History TheBigBangTheory / TropesAToE

* TheBeard: Penny asked Leonard to pretend that they are still together when her father came to visit, because Leonard is "the first guy he ever approved of. [[LongList You're a scientist, you went to college, you don't have a neck tattoo or outstanding warrants... or a baby.]]" Leonard, delighting in the irony, proceeds to make out with her at every opportunity.
** Amy asked Sheldon to pretend to be her boyfriend so that her mom would get off her back. Sheldon initially confused it for an invitation to actually ''be'' her boyfriend, and was relieved when that wasn't the case. As they meet her mom over web cam, he made certain to talk about [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday how much sex they have together]].
** Raj is set up by his parents with an Indian girl who admits she is a lesbian and wants to marry him to dispel suspicion. A twist is that she (and others, including his friends and parents) think that Raj is in the closet as well so it would be a mutual beard relationship.
** This was the excuse used by Sheldon when he discovered [[spoiler: that Kripke was further along in his research than Sheldon was. When Kripke calls him out on this, he gives Sheldon an out by stating that Sheldon must be DistractedByTheSexy. Sheldon, not willing to admit his mental inferiority to Kripke , readily agrees. He then goes into extremely inaccurate detail about his sex life.]] Includes the gem "I gave her genitals a good rogering."
*** In this same scene, when Kripke asks if they use "toys" meaning the adult sense of the word, Sheldon naturally assumes he is talking about his collection, not making the connection.
--> '''Kripke:''' What about toys?\\
'''Sheldon:''' Well, yes, there's lightsabers and action figures...\\
'''Kripke:''' You're a FWEAK, Cooper!

* BlindDate: Penny sets Raj up with a DisabledLoveInterest.
** Howard meets Bernadette through a blind date, after Leonard convinces Penny to have one of her friends go on a double date. It goes poorly until [[BirdsOfAFeather they bond over their overbearing mothers]].

* DisabledLoveInterest: Emily, the girl that Penny finds for Raj, is deaf. So he can talk around her.

** Raj wants Howard to tell his new [[DisabledLoveInterest deaf love interest]] that he has a deep sexy voice like James Earl Jones, not realizing she wouldn't know the appeal anyway.

* EvenTheSubtitlerIsStumped: Howard is briefly stumped by Raj's DisabledLoveInterest's fast and furious signing.

** Many early episodes display Sheldon without traits that later become trademark actions, such as knocking on Penny's door once instead of thrice, and without stopping to say her name.

* CatchPhrase:
** Sheldon created his own with "Bazinga!" whenever he attempts a joke or prank. Unusually, it is only used a handful of times a season. ((A species of bee has been named "Euglossa bazinga".)
** "Excuse Me" when Sheldon has to interject with someone's statement.
** "You're in my spot." Used by Sheldon when [[ThisIsMyChair someone sits in his spot]]. Alternatively rendered as "that's my spot" or "that's where I sit".
** "Good lord!" when Sheldon when he is shocked, though ironically Sheldon is atheist.
** "Rats!" and "Drat!" when Sheldon is unsuccessful at something.
** "Here we go...." whenever someone causes Sheldon to go into an explanation he has apparently said previously numerous times. Usually said by Leonard.
** "I'm not crazy. My mother had me tested." Used by Sheldon when someone is exasperated with him and questions his mental health.
** Penny's favorite slur is "Rat bastard".
** The episode "The Gothowitz Deviation" features a one-shot character with her own catch phrase. Sarah the {{Goth}} girl finishes most of her lines with the phrase: "Not that anyone cares."

** In a flashback to when Leonard moved in with Sheldon, set in 2003, he, Howard and Raj are dressed like it's TheEighties. Or rather, a parody version of TheEighties.

* CloningBlues: In the (fictional) BMovie ''Serial Ape-ist 2: Monkey See, Monkey Kill'' Penny plays a clone of her character from the original film. She has problems though. The human DNA of the original character got mixed with the DNA of the KillerGorilla that killed her. So she is more of a BeastMan than an actual human. Further anguish is caused by the killer urges she inherited from the gorilla.

* CoolLoser: Thoroughly averted. While they have their own tight group of friends, they all have quirky mannerisms that would likely make them a bullying target, especially [[InsufferableGenius Sheldon]]. Leonard is the most normal and friendly of the group but especially in the early seasons he has an almost painfully timid disposition. This is a stark contrast to other stories that either have "charmingly geeky" main characters or the "awkwardly geeky" characters as only secondary characters.

** Courtney Ford showed up as a geeky girl and made a reference to Franchise/{{Superman}}. Ford is not only quite geeky herself, but is married to Brandon Routh of ''Film/SupermanReturns.''
** In an early episode, the boys consider recruiting "TV's Blossom" (Mayim Bialik) to their Physics Bowl team, as Raj has heard she has a Ph.D. in "neuroscience or something." ''Dr.'' Bialik does, in fact, have a Ph.D. in neuroscience, and later appeared on the show as Amy Farrah Fowler, a neurobiologist. After the Bialik suggestion gets shot down, he then suggests "that girl from ''Series/TheWonderYears''" and Danica [=McKeller=] later had a guest spot as Abby, one of the girls Sheldon meets and are impressed by his Franchise/GreenLantern's limited edition Lantern.

** In one episode they ''all'' dress like Franchise/TheFlash for Penny's Halloween episode.

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Despite being somewhat of a GrammarNazi, Sheldon himself seems highly prone to describing things this way, with "''Franchise/GreenLantern'' Lantern" and "''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Lord of the Rings]]'' Ring" being two prominent examples. Of course it's actually a subversion.

* BestedAtBowling: Sheldon, by Creator/WilWheaton.

* AnythingThatMoves: The physicist Dr. Plimpton that Sheldon invites over, sleeps with Leonard, Raj, and tries to seduce Howard, who has trouble being naked in front of Raj, all within a 24 hour period.

** Creator/ChristopherLloyd played a homeless man Sheldon recruited as part of a revenge prank on Leonard and Penny. ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' has been mentioned many times on the show.

** Howard has mentioned that he finds Bernadette's voice sexy when she shouts in the same tone as [[OedipusComplex his mother.]]

'''Leonard:''' You let him take nude photos of you?\\

* DistractedByTheSexy: Whenever a new pretty girl shows up. [[UsefulNotes/{{Asexuality}} Sheldon]] is immune, and, [[DependingOnTheWriter on occasion]], so is [[DoggedNiceGuy Leonard]]. Howard is ''always'' the first to lose focus. In fact, one time just hearing that Penny's visiting "friend" from Nebraska was [[ReallyGetsAround easy]] meant that between shots, Howard somehow managed to literally ''[[StealthHiBye disappear]]'' from the room!

* DoesNotLikeShoes: In general, Penny, except for flip-flops. A point is often made about [[AllWomenLoveShoes how many shoes she buys]], yet she never actually seems to wear them.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Amy's ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'' FanFic exaggerates the lower life expectancy of 19th century people. The protagonist Amelia converses with Cooper, a time traveler from the 21st century. She finds "strange" and "incredible" the concept of people living past thirty. But this was not an unusual occasion in this century. There is a paper called ''[[http://www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca/Eng/Docs/DEIP_Gallop.pdf Mortality improvements and evolution of life expectancies]]'' written by demographer Adrian Gallop, examining the life expectancy changes in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} United Kingdom]]. According to it: "Period life expectancy at birth in the mid-19th century was around 40 years for males and 42 years for females." And naturally there were individuals who lived to a ripe old age. For example there are [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates the Presidents of the United States]]. Lets see the ages of 19th century Presidents at death: UsefulNotes/JohnAdams (90 years), UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson (83 years), UsefulNotes/JamesMadison (85 years), UsefulNotes/JamesMonroe (73 years), UsefulNotes/JohnQuincyAdams (80 years), UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson (78 years), UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren (79 years), UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison (68 years), UsefulNotes/JohnTyler (71 years), UsefulNotes/JamesKPolk (53 years), UsefulNotes/ZacharyTaylor (65 years), UsefulNotes/MillardFillmore (74 years), UsefulNotes/FranklinPierce (64 years), UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan (77 years), UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln (56 years), UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson (66 years), UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant (63 years), UsefulNotes/RutherfordBHayes (70 years), UsefulNotes/JamesGarfield (49 years), UsefulNotes/ChesterAArthur (57 years), UsefulNotes/GroverCleveland (71 years), UsefulNotes/BenjaminHarrison (67 years), and UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley (58 years). All well above 30[[note]]The statistics on life expectancy for earlier time periods are often skewed by high infant mortality rates - when this is compensated for, life expectancy is a lot closer to modern levels than most people would think[[/note]].

** Creator/WilWheaton is an UnknownRival to Sheldon at first, and plays up being a jerkass celebrity. Part of the joke is that Sheldon actually LOVED Wesley Crusher, [[TheScrappy while many fans did not]], but hated Wheaton for a missed convention in his youth.

** Well, more to do with the fact that Howard's family fled from Europe during the War and included Holocaust survivors. Not to mention that Amy's reaction to the news that Bernadette's family were once their neighbors in the same village, subtly implying that [[FridgeHorror they might have sold them out]].

** Sheldon calls Penny out in "The Nerdvana Annihilation" as a hypocrite for calling the guys' interests childish when she herself still keeps stuffed animals in her apartment and wears Hello Kitty lounge shorts.