History YMMV / TheBigBangTheory

** The show took another step forward starting around the beginning of Season Six. The characters became more mature and well-rounded, less a bundle of stereotypes and more complex in their personalities. It also started highlighting moderate Story Arcs, seeing relationships and events evolve over a couple episodes instead of ignoring continuity for half a season.

* FanonDiscontinuity: An example brought about by the prequel series ''Series/YoungSheldon''. Fans like to think that Sheldon's father never cheated on his wife, due to ''Young Sheldon'' portraying him in a more sympathetic light. Despite the fact that ''Young Sheldon'' from the fourth season finale onward is seemingly leading to George sleeping with [[spoiler:Brenda Sparks.]], many are hoping that it's a RedHerring or a {{retcon}} will take place.

** Leslie Winkle gets phased out of the show the moment Amy and Bernadette were introduced and became regular cast members, which is a shame as you never get to see Leslie interact much with the new female cast.

** "Bazinga!"[[labelnote:Explanation]]Sheldon's go-to phrase for explaining that he was playing a joke on someone. The status of it as his {{catchphrase}} and its consequent omnipresence in promotional material and merchandise resulted in it becoming a popular subject for parody, especially among non-fans, distorting it in a number of ways (e.g. "Zimbabwe").[[/labelnote]]

*** He could be "Clark Kenting" to what he thinks all geniuses should be, copying a professor/doctor/whatever who had Autism whom he idolized when he was growing up in a highly religious part of Texas. Now he has become the mask. Given how much of a role Dr. Sturgis played in his life, as seen in ''Young Sheldon,'' this may not be a bad guess at all.
*** Given that, according to Sheldon, his mother had him tested, and that this presumably occurred when he was a child, it is possible that he has a personality disorder that would not have been diagnosable in a child. Since a personality disorder is not "insanity" -- and given that Sheldon is extremely LiteralMinded he may be just reacting to the terms "insane" or "crazy" only.
*** There have been lots of hints (some subtle, some not so subtle) that Sheldon's family life was not exactly ideal: his father was an abusive drunk and his mother uses religion as a form of denial. Losing his father no doubt added to the trauma. And then there was the analogy Sheldon once drew between schmoozing wealthy university donors for grant funding to being molested in the back of a van... [[{{Squick}} which was probably a little ''too'' descriptive]] for the otherwise overly literal Sheldon to be making an extended metaphor. One gets the impression that Sheldon's childhood was horror even leaving aside the bullying he experienced as a result of his obnoxious personality. Combined with at least three severe emotional breakdowns we've seen him have, Sheldon's arrogance and aloofness may well be a defense mechanism which is breaking down over time. While ''Young Sheldon'' reveals that at least some of this is overexaggerated, he certainly did not have an easy time of it overall.
*** Another aspect of his home life that might be affecting his social ability: Sheldon is extremely logical and a materialist. His mother is TheFundamentalist. He was raised by someone who, from his perspective, believes in irrational superstitions (and since her fundamentalism is a method of denial and [[AssociationFallacy she is heavily implied to be very controlling, he's likely been hidden away from the positive aspects of religion, assuming all religious people are like his mother]]). He would have been put off at living with and being raised by a person who went around talking about, or even to, a being that doesn't exist.

** Both Sheldon and Wil Wheaton in "The Habitation Configuration". See DesignatedVillain for more information.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: When the show first came out what made it revolutionary was the emphasis on genuinely nerdy and awkward lead characters, along with [[ShownTheirWork the largely accurate science]] and references to actual nerd culture and not just SmallReferencePools or BlandNameProduct stand-ins. It still had a LaughTrack as a traditional sitcom, which likes to mock its characters, and that created a sizeable backlash to audiences who were turning away from that format. But before the show "nerdy" characters in most comedies were either minor side characters where that is their one trait or were "[[NerdsAreSexy charmingly nerdy]]" main characters where they liked Star Trek but otherwise would have a GirlOfTheWeek. By placing more realistically awkward characters with all their flaws front and center, while also giving them prestigious jobs and notable character arcs, it helped to make nerd culture more of a mainstream topic to celebrate. A number of later shows have perhaps been able to be more innovative in its structure and less broad in their character types.

** Some feel that Leonard and Penny's plotline in Season 12 [[spoiler:was ruined by Penny being pregnant and happy in the GrandFinale, as it creates some UnfortunateImplications while also making their story in that season unnecessary. After Leonard coming to terms with the idea of not being a father and simply being happy in a relationship with Penny, all that is said in the final episode is that she now wants them after accidentally getting pregnant]].

** The gang is supposed to be sympathetic for having to put up with Sheldon. The thing is, they're hardly better than him in later seasons and greatly enjoy mistreating him (and each other). In fairness though, several years of putting up with Sheldon's {{Jerkass}} behavior would wear just about anyone out, especially since he refuses to learn despite being warned time and time again.

** Leonard, Howard, Raj, Penny, Amy and Bernadette are supposed to be sympathetic for having to put up with Sheldon. The thing is, they're no better than him and enjoy tormenting him, bullying him, and insulting him (and each other) to his face. This also makes the many, many episodes where they "stand up to Sheldon" unsatisfying, they rarely if ever take his {{Jerkass}} behavior lying down and they come across as massive {{Hypocrite}}s who can dish it out but can't take it.
** "The Panty Pinata Polarization" has Sheldon and Penny getting into an EscalatingWar over the rules at Sheldon's apartment. We're supposed to side with Penny, but she's acting just as awful and petty as Sheldon, taking advantage of his many quirks to drive him insane.

** Howard is this in "The Apology Insufficiency", where he gets ticked-off at Sheldon because Sheldon accidentally told a government agent that Howard crashed the Mars Rover trying to impress a date, and as a result Howard didn't get security clearance to work on a project. Howard [[NeverMyFault was the idiot who crashed the Mars Rover trying to impress a girl in the first place, and he didn't even have clearance to enter the control room in the first place]]. Sheldon told the agent - by accident - something completely true about Howard that demonstrates that he is indeed an irresponsible person who really shouldn't have security clearance. And yet we're supposed to side with Howard.

** Viewers tend to either think Sheldon is the best part of the show, or wish that he'd remove that gigantic stick from his ass for once.

* TheScrappy: You'd be hard pressed to find anyone neurodivergent who likes Sheldon Cooper. Autistic individuals in particular have had their behavior unflatteringly compared to Sheldon's, whose writing checks every single box for HollywoodAutism, despite Chuck Lorre claiming that Sheldon isn't meant to be autistic. He would be considered a reductive stereotype of a neurodivergent individual in the 1980s, and he was on network TV in the 2000s.

** In "The Werewolf Transformation", Sheldon plays bongos because Richard Feynman played them. In Film/{{Oppenheimer}}, we see an unnamed character played by Creator/JackQuaid playing the bongos and is in fact credited as Richard Feynman.

** Some of the later season episodes plays around with the idea of having Howard go back to college to finally get his [=PhD=] in Engineering, which would _finally_ put him at the same education level as his friends rather than him always being mocked as the guy who's only at a Masters degree. However, this potential storyline is quickly forgotten about after a few episodes.

* ShallowParody: The jokes about geek culture hit really obvious targets like video games, ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Franchise/StarTrek'', etc. The targets are so big in the mainstream it's considered perfectly normal to be into them. The show itself even acknowledges this early on, when Penny mocks Leonard for collecting action figures when she herself has numerous ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' and ''Franchise/HelloKitty'' dolls.

** After [[https://screenrant.com/big-bang-theory-penny-teller-last-name-revealed/ a redditor spotted a label on a package listing Penny's full name]] as [[Creator/PennAndTeller Penny Teller]] in ''[[Recap/TheBigBangTheoryS2E18TheWorkSongNanocluster The Work Song Nanocluster]]'', the authors and editors of [[TheWikiRule the series' fandom Wiki]] and [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} her Wikipedia article]] pretty much considered it as canon as information on her last name will ever be, and updated their articles accordingly.

** Howard is this in the story arc dealing with Howard's feeling unwelcome and underappreciated after returning from space. While the episode tries to play him off as having AcquiredSituationalNarcissism. Howard has been the butt of his friends' jokes since the beginning of the series for not having a doctorate. Even Penny and Bernadette have mocked him for this. So when he finally has something to brag about they just come across as petty for not letting him do it.

** Penny's B-Horror movie plotline, and how it started to involve Penny in a geekier sphere of influence professionally (i.e. Wil Wheaton's podcast, the fan convention) could have been an interesting opportunity to explore how Penny's years of hanging out with geeks could actually help her as an actress, and in turn, force the guys to recognize how much actors like Penny have shaped their lives, and deserve more respect.

** In The Bozeman Reaction, at no point does Sheldon point out that Bozeman, UsefulNotes/{{Montana}} is the future sight of the test of the first warp engine & first contact with the Vulcans in the film Star Trek: First Contact. Given his love of Star Trek, and TNG in general, this would surely have been a factor in his decision to move there. On a side-note, this counts as a GeniusBonus, and might be deliberate on the part of the writers.