History YMMV / TheBigBangTheory

* 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. This is despite the fact that ''Young Sheldon'' from the fourth season finale onward is clearly leading up to George sleeping with [[spoiler:Brenda Sparks.]]

** Many didn't like how Raj's story ended in Season 12. [[spoiler:While many understand that him leaving his work and friends with get married to Anu, a woman who repeatedly has been shown to be more pragmatic about love while lacking any of the same interests as Raj, would be ridiculous and could be seen as him being desperate to not end up alone which is acknowledged, Anu had always been willing to compromise with Raj in a way that made her an enjoyable love interest for the character. Also Raj had admitted that while he loved his friends, he hasn't been happy for years and the season started with him acknowledging that he had made a mess of his life.]]

* CargoShip: Howard/[[ADateWithRosiePalms the robot hand he got stuck on]], Sheldon/his spot, Amy/Gerard (her [[ADateWithRosiePalms electric toothbrush]]), Raj and his mobile phone Siri....

* 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.
** The show took another step forward starting around the beginning of Season Six, as the characters became more mature and well-rounded.

* AcceptableHobbyTargets:
** The show is infamous for its rather bitter and insulting humor towards science and nerd culture. Ironically enough, a lot of the show's dialogue and references can only be fully appreciated by those with an interest in the aforementioned subjects.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L7NRONADJ4 This video]] explains perfectly as how the show makes fun of geeks, nerds, and those who aren't the strongest, or stereotypically "male," of the male gender (all four of the main male characters are all of these at once, as the show portrays).

** Woobie status will shift to Sheldon sometimes. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PLC0UBuFgE Especially here,]] where he nearly has a panic attack because the guys cut off one of his long rants, and they did it on purpose. Although Sheldon's unpopularity attitude makes him an AcceptableTarget for a lot of pranks, this show still probably deserves credit for making TheWoobie out of characters who, in most sitcoms, would merely be one-joke occasional characters. Consider how much of a FlatCharacter Sheldon -- or even the other guys -- would be as extras in a more traditional sitcom.

* HoYay: Wolowitz and Koothrappali.
** Even Leonard's ''mother'' noticed.
-->"So Howard, Raj, have you finally built up the courage to admit your latent homosexual feelings for one another?"
** "The night the heat went out..." "It was a bonding experience!"
** Sheldon and Leonard. When Raj's mother calls from India in one episode she thinks they are "like Haroun and Tanveer" who are "sweet young men that recently adopted the cutest little Punjab baby". Despite Leonard denying it initially, upon realizing that they own the special edition of ''Theatre/FiddlerOnTheRoof'', Leonard notes, "Maybe we ''are'' like Haroun and Tanveer".
** It's also a little suggestive that Leonard's mother ''is'' a less neurotic female Sheldon. Especially considering that there's quite a bit of discussion about the psychological complexes her unaffectionate parenting style gave Leonard.
** Similarly, Amy, who Sheldon has kissed, confessed to loving and even [[spoiler:had sex with and planned to propose to]] looks and dresses much like a female Leonard.
** As of season four, Howard and Raj have now kissed on the lips. Then we get this InnocentInnuendo from Leonard the next day:
-->'''Leonard:''' So Howard, did you have fun playing with Raj's [[UnusualEuphemism big telescope]] last night?
** In one episode, Raj and Stuart got a moment when Raj asked Stuart to hang out, but sounding more like asking him on a date.
** In a season 3 episode, Penny and Sheldon fought over who Leonard would take to Switzerland for Valentine's Day until they both come down with the flu. Leonard ends up taking ''Raj'', who is over the moon with all the romantic furnishings.
** In somewhat of an ItsAWonderfulPlot, the gang wonders what their lives would be like without Sheldon, Howard still thinks he and Bernadette could've gotten married since they would still go to the Cheesecake Factory where she and Penny worked, but Bernadette theorizes that she would simply assume Howard and Raj were a couple and not even bother introducing herself.

*** 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.

*** 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.

*** How much of Sheldon’s eccentricities are real and how much are merely done to get his way as he seems to lose the majority of them when he wants to be a {{Jerkass}} to Leonard as shown in "The Irish Pub Formulation" and "The Itchy Brain Simulation".

** Raj

** The LongRunner nature of the show meant that everyone would have their own opinion of when it started suffering SeasonalRot (ranging from season 3 to season 12). The GrandFinale, on the other hand, was wildly praised by just about everyone as a great conclusion, ending on a high note as a love letter to both the characters and the fans.

** Leslie Winkle: OnlySaneWoman or an immature, inconsiderate bitch who gets off of any punishment for immature behavior in the workplace? Not to mention the cold way she treats Leonard and Howard when she's in a relationship with them.

** After 10 years, Raj has ''still'' been unable to find a steady girlfriend, even when Leonard, Howard, and Sheldon all have. It's become more difficult to be invested in any relationship he pursues since they always end in break-ups.

*** It's gone so far that (when he's not whining to everyone about it) he's pretty much given up. Once in a while he'll still try to make an attempt but nowadays he's [[{{Flanderization}} regressed to the point where he can't even get a date]] while resident ButtMonkey Stuart can. At times he's shown that he's scared to death at ending up alone and being left behind compared to everyone else (most of his core group of friends are now married with Sheldon soon to be as well, along with his five siblings back in India), but it's often inappropriately PlayedForLaughs instead of taken seriously.
** For all of Sheldon's genius intellect (and letting everyone else know at any given opportunity), [[SmallNameBigEgo he hasn't exactly accomplished anything in his field so far]]. Of all the guys, it's '''Howard''' who is the most successful in his career (actually building and inventing things, not to mention being an ''astronaut'') and personal life, despite everyone else's taunts and misgivings (especially from Sheldon). Any time Sheldon ''does'' seemingly get close to a major breakthrough that would change the scientific community, [[StatusQuoIsGod he's always wrong and ends up back at square one]]. It's not until the GrandFinale that this is finally averted.

** Penny as well--she's either a cute, lovable person, who's a nice addition to the group(s) or an ungrateful bitch who deserves to be thrown out on the street.

** Raj is either the biggest [[TheWoobie woobie]] on the show, or a passive-aggressive, girly creep who deserves to be alone. And then there's a third group that just sees him as an unfunny EthnicScrappy.

** Outside the main cast is Sheldon's mother Mary Cooper. Some like how well she gets along with the other characters and how she's able to put Sheldon in his place while still being a caring mother. Others don't like her constant Bible-thumping, her casual bigotry or how neglectful she was towards her other children George Jr. and Missy, especially after watching ''Young Sheldon'' and "The Sibling Realignment".

** Penny has since revealed that as a high school student in Nebraska, she participated in extracurricular activities with the gym coach who had a massive and unwise crush on her. Just to specify the gym coach's gender, they apparently went to a Mellisa Etheridge gig together. Penny was not explicit on what she had to do to get the A-grade for gym, but mysteriously remarked that "it all worked out OK".

* OlderThanTheyThink: a number of tropes that seem original actually show up in episodes of The Office.

** Carrie Fisher... Wielding a baseball bat... after being ding-dong-ditched by James Earl Jones

** In Season 6, the boys (in Star Trek cosplay) get ready to take some photos by Vasquez Rocks. Or rather, in front of a backdrop portraying said rocks -- it's rather painfully obvious they're on a set! Possibly intentional, as a reference to the obvious sets in the original ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}''.

** 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 goodbye 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.

** 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 [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} her Wikipedia article]] pretty much considered it as canon as information on her last name will ever be, and updated their articles accordingly.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** In Season 11, Raj ''finally'' calls Howard out for constantly making cruel and sometimes racist jokes at Raj's expense. And unlike in earlier seasons where the audience was meant to feel bad that Howard gets called out (such as when Penny justifiably called Howard out for harassing her constantly, only to apologize to Howard later for making him feel bad) it's made clear Raj is right to stand up for himself, and it's primarily Howard who should change his behavior.
** Finally, Sheldon's behavior toward Bert and Geology led to Bert rejecting him and not accepting his apology.
** In the third season when Leonard and Penny started dating, Sheldon tried using positive reinforcement techniques on Penny to correct annoying behavior, which involved giving her a chocolate treat whenever she did something he approved of. He later told Leonard he could speed up the process through ''negative'' reinforcement, specifically claiming electric shocks. This was actually one of the show's few technical blunders, as positive/negative reinforcement is not positive stimuli vs. negative stimuli, but the addition of something (the chocolate) vs. the removal of something (changing behavior due to the LACK of something). At conventions fans called out the writers on this mistake, and in the eighth season episode "The Focus Attenuation" Sheldon corrects someone on the improper use of positive/negative reinforcement and actually end up referencing an identical mistake made in ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}}''.
** The final Halloween episode had both Sheldon and Bernadette be called out on how mean they are to other people. It also explained that Bernadette became mean over time as a defense against being picked on over her height and bonding with Sheldon, as he too was picked on for being too smart at such a young age. That being said, the other characters have yet to be called out on how mean THEY are to other people.
** "The Tam Turbulence" addresses the complaints of Tam (Sheldon's high school friend from ''Series/YoungSheldon'') not appearing at Sheldon's wedding, nor having ever appeared or been mentioned in the show previously. It's explained that Sheldon was angry at Tam for choosing to stay in Texas rather than move to California with him, and thus, Sheldon never mentioned Tam to any of his friends in Pasadena (it's also a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot to a certain extent, since ''Young Sheldon'' only started airing during the penultimate season of its parent show--in other words, Tam ''couldn't'' have been mentioned much earlier).
** After years of alienating fans by strongly implying that women simply can't be into nerdy things like comic books, season 11 introduces the character of Denise, who's a tall, attractive young woman who also has an encyclopedic knowledge of comic books.

* CriticalBacklash: The Big Bang Theory is frequently mocked online, bashed for relying on outdated nerd stereotypes for jokes, perceived SeasonalRot after the guys all entered relationships, {{Flanderization}} of the cast, supposedly promoting "{{adorkable}} misogyny", or simply because ItsPopularNowItSucks. The show is even the biggest target of laugh track backlash, with people editing episode clips with the laughter from the studio audience muted in order to justify their opinion. 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''.

** Just about every character over the course of the show has had only their flaws focused and their positive traits ignored, often but not always when in comparison to Sheldon.

* WereStillRelevantDammit: The show has made pop culture jokes and references relatively close to their original air date, but avoids trying to be TOO topical by not making them the focus of an entire story. I.e., references to the guys missing '09 ''[[Film/StarTrek2009 Star Trek]]'' because they were on an expedition over the summer. One exception was the guys playing ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'' in the first season, with [[PacManFever a couple of factual mistakes made]] because the episode was obviously written and filmed before the game actually came out. A season six episode had Sheldon angsting over which game console to buy, UsefulNotes/{{X Box One}} or UsefulNotes/{{Playstation 4}}, but made the point that Sheldon has backed the wrong format over the years, i.e. Zune over [=iPod=], Betamax over VHS, etc.
** 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.

** "Bazinga!"

* ValuesDissonance: A notable case as you can see the changing values as the show goes on, due to its use of a studio audience. Early on in the show, the transphobic jokes tended to attract the same level of laughs as other jokes, but as the series goes on, those laughs gradually get more and more reluctant and quieter as those jokes move to the realm of offensive and not funny.

** Sheldon's mom is usually played as nice, but some of her comments, which are racist if unwitting, really show she's not as nice as she seems. She's a fundamentalist who seems to have a very old-fashioned and limited view of the world, which she took just to compensate for her husband's cheating and uses it as a crutch to keep going. Everyone just tends to look the other way because she's nicer than Leonard's mom and tends to put a leash on Sheldon's antics, but she may very well BE the reason for Sheldon's antics. She's once described him as "one of God's special children", so she thinks, or at least once thought, he was retarded or insane, and seemingly preached this idea to Sheldon's sister. Sheldon's slightly autistic behavior could be the result of being treated as having autism.

*** A variant of this involves Sheldon's Bazinga JumpScare almost causing Leonard to crash his car, with certain edits involving cutting out the part where he gets the car in control and replacing it with an accident or car crash, [[CrossesTheLineTwice with hilarious results]] such as [[https://youtu.be/2YsMF7hDzoM this]].

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** When preparing for the North Pole expedition by standing in a freezer, Sheldon tells Raj to paint a Van Dyke on a Spock figurine, then specifies "a Van Dyke is a goatee '''without''' a mustache". It's not. A goatee without a mustache is just a goatee. A Van Dyke is a combination of a mustache and goatee. Strangely, a later episode got this correct.
** One episode sees Penny, Bernadette and Amy going to Disneyland where they each get a Disney Princess makeover. At the time of the episode airing, this service was only available to children, as adults are not allowed to walk around the park in costume in case they're mistaken for a member of staff. And while Disney Princess Makeovers are now available for adults, this only includes hair, makeup and nails, not costumes.
*** You can buy adult costumes in the park gift shop(s) and they can be worn on Hallowe'en ''except'' for princess costumes

* DesignatedHero: All of the main characters except Stuart (who's too friendly to qualify) and Sheldon (who's intended to be an UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist who's almost always called out on his behavior). They all have character flaws, which would be a good thing if those flaws hadn't been subjected to bizarre quantities of Flanderization through the years, and most of the time they just come across as whiny, egotistical jerks.

** In the episode "The Griffin Equivalency", Raj tells the patron next to his table, Creator/CharlieSheen, that he's going to be in People's Magazine for discovering a celestial body. Sheen then tells him "Yeah? Call me when you're on the cover." This line becomes less funny when Sheen does end up on the cover of various magazines, and not in a good light, nor for any positive things he did.

** Bernadette's comments about crossing the Ebola virus with the common cold don't seem as funny as it was since the Ebola pandemic occurred. Even less funny after the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic, since the common cold is also caused by a coronavirus (albeit, not the same one), as well as persistent conspiracy theories (which waver in popularity) about Covid-19 having been leaked from a Wuhan lab.
** Every single joke Howard's made about his mother's poor health is this now that Carol Ann Susi passed away after a short period of battling cancer.
*** Related: When Howard returns home to find five of his friends staging an intervention (to prevent him from returning to space) his first thought is that they're about to break the news his mother has died[[note]]He discounts this, as if his mother really had died there'd be party balloons and everyone would be looking happier[[/note]]. A few months after screening of this episode, Carol Ann Susi passed away.

** Sheldon's germophobia and obsession with hygiene is normally played for laughs, but after the COVID 19 Pandemic in 2020, his behaviour comes off more reasonable than paranoid. In particular, Season 4's "The Engagement Reaction" Sheldon's fear of germs, and being quarantined after wandering into the wrong room, hit a lot harder, after Jim Parsons himself would contract the virus (Though he got better).
** In "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary" Leonard initially refuses to hold up his end of the girlfriend pact saying "What am I supposed to ask? 'Hey Penny, you got any friends you never want to hear from again?'" Come "The Stag Convergence" when Bernadette finds out about Howard's sleazy past and that Penny knew all along when she set them up, Bernadette runs out the run crying that she thought Penny was her friend.
** The problems Leonard and Penny have after their wedding. Shortly after the Season 9 premiere aired, it was announced that Kaley Cuoco and Ryan Sweeting were separating, and they have now divorced.
** In season seven, the gang was talking about whether any of them had dated more than one person at the same time and lied about it. Penny scoffed her disbelief that Leonard would do that to her. Come to the end of season eight, when Leonard revealed that he did cheat on her at one point while on a boat for 4 months, but this may not quite count since the whole thing was just a drunken mistake and Leonard is not a person who cheats.

** Hearing Leonard talk about hoping to be a father and raise his own kids, sporadically throughout the series run, is kind of sad to see given that in Season 12, Penny finally makes it clear she never wants children, and Leonard reluctantly respecting her wish. [[spoiler: It's made better with Penny and Lenonard accidentally concieving a baby in the GrandFinale and them deciding to go through with the pregnancy]].
** Season 4: "We wait for my mom's heart to explode from all the salt she eats. Then we stick her in the ground, flip the mattress, and move into the big bedroom."

** Also on the topic of Howard's mom, in the episode where Bernadette makes it clear to Howard she doesn't want kids, she comes over to Howard's to talk about it but Ms. Wolowitz yells at Howard to talk to her (Bernadette) about this nonsense where she doesn't get any grandkids before Howard has a chance to bring it up himself. Funny at the time due to her unintentionally bringing it up before Howard does, but heartbreaking nowadays because [[spoiler:Ms. Wolowitz ended up passing away two years before Howard and Bernadette had their first child; she never got to meet the grandchildren she wanted.]]

** One episode focused on Howard's space toilet having a possible malfunction and trying to fix it. Well, on July 2009, it became an actual issue.
** In the second season finale, the guys left to try to find magnetic monopoles. About two weeks before the Season 3 premiere, [[http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40302 real-life scientists found]] something that ''sounds'' similar: magnetic monopolar ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasiparticle quasiparticles]]'' -- something completely unrelated to Sheldon's experiment.
** The Mars Rover got stuck in a ditch, just as it did in Season 2. (But it didn't accidentally find life on Mars.)

** Similarly, in "The Recombination Hypothesis", Sheldon receives a life-size cutout of Spock that he bought on the Internet, and is dismayed to discover that it's Creator/ZacharyQuinto, who plays Spock in the reboot, rather than Creator/LeonardNimoy. His response -- "Live long and suck it, Zachary Quinto!" -- is doubly hilarious in light of ''both'' Parsons and Quinto having come out as gay.
** Related to the two above, a season 7 Thanksgiving episode has Sheldon (played by the now openly gay Jim Parsons) get along very well with Bernadette's father, who was hinted in an earlier episode to be homophobic.
** Penny dressing as Franchise/WonderWoman to go to a New Year's Eve party with Zack, who is dressed as Franchise/{{Superman}}, gets funnier knowing that Kaley Cuoco dated Creator/HenryCavill.
** Hard to believe Sheldon's sweet mom used to be a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXDK5aNCQUo psychopath]].
** The gang has often made jokes about Sheldon being an alien in human disguise. In the ''[=DreamWorks=]'' movie ''WesternAnimation/Home2015'', Jim Parsons voices an obnoxious alien invading on Earth.

** In the episode "The Justice League Recombination", the gang, plus Penny's boyfriend Zack, dress up as [[Comicbook/JusticeLeague The Justice League of America]] for a costume contest, with Raj, unwillingly, dressing up as Comicbook/{{Aquaman}} and later finding it ridiculous that their Aquaman will be Indian. Cut to 2014, when it's announced that ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' will introduce an Aquaman played by Hawaiian actor Jason Momoa.

** ''Film/{{her|2013}}'' is more difficult to take seriously if one has seen the episode in which Raj falls in love with Siri.
** In "The Solder Excursion" Leonard and Howard end up as part of a test screening for ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'', and Howard teases Raj with spoiling the movie. ''Suicide Squad'' ended up famous for setting up test screenings of different cuts of the film and using audience response to blend the different cuts together, resulting is a very uneven film upon release.

** In Season 1, we discover that Sheldon is a big fan of ''Fiddler on the Roof,'' one of the most famous Jewish plays. And guess who he falls in love with a few seasons later? The actress who's played by a Jew.
** Toward the end of Season Ten, Sheldon tells Amy that if she runs into a scientist who is as smart and tall as he is, but with hair like Thor, she needs to back away from the situation and call him immediately. Several months later, ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' has the main character get a haircut, losing his trademark locks.
** In "The Decision Reverberation", Bernadette says that she wants to see ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' in 3D so that she can lick Thor's abs. [[spoiler:It turns out that in the movie, Thor has become grossly out of shape.]]

** In season 2’s “The Griffin Equivalency”, Howard comments “I’d so do her” when Ellen Page is brought up. As of 2020, Elliot Page has come out as a transgender man.
** In Season 6's "The Love Spell Potential," Howard acts as dungeon master for the group and gains particular favor for his voice acting capabilities. Two years later, the D&D streaming show ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' would gain popularity for its own cast of "nerdy-ass voice actors."

* UnfortunateImplications:
** [[http://everydayheterosexism.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/10-homophobic-things-about-big-bang.html There have been issues]] with how the show treats homosexuality. Raj is repeatedly given effeminate quirks. His [[HoYay relationship with Howard]] is once outright said to be a replacement for a traditional heterosexual relationship that neither can get, with the idea being that it's sad and pathetic as claimed by a ''professional and well-renowned psychologist'', and his later close relationship with [[AmbiguouslyBi possibly bi]] Stuart is treated similarly. Asexual Sheldon was noted prior for subverting usual sitcom standards by having no interest in women until they decided to add in a female love interest to avoid people thinking he was gay (ironically, [[Creator/JimParsons his actor]] actually is).
** The show [[https://genprogress.org/the-medias-crazy-problem/ has]] [[https://www.grunge.com/32819/finally-time-cancel-big-bang-theory/ additionally]] [[https://ragnaroktopus.tumblr.com/post/33353980077/i-finally-watched-the-big-bang-theory-today attracted]] [[https://medium.com/@rachel77/the-big-bang-theory-needs-to-end-8417bb1c5802 criticism]] for portraying Sheldon and Amy as characters who embody characteristics of neurological conditions such as autism spectrum disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder but play them as nothing beyond the butt of ridicule, with the implication of neurodivergence being both a nuisance and an {{acceptable target|s}} being seen as representative of a still-pervasive culture of ableism within western media.
** The stereotype that women cannot be comic book, sci-fi, or video game geeks, no matter how nerdy they are, [[https://3chicgeeks.wordpress.com/2013/02/23/the-problem-with-the-big-bang-theory/ has not gone unnoticed.]] While the show did make some mild attempts to redress this by starting to have female customers in Stuart's store from around mid-late Season 6, it wouldn't be until the introduction of Denise in Season 11 that the show finally had a semi-regular female character who was interested in these things.
** This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3-hOigoxHs two]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L7NRONADJ4 part]] series on the show discusses the show's more problematic elements when it comes to gender politics, such as treating sexism as a harmless joke or promoting toxic masculinity.