be the bottom left corner on Hollywood Squares" than to go to the convention, though Sheldon may have said this in a later episode. Either way, it seems that Sheldon already knew where Wheaton was that day instead of at the Star Trek convention.

• Regarding that fantasy card game they play (the one where the Fluffy Bunny always loses). What kind of game is that? It's either nonsensical or extremely simple. Apparently there is a single deck, and everybody gets a hand of cards. Then each player takes turns placing a card on the stack in the middle. Once everybody has played a card, then the player with the "highest" value card wins the hand. Nobody has a sideboard, draw deck, dedicated playing area, or a set of counters, and there appears to be no customization or really any strategy beyond "play a higher card". Or am I just overthinking this?
  • It could be fantasy-themed UNO
    • We'll find out soon enough. The producers are working on a real-life version of Mystic Warlords of Ka'a; it was supposed to have been unveiled at Comic-Con 2011.
  • It could be one of those games where you have to try to lose big and win small (since a win and a loss each count as one win or loss, and no points are kept regarding by how much you won or lost), so you can get rid of your lower cards when they don't matter and save your higher cards for when you need them and nothing weaker. Something must be the lowest card, or hands would too easily end in ties.
  • You are overthinking this.

• In that episode when Howard's mom goes to the hospital, a big part of the episode is Sheldon's germ phobia and his fear of hospitals. His fear of hospitals which had never been heard of before, even though he spent quite a bit of time in hospitals growing up and we see him in one when Leonard is dating Stephanie, the doctor. It's a pretty minor inconsistancy, I suppose, but it still bugs me.
  • He's always been a bit of a germaphobe, and the more recent "contaminations" probably exacerbated an underlying fear. People have developed phobias in much the same way, sometimes just by watching tv.

• In the third season Penny's refuse to hook Howard with some friend of hers looked rather odd since in season one she herself offered him to introduce him to some of her easy friends. What exactly changed her views on the matter so radically?
  • She got to know him better? Maybe she thought of him as a charity case to start with, then saw him as a creeper that even her easy friends shouldn't get close to. Now she actually sees him as a friend.
    • In the first season she was under pressure, and really needed him to stay focused.
    • There's a difference between trading for a favor, and pimping your friends to the leech just because he wants you to.
  • She may have thought that, even if she introduced Howard to her friends, they would still reject him.
  • Or, she might have been more comfortable with the idea of a friend sleeping with Howard than the idea of them actually dating or entering a relationship together.
  • It's different to introduce two people at a party than it is to set them up on a date together. Her role in matchmaking could cause problems between her and her friend if she set them up and it turned out to be a horrible experience for everyone involved, which she seems to be worried about. She doesn't want to lose a friend over a pact that Leonard made.
• Speaking of Howard and Penny, does anyone else find Penny's attitude causes "The Killer Robot Instability" to come off as a Broken Aesop? Basically, Penny upset Howard by calling him out on his perverse nature, which caused him to retreat to his bedroom for two days ... and he only returned, completely back to normal, after she punched him in the face when he tried to kiss her, after which Penny folded her arms arrogantly and said "now Howard knows what [women] can do if you don't respect them". However, it wasn't like Howard being upset was an act and it seemed like he tried to kiss Penny because he thought it was appropriate/she might pity him because he was feeling so down, so it comes across as Disproportionate Retribution. Not because he was being a Jerkass. So basically, the Aesop is "don't comfort someone if they're feeling depressed" combined with "if someone is feeling down, punch them in the face and they'll be right back to normal". But only if they're male, obviously. I'm surprised Howard didn't tell Penny to fuck off.
• In the episode where the guys create a phone app, their app is that you take a picture of an equation and you're given an answer. Penny comes in part way through the episode and says she has an idea for an app, which is that you take a picture of a pair or shoes and it tells you what kind they are. Her idea is considered stupid. But they're basically the same thing except one has math and the other has shoes. So why is her's considered stupid?
  • First, hers didn't JUST tell you what kind of shoes they were, it also told you where you could buy them online, making it more useful in daily life than an equation-solving app. Second, hers is considered stupid because, well, they're guys, anything fashion-oriented is probably stupid in their eyes. And third, I think that's the joke: they are dismissive of Penny's app, but in reality a shoe-shopping app is much more useful than an equation-solving app would be, and loads more people would probably want to use it. They mention in the episode that theirs wouldn't have many people other than their coworkers looking to buy it, whereas how many people would love Penny's app? I know I would.
  • I'm pretty sure Sheldon is the only one who thinks her idea is stupid. It's never revealed to the other guys, so they don't weigh in. Hopefully there's no need to explain (to anyone familiar with Sheldon) why he would unilaterally think and idea from Penny is stupid.
• Why do the guys think Aquaman sucks? All four of them are huge comic book nerds and should be more than aware that Aquaman is crazy powerful.
  • Judging by what this wiki says he's apparently only powerful underwater. And compared to the other cool heroes everyone else got, it's pretty obvious why Raj didn't want to be him.
    • Er, no. Arthur is just EVEN MORE POWERFUL in, near or touching Water. Outside of it, he can handle a fight with Superman pretty easily. Hell, Deathstroke, a man who beat Batman on a few occasions and is more or less a gray morality Cap America, nearly broke his hand on Aquaman's chest. It's just bad writers and their 'lol, Aquaman is lame because of a bad cartoon from a by gone era'
      • Let's not forget that having the ability to command sea creatures means something entirely different in a world where the oceans are filled with Eldritch Abominations.
    • Raj might just not like Aquaman. Ever consider that?
    • Or that how powerful a character is, and who they can or cannot beat up, may not be the best measure of whether or not they are cool?
    • Exactly. Did you not see the Aquaman costume? It looked ridiculous.
  • Unfortunately most writers, and by extension the general audience, know Aquaman best from his incarnation on Superfriends where his powers were notoriously poorly handled. A big example of Did Not Do the Research since has been pointed out other incarnations like Justice League Unlimited and Batman Brave And The Bold he is much more of a Badass.
  • In a lot of ways Aquaman is just plain more fun as the ultimate loser of the superhero world than he is as a competent character. Powerful and badass superheroes are plentiful, but a superhero so pathetic that normal humans look down on him? That has comedic value.
  • How is it that you are writing that question on the internet, while being simultaneously ignorant of the "Aquaman sucks" meme that's so rampant it's been referenced on Family Guy? Is it not conceivable that they were going for Rule of Funny in this scenario rather than the exhaustive dissection (above) of how he's really Superawesome?
• Did the gang ever find out that Amy and Sheldon were lying about having sex and Amy being pregnant?
  • They probably figured it out when she never got big or, you know, had a child.
• In the episode in which the knowledge bowl (or whatever it was called) at the end of the episode Penny says she's going to figure out who the smartest is. They're obviously supposed to be against each other, so why are they helping each other with answers and high fiving when they think they get an answer right?
  • Friendship trumps competition in some cases.
  • Neither one had a clue about anything she asked, so they teamed up in hopes of getting one question right.
• The depictions of fandom on the show are largely done well and get the little details right. So there's no real point in harping on the few exceptions. On that sticks in my mind is when Stuart tells Sheldon about a new statue of Green Lantern he has in stock. Surely no one would ever say "Green Lantern" -- they would specify the Green Lantern.
  • Considering how common it is for fans to say things such as "The only true Bond is..." or "The only true doctor is...", I think it's easily assumable that Stuart may have already established a belief in one true 'Green Lantern'.
    • Yet in his capacity as a store owner/operator, would not a desire for precision win out?
      • You are wondering if a man who got a date from a customer, who was the interest of the closest thing he had to a friend, by drawing her and trying to sell her an adult comic book to give to her preteen cousin, has any professionalism?
      • I'm not sure what one has to do with the other...
      • For the record, it was adult as in The Punisher (or something similar), not adult as in pornographic. Penny seemed to understand why it was rated for older readers, and expected her cousin to enjoy it, so there's not technically anything unforofessional about recommending it, as lng as he knew Penny knew why it might not be an appropriate gift. For that matter, some people would consider censorship of perfectly legal suggestions to be indicative of a lack of integrity and therefore possibly professionalism.
      • If I'm not mistaken the title in question was Hellblazer, which is an occult horror comic. It contains about as much sex as a James Bond movie, which is to say not zero but it's not the main thrust of the title either.
• Sheldon is a genius, correct? He basically knows how almost anything works (except pop culture), so... How does he not know what drywall is?!
  • Brain fart?
  • They call it 'sheetrock' on the show, which is possibly a term he isn't familiar with because people more commonly call it 'drywall' and I'm sure he has no real interest in construction, so would have no reason to think it had any other name. Also, he's a genius in terms of his IQ but he doesn't know how 'almost anything' works, he knows how physics works as well as a lot about other sciences. He has shown multiple times, though, to have a higher estimation of his own expertise than he should - he assumes he knows everything about everything, but the things he says about other fields of work are incorrect fairly often.
• Why are they beating a dead horse with the Howard's opdedieus complex? Its not funny anymore, its disgusting. Remember when the show had a focus on nerd culture of tech and pop-culture?
• In 'The Wiggly Finger Catalyst', there are a couple of headbangers for anyone who uses sign language. The one that sticks out the most is that Howard claims 'not to know how to spell'. In Emily's introductory scene, he spells Raj's name. Most proper nouns are fingerspelt. In any class where you would learn any form of sign, fingerspelling is the first thing covered. Rule of Funny or Did Not Do the Research ?
  • Watch the scene again; he says that he doesn't know how to spell the word "opalescent," not that he doesn't know how to spell in general.
    • Whoops, you're right. Being deaf myself, I must have failed a Listen check on that.
• Why didn't Raj tell Penny about the stuff in the fourth season finale sooner?
  • He was sober. -- Plus they didn't actually talk about what happened until the fifth season premiere, it looked like Penny got dressed really quickly and then ran out.
• Wouldn't it make much more sense for Sheldon to go to the Renaissance Faire as The Doctor instead of Spock?
  • Not necessarily. I've seen people dressed as Klingons at Ren Fests. Also, as a meta reason, Doctor Who is not nearly as well known in the United States as Spock is, so would be much less recognizable to the less geeky audience members. Also, if you wish to dress as the Doctor, which one do you dress as? 11 different actors, with 11 different styles of clothing. And the 3 from the new version dress in pretty normal, if distinctive, clothes. Even your modern geek might not immediately recognize someone as being dressed as Doctor Who just because they were wearing a stalk of celery.
    • Well, if he was wearing a fez.....
    • The Fourth Doctor is fairly well-known, at least to Gen X-ers and older. THE SCARF!
  • He was annoyed by historical inaccuracies at the renaissance faire, but the others convinced him to go as a Starfleet officer investigating a planet that was similar to renaissance England. That's much more of a Star Trek style plot than a Doctor Who one.
    • Not to mention that Spock is emotionally repressed, highly intelligent, and a scientist, whereas the Doctor is humanistic, romantic, and describes time and space as a "wibbley-wobbley, timey-wimey ball". Which character would appeal to Sheldon, do you think?
    • Time Travel. It exists in Star Trek, just not as prominantly as it does in Doctor Who.
  • Canonically, Spock is Sheldon's favorite character, so, you know....duh.
    • And he probably already has the costume.

• What exactly was the "revelation" in "The Rhinitis Revelation"?
  • Based on context, it was that Sheldon is in fact only human, and subject to the same flaws and weaknesses felt by everyone else; this was symbolized most concretely by him developing rhinitis (i.e. a stuffy nose). To him, at least, this would certainly qualify as a "revelation."

• Though I'm usually happy to put it down to Rule of Funny, specifically Hypocritical Humour, the contradictions in Sheldon's character bother me. For example, his scepticism holds for things like psychics but not telepathy. Also, sometimes it is stressed that he Can Not Tell a Lie, but at other times the plot demands that he can. (Though as the channel I usually watch the show on plays the episodes out of order, that could possibly be character development instead - can anyone who's seen them all in order help there?)
  • He had issues with Leonard's lie to avoid Penny's performance because he felt it too easy to prove a lie. So he went and created his own lie which, as shown, worked like a charm.
  • He has trouble keeping secrets confided to him but is perfectly capable of deception of his own accord. That's the basic premise of his own character, the most outlandish things he does makes sense from his own internal logic.
  • Essentially, Sheldon has trouble coming up with lies quickly. If he's given enough time to sit down and work out an internally consistent story and plant some fake evidence, he does okay.

• As all of my knowledge of Wesley Crusher comes from the trope (formerly) named after him on this wiki, I always assumed the reason for Sheldon's hatred of Wil Wheaton was that he played such a hated character. When I saw the episode explaining the origin of the enmity I was genuinely shocked to find out that Wesley Crusher was Sheldon's favourite character. (I watch the episodes out of order.) Was the character actually as universally despised as I seem to believe, or does anybody share my alternate theory that Sheldon might have identified with a character who was 'saving the Enterprise-D every other episode' at a young age, since he has such a high opinion of himself, and lacks the grasp of people in general to find it annoying?
  • Yes, he identified with Crusher. I don't know why his lack of grasp of people should be the reason for his being able to like Wesley, since Creator's Pet is an Externally Subjective Trope for a reason.
  • 90% of sane Star Trek fans hate Wesley the character and like or don't care about Wheaton the actor. Sheldon is the exact opposite for reasons set out in the Magic: The Gathering episode.
  • Wesley basically is Sheldon, being a child prodigy who is full of himself and rather annoying. The difference is that everyone treated Wesley the way Sheldon thinks he should be treated, as some sort of special wunderkid. Because of this many people found Wesley insufferably annoying and hated the character, but Sheldon identified with him. Nobody really hates Wil Wheaton, who is a fairly competent actor that actually did a good job in those episodes where the writers saw fit not to make him an insufferable ass (there were a handful of good Wesley episodes) and, I've heard, a pretty nice guy.
• And, to be fair, Wesely isn't as universaly despised as this wiki would have you believe. We exaggerate it for humor.
  • Indeed. My irritation with Wesley story lines had more to do with the willfull Agent Scully - ing of the other characters when he'd try to explain his latest day-saving idea. Jesus people, he's already saved the day 12 times this season, d'ya think you could at least hear the kid out?
• I know that Leonard/Penny was intended to be the One True Pairing from the beginning, but the derailing / outright destruction of Sheldon and Penny's friendship in the later seasons irks me to no end. These were two people that while very different and sometimes insulting to each other, were actually friends and at times went out of the way to help one another. Remember when Sheldon loaned money to Penny when she needed it, or when he looked after her when she slipped in the shower and broke her arm, or when he helped her with her business? Remember when Penny was able to hold a single conversation with Sheldon without having almost utter contempt, or did such ridiculous things to make him happy like singing 'Soft Kitty' or getting him Leonard Nimoy's DNA? The writers sure don't. Quite simply, they most likely noticed viewers preferring the possibility of Sheldon and Penny and decided to sink it by removing all the positive aspects between them and keeping only the negative. Now, all they do is insult each other, and any scenes where Sheldon would have confided in Penny for any problems he is having have been replaced by Amy Farrah Fowler (whose character I do like, but there's no denying that she was brought in to be Sheldon's perfect match). It's just sad.
  • Exactly. Glad to know I'm not the only who likes Sheldon and Penny as delusional and unlikely it is.
  • "The Robotic Hand Manipulation," "The Apology Insufficiency," "The Thespian Catalyst" and "The Agreement Dissection" of the fourth season all feature significant Penny/Sheldon interaction, two of which have little to no Amy in them (so you can't argue they are trying to discourage the Ship Tease). The whole point of their dynamic is that 90 percent of the time they annoy the hell out of each other, and somewhere in between you see a glimmer of what makes them friends at all.

• Why the flipping fuck was Leonard so willing to cheat on Priya with the comic book artist!?!!? He's not supposed to be this much of a douche, he was supposed to be the show's nice guy. They could it made the ep abit more harrowing and an examination of their relationship, but no. This is aiming for Seasonal Rot.
  • He was weak, and he eventually couldn't go through with it because he isn't "one of those guys". It's happened before, and he's been an off-and-on tool (with a consistent heart of gold) since Season 1.
  • The idea straight from Bill Prady is that they are putting Leonard in a situation he has never been in before, basically he is in a committed relationship but gains no physical benefits from it (sexual or otherwise just affection from someone else) calling it "two women and no sex." Leonard meets someone he would totally be interested in if he wasn't taken and he is only human, he is trying to figure a way to have everything he wants and when the time came he couldn't be "one of those guys."
    • Yes but that still makes him a tool. He made out with the girl and suddenly decided he was a nice guy all the time with the smuggest voice and attitude the whole time.
      • Smug? Sounded to me more like he was saying he was a nice guy in more like a "begging" way for the girl to not go. While he cares about Priya, she didn't get Leonard the way the new girl did. And Priya is on the other side of the world...any person who is a Long distance relationship can tell you how hard that is, and how uncertain it is that you will ever see each other again, or if the relationship will work out. Leonard meets this great girl who is in the here and now, she's cute, and she gets him. He was weak and in need of that physical relationship as well as the emotional one, this girl was essentially a dream come true. He was afraid of losing her forever. Even if they couldn't be together, he hoped they could still hang out as friends because he did genuinely like her. He even said that he worried he was going to regret something. A missed opportunity. Should he break it off with the new girl or Priya? Which is better in the long run, uncertain questions he was trying to run away from. But in the end he did the right thing. He broke it off before it ever got to serious, but his tone like, "I'm a nice guy" sounded more like a lonely kid begging for someone to not go. He didn't want to loose at least friendship with the girl, because she was nice and cool. And let's not forget how hypocritical calling out Leonard for cheating on Priya is. Apparently kissing one girl makes Leonard a dick. But Priya outright goes and has sex with her old boyfriend, and and yet I don't see anyone harping on her like they are on Leonard. Kissing a girl while you have a girlfriend is apparently WORSE than having sex with another boy while you have a boyfriend.
  • Orignal Poster: Yeah that is true (Which btw they never said why Priya suddenly wanted to go back to India in the first place and gave her no What the Hell, Hero? moment which bugs me), but since it was a largely Leonard centered episode and it felt like he bogged down the ep.
  • I don't think anyone is arguing that Leonard didn't make a mistake. But he spends the entire episode angsting over a moral dilemma, ultimately makes the right choice (it didn't get out of hand) and tries to make things right with both parties, yet according to the complaints he is a tool, douche and/or prick because he made a mistake at all. He has also never been good at explaining himself, his whole "I'm a good guy" speech was in response to Alice's upset remark that she was looking for a good guy. He was trying to say "I was tempted because I like you but I couldn't go through with it" and it merely came out as "I'm a good guy and you're hot." It just seems the Fandom loves to villainize Leonard when he has never been portrayed as a perfect individual. I've seen in several other forums where he is attacked for laughing at Kripke's helium prank on Sheldon, when he not only admitted it to Sheldon but encouraged him to get revenge. From my point of view it feels like the writers are trying to develop Rounded Characters and fans are attacking them for being human.
  • ^This SO MUCH! I'm tired of people ripping Leonard apart for being HUMAN and he did the right thing in the end and his haters STILL rip him a part no matter what he does. Also to the original poster I agree, Priya never mentions why she needs to go back to India and they haven't given her a WTH-Hero at all yet for having sex with an ex while still daring to call Leonard her boyfriend, so I hope Leonard does dump her. Look at it this way. Leonard panicked, and his words came out wrong with Alice, Priya literally WAS trying to make excuses and get off scott free despite doing worse than what he did when she doesn't deserve to get off easy. And yet the haters NEVER mention that when they bash Leonard about the recent episode...I really hate the Double Standard Leonard is subject too because his haters take every chance they can to paint him in a negative light. Now i'm not calling you one of these haters OP, we're just pointing out the doublestandard and unfair treatment of Leonard by parts of the fandom.
    • Call it what you will, but this isn't about being a good guy in relative to Priya. From a writing point of view, it is apparent that Priya cheating was thrown in to make him look better in comparison, and thus justifying his Good Guy title. This isn't new either, Leonard almost triumphantly admitted to having lied to Penny about his personality throughout their relationship and for no other reason than wanting sex from her - but that's okay, because Penny meets a new guy and lies about her interests too. This happens two episodes after his breakup with Priya. And even that's not a coincidence, because the same thing happened to Alan over and over again when he was supposed to be the good guy. And you know what the worst part is? It doesn't work, because the women are different each time which means that while he may share flaws with some women, he still has all of the flaws for himself, and then some.
    • From a writing point of view Priya's cheating was the catalyst to break them up, Leonard's story was just a way of revealing that information. The whole episode was of Leonard being tempted to do something wrong and coming close to doing so before backing down. Wanting to be "that kind of guy" is to show how tempted he was. He also didn't admit to "lying about his personality" to Penny, he stated he put up with some things with Penny because they were dating/having sex and that is almost the definition of being in a relationship (you have companionship and share each others activities in exchange for some drama). The scene where they use activities they did together as conversation pieces was to show that both have evolved by being together and don't know it, Leonard has experienced some spontaneous social activities and Penny is appreciative of higher learning/thinking.
    • Also, lets not start arguing "from a writing point of view" as claiming "well they just put that in to make X look better" is a very good way to interpret anyone on the show as either the hero or the villain as the mood fits.
      • It makes it easier for haters of Leonard to demonize him of course to argue it that way, does this surprise you? Everyone else can be a flawed human being but not Leonard...no no, if he has flaws we'll start labeling him a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing (and they did before people thankfully removed that oh so wrong label).
• Sheldon not knowing about Theophrastus Geisel's adult publications in the Halloween 2011 episode is odd but understandable. However, I don't see any reason for "Friedrich Neetch-ya", especially considering I'm pretty sure Sheldon's actor has pronounced that name correctly in the past.
  • It refers to that one One Million BC film where the Caveman word for "dinosaur" was "neetchya". Sheldon referring to an obscure Sci-Fi movie fits. But Sheldon did not go on and on and on about Dinosaurs and Humans being in totally different time periods. So the explanation raises more questions than it resolves.
  • I don't remember that episode, how does he pronounce it? The correct German pronunciation is /'niːtʃə/ (the ː doesn't appear right...), Neetch-ya would be pretty close. English speakers often say /'niːtʃi/, both are acceptable.

• Season 1 episode 3: Leonard tries kissing Leslie only once. What kind of experimental scientist agrees to wrap up the experiment with one data point, when it would clearly be in his own interest to establish an adequate sample size? Artistic Licence I guess, but you'd think they'd know how many people like me would be watching.
  • It was tongue-and-cheeck.

• Ok...so did Leonard and Priya break up? I just watched the episode on Thurs. which I can only assume to be a new episode (Where Amy gets upset because Penny and Bernadette go bridesmaid dress shopping without her). Leonard makes an offhand comment that he is single. So...did him and Priya break up? This is never really explained? Granted she deserves to get dumped after what she did (see above), but...it never is really addressed, at all. Kind of feels weird and awkward. I would understand if Leonard not wanting to talk about it. But none of the characters seem to bring this up at all!
  • Probably right after Good Guy Fluctuation (the episode right before). In the last scene (the one with Sheldon bursting out of the couch cushions), Priya admits to Leonard that she cheated on him as well. Overwhelmed, Leonard hangs up rather abruptly. It's assumed they never talked after that.
    • Yes I am aware of the cheating (hence why I think she deserves it), but what I mean is, was it EVER brought up? The break up? I mean if Leonard doesn't want to talk about it, that's understandable, but seriously, you'd think him or Raaj or one of the other characters would bring it up. She was his girlfriend for a while, and she was Raaj's sister, information like that is KINDA important. And it's never brought up once???
  • Maybe the writers were also sick of the Priya character existing as a transparent excuse for Leonard and Penny "not to get together yet" and are trying to pretend the whole thing never happened?
    • Well that's a pretty flimsy reason to cover up the "Transparent excuse" I don't care if they didn't want to pretend it didn't happen. The fact of the matter is, I want to know if they for certain are off for good or if he'll forgive her or whatever. Priya was an important side character because she had connections to two of the main cast (Raaj and Leonard) to cast that aside just because you wish you never thought it up in the first place is BAD writing.
    • In addition to being "Transparent excuse", Priya was such an unlikable, wretched character, that I'm willing to accept this instance of BAD writing without complaint so long as they promise never to so much as mention her name again during the series.
  • In the following episode "Isolation Permutation" Leonard says, "I'm single, I don't need this crap." Priya is a classic Romantic False Lead, so they juggled making her likeable with "Trying to change Leonard" and "Doesn't understand his hobbies." The instant Priya went back to India they were clearly on their last legs. The show in general doesn't like to dwell on the drama, and I can't think of how they could make Leonard and Priya breaking up to be funny without being disrespectful. Notice how once Leonard learned of Priya's infidelity they had Sheldon burst out of the couch, it kept things from being too serious.
• Physics Bowl: the final question was a negatively charged electron repulsing a negatively charged muon by gamma emission. The Russian physics Professor/ Janitor said "1 over 24 PI alpha." which within the context of the episode was the right answer.
  • If the diagram had stated the velocities and angles of the particles, Janitor's answer might have been correct.
  • Diagram did not state any numbers. The question was invalid.
• The Gang went to a Scientific Congress, they could get there in 4 hours by plane or 11 hours by train, Sheldon voted Train. After the Arctic expedition, the Gang visited Sheldon in Texas by "Red Eye". Sheldon was not there to skew the vote. Why did they not fly?
  • Actually, they did fly. They took a "red eye" flight, which is a flight that leaves late at night and arrives early in the morning.
• After the episode "Orthilogical Diffusion" is anyone still in favor of Leonard/Penny? I really feel that one, Leonard is emotionally immature for Penny as he said he let Penny pick movies and eat his fries soley for sex and, like in The Venture Brothers Leonard seems more likely to project his expectations onto the first nice female he sees and doesn't really feel like he would altruisticly give her the same devotion without being nothing but passive agressive. Also this article points out alot of similarities to Leonard. Secondly, Penny seems somewhat bi-polar/manic depressive. Unless she would seek medication she seems, as Leonard pointed out, overly sensitive and has a poor temper. With the arguments in "The Guitarist Amplication" and "The Psychic Vortex" they seem to have too much of a friction with superiority issues; Penny always resorts to saying she feels dumb while Leonard always messes up with getting words out and says something stupid as a result. This shows that neither really expect one another to have problems with one another and soon devolve into one always having to come out on top instead of mutual agreements. The only time I felt they could get together was in he episode where Priya didn't want Leonard to hang out with Penny.
  • Granted, a lot of Penny/Leonard shipping fell apart when they got together, a very common side-effect of resolving the Will They or Won't They? dynamic. Some people came back around mid season four, as it re-established that uncertainty that makes Unresolved Sexual Tension run. What keeps people interested in the pairing is the idea that they are attracted to each other but have a hard time communicating, as they come from two very different worlds. As you mentioned Leonard is not very good with explaining himself, and Penny has a stubborn and independant streak ("Guitarist" was an argument that even perfectly happy couples might get into and "Psychic" actually addressed the fact they have some major differences, but they otherwise seemed to really enjoy their time together). Personally, Leonard idealized Penny and was basically waiting for her to come around, so the idea there is some superiority battles between them makes sense. "Ornithophobia" was the first time that Leonard really let his feelings known and could look at her as a person and not just his idealized crush (although I'll admit whittling it down to "I let you do things because of sex" made it seem rather shallow).
  • While some people just didn't like the two of them in the first place, the Beta Test for "Leonard/Penny 2.0" is actually being somewhat well received. The reason being that they are actually communicating with each other and it isn't the one-sided relationship it was before. They clearly have feelings for each other but it is being taken at a slow pace with fairly strong level of honesty between them. It is certainly much healthier.
• Why do they often address Howard and Raj by their last names, they even do it to each other despite being Heterosexual Life Partners?
  • If you have an interesting enough name even close friends will refer to you by that name from time to time. Cooper is the most normal last name and Hofstader is a little clumsy as a nickname. Wolowitz is kind of catchy and Koothrappali is very exotic.
  • It's a guy thing.
  • In my group 4 guys share the same(Boring) first name, But one his last name is rather bad ass. So of course you use that instead of the first name he shares with 5 other people. Especially since it's been likened to a Dn D deity style name.
• While rare, the Marvel references tend to suffer from Geek Reference Pool. When Sheldon lists off his favorite X-Men in the Season 2 episode "Euclid Alternative", he only names the "public" A-Listers, as in those only known to people who are not familiar with the comics at all (either via Popcultural Osmosis or being the leads in the movies and the animated series). Given his geek cred, he's supposed to loathe anyone with Wolverine Publicity, which is pretty much every one of them^[1]. Which would have ruined the joke about Halle Berry being his four-- no, wait, fifth favorite Catwoman, yes, but would it have killed anyone to have him name at least one B, C, D or Z-lister? He's the kind of guy who's supposed to debate endlessly - even with himself - the legitimacy of Deadpool's claim to being an X-Man or whether you should consider Magneto an honorary one who's spent more time on an X-team, although him even listing Cyclops at all is perfectly in tune with his opinion of The Wesley trope.
  • "Given his geek cred, he's supposed to loathe"...Really. Maybe he just happens to like who he named. No need to throw around alleged stereotypes like "he should hate Wolverine because he's popular". He's a geek, not a hipster.
  • This feels like Opinion Myopia. The writers have admitted they try to give the characters their own idiosyncratic geek appeals, Sheldon is much more of a DC fan and may only be a casual Marvel reader while it seems that both Raj and Howard are bigger Marvel fans.
• Anyone else think that Doctor Stephanie had more chemistry with Leonard than Penny? Until the writers derailed her I really liked her. Also before they made Priya a bitch I thought they were good together. It pisses me off that the show pushes Penny and Leonard when Leonard had more chemistry with them than Penny. BTW I'm the same guy from above with the complaint of the bird episode.
  • In all honesty I didn't like Priya with Leonard. She wasn't that interesting, plus she didn't get Leonard the way Penny had. And some people see the chemistry with Penny and Leonard. Also, personally, I think he had great chemistry with that oneshot girl Alice. And wish she'd come back. I think Leonard and Penny are cute, but Penny sometimes annoys me with her double standard and her (sometimes mind you) blown out of proportion rage against Leonard and his friends. (again, this is sometimes, because the rest of the time her anger is justified). But Leonard and Penny are growing as characters. Eventually they'll get to a point that they see what they need to do to make things work. Which is what they are trying to do right now. And I enjoy that. They're trying to communicate more and make things work out. Much more refreshing than Leonard's past relationships and Penny's, as well as their own previous interactions. Plus it's good to show people, that relationships, even when they sometimes seem to hit a roadblock, can be worked out...if both people are willing to try.
• It's relatively minor, but in one episode, Sheldon and Amy are playing a game where they posit some change in the past and then explain the one difference it would make in the future. The change is that the sea level was slightly higher, the result was that the danish would never have been invented because Denmark would be submerged by water. On the one hand, it's clearly a joke, since not all of Denmark would be submerged (at least I highly doubt it) and clearly there would be other consequences on the world. But even as a joke it does not work, the danish is not Danish, it's Viennese and both of the know-it-alls in the game should know this.
  • The entire thing is nonsensical, especially their expectation that everyone should come up with the exact same answer, which shouldn't be the case even if their alternate history made sense, which it didn't.
  • Didn't they specify that Copenhagen was flooded? And that that one disaster was enough to traumatize the rest of Denmark so they never invented the cheese danish? And, BTW, they were asking about one specific difference in a wildly divergent history, and the reasoning behind it. Given that it's Shamy playing the game, of course, said quote-unquote "reasoning" is more like Insane Troll Logic.
• Are there no lactose-free dairy products in California? Half my family is lactose-intolerant and we cook with lactose-free milk and cheeses all the time.
• Why, for the love of god WHY, does every single character on the show think that a prenup is the worstest most veryawful quite bad thing to ever exist? I guess I can see Howard being offended at the thought of it, since he's a self-centred douche, but literally every other character feeling the same way? Nobody else thinks that it shouldn't matter? That it's a pretty reasonable idea, unless you are planning from the get-go to divorce and fight over money? I don't understand why the writers think that a prenup is so terrible they don't feel that any of the characters would even once consider that it's anything less than offensive to sign one.
  • Ok, that's a little harsh to call Howard that. Yes he use to be one, but ever since he became official with Bernadette he started to become a better man. And when it comes to her, he always has his reasons for why he does things, and you know what that is? For all the crazy, and stupid things? It's because he actually loves her. So the reason agreeing to a preenup offends him, is because, he loves Bernadette, and is horrified at the thought that she would think they could get a divorce some day. Yes love is blind, but it shows that Howard does truly love her and wants this good thing to last...the old Howard would of agreed to a Prenup. Because then he could be free to be a lech and hit on other women when things go south and he wouldn't have to deal with the hassle that most divorce battles do, because he would be thinking of himself in that situation and only him. But he found a woman he cares about, and wants to stay with her forever...he doesn't even want to THINK of a possibility that they could separate. And maybe the other characters are just as optimistic about Howard and Bernadette's future too...and find that offering a prenup kinda seems cynical. Plus what is a prenup? It treats the marriage as a contract or like a business deal basically...when things go south, they have an settlement...yes it's a fair thing to offer, but in Howard's mind, "why would she ever want one unless she thinks that we might divorce someday". It's fear. He doesn't want to lose her, and the other characters obviously sympathize with him.
    • I don't think it's harsh to call him that at all. He still acts like a selfish douche. Like how he expects his mom and Bernadette to do everything for him, or how he was pressuring Bernadette about having kids but seemed really unenthusiastic at the idea of him staying home from work to take care of them instead of Bernadette when she made it clear she didn't want to do it. He's done nothing to show that he is any less self-centred or douchey than he was back in the old days, at least not in my opinion. Besides, it's pretty clear that Bernadette doesn't think it's necessary, just that her dad wants it. If he really loved her, he wouldn't be making a big fuss and putting her in a stressful situation just because he's too selfish to think of anything other than what he wants, which is to not sign a piece of paper. And even if his friends sympathize with him, that they all instinctively think that a prenup is Bad News is ridiculous. Most of his friends are scientists, who have been established to be skeptical, rational-minded folk with a good grasp of math and statistics. The most common statistic about marriage is that fifty percent of them end in divorce. While I could get them supporting him out of loyalty, I don't get why they would ignore that and immediately go "but they're in love! HOW B DIS POSSIBL" when a prenup is a reasonable thing to expect in a modern marriage. Not to mention that since the general consensus is that Bernadette is way out of his league anyway and they can't see why she's with him in the first place, so divorce isn't as impossible as you seem to think.
  • The bigger problem is that it contradicts the idea of him being a devout Catholic. Now Catholic clergy may okay a wedding between a Catholic and a Jew, but they will NEVER consent to perform a wedding if a prenup was signed, because a prenup invalidates a marriage by making a mockery of the vows. Why not just come out and say that he doesn't want the two of them to get married? It's so much better than acting subversively.
    • Wait, who's the devout Catholic? Howard is Jewish. Do you mean Bernadette's dad? I don't remember him ever being described as devout Catholic. Her mom, yes, but there are lots of people who are married to somebody more or less religious than they are. And as for the clergy consent stuff, a quick glance at Wikipedia indicates that the problem is not with "a mockery of the vows" per se, but something to do with the church laws, and even then it really depends on exactly what it is that the prenup says. So that doesn't mean that the clergy won't consent to perform a wedding, it means that the prenup can't have anything that's illegal concerning the church's law. And looking at Wikipedia, it now makes even less sense that Howard is so against signing a prenup, because apparently a prenuptual contract called a ketubah is an integral part of a Jewish marriage ceremony. So Howard has no reason to be so upset at the idea that he might have to sign a prenup, it would be something he's known all his life.
• Why, oh why does this show continue to perpetuate the idea that women aren't into geek stuff as much as guys are? In the entire run of this show, we've only met two women who were like "Cool, you've got the Green Lantern's lantern!" Are the writers aware that geek women have comic book collections, go to conventions, dress up as their favorite characters, collect action figures? You're telling me they add two other females to this show, and neither one of them likes comics/action figures/conventions? I swear this is the one thing about this show that drives me and my fellow female geeks up the proverbial wall. BTW, all of us have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, and love it! We love science fiction movies and books! So what's up, writers?
  • Granted, the number of female geeks is higher than generally portrayed (and on the rise) - but if you take a trip to any fan convention and count the number of females who aren't either "booth babes" or the "marginally interested girlfriend" of a male nerd, you'll get your answer regarding the disproportionate representation.
    • This isn't remotely true. If anything, I sort of assumed, when I went to Otakon back in 1997, that it was going to be a bunch of nerdy guys. Turns out there were about as many girls there as guys. It was one of the most diverse groups of people I'd ever seen in terms of age and race and gender. And this was at one of the largest east-coast conventions around. Fifteen years ago. Maybe some conventions are skewed toward the stereotypical "fat white dude" geek crowd, but the big ones? Not so much. Then again, Big Bang Theory never really has its facts straight about nerd culture anyway, so....
  • This, it drives me nuts too. Like int he episode where a girl comes into the comic store and everybody is like "OMG LOOK A UNICORN!" And in a fairly large city, too. I live in a smaller city than Pasadena, and all the comic stores around here have both plenty of female customers and female staff. Of course, judging by the way all the male geeks on the show act, it could just be that word got out that Stuart's shop is a really uncomfortable place for any girl-geek to shop, so they all started avoiding it. I know I would, if I walked into a store and got that sort of reception.
  • I'm also amazed at how much of mainstream pop culture is labeled as "geeky" here -- seriously, someone who doesn't know who Clark Kent or Captain Kirk is isn't mainstream. They're culturally illiterate.
• In the first episode of the 5th season the guys are in the university's cafeteria arguing about the aftermath of Raj and Penny sleeping together. Leonard and Howard and rightly pissed at Raj for throwing a wrench in the group's friendship, but then it quickly devolves into an argument on how Raj claims to be Penny's second choice after Leonard, only for Howard to say that it could had been him if he wasn't engaged, only for Leonard to state that she would have preferred Sheldon before considering him. Sure, it may sound funny at first, but the more I think about it, the more it seems that, despite all the years and everything the five of them have gone through together, deep down they still see Penny as prize to be won. Then again, Penny as a character is still defined by her relationship with the guys over anything else, along with Raj, she's among the characters with less development.
  • Yeah, this show is pretty bad when it comes to her character. I mean, it's been five years and she hasn't even been given a last name. I don't think it's just the characters that think she's the prize to be won, the writers seem to feel the same.
• Am I the only one who finds it odd that Anime watcher and general "Here's an interesting fact" guy Sheldon apparently doesn't know what a tanuki is? In "The Friendship Algorithm" he tells Leonard that Howard drew "a raccoon with enlarged testicals" on his Sheldon Friend Test paper instead of saying something like "Howard drew a Japanese tanuki - a raccoon with enlarged testicals". Seems like every other time Sheldon identifys everything by name, even if other people such as Leonard already know the name.
  • Tanuki aren't raccoons. They're raccoon dogs, which look sort of similar but aren't related.
  • True, but most Western versions of Manga and Anime - most notably Pom Poko - depicts them as such. And I'm sure Sheldon would have inserted that fact into his explaination as well.
• The show takes place in America. Howard is American. Presumably, he went to engineer school in America. Where is his Engineer's ring? Or is it not a required thing to wear it?
  • Not all engineers join the Order of the Engineer and even then it's not like they check to see if you wear the ring.
• A Time-Share Time Machine Penny Gets Mad at the guys for blocking the stairs making her late for work EXCEPT SHE WAS ALREADY LATE FOR WORK SO MAYBE SHE SHOULD WAKE THE HELL UP ON TIME AND SHE'D HAVE BEEN TO WORK BEFORE THEY WERE BRING IT UP THE STAIRS
  • She was already late, but the delay made her even more late. She got annoyed about that.
  • You're complaining that they made Penny a realistic person who would get angry that she lost her shift because the guys blocked the stairwell, and the show even acknowledges that her outburst was over stress and frustration? She may have been running late but it took the guys a good long time to get it up the stairs, she could have left 10 minutes earlier and they would have still been blocking the stairwell. (Though on a slightly related note there really wasn't any reason she couldn't climb over it and go down the stairs, it obviously would have been less of a hassle than doing what amounts to Roof Hopping)
• I know this is suppose to be a comedy,and MST3K Mantra is the likely answer, but how is Howard even in the running to be an astronaut? He has idiopathic heart arrhythmia, severe asthma, and by his own admittance the physical and emotional strength of a twelve year old.
• I struggle with the dimensions of Raj’s inability to speak (sans alcohol) to women. I’ve been under the impression that it is just attractive women that render him mute, or at least women that Raj personally finds attractive, but in the 3rd season opener Sheldon’s Mom has the effect on him when the guys go to Texas to retrieve Sheldon. Does this imply that Raj is attracted to Mrs. Cooper? Sure, I can see her having a MILF-ish appeal to some men, but it does show that it is not strictly conventional "hotties" that cripple Raj’s tongue. How does he function in day-to-day life when half the human race is female? Yes, physics is a very male-dominated field, but he must have at least a few female colleagues (Leslie Winkle comes to mind), and many of the staff and service personnel he deals with on a daily basis at Caltech must be women. What about off-campus encounters? What if a cable installer, sales associate, etc. happens to be female – does he just retreat, or try to arrange for a male substitute? How about authority figures – what if he gets pulled over for speeding, and the cop is a woman? (Hardly a situation in which a quick surreptitious tongue-loosening swig of booze would be wise!) His handicap is humorously depicted, but when you think about it, it would be seriously inconvenient in many real life situations!
  • Of course it would be inconvenient in many life situations, that's what makes it a disorder. It would be crippling in almost any social situation, including work. Many of the staff at Caltech are women, but this is probably also one of the reasons he depends so much on Howard, who is willing to "translate" for him so that he can communicate. The disorder he has prevents him from speaking to all women who aren't his relatives. Howard suggests a few times that it is related to sexual attractiveness, but this may just be part of his own "hit on every woman ever" spiel. Leonard also says at some point that Raj is fine speaking to groups as a whole, even if there are women among them, it's the one-on-one interaction that he is incapable of functioning in. I'm guessing that the people he works with are aware of his selective mutism and have made accommodations for him so that his job itself does not suffer, but the show does represent his personal life as being seriously impacted by his disorder.
• Likewise I struggle with the reality of Sheldon's hold over the lives of the characters. I really don't see why they don't threaten or just punch him everytime he gets dic(tator)ish or even go to his mother. It really strains the suspension of disbelief for everything they let fly by. It kinda feels like stockholm syndrome.
  • What's hilarious, is that the other characters already exhibit the patience of Job when dealing with him. (In many cases simply rolling their eyes and chalking his behavior up to "Just being Sheldon") and there are still people on this very page who are outraged each time one of them has had enough and do exactly as you describe.
  • Agreed. I have ADHD and Asperger-like traits, and I would NEVER act like he does (and none of my friends/family would be nearly as tolerant of me as Sheldon's are of him). Sheldon drives me mad - it's like his characterization has gone backwards over the years, to where he's now nothing more than a caricature of a spoiled, arrogant, rude Adult Child. There are moments, granted, when he's barely tolerable (like the last scene of the fifth season finale), but overall I just wish someone would bring him down a peg or two.
    • I also have issues with how Penny's gone from being a Genki Girl to a Bottle Fairy, Raj's character is now pretty much a walking gay joke (where he used to have some depth in earlier seasons), and Amy (although she can be bearable) was incredibly grating over the wedding arc. Have the writers really given up and just gone for cheap laughs?
      • Why yes, yes they have. Also like Raj I despise the "Amy is gay" jokes. She's pretty unsubtle of her attraction for Penny but Penny can't notice egregious invasion of personal space for her lust? In general the gay jokes are really annoying and insensitive towards gay people imho.
      • As far as Penny is concerned, it might be less that she is becoming a Bottle Fairy , but her Character Development has included a significant change in her social circles. In the earlier seasons, Penny was still integrating into the guys' social group while maintaining involvement in her own, completely separate circle. Her original friend group seems to have done a lot of social drinking, it just happened off-camera. Her social group shifted after the second or third season when she became closer friends with the guys and started spending much more time with Bernadette and later Amy, largely because she embraced her own intelligence to the point that she "lost her ability to tolerate idiots". However, her new posse doesn't drink nearly so much as her previous one, which has opened the door for the other characters to comment on the amount of drinking she does. Objectively, it doesn't seem like she is drinking very much more than she did from the beginning - she just surrounds herself with people who are more likely to confront her about it.

1. ↑ After all, the very nature of the X-Comic geek cred, unlike the DC ones, lies in how many un-Osmosised characters you can at least name, it does not run opposite his plans to be Batman