As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
My precious... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
The Terrifying Horror Explanation.- Howard's mother. We never see her, she always shouts, and according to Howard, he doesn't live with her,
she lives with him. - Leonard's mother is chilling. She sounds how a female version of AM would. Imagine Leonard's childhood. Hell, look at the way she Mind Rapes Penny with that smile on her face
: It's a wonder Leonard didn't turn into a serial killer!- The worst part is that it's completely Played for Laughs, even when Leonard actually shows how much his mother's behavior upsets him. On top of that, his mother KNOWS that her behavior is abnormal and directly harmful to the development of her children, being an expert psychologist, but she doesn't have any interest whatsoever in changing.
- The worst part is that it's completely Played for Laughs, even when Leonard actually shows how much his mother's behavior upsets him. On top of that, his mother KNOWS that her behavior is abnormal and directly harmful to the development of her children, being an expert psychologist, but she doesn't have any interest whatsoever in changing
- The Morlock scene. A dream within a dream, both with Morlocks that attack Sheldon no matter where he goes with the Time Machine.Sheldon: (after the real dream) LEONAAAAAAAAAAAARRRD!!!
- Sheldon's fake smile with his eyes wide open and showing all of his teeth was the page image here for a long time. It still has a home on TV Tropes, over at 'The Unsmile'. Howard's reaction upon seeing it? "Oh, crap, that's terrifying!"Leonard: We're here to see Koothrapali, not kill Batman!
- When Sheldon got even with Leonard for a scare prank. Not the prank itself, but the fact that the audience didn't see that coming.
- Bernadette will be cute, sweet, and cuddly one moment: the next, she may use her scary voice to force you to do things.
- Or let it slip that she accidentally combined Ebola with the common cold.
- Sheldon's dream at the end of "The Santa Simulation". Sweet moment with Santa: Awww. Santa turns it around and shoots up the apartment with a cannon... Um, yeah, definitely a nightmare. Sheldon's face at the end when he wakes up shows the poor guy is obviously terrified and there's no ending joke to defuse the tension for the emotionally confused audience. The audience that just saw Santa. Try. To. Kill. Sheldon.Santa: This is for leaving me in the dungeon to be eaten alive by ogres!Sheldon: Wait a minute, hang on! In my defense-Santa: Ho, ho, ho, you big dork! (BOOM!)
- And Santa may not be alone. Howard tried to gently push with his car Sheldon in an office chair out of his new parking space. (Makes Sense In Context) Sheldon accuses Howard of trying to run him over. Howard's response was essentially "Hey don't get mad 'cause I was living the dream,". Howard dreams of running Sheldon over!
- The episode when Howard eats peanuts in order to keep Leonard away from his apartment for a surprise party. Howard's swollen face was TERRIFYING.
- Sheldon gets 25 cats replace Amy in his life. The episode is hilarious and cute but this line is jarringly disturbing.Leonard: Fine then, live with cats, be like my aunt Nancy! She had dozens of them and you know what happened after she died? They ate her!
- Sheldon's response to the Rorschach ink blot test:
- In the episode where the guys fight over a prop of the One Ring, Sheldon has a nightmare where he gets it and becomes Gollum. It isn't a pretty sight. Sweet dreams.
- Literally, and in-show: for Penny (and Leonard), it's Howard and Leonard's explanation of how Sheldon might reproduce.Howard: I'm an advocate of mitosis. […] I believe one day he'll eat an enormous amount of Thai food and split into two Sheldons.
Leonard: On the other hand, I believe he's the larval form of his species and someday he'll spin a cocoon and emerge two months later with moth wings and an exoskeleton.
Penny: Okay, well, thanks for the nightmares. - In Season 5's "The Infestation Hypothesis", it's never shown what exactly was crawling around inside the chair Penny picked up off the street. Its size, shape, and movements seem to indicate a mouse or a small rat, which would be scary enough, but the fact is we never find out for sure.
- Earlier in that episode, Sheldon has a horrifying Nightmare Sequence involving a swarm of roaches crawling out of the chair and burying him alive.
- It was already pretty friggin' scary but after Bernadette lets it slip that she and some other microbiologists crossed Ebola with the common cold Leonard asks, "Why would you do that?" and Bernadette responds "We didn't. That would be a terrible, terrible thing." all the while wearing a huge smile on her face. Brrr.
- When Howard digs out his childhood set of magic tricks from the closet, he discovers the "dove in the pan" trick still contains the dove.
- Raj trapped in Mrs. Wolowitz's house.
- When telling stories about what life would be like if they never met Sheldon, Howard's story involves his mother being dead and it's unknown if she died naturally or Howard killed her. He still has her body and treats it as if she is still alive.
- The face. Oh god, the face. Also the fact that this is still the closest we've come to seeing Howard's mother properly.
- Not to mention Howard's creepy expression as he finishes telling this story. He's not just imagining, he's fantasizing.
- Bernadette's fake laugh is one of the most terrifying moments in the series so far.
- Early in the first season, Penny lets slip to Sheldon that Leonard may have made light of Sheldon's accomplishments. The sight of a genuinely pissed-off Sheldon, towering over Penny as she backs away, demanding to know what exactly Leonard said. Up to that point, Sheldon had largely been played as a Cloud Cuckoo Lander, but seeing that scene, you could very easily believe it when Leonard says that Sheldon is one lab accident away from becoming a super-villain.
- When Howard is going into space the gang is sitting in the apartment watching the launch together. It's a heartwarming scene. It becomes Nightmare Fuel when you think about the Challenger disaster and consider what if it was your own friend/spouse in Howard's place.
- Stuart's entire life. His misfortunes may seem funny to us who watch him, but try to put yourself in his shoes. His life is basically an endless series of nightmares that come true, at least until he met Howard's mother, got back onto his feet with her help and became a member of the gang Whatever hell he has experienced, he doesn't have to face it alone now... until everyone move on with their lives and he's alone again, as seen in one episode where 20 years later he is standing outside the apartment building waiting for everyone else to show up for a meeting they all had set.
- The two HUGE rats that attack Raj in "The Expedition Approximation."
- In "The Hot Troll Deviation", Howard, using a recording of Sheldon saying "Penny", tricks Penny into opening the door by imitating Sheldon's signature knock. Penny then states she wouldn't have opened the door if she knew it was him after he gave her a teddy bear that turned out to contain a webcam.
- Leonard's red and raw body when he removes the sweater in "The Itchy Brain Simulation". And then to find out that Sheldon deliberately manipulated Leonard into wearing it for days. "One lab accident away" indeed...
- It's no simple heat rash, either: it looks the kind of rash you'd get from an allergic reaction. If Leonard had worn the sweater just a bit longer...
- Bernadette threatening an airport employee to have her mother in law's ashes found and returned to them with murder (albeit used for comedy), one only has to wonder why she didn't call security on Bernie. But imagine trying to do your job and dealing with the usual angry customers, only for one of them to threaten to kill you if you don't help them out.
- Raj and Howard are watching horror films in order to prep Raj for his date with Emily. Despite all this, the two are completely freaked out and unprepared to handle the movies she picked out. Howard verbally sums up what they've seen so far, and it's stuff far more horrific than you're ever likely to see in any mainstream horror film. Raj isn't sure he wants to date someone who watches that kind of film, and he questions Emily about it. Her response? "They kind of turn me on." Raj is too horny to consider the implications and just presses play, but just think of what that means. What kind of terrifying things must go on in Emily's brain?
- Far more horrific? Goodness, no. The movie they discuss watching is 100% real. Sweet dreams.
- In one episode, Leonard comments that nobody goes into science for the money, at which point Bernadette dismisses him with a "Speak for yourself, my research team just invented and cured restless eye syndrome. Kaching ya blinky chumps!" The idea of scientists inventing new diseases just to make money off the cure is deeply unsettling in how sociopathic it is.
- Less so if it was actually classifying a already common body quirk as a syndrome. B.O, Halitosis, foot fungus, all of these existed since the beginning of time, and only recently were these classified as disorders. And thus the personal hygiene companies rejoiced, and so did people with the miracle cures that helped with such diseases. Bernadette could be saying that her company classified something as a disease and they have a cure for it. Hooray for marketing! The real horror is the psychosomatic symptoms people are bound to have induced by the very idea of R.E.S, and that the only cure is to buy and use the product. The idea is a mind virus itself, manipulating people to seek a cure for a previously unnoticeable disease! Bernadette just spread the mind virus to the BBT gang, and now YOU!
- Stuart watching Howard and Bernadette while they sleep is just plain chilling.Stuart: I've missed this...
- Leonard's rocket fuel fiasco in "The Staircase Implementation". Ever see those government PSAs showing what happens if you're too careless with fireworks? Now swap that combustible out for military-grade rocket fuel. Despite being Played for Laughs, the whole thing is very much a grave threat to Leonard's life, and he would most likely have been killed had Sheldon not stepped in the way he did.
