18 Facts About Big Bang Theory Fans Are Still Ignoring

August 2024 · 7 minute read

It was a hit comedy series that ran for 12 hilarious seasons, and that famously ended its amazing run just last spring (with a fixed elevator, no less!). Sure, The Big Bang Theory wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it was one of CBS’ most popular series of the past decade. We’re going to miss the adventures of Sheldon, Leonard, Penny, Raj, Howard, Bernadette, and Amy and their intellectual banter, but there are some things about the show that will needle us for the rest of our lives.

There were some things in the show that were openly problematic and the producers never really explained their reasonings for not fixing some of the issues. However, eagle-eyed fans noticed them right off – but not every fan chose to acknowledge the problems with the show.

Here are 18 things wrong with the show that most fans still ignore.

18 Why Would Any Of Them Be Friends With Howard?

I mean, honestly... If you watch the show, you know that Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) was a pretty creepy individual. He aggressively hit on women, was a bit of a perv to them, and just overall a strange little man in general. It was just odd that all of this was ignored.

17 Speaking Of Which, He Never Would Have Gone To Space

Say it with me now: HOWARD CRASHED NASA’S MARS ROVER AND THEN COVERED IT UP. Sheldon (Jim Parsons) even ratted him out to the feds. YET, Howard was still allowed to be an astronaut and go on a mission in space? In the real world, he would never even get close to working for NASA if that happened.

16 Did No One Notice Amy’s Personality Change?

When we were first introduced to Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik), the love of Sheldon’s life, she was a carbon cutout copy of Sheldon himself, which is why he fell for her in the first place. But after a while, her personality started changing dramatically and she became way less of a robot and more of a human being. Did no one notice this?

15 Sheldon’s Infamous Disappearing, Reappearing Allergies

If you didn’t know, there is a lot that’s wrong with Sheldon (he claims nothing since his “mom had me tested” when he was a kid) but one is his allergies. In the beginning, he doesn’t allow pets in the apartment because he’s allergic and then when he breaks up with Amy, he’s suddenly over them and gets 20 CATS? Uh….

14 Sheldon’s Infamous Disappearing, Reappearing Eidetic Memory

So, we all know that eidetic memory is you literally cannot forget anything you see and hear, correct? Sheldon often likes to remind others of his remarkable brain, YET sometimes we catch him keeping notes and he often forgets some things as well. So, he DOESN’T have an eidetic memory? We’re not sure what’s going on here.

13 Leonard’s High School Bully Was…Sheldon’s Dad?

If you’re a fan of BBT, then you know all about Young Sheldon. The part of the doomed George Cooper, Sr is played by actor Lance Barber who, evidently enough, played a minor part in BBT as the bully who tormented Leonard during his formative years. You’d think that would’ve been spotty casting on the producer’s side….or maybe they just saw something they liked?

12 Don’t Get Us Started On The Elevator Thing

As fans know, the elevator in the building the group lives in has been broken for the entire 12 seasons (until the final episode), but the HOW it broke is still up for debate. In one episode, Sheldon tells Leonard that it has been broken since he moved in while in another episode, it’s revealed that Sheldon broke it when trying to save the group from a chemical explosion.

11 Problematic Math Equations

Sheldon and Leonard have always been known to use dry erase boards to figure out particular equations. In fact, they’re all over the apartment. But some eagle-eyed fans have often said that some of even the simplest equations on the boards are very wrong – which seems out of sorts for someone like Sheldon.

10 How On Earth Did Penny Afford Her Apartment In LA?

So during the first few seasons of the show, Penny works as a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory in Los Angeles while living in a slick one-bedroom apartment. Thing is, she’s constantly broke and borrows money from her friends across the hall, but NO ONE in her situation would be able to afford that apartment in this day and age.

9 Bernadette Would Have Ran For The Hills

As stated before, Howard is less than ideal in any situation, not just in a romantic one. Penny ends up setting her unsuspecting friend with Howard (seems pretty mean, Penny) and Howard does everything in his power to actually screw it up, yet Bernadette STICKS AROUND. Why??! That would never happen in the real world.

8 Why Did Penny Just Take All Of Sheldon’s Ill-Treatment Of Her?

Speaking of emotional ill-treatment, how about how Sheldon treats Penny? From the get go, he makes fun of her intelligence and she seems to take it in stride. She rarely ever gets angry with him despite some of the horrible things he says. And he even grows close to her because of it, but nevertheless, it’s still all problematic.

7 They’re All Pretty Mean To Each Other TBH

Sure, we all have those groups of friends who can roast each other hardcore, but with this group, it seems different and more personal. From digging on family background to one’s own race, it’s pretty mean spirited and spiteful. It’s a wonder they all are still close to each other.

6 Should Some Of The Characters Be Dead By Now?

Let’s see: most of the characters on the show have dangerously bad allergies (from Sheldon’s allergies to pet dander to Leonard’s allergies to everything including wine – which he drinks all the time) but pushing that aside, there was an episode where Kripke fills Sheldon’s office with helium for a joke. Yeah, that amount would’ve killed Sheldon, not make for a funny moment.

5 When Leonard Was At Sea For Months

In the sixth-seventh season of BBT, Leonard is offered a temp job from Stephen Hawking that puts him on the North Sea. The job would take months and Sheldon attempts to spook Leonard into staying home instead. Leonard ends up going…but yet it’s said that he somehow made it to Comic-Con (in San Diego) WHILE he was on this job? Nope, not possible.

4 Penny Was Literally A Bully In High School

Penny often drops hints about what her childhood was like, but during once instance, she reveals that she was actually a bully in high school and MAY even have committed a felony (as Bernadette meekly tells her) by tying up an honor student to torture her in a cornfield. Being a bully is ALWAYS bad, but man, this was just plain horrible.

3 Raj’s “Impairment”

If you’re a fan of the show, you know that Raj had an “impairment” where he couldn’t talk to women without the help of liquor. He eventually got over it, but it doesn’t explain HOW he was raised if he couldn’t literally talk women (including his mother and sister) or how he became an academic? I mean, c’mon guys.

2 The Misuse Of “Nerd” Culture

A lot of Big Bang Theory's biggest critics have spotted one extremely problematic thing the show gets wrong: nerd culture. Most say that the series goes over the top with their so-called version of what nerd culture actually is (from their obsession with Star Wars to their trips to the comic book store) and are wildly wrong about what it actually is.

1 What On Earth Happened To Penny’s Friends?

Hey, remember when Penny was super popular and had friends of her own OUTSIDE their small apartment crew? Yeah, it was so brief that even I forget sometimes. When she started officially dating Leonard, those friends just up and disappeared after she dissed them for Leonard, Sheldon, and company. What the heck was up with that?

References: CBS.com, Youtube.com, wikipedia.com, screenrant.com,

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