Tuesdays are thai takeout night. Photo: Michael Yarish/CBS
They love comic books, costumes, video games, and sci-fi in all forms of media, but what are the other recurring themes, jokes, and life experiences that make up Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, Raj, Penny, Amy, Bernadette, Stuart, and their Big Bang Theory characters we’ve been following for nine seasons? Just as each of those characters can be largely defined by his or her eccentricities (we could write a book on Sheldon alone), some of those quirks also point to how much each of them has evolved throughout the seasons (even if some of them still have a significant way to go). Here’s our rundown of all the Theory-isms that continue to keep the CBS sitcom churning after all these years.
Feelings
They love comic books, costumes, video games, and sci-fi in all forms of media, but what are the other recurring themes, jokes, and life experiences that make up Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, Raj, Penny, Amy, Bernadette, Stuart, and their Big Bang Theory characters we’ve been following for nine seasons? Just as each of those characters can be largely defined by his or her eccentricities (we could write a book on Sheldon alone), some of those quirks also point to how much each of them has evolved throughout the seasons (even if some of them still have a significant way to go). Here’s our rundown of all the Theory-isms that continue to keep the CBS sitcom churning after all these years.
Feelings
Sheldon has them, and doesn’t care for them. Just recently he wanted to go back to living old-school, where he didn’t get emotional about most other people, and certainly didn’t understand the emotions of other people. But nine seasons in, he’s got a whole group of friends he cares about, and, currently, an ex-girlfriend he’s pining for, so he has begrudgingly accepted that feelings are a part of his life now. As he admitted to Amy in season eight’s “The Prom Equivalency,” “I love you … there's no denying I have feelings for you that can't be explained in any other way. I briefly considered I had a brain parasite, but that seems even more far-fetched. The only conclusion was love.”
“Fun With Flags”
“Fun With Flags”
The full title is “Sheldon Cooper Presents: Fun With Flags,” and it is a podcast series in which Sheldon, with Amy’s help, teaches viewers all about vexillology, the study of flags. How much fun can one actually have with flags? A surprising amount, thanks to podcast guest stars like Wil Wheaton and LeVar Burton, and Amy’s willingness to dress up like a pretzel and a kangaroo to celebrate the flags of Bavaria and Australia, respectively. The most recent installment of “Fun With Flags” was decidedly less fun, as, post–breakup with Amy, Sheldon devoted the episode to the flags of countries he asserted had been torn asunder by women. The podcast is not Sheldon’s only nod to flags; there is an official flag of apartment 4A, the home he shares with Leonard. It’s a blue flag with a gold lion on it, and it can be seen, along with the U.S. flag, in every episode of “Fun With Flags,” as well as in magnet form on the apartment refrigerator. In times of distress, the flag is to be turned upside down.
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