History YMMV / TheBigBangTheory

** In the first half of the series finale, Leonard [[spoiler:slaps the absolute shit out of Sheldon]] and it was long overdue for many.

* {{Fanon}}:

* CriticalBacklash: The Big Bang Theory is frequently mocked online, ridiculed for relying on outdated nerd stereotypes for jokes, undergoing perceived SeasonalRot after the guys all entered relationships, {{Flanderization}} of the cast, supposedly promoting "{{adorkable}} misogyny", or simply because ItsPopularNowItSucks. There are even edited versions of episode clips with the laughter from the studio audience muted in order to "prove" just how unfunny the show actually is. Yet, it is one of the most-watched shows on cable television even after it ended in 2019, Creator/JimParsons won four Emmys for his performance as Sheldon and critics usually gave it favorable reviews. It even did well enough to warrant a spin-off in ''Series/YoungSheldon''.

*** One notable example of this is Dr. Stephanie Barnett (Creator/SaraRue) in Season 2. She's introduced in a 3 episode mini-arc as Howard's boyfriend only for Stephanie to end up hitting it off with Leonard, and eventually becomes his girlfriend instead. How does Leonard and Stephanie's relationship evolve from there? No one knows since Stephanie [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse never appeared again]] after the mini-arc. The show just continued on as if the Stephanie plotline never happened.

*** As the show goes on Raj demonstrates some pretty big {{Jerkass}} tendencies. Is this how he's always been and his inability to talk to women kept it from being showcased too much or is it largely born out of bitterness and frustration towards his horrendous love life? Howard did claim that Raj has always been a bit obnoxious it should be noted.

** Raj being so opposed to Leonard dating his sister Priya. He puts up a "big brother" front stating he's just looking out for his sister and not wanting to see her get hurt. However, given the way Priya treated Leonard, it's possible that Raj knew exactly how Priya treats her boyfriends, and was actually trying to protect ''Leonard''?

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: At first. Even if you find the show funny, it can quickly become tiring watching the four male leads constantly being bullied, harassed, insulted and put down by everyone and their mother.[[note]]That's not hyperbole, Leonard's mother literally wrote a book about why she considers him a failure.[[/note]] in addition, the main characters (except Stuart) all TookALevelInJerkass after the first season, making them very hard to sympathize with.

** At the finale of "The Santa Simulation," Sheldon reveals to "Santa" (in a Christmas-themed game of ''Dungeons & Dragons'') why he dislikes Christmas; [[spoiler: Sheldon had asked Santa when he was a child to bring back his grandfather, who had died earlier that year and was the only family member to encourage his interest in science. Sheldon instead got Lincoln Logs]]. In TheStinger, Sheldon meets Santa Claus during a dream, in which Santa apologizes for letting Sheldon down as a boy. Rather than a heartwarming moment where Sheldon's Pop Pop comes back for one dream so Sheldon can say good bye and make amends, [[spoiler:Santa shoots Sheldon with a cannon, making the ending a CatapultNightmare]].

** Penny's B-Horror movie plotline, and how it started to involve Penny in a more geeky 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.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Lucy, who was Raj's girlfriend for the latter third of Season 6. Many fans thought that Creator/KateMicucci would have been a great addition to the show's recurring cast, and were enthused both by the prospect of a female character who was into stereotypically male interests such as comics and video games (she and Raj first met in the comic store), and was much more of a shy wallflower-type character (the nearest thing among the existing characters being Amy, which was mostly negated by her having the same blunt force trauma social mannerisms as Sheldon). However, the episode after Lucy's introduction wasted no time in establishing that her interests were just as stereotypically "girly" as those of the three female regulars and that she just happened to randomly wander into the comic store at exactly the right time to meet Raj, and the remaining episodes she was in gave her next-to-no character development, before she was PutOnABus at the end of the season.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** At the finale of "The Santa Simulation," Sheldon reveals to "Santa" (in a Christmas-themed game of ''Dungeons & Dragons'') why he dislikes Christmas; [[spoiler: Sheldon had asked Santa when he was a child to bring back his grandfather, who had died earlier that year and was the only family member to encourage his interest in science. Sheldon instead got Lincoln Logs]]. In TheStinger, Sheldon meets Santa Claus during a dream, in which Santa apologizes for letting Sheldon down as a boy. Rather than a heartwarming moment where Sheldon's Pop Pop comes back for one dream so Sheldon can say good bye and make amends, [[spoiler:Santa shoots Sheldon with a cannon, making the ending a CatapultNightmare]].
** In The Bozeman Reaction, at no point does Sheldon point out that Bozeman 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.

** The gang has often made jokes about Sheldon being an alien in human disguise. In the ''[=DreamWorks=]'' movie ''WesternAnimation/{{Home}}'', Jim Parsons voices an obnoxious alien invading on Earth.

* ValuesDissonance: The early seasons have a lot of transphobia in them, typically in sex jokes.

** The show took another step forward starting around the beginning of Season Six, as the characters became more mature and the jokes in general became somewhat less obnoxious.

* GrowingTheBeard: The show wasn't quite certain what tone they were going to have for the show in the early episodes, focusing on the characters getting themselves into awkward situations and barely climbing out of it unscathed. It wasn't until the Halloween party in the 8th episode where the real strengths of the series came into play, showing the characters trying to navigate relatively common social situations and coming up short but wiser for it. This continued into the later half of the first season that cemented its characters better.

** Played with Penny and Leonard. Leonard also calls out Penny for how she treats him, and she makes an effort to modify her behavior. However, she quickly reverts back to form at the end of the episode.

** Thankfully this is gradually averted as the show continues, with most of the cast getting an EarnYourHappyEnding by the series finale.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Sheldon. He isn't really a bad guy, but correspondingly to the RonTheDeathEater effect that Leonard can be subject to, Sheldon's character flaws, arrogance and {{Jerkass}} tendencies can be drastically downplayed.
** The other main characters (except [[NiceGuy Stuart]]) get this a lot as well, especially Leonard. They're often portrayed as saints by those who dislike Sheldon, but in truth they're no better than him and often make fun of him, torment him, or humiliate him [[ItAmusedMe for the heck of it]]. And unlike Sheldon, who's intended to be an UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist, they're rarely called out on it.

* HollywoodHomely: Averted to a degree. None of the characters would be considered unattractive, but they do make efforts to explain their lack of social success. For example, Johnny Galecki combines the glasses with unflattering hair, awkward posture, unflattering facial expressions, and nervous character tics (he frequently plays with his fingers when talking to someone). He also wears slightly oversized clothing to hide the fact that Galecki is actually in pretty good shape.

** Some have pointed out that [[spoiler:Penny being happy with being pregnant in the GrandFinale, after her entire story arc with Leonard in Season 12 was about her admitting she doesn't want kids and how their relationship handles that, implies that women who say they don't want kids only believe they don't until they actually do have kids. Bernadette says this to Penny when she explains that she doesn't kids, but despite Penny's claims to the contrary Bernadette was ultimately proven right]].

** However Sheldon was not a licenced driver at the time and took instructions from someone who was. He presented actual arguments to the Judge in traffic court all of which the judge ignored for rule of funny.

** Penny getting pregnant in the final episode seems to come out of nowhere as a convenient way to resolve the underlying tension between her not wanting to have kids and Leonard (as well as Penny's friends and family) wanting her to have them. The fact that it is an Ass Pull stems from the fact Penny was actively trying not to get pregnant, yet we are expected to believe she was using no form of personal contraceptive to prevent it?
*** TruthInTelevision: There are a number of instances where contraceptives can fail. Even if Penny was taking a contraceptive at the time, she may not have used it correctly. Birth control pills are typically 99 percent effective ''if you take them correctly.'' If not, that goes down to [[https://www.vox.com/2014/9/19/6418767/birth-control-pills-effectiveness-how-to-use-common-questions 91 percent]].

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* [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic/TheBigBangTheory Unintentionally Unsympathetic]]
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** Sheldon can fall into this a lot as well. Yeah, he's an InsufferableGenius, but the things that [[{{Jerkass}} Leonard]] and his friends do to him generally slide into DisproportionateRetribution, and they're also rather fond of messing with him because [[ItAmusedMe it amuses them]], making it hard not to feel at least a little sympathy for him. For example, in the aforementioned "The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation", he and his friends return from the North Pole, only for Sheldon to discover that his friends faked data in order to get him to be less obnoxious. They tell him this AFTER he sent out an email to the university about how he'd discovered magnetic monopoles, and as a result he is humiliated and mocked. Even if they were planning on telling him before he sent out the email and just didn't realize how fast he would do it, the others just shrug him off and act like he's overreacting (the only one who has his back is Penny; and Raj, to an extent). We're presumably supposed to side with them, but can you really blame him for being upset and betrayed considering that they humiliated him and on top of that FAKED DATA - which is a big breach of ethics in the academic community - just to get him to be less annoying?
** In "The Agreement Dissection", after Priya abolishes the Roommate Agreement, we have Sheldon coming home to discover that Leonard, Howard and Raj got Greek food, which they know that he loathes, on Pizza Night [[ItAmusedMe just to tick him off]], which was not justified at all - none of them had said anything about not liking pizza, and Leonard hates Greek food just as much as Sheldon does and yet he's totally okay with getting it for no other reason than to make Sheldon angry (not to mention that when Sheldon points out that Leonard hates Greek food, Leonard just replies "[[{{Jerkass}} Not as much as you]]."). How exactly is Sheldon in the wrong for being angry about this?

** Two episodes in Season 9 actually revolve around an upcoming pop cultural event - the imminent release of ''Film/StarWarsTheForceAwakens'' and the premiere of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' Season 6 were both the focus of episode-long story arcs. They got around any potential issues by being aired a few days ''before'' the RealLife events they were depicting, and to avoid spoilers focusing on the interactions between the group prior to the premieres and the guys geeking out blissfully in the aftermath, rather than the content of the show/film being watched.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic/TheBigBangTheory