Everyone has at least one television program they just can not miss. We as
viewers live vicariously through these fictional characters, as if reality is not exciting
enough. Television has something for everyone--from the mind-numbing comatose reality
shows (gak) to mind-challenging characters as in “The Big Bang Theory.”
Big Bang, as it is known to faithful followers who call themselves “Bangers,”
consists of four nerdy guys who teach at Cal Tech in Pasadena, California, and their
Nebraska-transplant neighbor Penny, a would-be actress who works at the Cheesecake
Factory until she gets her big break. Sheldon, Leonard, and Raj all have doctorates in
some field within Physics, while Howard is just as brilliant but has “only a Masters.”
Penny lives across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard, and has her share of career and
romantic woes. All the characters have their own textbook idiosyncrasies.
Sheldon and Leonard share an apartment in a four-story walkup because the
elevator exploded years ago from an experiment gone wrong by the guys. However,
walking up and down the four flights of stairs, and chance encounters in the laundry
room, engages the apartment dwellers in bantering and gives us a glimpse to look further
into their lives.
Sheldon has an IQ equivalent to Albert Einstein (220), and has little or no social
skills. He does not see the need for “engaging in coitus” (sex) unless it is for
reproduction. He is obsessive-compulsive, and displays facial ticks and is easily flustered
when his world is thrown off balance. He has a Roommate Contract with multiple clauses
and sub clauses of several pages which he sees as a necessity to keep order in his little
universe. When Leonard has a woman spend the night for coitus, Sheldon refers to “page
17, clause C, sub clause 5 about no overnight guests without prior approval by all.” He
has his personal space on the couch from which he has clear view of the television and
the kitchen, has a cool breeze in the summer and is directly under the heat register in the
winter. And NO ONE sits in his spot on the couch. He is baffled by sarcasm and “just
when I think I‘ve got it, someone does a Bazinga on me.” Sheldon is from Texas which
he refers to “that hell-hole of Bible thumping ignorants who are a sub species all their
own.” He has never learned to drive as he believes it is beneath him to learn, yet he
depends on his social network of friends to drive him where he wants, when he wants and
he tells them how to get there. Even his menu of meals is unbending when Penny makes
French toast for breakfast one morning and Sheldon will not eat it because it is
Wednesday--oatmeal day; the French toast goes in the trash.
Leonard appears totally normal compared to Sheldon, but then, what is
“normal” in this social group? He adheres to the strict code of conduct outlined by the
Roommate Contract so he stays on the good side of Sheldon. He knows Sheldon can
make life intolerable if the code is violated. Sheldon put a line of tape on the bathroom
floor behind which males must stand while urinating in the toilet; Sheldon “calculated
the distance and found it to be where the least amount of back splash and little room for
error when voiding one’s bladder.“ Leonard and Penny dated for awhile and “engaged in
coitus.” Even though they have been seeing other people, they still have feelings for each
other. Leonard’s mother is a well-known and oft-published psychiatrist, but she lacks any
warmth to be able to connect with her own son. Leonard once confides in Penny that he
never celebrates his birthday because as his mother says, “I gave birth to you. Isn’t that
enough?” Leonard tells Penny that as a child, he built a hugging machine out of an old
dressmaker’s dummy and fashioned mechanical arms. He says, “the pathetic thing was I
found my dad using it.” This is why Leonard has difficulty with opening up his feelings in
intimate relationships.
Raj is from India and his parents are very rich. His father is a gynecologist and his
parents never let him forget that their marriage was arranged. His parents are worried he
will not find a suitable wife in America and offer to set him up with Indian women from
good families. He wants to be able to identify with the “Slum Dog” Indian types but then
he refers to his privileged childhood with personal servants. He speaks with his parents
via laptop on a frequent basis. Raj has phobias about talking with women--he just clams
up and becomes very uncomfortable. The only time he can talk with women is when he is
drinking alcohol which lowers his inhibitions. He decides to participate in an on-campus
experiment with mood-altering drugs to deal with his woman problem. He not only loses
all inhibitions, but he starts taking off his clothes in public. Raj has his own apartment
where his lawyer sister sometimes stays when she is here from India. Raj enjoys cooking
and entertaining his friends which causes concern for his parents regarding his sexuality.
Howard is a 30-year-old Polish-Jewish man/boy, still living at home with his
mother who is always making a brisket; we hear her but we never see her. Howard thinks
of his room as a love nest with its leopard print bed spread, and it is full of classic and
valuable science fiction paraphernalia. He is a Trekkie fan and, like the other three
friends, loves to go to the comic book store. His “chick-magnet clothes” (his words) are
carefully color coordinated, even down to the belt buckles and tennis shoes. I get the
impression of a preening peacock here. Howard rides a pink Vespa scooter and brags that
he is in the NASA astronaut program for future flights. He designed the body waste
disposal system for the space station, which he conveniently says to impress girls. “Oh,
you made a space potty,” says one girl. Howard is the only one who has a regular
relationship with a cute little bioengineer named Bernadette Rostenkowski to whom he is
engaged. She is so in love with him that she looks beyond his faults for the boy he really
is. Because she has a PhD and makes more money than he does “with only a Masters,”
they have decided that when they are married and start a family, Howard will stay home
and take care of the kids.
Having moved from Nebraska to southern California to get into acting, Penny is a
waitress at the Cheesecake Factory until her big break comes along. She is perky, blond,
and wholesome looking, and the love interest of Leonard. When they start dating, she lies
smarter than she really is. However after Leonard and she break up, she finds all men
stupid and boring, and she quickly loses interest in them. Leonard sees the parade of
“Losers” (his term) she dates and confronts her with her poor choices. She tells Leonard
that he ruined her to date “normal men.” Penny is a kind hearted sister figure and brings a
woman’s point of view to the guys’ daily lives. She realizes that an education is a
valuable commodity and she has missed out. Although she admires the guys for their
brainiac IQs, she sees the common difficulties they have in everyday interaction with
people who are not their kind. She did ask Sheldon to explain quantum physics so she
could have something to talk about to Leonard. It did not go over well.
The common theme is education is important, however the more tightly focused
one’s education is, the fewer people one can relate to. In the name of research, the guys
are looked upon as idiosyncratic. In colleges and universities, those in like disciplines
seldom associate with others outside their own disciplines as demonstrated by the lunch
table the four guys share every day, seldom opening up their clique for anyone else to
join. Even though it is billed as a half-hour situation comedy, the elevated vocabulary in
their conversation is titillating and inspires one to attain a higher echelon of thinking.
Works Consulted
Big Bang Theory. 8 Dec 2011. Television.
Big Bang Theory. 22 Dec 2011. Television.
Big Bang Theory. 9 Feb 2012. Television.
