History Series / TheBigBangTheory

** Sheldon, despite all of his eccentricities and very regimented lifestyle, has come to appreciate social interaction much more.

* MsFanservice: Penny.

* NakedPeopleAreFunny: [[spoiler: Raj when he takes anxiety pills that work a little ''too'' well.]]

* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Howard was never seen demonstrating his ability to communicate American Sign Language until Season 5's "The Wiggly Finger Catalyst". ItMakesSenseInContext because Howard acts as an interpreter between Raj and Raj's deaf girlfriend Emily in the episode, and as an in-joke that even with a woman Raj actually can date comfortably, [[HoYay Howard still has to be there]].

* NoEnding: "The Twenty-One Second Excitation". In the final scene before TheTag, [[spoiler:Sheldon and the guys make off with an extended print of ''RaidersOfTheLostArk'' from a downtown movie theater, a horde of other nerds (including Evil WilWheaton and Captain Sweatpants) [[TorchesAndPitchforks hot on their heels]] as the movie’s theme music plays.]] How is this resolved? Did they get away? Did they get trampled? Did Sheldon wind up in the hospital, or jail, or the loony bin? [[spoiler:The Tag just cuts back to Penny, Bernadette, and Amy Farrah in Penny’s apartment, to finish off a rather {{Squick}}y joke made in an earlier scene.]] The episode ends there, and the plot is never revisited.
* NoGuyWantsAnAmazon: S4 Ep05, "The Desperation Emanation", Bernadette sets Leonard up with her tough friend, Joy. Leonard ends up being miserable on their date due to her constant references to how strong she is and how much she's into fitness and martial arts.

* NotSoDifferent: Penny calls out the guys for making fun of Zack for not knowing much science in "The Justice League Recombination" when they were always bullied.

** Sheldon's childhood seems to be filled with these. Among the ones mentioned are Sheldon's DisappearedDad fighting a bobcat over some liquorice, his parents arguing as his father trap shoots the family's commemorative plates off the roof, his mom's secret smoking habit, trying to build a nuclear reactor in his back yard, trying to frighten neighborhood bullies with a homemade DeathRay, being chased up a tree by a neighbor's chicken, getting beaten up by his HotAmazon sister, and losing an uncle who died chasing a badger up a chimney. Assuming Sheldon really CannotTellALie, it's a miracle he didn't turn out even more neurotic.

* NoGuyWantsAnAmazon: S4 Ep05, "The Desperation Emanation", Penny sets Howard up with her tough friend, Joy. Howard ends up being miserable on their date due to her constant references to how strong she is and how much she's into fitness and martial arts.

--> '''Sheldon:''' [to Raj] How ''could'' you think my favorite amino acid was lycine?

---> '''Raj (to Howard)''': Last night I had a dream, we got so rich from the app we made, you and I bought matching side by side mansions. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything But, there was a secret tunnel connecting my front door to your back door.]] [[FreudWasRight What do you think it means?]]\\

-->'''Sheldon''': Am I correct in assuming that your attempt to be accepted by Penny's peers is based on your desire to continue your mating privileges with her? Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through for intercourse. Don't you have access to women who will do it for money? By the way, another accepted use of the term 'ho'.

--->'''Sheldon:''' "[[DullSurprise Fascinating]]."

--->'''Howard''': Oh, my God...GIRLFIGHT! [''pins Leonard's arms behind his back'']\\

--> (at the sperm bank)\\

--> "I don't want to go back to India! It's hot, and it's loud, and there are so many people. You have no idea, they're ''everywhere''!"

---> '''Sheldon:''' "Milk Dud?"\\

-->"That's more like: We're tall thin women who want to make a coat out of your Dalmatians."

-->'''Leonard''': What would you be if you were attached to another object by an inclined plane, wrapped helically around an axis?\\

-->'''Leonard''': This one is particularly disturbing.

--> '''Sheldon''': I don't know how, but she is cheating. Nobody can be that attractive and this skilled at a video game.

----> '''Penny''': That means...Sheldon, you're a doctor. Leonard's a doctor. Amy's a doctor. Raj is a doctor. Bernadette is a doctor. And...Howard, you know a lot of doctors!

--->'''Leonard:''' I'm just glad Sheldon didn't rat me out to the landlord...or to the police...or Homeland Security...

** Prime example in ''The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization'' where Sheldon tries to make [[YourHeadASplode Leonard's head explode]] a la ''{{Scanners}}''. Later, Penny finds a picture of herself on Wolowitz's website (listing her as his girlfriend) and [[CallBack does it to him]].

* StonersAreFunny: Leonard, Raj, and Howard in ''The Adhesive Duck Deficiency''.

* ToiletHumor: Toilet Humor [[RecycledINSPACE IN SPACE]] to be specific, and done rather well for once in ''The Classified Materials Turbulence'', where the gang has to fix a malfunctioning zero-gravity toilet. To quote Sheldon: "Apparently there is no law of diminishing comedic returns with space poop".

--> '''Leslie:''' "How can we have a relationship if we don't believe the same thing? How are we going to raise the children?"\\

--> "We're here to see Koothrappali, not kill Batman!

* XanatosGambit: Arguably done twice in "The Good Guy Fluctuation" when Howard and Raj reveal themselves as the pranksters behind the attempt to scare Sheldon at the office. But to paraphrase Homer Simpson, their zany scheme was a front for an even zanier scheme. Banking that their relatively tame and cliche hijinks wouldn't scare Sheldon, Howard and Raj seemingly admit defeat in Sheldon's office when a man wearing a mask of the alien from the end credits of "Star Trek: The Original Series" pops out behind Sheldon's white board, successfully scaring Sheldon. The man unmasks; [[spoiler: it's Leonard.]]

* BreakTheHaughty: Sheldon is sometimes caught up by karma. The rest of the gang occasionally succeeds in proving him wrong, humiliating him or shutting him up but it's subverted by the fact that he never seems to loose his arrogance.

'''Sheldon:''' ...the statement speaks for itself.

** Sheldon. [[spoiler:It helps him get over his stage fright, but boy, does it send him off the deep end.]] In a later episode, he uses vodka as an impromtu mouthwash and admitted he might have accidently drunk some. He immediately follows by an offhand "I love you" to Leonard. Even coffee to keep him awake makes him quite hyperactive.

* CastingGag: The actors who play Leonard and Leslie previously played David and Darlene on ''{{Roseanne}}''. Sheldon's mother is played by Laurie Metcalf, also from ''Roseanne''. Mayim Bialik, who plays neuro-biologist Amy Farrah Fowler, has a PhD in neuroscience.

** The first episode mentions Joyce Kim and the transvestite neighbour, who both show up in the flashback episode.

* EverythingsCuterWithKittens: Sheldon's favourite childhood lullaby "Soft Kitty" proves you don't even need an actual kitten for this trope.

** In the second possible example, Sheldon tries the old "joy-buzzer" prank on Howard by getting Howard to shake Sheldon's hand with the buzzer attached. Howard collapses and Bernadette is immediately upset, reminding Sheldon that [[OrIsIt Howard has a heart condition.]] Bernadette pulls out an adrenaline needle and insists that Sheldon inject it into Howard's heart, claiming not to be strong enough to do so herself. Howard wakes up and reveals the ruse. This one had to have taken some planning and anticipation for what Sheldon was planning to do.

* WrittenInInfirmity: Averted. When Kaley Cuoco (Penny) fractured her leg at the beginning of season 4, Peny was absent for two episodes and no reference was made to her not being around. Once she returned the writers decided that her character would have a new bartending assignment at the Cheesecake Factory and be shot from the waist up behind the bar. A VanityPlate was dedicated to new rules to ensure the safety of cast members, including any extreme activities (Kaley was injured while riding horses).

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: A literal one in "The Good Guy Fluctuation" by Sheldon, victim of a Halloween prank from Leonard. Sheldon insisted that Leonard open a mailbox, only for Leonard to find nothing there. When Sheldon goes to open the mailbox, an airbag with Leonard's face popped out, scaring Sheldon. Sheldon gets Leonard back by hiding in the apartment couch while Leonard is sitting on it talking to Priya. When Leonard is done, Sheldon pops out of the couch wearing a green shirt, purplish zombie makeup and fake blood on his lip. Sheldon: "Bazinga punk! Now we're even!"

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: A literal one in "The Good Guy Fluctuation" by Sheldon, victim of a Halloween prank from Leonard. Sheldon insisted that Leonard open a mailbox, only for Leonard to find nothing there. When Sheldon goes to open the mailbox, [[spoiler: an airbag with Leonard's face popped out, scaring Sheldon.]] Sheldon gets Leonard back by hiding [[spoiler: in the apartment couch while Leonard is sitting on it talking to Priya. When Leonard is done, Sheldon pops out of the couch wearing a green shirt, purplish zombie makeup and fake blood on his lip.]] Sheldon: "Bazinga punk! Now we're even!"

'''Raj''': [[LampshadeHanging Ask rhetorical questions that make people feel uncomfortable]]?

* {{Joisey}}: Leonard
--> After '''Sheldon''' brags that as a Texan he is a master of revenge...and '''Leonard''' manages to sucessfully play another trick on him.

* Joisey: Leonard

* JewsLoveToArgue: Howard and his mother. A lot.

** Another one in Season 3. In the first scene, Raj, Howard and Leonard run down the stairs shouting "Kites ho!", incurring Sheldon to give a speech on the correct use of the term 'ho'. Later, when Sheldon asks why Howard went through the trouble of learning the rules of American football so as not to embarrass himself in front of Penny's friends - and therefore still be able to see her - when he could have more easily paid someone else to have sex with him.

Starting in season four they added two new characters as semi-regulars, Bernadette Rostenkowski (Microbiologist) and Amy Farrah Fowler (Neurobiologist). Bernadette was Penny's friend and co-worker who began dating Howard. Amy is a [[DistaffCounterpart female counterpart]] and asexual love interest to Sheldon accidently discovered through an online dating service prank. While they are also extremely intelligent, they ended up forming a trio with Penny that contrasts the four guys and gives [[TheBechdelTest a new female perspective on the show]].

Starting in season four they added two new characters as semi-regulars, Bernadette Rostenkowski (Microbiologist) and Amy Farrah Fowler (Neurobiologist). Bernadette was Pennys' friend and co-worker who began dating Howard. Amy is a [[DistaffCounterpart female counterpart]] and asexual love interest to Sheldon accidently discovered through an online dating service prank. While they are also extremely intelligent, they ended up forming a trio with Penny that contrasts the four guys and gives [[TheBechdelTest a new female perspective on the show]].

** Sheldon, according to (some) fans and (tacitly) [[JimParsons the actor himself,]] who stated that Sheldon 'could not have more symptoms of Aspergers' without actually confirming or denying the hypothesis.

* NiceGuy: Leonard Hofstadter.
** Also Zack. [[RalphWiggum Conspicuously thick]], but in refreshing contrast to [[JerkJock the rest of Penny's exes]] doesn't seem to have a bad bone in his body.

* NiceGuy: Zack. [[RalphWiggum Conspicuously thick]], but in refreshing contrast to [[JerkJock the rest of Penny's exes]] doesn't seem to have a bad bone in his body.

** WordOfGod tells us her last name is Milton. [[http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1519501703 She has a Facebook?]]