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''Series/TheBigBangTheory''
!Sheldon Cooper
!Sheldon Cooper
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* InsufferableGenius: He's that page's image for a very good reason. Though it's been shown repeatedly that it isn't impossible to outsmart him or even point out mistakes in his work, it's a matter of being stubborn enough to fight him through the insufferable part (StephenHawking notwithstanding). He was even more insufferable as a 9 years old kid.
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* InsufferableGenius: He's that page's image for a very good reason. Though it's been shown repeatedly that it isn't impossible to outsmart him or even point out mistakes in his work, it's a matter of being stubborn enough to fight him through the insufferable part (StephenHawking (Creator/StephenHawking notwithstanding). He was even more insufferable as a 9 years old kid.
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** In Season 7, Sheldon gives a TakeThat kiss to Amy to mock her for her idea of a "romantic weekend". Then moves in closer, holds her, and holds the kiss for over ten seconds. Later in their relationship, they seem to have no issue making out while on dates.
** The finale of Season 8 shows that Sheldon was willing to propose to Amy before she broke up with him. Given his reliance on "social convention," he likely would have had a proper honeymoon with her.
** [[spoiler: Possibly asexual but no longer a virgin as he consummated his relationship with Amy in "The Opening Night Excitation". He still shows no sexual interest in anyone else and has sex with Amy only a few times per year, but he seems to enjoy sex with her, indicating SingleTargetSexuality.]]
** The finale of Season 8 shows that Sheldon was willing to propose to Amy before she broke up with him. Given his reliance on "social convention," he likely would have had a proper honeymoon with her.
** [[spoiler: Possibly asexual but no longer a virgin as he consummated his relationship with Amy in "The Opening Night Excitation". He still shows no sexual interest in anyone else and has sex with Amy only a few times per year, but he seems to enjoy sex with her, indicating SingleTargetSexuality.]]
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** With the introduction of Amy as a love interest it has been depicted as SingleTargetSexuality, he connects with Amy in a way he hasn't connected with anyone else, and shows signs of depression and jealousy when she is not a part of his life, leading to them becoming a couple in season 5. In Season 7, Sheldon gives a TakeThat kiss to Amy to mock her for her idea of a "romantic weekend". Then weekend," then moves in closer, holds her, closer and holds the kiss for over ten seconds.seconds. While they had kissed several times before it was largely Amy surprising him with affection, this was the first time Sheldon initiated the kiss and him lingering was a sign of finding it pleasurable. Later in their relationship, they seem to have no issue making out while on dates.
** The finale of Season 8 shows that Sheldon was willing to propose to Amy before she broke up with him. Given his reliance on "social convention," he likely would have had a proper honeymoon withher.
** [[spoiler: Possibly asexual but no longerher. He finally proposes to Amy in the last scene of Season 10, as she had left town for a virgin project lasting several months and he filled the void spending time with Ramona Nowitzki, a colleague who previously shown romantic interest in him. When she surprised Sheldon with a kiss, he immediately flew across the country to see Amy and propose, because that experience told him he would never view anyone else the same way as he does Amy.
** He consummated his relationship with Amy in "The Opening NightExcitation". He still shows no sexual interest in anyone else and has sex with Amy only a few times per year, Excitation," spending part of the episode debating on an appropriate birthday gift to give her. [[GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex Both really enjoyed the experience]], but he seems viewed it as a special occasion saying he was looking forward to enjoy having sex with her, indicating SingleTargetSexuality.]]on her next birthday, making it a yearly tradition. Exceptions seem to be made on particular occasions, after seeing an experiment melding skin samples between him and Amy produce a simple neural network he became interested in getting her pregnant (she refused on principle, though it was difficult) and in a different episode she was leaving for a fellowship at Princeton making him want to have a special night before she goes.
** The finale of Season 8 shows that Sheldon was willing to propose to Amy before she broke up with him. Given his reliance on "social convention," he likely would have had a proper honeymoon with
** [[spoiler: Possibly asexual but no longer
** He consummated his relationship with Amy in "The Opening Night
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Jerkass Facade is being merged with Hidden Hearts Of Gold. Hidden Heart of Gold means the Jerkass has a nice side that they keep hidden. Jerk with a Heart of Gold means the character openly shows Jerkass and Nice Guy approaches.
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* JerkassFacade: While he is often a jerk, he would often rather someone believe he is being selfish than admit he's acting altruistically or with genuine concern for another. Leonard is often the reason for it. When informed that Penny is thinking about ending their relationship, Sheldon confronts her in the middle of the night to talk Leonard up, claiming it is just because he doesn't like change but admitting he doesn't want to see Leonard hurt. Another time he is irrationally concerned about Leonard having a low-risk elective surgery, the lengths he goes to stop it reveals a lot about how much he really does care.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's insufferable most of the time, but he shows concern and attention for his friends in his own ways, can offer genuinely helpful advice on their problems if he's in the right mood, he's never actively malevolent to them beyond verbal jabs, and is hurt if they slight him in some way. On the other hand, his perspective on social interactions are skewed, so he doesn't understand when he does something offensive or inappropriate, he's constantly flaunting what he considers his superior intellect, and while he can offer helpful advice on a problem at times, he's just as liable to interrupt their explanation of said problem to note he doesn't care. The Heart Of Gold ''is'' there, but it's deep down under a lot of arrogance and an AmbiguousDisorder.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's insufferable most of the time, but he shows concern and attention for his friends in his own ways, can offer genuinely helpful advice on their problems if he's in the right mood, he's never actively malevolent to them beyond verbal jabs, and is hurt if they slight him in some way. On the other hand, his perspective on social interactions are skewed, so he doesn't understand when he does something offensive or inappropriate, he's constantly flaunting what he considers his superior intellect, and while he can offer helpful advice on a problem at times, he's just as liable to interrupt their explanation of said problem to note he doesn't care. The Heart Of Gold ''is'' there, but it's deep down under a lot of arrogance and an AmbiguousDisorder.
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* TeamPrimaDonna: His huge ego and self-obsorbed personality causes problems whenever he and the others try to work together on '''anything''. Like the time they tried to make a cell phone app and [[TheStarscream Sheldon tried to stage a mutiny because Leonard wouldn't let him name the app after himself.]]
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* TeamPrimaDonna: His huge ego and self-obsorbed personality causes problems whenever he and the others try to work together on '''anything''.'''anything'''. Like the time they tried to make a cell phone app and [[TheStarscream Sheldon tried to stage a mutiny because Leonard wouldn't let him name the app after himself.]]
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* TeamPrimaDonna: His huge ego and self-obsorbed personality causes problems whenever he and the others try to work together on '''anything''. Like the time they tried to make a cell phone app and [[TheStarscream Sheldon tried to stage a mutiny because Leonard wouldn't let him name the app after himself.]]
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there was already a discussion on Ask The Tropers
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* BreakoutCharacter: Sheldon became quite popular character to the point of having his own prequel spinoff, ''Series/YoungSheldon'', which detailed his time in high school at the age of 9.
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* ChildHater: Sheldon is very much this. When he tries to do a shooting for the Professor Proton show reboot, he instead ends up talking about a dangerous experiment, very complicated math and he doesn't even know how to talk to little kids due to his social awkwardness. After seeing the video, Leonard points out that he should stop showing his contempt for children. Sheldon even states that he doesn't like kids when Howard offers an invitation to his daughter Halley's first birthday party
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* ChildHater: Sheldon is very much this.this, which probably stems from having been bullied so much as a child. When he tries to do a shooting for the Professor Proton show reboot, he instead ends up talking about a dangerous experiment, very complicated math and he doesn't even know how to talk to little kids due to his social awkwardness. After seeing the video, Leonard points out that he should stop showing his contempt for children. Sheldon even states that he doesn't like kids when Howard offers an invitation to his daughter Halley's first birthday party
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* ChildProdigy: While he definitely was, attending college at 12 and getting his first of two Ph.Ds at age 16, it's possible he's a deconstruction of the concept. His intelligence vastly alienated him from his family, gave him a big ego, made him highly neurotic and socially inept, and though it may or may not be related to his childhood brilliance he's also something of a man-child. He has a journal record of his attempts at potty-training, from the journal itself "April 18 -- This is humiliating, what was wrong with diapers?"
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* ChildHater: Sheldon is very much this. When he tries to do a shooting for the Professor Proton show reboot, he instead ends up talking about a dangerous experiment, very complicated math and he doesn't even know how to talk to little kids due to his social awkwardness. After seeing the video, Leonard points out that he should stop showing his contempt for children. Sheldon even states that he doesn't like kids when Howard offers an invitation to his daughter Halley's first birthday party
* ChildProdigy: While he definitely was, attending college at12 11 and getting his first of two Ph.Ds at age 16, it's possible he's a deconstruction of the concept. His intelligence vastly alienated him from his family, gave him a big ego, made him highly neurotic and socially inept, and though it may or may not be related to his childhood brilliance he's also something of a man-child. He has a journal record of his attempts at potty-training, from the journal itself "April 18 -- This is humiliating, what was wrong with diapers?"
* ChildProdigy: While he definitely was, attending college at
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-->'''Sheldon:''' See Leonard, its not racist.
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-->'''Sheldon:''' [[ComicallyMissingThePoint See Leonard, its not racist.racist]].
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* CannotKeepASecret: He either slips into IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou or comes up with needlessly-elaborate lies that fall apart under their own weight. However, if he is given a pre-prepared and reasonably concrete deception he can muddle by.
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* CannotKeepASecret: He either slips into IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou or comes up with needlessly-elaborate needlessly elaborate lies that fall apart under their own weight. However, if he is given a pre-prepared and reasonably concrete deception he can muddle by.
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Leonard's roommate. A child prodigy, he graduated from college at the age of 15 from East Texas and specializes in Theoretical Physics. Supposedly the smartest of the guys, but he only ends up dominating arguments and debates (both in science and in nerd trivia) because he's too stubborn to quit and resorts to [[InsaneTrollLogic crazy logic]] to win. His dedication to science and geekdom is so complete that he has almost no interest in social skills, regular pop culture (current fads, celebrity gossip, etc.) or even romance. He thinks he's superior to... well, to '''everyone.'''
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Leonard's roommate. A child prodigy, he graduated from college at the age of 15 from East Texas and specializes in Theoretical Physics. Supposedly the smartest of the guys, but he only ends up dominating arguments and debates (both in science and in nerd trivia) because he's too stubborn to quit and resorts to [[InsaneTrollLogic crazy logic]] to win. His dedication to science and geekdom is so complete that he has almost no interest in social skills, regular pop culture (current fads, celebrity gossip, etc.) or even romance. He thinks he's superior to... well, to '''everyone.''''''everyone'''.
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Leonard's roommate. A child prodigy, he graduated from college at the age of 15 from East Texas and specializes in Theoretical Physics. Supposedly the smartest of the guys, but he only ends up dominating arguments and debates (both in science and in nerd trivia) because he's too stubborn to quit and resorts to [[InsaneTrollLogic crazy logic]] to win. His dedication to science and geekdom is so complete that he has almost no interest in social skills, regular pop culture (current fads, celebrity gossip, etc) or even romance. He thinks he's superior to... well, to '''everyone'''.
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Leonard's roommate. A child prodigy, he graduated from college at the age of 15 from East Texas and specializes in Theoretical Physics. Supposedly the smartest of the guys, but he only ends up dominating arguments and debates (both in science and in nerd trivia) because he's too stubborn to quit and resorts to [[InsaneTrollLogic crazy logic]] to win. His dedication to science and geekdom is so complete that he has almost no interest in social skills, regular pop culture (current fads, celebrity gossip, etc) etc.) or even romance. He thinks he's superior to... well, to '''everyone'''.'''everyone.'''
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-> ''"I don't understand why I'm in this group. [[BlatantLies I never get my way.]]"''
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-> ''"I don't understand why I'm in this group. group, [[BlatantLies I never get my way.]]"''
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-> ''"I don't understand why in this group [[BlatantLies I never get my way.]]"''
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-> ''"I don't understand why I'm in this group group. [[BlatantLies I never get my way.]]"''
* BreakoutCharacter: Sheldon became quite popular character to the point of having his own prequel spinoff, ''Series/YoungSheldon'', which detailed his time in high school at the age of 9.
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* EvilGenius: Sheldon occasionally invokes this on purpose. Leonard has already noted that Sheldon's "one lab accident away from becoming a super villain".
* EvilGenius: Sheldon occasionally invokes this on purpose. Leonard has already noted that Sheldon's "one lab accident away from becoming a super villain".
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---> '''Leonard''': Why did you do that?\\
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* HenpeckedHusband: After a fight with Amy, he has decided to be one to avoid major fights in the future. So when Amy tells [[spoiler:Levar Burton]] he's a worse actor than [[spoiler:Wil Wheaton]] Sheldon tells the former while he may not actually think so, he must agree with Amy. [[spoiler:Levar]] understands completely. This does not normally occur, as he is mostly the dominant one in their relationship.
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* HenpeckedHusband: After a fight with Amy, he has decided to be one to avoid major fights in the future. So when Amy tells [[spoiler:Levar Burton]] he's a worse actor than [[spoiler:Wil Wheaton]] Wheaton]], Sheldon tells the former while he may not actually think so, he must agree with Amy. [[spoiler:Levar]] understands completely. This does not normally occur, as he is mostly the dominant one in their relationship.
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* {{Hypocrite}}: Calls Priya a know-it-all for explaining [[LittleKnownFacts the origins of the "toast"]]. This is in spite of in 90% of his conversations, he brings up such topics at any given chance.
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* {{Hypocrite}}: {{Hypocrite}}:
** Calls Priya a know-it-all for explaining [[LittleKnownFacts the origins of the "toast"]]. This is in spite of in 90% of his conversations, he brings up such topics at any given chance.
** Calls Priya a know-it-all for explaining [[LittleKnownFacts the origins of the "toast"]]. This is in spite of in 90% of his conversations, he brings up such topics at any given chance.
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* EyesAlwaysAverted: In the {{Flashback}} to when Leonard and Sheldon first met, Sheldon makes very little eye contact. It's a little off-putting and not immediately noticeable, but adds to just how much better he's become in social situations.
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* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Sheldon tends to lapse into this when he veers away from physics and into the life sciences. Sheldon acts like he knows United States history when he doesn't. He tries to convince Leonard that he should be a history professor instead of a physicist by testing whether Leonard knows that slavery in the United States ended in 1863. It didn't. At the Renaissance Fair, when he complains about the historical inaccuracies, but doesn't realize Leonard's knight costume is at least 200 years out of date. His "defense" to a charge of running a red light in "The Excelsior Acquisition" shows he knows absolutely ''nothing'' about the law, as well. On similar lines, his beloved Roommate Agreement is full of loopholes, and doesn't stand up to the scrutiny of a legal professional. Many of his beloved factoids, when outside the sciences, are actually common misconceptions: The Romans did ''not'' sow over Carthage with salt, for instance, as any archaeology undergrad could have told him. However this is often a case of DependingOnTheWriter, sometimes he is presented as being as smart as he thinks he is (or at least knowledgeable in a broad range of areas). The Rule (following the RuleOfFunny) often seems to be that he only slips into this whenever it would actually benefit him not to.
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* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Sheldon tends to lapse into this when he veers away from physics and into the life sciences. Sheldon acts like he knows United States history when he doesn't. He tries to convince Leonard that he should be a history professor instead of a physicist by testing whether Leonard knows that slavery in the United States ended in 1863. It didn't. At the Renaissance Fair, when he complains about the historical inaccuracies, but doesn't realize Leonard's knight costume is at least 200 years out of date. His "defense" to a charge of running a red light in "The Excelsior Acquisition" shows he knows absolutely ''nothing'' about the law, as well. On similar lines, his beloved Roommate Agreement is full of loopholes, and doesn't stand up to the scrutiny of a legal professional. Many of his beloved factoids, when outside the sciences, are actually common misconceptions: The Romans did ''not'' sow over Carthage with salt, for instance, as any archaeology undergrad could have told him. Even worse, sometimes he fails at ''science''. For example, when Amy is sick, and Sheldon wants to help her, he asks if she believes in the placebo effect, then shows the placebo - but the placebo effect only works if you believe the placebo actually is medicine. However this is often a case of DependingOnTheWriter, sometimes he is presented as being as smart as he thinks he is (or at least knowledgeable in a broad range of areas). The Rule (following the RuleOfFunny) often seems to be that he only slips into this whenever it would actually benefit him not to.
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* CreatureOfHabit: Is called this and Penny uses this against him during their feud.
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--> '''Sheldon''': [[DisappearedDad When I lost my own father]] [[FriendlessBackground I didn't have any friends to help me through it]]. [[YouAreNotAline You do]].
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--> '''Sheldon''': [[DisappearedDad When I lost my own father]] [[FriendlessBackground I didn't have any friends to help me through it]]. [[YouAreNotAline [[YouAreNotAlone You do]].
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** When Mrs. Wolowitz suddenly dies in her sleep during Season 8, Sheldon tries to comfort Howard. Leonard, righteously worried that Sheldon will say something inappropriate, tries to stop him, but Howard lets him talk. He says the most heartfelt thing he has ever said in-series:
--> '''Sheldon''': [[DisappearedDad When I lost my own father]] [[FriendlessBackground I didn't have any friends to help me through it]]. You do.
--> '''Sheldon''': [[DisappearedDad When I lost my own father]] [[FriendlessBackground I didn't have any friends to help me through it]]. You do.
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** When Mrs. Wolowitz suddenly dies in her sleep during Season 8, Sheldon tries to comfort speak to Howard. Leonard, righteously worried that Sheldon will say something inappropriate, tries to stop him, but Howard lets him talk. He says the most heartfelt thing he has ever said in-series:
--> '''Sheldon''': [[DisappearedDad When I lost my own father]] [[FriendlessBackground I didn't have any friends to help me through it]]. [[YouAreNotAline Youdo.do]].
--> '''Sheldon''': [[DisappearedDad When I lost my own father]] [[FriendlessBackground I didn't have any friends to help me through it]]. [[YouAreNotAline You
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->'''Played by:''' Creator/JimParsons
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->'''Played by:''' Creator/JimParsonsCreator/JimParsons, Ian Armitage (''Series/YoungSheldon'')
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** [[spoiler: Possibly asexual but no longer a virgin as he consummated his relationship with Amy in "The Opening Night Excitation". It might be a case of IfItsYouItsOkay - he loves Amy so much he is willing to sexually satisfy her despite his own asexuality.]]
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** [[spoiler: Possibly asexual but no longer a virgin as he consummated his relationship with Amy in "The Opening Night Excitation". It might be a case of IfItsYouItsOkay - he loves He still shows no sexual interest in anyone else and has sex with Amy so much only a few times per year, but he is willing seems to sexually satisfy her despite his own asexuality.enjoy sex with her, indicating SingleTargetSexuality.]]
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** [[spoiler: Possibly asexual but no longer a virgin as he consummated his relationship with Amy in "The Opening Night Excitation".]]
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** [[spoiler: Possibly asexual but no longer a virgin as he consummated his relationship with Amy in "The Opening Night Excitation". It might be a case of IfItsYouItsOkay - he loves Amy so much he is willing to sexually satisfy her despite his own asexuality.]]
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* DeadpanSnarker: Further in keeping with the depiction of AspergerSyndrome; this is the type of humour that Aspies are most at home with.
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* DeadpanSnarker: Further in keeping with the depiction of AspergerSyndrome; UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome; this is the type of humour that Aspies are most at home with.
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* LimitedWardrobe: Almost always wears short sleeved t-shirts with a longer shirt underneath, rolled up to the elbows. Superhero t-shirts are the most common, GreenLantern (or a symbol of one of the other Lantern Corps) and TheFlash especially. This leads to a rather amusing variation of CharacterizationMarchesOn, as in [[http://the-big-bang-theory.com/gallery/picture/274/ one early episode]] he follows the general pattern, but it's far removed from what he was later known for.[[note]]Interestingly enough, the color combination is that of classic Silver Age Lex Luthor's power armor, so maybe they went for the "evil genius" look.[[/note]]
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* LimitedWardrobe: Almost always wears short sleeved t-shirts with a longer shirt underneath, rolled up to the elbows. Superhero t-shirts are the most common, GreenLantern (or a symbol of one of the other Lantern Corps) and TheFlash Franchise/TheFlash especially. This leads to a rather amusing variation of CharacterizationMarchesOn, as in [[http://the-big-bang-theory.com/gallery/picture/274/ one early episode]] he follows the general pattern, but it's far removed from what he was later known for.[[note]]Interestingly enough, the color combination is that of classic Silver Age Lex Luthor's power armor, so maybe they went for the "evil genius" look.[[/note]]
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** Constantly makes fun of Penny for being born in Nebraska when he himself is from [[SouthernFriedGenius East Texas.]]
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[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-E]]
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[[folder:F-J]]
[[folder:F-J]]
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* WhoopiEpiphanySpeech: Played with. While such a speech is usually one of great wisdom made by someone who isn't all that educated or book smart, it can't be said that Sheldon is either of those things. But he ''is'' very socially inept. So it comes as a surprise at times when Sheldon has rare gems of social wisdom (albeit wrapped in SesquipedalianLoquaciousness) that give Leonard new insights he couldn't see before.
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* WhoopiEpiphanySpeech: Played with. While such a speech is usually one of great wisdom made by someone who isn't all that educated or book smart, it can't be said that Sheldon is either of those things. But he ''is'' very socially inept. So it comes as a surprise at times when Sheldon has rare gems of social wisdom (albeit wrapped in SesquipedalianLoquaciousness) that give Leonard new insights he couldn't see before.before.
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[[quoteright:270:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s5ep15_-_sheldon_2311.jpg]]
->'''Played by:''' Creator/JimParsons
->'''Voiced by:''': Luis Alfonso Mendoza (Latin-American Spanish dub)
-> ''"I don't understand why in this group [[BlatantLies I never get my way.]]"''
Leonard's roommate. A child prodigy, he graduated from college at the age of 15 from East Texas and specializes in Theoretical Physics. Supposedly the smartest of the guys, but he only ends up dominating arguments and debates (both in science and in nerd trivia) because he's too stubborn to quit and resorts to [[InsaneTrollLogic crazy logic]] to win. His dedication to science and geekdom is so complete that he has almost no interest in social skills, regular pop culture (current fads, celebrity gossip, etc) or even romance. He thinks he's superior to... well, to '''everyone'''.
----
* AbandonedCatchphrase: Sheldon adopted the habit of making some surprising statement, and when met with surprise, reveal that he was joking with the catchphrase, 'Bazinga!' He also used it once when successfully pranking Leonard. He abandoned it after a while.
* AccentRelapse: Jim Parsons manages to keep his natural Texan drawl under control but there are a few times it slips out, typically done in character with Sheldon who [[ActorSharedBackground is also from Texas]]. These relapses are rather cleverly worked into the story -- it is heavily implied that Sheldon affects his rather colorless normal accent, and that his natural Texan accent creeps back into his speech when he is too angry, distressed or occasionally too drunk to hide it. One instance when he's drunk:
-->'''Sheldon:''' ''[drunk off his ass and about Amy]'' Ain't she great?\\
'''Amy:''' ''[embarrassed but flattered]'' Sheldon....\\
'''Sheldon:''' Now hows about you get us a couple of beers? ''[smacks her on the butt]''
* AccidentalHero: On multiple occasions. For instance, he stopped Leonard from giving up the secrets to the experimental rocket fuel to a spy posing as his date, by barging in and complaining about them trying to sleep together without warning him 24 hours in advance, as their roommate agreement required. He also has a lack of social filter, such as that he will attempt things that others are too timid to do themselves and by all means shouldn't work, but sometimes does. Especially when he nails an ArmorPiercingQuestion on Leonard, it tends to prove beneficial to him in the long run by forcing him to confront that option.
* {{Adorkable}}: Sheldon Cooper, a man who can somehow make wearing a plaid suit almost sexy. There's something endearingly innocent in his total inability to behave like a normal human being.
* AffectionateNickname:
** His mother and sister call him "Shelly", and ''only'' they are allowed to refer to him as such.
** His grandmother calls him "Moon Pie" and he calls her "Meemaw"....and nobody calls him Moon Pie but Meemaw!
* AfraidOfBlood: Sheldon faints at the sight of his own blood after cutting his thumb while attempting to dissect a brain. He later removes the bandage to prove to Penny how serious the wound was and promptly faints again.
* TheAlcoholic: He inherits the gene from his dad, who drank himself to death. It's implied that he's fully aware of it, as he makes a concerted effort not to drink, but on the few occasions that he does, he does not stop.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Sheldon displays symptoms of ''lots'' of different disorders depending on RuleOfFunny.
* AnnoyingLaugh: Whether it's supposed to be his way of actually laughing, or as a sarcastic chuckle for what us lower forms see as "humor", it's annoying.
* AnnoyingPatient: Sheldon suffers from severe social ineptitude, as well as mild hypochondria, making him an absolutely awful person to have around when he becomes [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZb-LpW-pwM sick]].
* AntiHero: He mostly cares about himself and, intentionally or not, he belittles his friends on a regular basis. He's also arrogant, strict, petty and demanding. Despite this, he does genuinely care for his friends, and a hybrid of that, lack of malicious intent behind his actions, suffering from severe AmbiguousDisorder, child-like traits and multiple PetTheDog moments stop him from becoming unlikeable.
* {{Asexuality}}:
** Sheldon is conspicuously uninterested in romance, and is one of those rare TV characters whose asexuality is made more or less explicit in-universe.
--->'''Penny:''' I know this is none of my business, but I just... I have to ask: what's Sheldon's deal? Is it girls...? Guys...? Sock puppets...?\\
'''Leonard:''' Honestly, we've been operating under the assumption that he ''has'' no deal.\\
'''Penny:''' Come on, everyone has a deal.\\
'''Howard:''' Not Sheldon. Over the years we've formulated a number of theories about how he might reproduce. I'm an advocate of mitosis.
** He's familiar with the concepts of physical or romantic attraction, but doesn't apparently experience those things himself. Any time he "clicks" with someone in a romantic way, it is always juxtaposed with a common scientific enthusiasm. While the possibility of sexual attraction has appeared from time to time (when Amy kisses him in Season 4, he says "Fascinating", which ''could'' indicate that he found the experience pleasurable or at least interesting), he is written largely as someone who puts intellect and science first and mocks his friends for not doing the same.
---> '''Leonard:''' I can't believe you're going to have Howard choose between sex and ''VideoGame/{{Halo}}!''\\
'''Sheldon:''' No, I'm asking him to choose between sex and ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}''. As far as I know sex hadn't been upgraded to include hi-def graphics and advanced weapon systems.\\
'''Leonard:''' Right, all sex has is nudity, orgasms, and human contact.\\
'''Sheldon:''' [[SarcasmBlind My point.]]
** In a Season 3 episode, Penny falls in the shower and breaks her arm. She calls for Sheldon to help, because she knows the sight of her naked would literally do nothing for him. In fact, Sheldon spends more time whining about the possibility of getting injured driving than appreciating the fact that he got to enjoy Kaley Cuoco "in the altogether."
** In Season 7, Sheldon gives a TakeThat kiss to Amy to mock her for her idea of a "romantic weekend". Then moves in closer, holds her, and holds the kiss for over ten seconds. Later in their relationship, they seem to have no issue making out while on dates.
** The finale of Season 8 shows that Sheldon was willing to propose to Amy before she broke up with him. Given his reliance on "social convention," he likely would have had a proper honeymoon with her.
** [[spoiler: Possibly asexual but no longer a virgin as he consummated his relationship with Amy in "The Opening Night Excitation".]]
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Sheldon usually has issues with maintaining focus when he is unable to work at the university. He goes from one project in the morning to the third or fourth by the time Leonard gets back home.
* BadBadActing: His "Fun with Flags" podcast has him delivering his lines in a monotone and sounds like a speech synthesiser. He also directs his lines directly at the camera, and his body language is cold and uninviting.
* BadLiar: If he thinks too hard it's virtually impossible for him to maintain a lie, keeping secrets drives him insane. But if he works up an overcomplicated backstory to the lie then he can manage it okay, but that requires some prep work including falsifying evidence and sometimes a Facebook profile. His trouble is knowing the proper scale of lying -- his intricate preparations would be rather good lies for a government intelligence agency. In terms of deflecting attention from a white lie Leonard told to avoid having to watch Penny sing, it was way over-designed with the belief anything less would fall apart. If it's an improvised deception in the moment, he can stumble along.
* BastardBoyfriend: To Amy whom he verbally abuses and treats like crap, to be fair, he treats everyone like crap. It's PlayedForLaughs.
* BerserkButton: He has numerous examples:
** Perhaps it would be best to begin with an in-universe listing...
---> '''Raj:''' What did you do? Did you change the contrast or brightness settings on the television?\\
'''Leonard:''' No.\\
'''Raj:''' Did you take a Band-Aid off in front of him?\\
'''Leonard:''' No.\\
'''Howard:''' Did you buy generic ketchup, forget to rinse the sink, talk to him through the bathroom door?\\
'''Raj:''' Adjust the thermostat, cook with cilantro, pronounce the T in often?\\
'''Leonard:''' No!\\
''[{{beat}}]''\\
'''Howard:''' ...Did you ''make fun of trains?''
** Don't mention Creator/WilWheaton around Sheldon, unless you want a "WHEEEEEAAAATOOOOOONNN!" that would make [[BigWordShout Shatner proud]]. (They made up at the end of "The Russian Rocket Reaction" and are now good friends -- according to Sheldon, anyways). Unfortunately, Creator/BrentSpiner then inadvertently replaces Creator/WilWheaton on Sheldon's Mortal Enemy list.
** The ''WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}'' character. This is a reference to a 1 panel webcomic strip known as "It's Goofy Time". Sheldon's dialogue is a direct copy of the non-goofy character from it.
--->'''Penny''': What's wrong with Goofy?\\
'''Leonard''': Beats me... he's fine with [[WesternAnimation/PlutoThePup Pluto]].
** Don't sit in Sheldon's spot on the couch. You will regret it.
** While Sheldon is almost fine with cheap shots aimed at his mother, ''do not insult his Meemaw.'' (Grandmother)
** Being let down by his friends, but ''especially'' Leonard, is another one. After Kripke humiliated him on NPR, his misery is compounded when he finds out Leonard laughed.
** Sheldon usually doesn't resort to physical violence, but question the legitimacy of his work and back up your claims with tangible proofs and all bets are off!
** The following exchange:
--->'''Sheldon:''' You want me to share credit?\\
'''Scientist:''' Yes.\\
'''Sheldon:''' [[GetOut GET OUT.]]
** A minor example, but only his mother and sister are allowed to call him "Shelly". Also, only his "Meemaw" is allowed to call him "Moon Pie."
** Amy is a new one -- Sheldon actually physically assaulted Leonard (via a weak karate chop to the neck), when he felt that Leonard might consider a relationship with her (like Amy, he seemed to be aware that Leonard might rebound with her).
* BetaCouple: Although his relationship with Amy is a complex one, it is significantly more stable then Leonard/Penny. This is accurate to Asperger syndrome (although his attitude to sex is not). If he didn't believe a relationship with Amy would last, he wouldn't bother. Their relationship continues because Amy feels exactly the same way.
* BigDamnKiss: [[spoiler: In the middle of an annoyed rant about romance, the normally very asexual Sheldon ''actually initiates a kiss with Amy'' in "The Locomotive Manipulation." And he ''liked'' it.]]
** Gets a second one in Season 9 [[spoiler: with Penny. It turns out it was AllJustADream, rooted in Leonard's anxiety]].
** Also in Season 9, [[spoiler:the kiss he shares with Amy after they get back together]].
* BigEgoHiddenDepths: Sheldon may qualify as many of his breakdowns show that while underneath his ego, he is in many ways still just a little kid who doesn't understand the world and hasn't recovered from multiple traumatic incidents that occurred during his childhood, he does genuinely care about his friends and several episodes have implied that his ego stems from some sort of coping mechanism (he tries to reason that his childhood bullies hurt him cause they were jealous of him).
* BigGuyLittleGuy: The Big Guy to Leonard's Little Guy. Sheldon is 6' 1" (1.86 m) and towers over the 5' 5" (1.65 m) Leonard.
* BirthdayHater: Sheldon has some mental scars from past birthdays relating to his general aversion to socialization. [[spoiler: Subverted as he's willing to endure Amy's birthday in "The Opening Night Excitation."]]
* BlackFace: In an episode of Fun with flags, [[Creator/LeVarBurton LeVar Burton]] stops by again:
-->'''Sheldon:''' Since you're here I'd like to get your opinion on something, in honor of Black History I portrayed George Washington Carver in a loving tribute that my roommate called "wildly racist." What do you think? (Shows Burton a tablet.) ''Hi, my name is George.''
-->'''[=LeVar=] Burton:''' Oh, hell no...
-->'''Sheldon:''' See Leonard, its not racist.
* TheBore: Frequently. His flag podcast is incredibly bland and colorless, and he often railroads the conversation onto topics that only he finds interesting (such as railroads). Sheldon, being the way he is, takes the disinterest as signs of his audience's intellectual inferiority.
* BrainyBrunette: A genius with dark hair.
* BreakTheHaughty: His inflated sense of entitlement and superiority often end up putting him through a thorough, and often well-deserved, HumiliationConga. Subverted in that he never loses his arrogance, no matter how hard he may have been humiliated. He actually faints when Dr. Stephen Hawkings points out a small mathematical error in the paper Sheldon gave him.
* BrilliantButLazy:
** He's certainly very smart and works very hard on things, but has actually accomplished very little, especially compared to Raj and Howard, who have both been at the centre of major stories about their accomplishments. It may be a result of InformedAbility, seeing as his ''offscreen'' resume is fairly impressive.[[note]]He ''has'' won numerous accolades such as the Chancellor's Award, the Stevenson Award (at fifteen!), received an NSF grant, and was invited to present his findings on Bose-Einstein condensates. Also, of all the [=CalTech=] employees on the show (i.e, everyone except Penny and Bernadette), he is furthest up the career ladder -- his job title is Senior Theoretical Particle Physicist, implying that he is the highest-ranked or at least a highly-ranked such scientist on the faculty. Furthermore, in ''The Bat Jar Conjecture'', he was able to match the combined talents of Leonard, Raj, Howard and Leslie Winkle ''on his own''. If he had just been able to put aside his [[FatalFlaw pride,]] he would have won.[[/note]]
** Averted in Season 7. In "The Romance Resonance", he discovers how to synthesize a new heavy element, it doesn't get him mainstream fame but it quickly becomes a big buzz in the scientific community to the point the cafeteria applauded him. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it turns out that he stumbled across the discovery by accident after misreading a chart and making a mathematical error. And ''then'' it comes out that the team that tested his hypothesis faked their results, so he didn't "discover" anything after all]].
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Averted. It's made clear that, however smart he may be, he's nowhere near as valuable or talented as he thinks and he's been fired with little issue at least once, although comments from President Siebert seem to suggest that there are at least some people on the university board who feel he plays this trope straight.
* BrutalHonesty: Due to his problems with lying, Sheldon normally tells the truth in the most brutal way possible, and then won't realise why they're offended. It caused a lot of problems to his family when he was a kid.
* ButtMonkey: Often on the receiving end of a lot of humiliation and punishment. Not that he doesn't bring it on himself, though.
* CallingYourBathroomBreaks: Socially awkward in this department doesn't even begin to cover it.
-->'''Sheldon:''' Around what time in the morning do you have a bowel movement?\\
'''Leonard:''' Er...whenever I need to?\\
'''Sheldon:''' ''[sigh]'' I'm sorry, I'm not renting this room out to hippies.\\
'''Leonard:''' Okay, okay, around 8:00.\\
'''Sheldon:''' Hmm, I can't do that, is 7:30 okay?\\
'''Leonard:''' Yeah, okay, whatever!
* CannotKeepASecret: He either slips into IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou or comes up with needlessly-elaborate lies that fall apart under their own weight. However, if he is given a pre-prepared and reasonably concrete deception he can muddle by.
* CannotTellALie: Whenever he tries to lie, he exhibits incredibly obvious nervous facial tics.
* CantHoldHisLiquor: He almost never drinks casually but it doesn't take much for him to lose it, once getting tipsy after only using tequila as mouthwash. In addition there has been a few times he was unaware of what he was drinking because it was spiked. In Season 7, he begins drinking more commonly at some social events, although he is still not particularly interested in doing so, nor does he seem to enjoy it that much. Never the less his tolerance seems to have increased with his change. Luckily, he's quite a fun drunk.
* CatchPhrase:
** "Bazinga". (Dropped this somewhere around Season 6).
** There's his, "Excuse me!" when he wants to argue a point or just disagrees with something.
** (''Knock, knock, knock'') Penny. (''Knock, knock, knock'') Penny. (''Knock, knock, knock'') Penny. [[InterruptedCatchphrase Sheldon even gets a little annoyed when Penny opens the door before he finishes!]]
** "I'm not crazy. My mother had me tested."
* CelibateHero: As far as being openly contemptuous of any kind of sexual desire.
* CelibateEccentricGenius: At least, before Amy Farrah Fowler came along. Even his dynamic with Amy isn't particularly conventionally romantic.
* CharacterDevelopment: Sheldon hanging out with Penny and the gang leads him to become more and more human. Three particular Season 5 episodes involve him pushing out his personal boundaries, discovering that his rigid scheduling to regulate his life doesn't need to be so inflexible and his life won't collapse if he does things a little differently now and then. Shortly into his relationship with Amy, he was reluctant to keep to his end of the agreements in the Relationship Agreement. In a later episode, when Amy is sick, after some initial hesitation, he agrees to uphold the agreement and take care of her, and does go vigilantly. During Season 6, he notes that he has become more comfortable with physical contact, and admits that someday, perhaps, he and Amy might be physically intimate. In Season 7, he seems noticeably calmer, slyer, and quicker than before. [[spoiler: In Season 9, he DOES [[TheirFirstTime get physically intimate with Amy]].]]
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Considering the sheer number of quirks he acquired after the first few episodes, it's somewhat of a shock to see him in the early stages. Sheldon wasn't quite as socially inept or uptight in earlier episodes and may not even have been established as asexual yet. He was still an arrogant jerk, but more of a friend ribbing another instead of having a huge ego mixed with an AmbiguousDisorder. As such:
** Asexuality: He casually refers to Penny being beautiful and immediately recognizes Leonard is attracted to her, seems to (mildly) compete for her attention and when they visit a sperm bank, Leonard makes an off-hand comment that Sheldon is a "semi-pro," the implications in such a context [[ADateWithRosiePalms should be obvious]].
** Social Skills: He advises Leonard that discussing bowel movements isn't appropriate when he invites Penny to lunch. As early as the second episode it becomes a RunningGag Sheldon rarely understands sarcasm. In the first episode, nearly ''all'' of his jokes are sarcastic quips at Leonard's expense. In later episodes, it becomes a challenge to get Sheldon to admit that he's wrong, regardless of whatever outrageous thing he's done or said. In the second episode, although he still believes that cleaning Penny's apartment without her permission was the right thing to do, he offers a sincere apology to her face after some prodding by Leonard.
** Language: His CatchPhrase "Bazinga" did not show up until the late second season. He was also not the first person to use "coitus" as SpockSpeak for sex (that was actually Howard), and in fact simply used the word sex. While he didn't have a potty mouth, he did use swear words [[PrecisionFStrike rather judiciously]] a few times ("Oh gravity, thou art a heartless bitch."), in later seasons he would either censor himself ("I wanted to avoid offending the ho's"), others ("Cockamane?" "I felt uncomfortable with the word Leonard used") or use old fashioned terms ("ninny").
* ChastityCouple: He and Amy agreed there would be no physical relationship, but over time Amy developed into wanting one. While he has no interest in it (and doesn't recognise certain behavior, like helping her bathe and rubbing Vapo Rub on her chest is arousing to her) he has admitted to her and others that she influenced him and ''he'' considers theirs a deeply intimate relationship even if they aren't physical. [[spoiler: Their relationship became physical as of "The Opening Night Excitation".]]
* ChildProdigy: While he definitely was, attending college at 12 and getting his first of two Ph.Ds at age 16, it's possible he's a deconstruction of the concept. His intelligence vastly alienated him from his family, gave him a big ego, made him highly neurotic and socially inept, and though it may or may not be related to his childhood brilliance he's also something of a man-child. He has a journal record of his attempts at potty-training, from the journal itself "April 18 -- This is humiliating, what was wrong with diapers?"
* ChosenConceptionPartner: To Amy, who propositions him for sex under the explanation that it's their duty to sire future geniuses.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Far too many examples to list.
* CluelessChickMagnet: Sheldon has gained not one, but ''two'' devoted groupies. As well, he ignores a girl who actually ''goes into his room and sits on his bed'', and unwittingly manages to pick up a gay man. After Sheldon ends up charming Raj's date (a successful dentist), causing her to leave for the date with him instead, he then completely fails to understand why he would see her again.
-->'''Sheldon:''' Why would I see her again? I have a dentist.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The shirts Sheldon wears, taken from Green Lantern comics, can sometimes indicate his moods.
** Red = Anger
** Orange = Greed
** Yellow = Fear
** Green = Courage
** Blue = Hope
** Indigo = Compassion
** Violet = Love
* TheComicallySerious: In fact, it's pretty much his entire shtick (aside from neurosis, passive-aggressiveness and love of trains.)
* CommitmentIssues: Sheldon struggles with committing to Amy and then from there moving forward in their relationship. The issue stems from having previously thought of himself as a CelibateEccentricGenius who is above time wasting romantic notions, and having an aversion to change. In one episode, both Leonard and Amy decide to move too fast for their partners and put moving in on the table. Sheldon and Penny are forced to confide their hesitations about it to each other.
* ControlFreak: He regulates when his roommate can use the bathroom. (8:20 am, since you ask).
* CrazyCatLady: Gender inverted. In "The Zazzy Substitution" (Season 4, Episode 3), Sheldon and Amy break up. He tries to fill the void in his life by adopting 25 cats. This is treated as disturbing.
* CrazyJealousGuy: If any guy shows minor interest in Amy Farrah-Fowler.
--> '''Sheldon''': ''[karate-chops Leonard]'' She is NOT for you!
* CrazyPrepared: His flat is ready for every catastrophe.
* {{Cuckoosnarker}}: Though SarcasmBlind, he tends to make sarcastic (or InnocentlyInsensitive) quips at his friends and colleagues (and pretty much everyone).
* CulturalRebel: He's pretty far removed from the stereotypical Texan he was raised to be. He also affects an accent he perceives to be more educated, slipping back into his native Texan drawl when ''very'' angry or distressed.
* CutenessProximity: Falls into this when he started out naming the plethora of cats after scientists, until he got to Zazzles.
--> '''Sheldon''': I was going to name him Hermann von Helmholtz, but he's so... ''Zazzy''.
* CutLexLuthorACheck: Sheldon's eidetic memory would make him very successful in a variety of conventional career fields, and in one episode we see he's very courteous and helpful when he takes it upon himself to aid customers at a computer store. Too bad he's so arrogant he sees such fields as beneath him and is dedicated to theoretical physics.
* DeadpanSnarker: Further in keeping with the depiction of AspergerSyndrome; this is the type of humour that Aspies are most at home with.
--> '''Leonard''': Sheldon, how could you sit there and let [Howard and Raj] watch my date with Penny?\\
'''Sheldon''': They were clever, Leonard. They took advantage of my complete lack of interest in what they were doing.
* DependingOnTheWriter: The degree of Sheldon's irreligion and views on God seem to be this. While it's clear that he doesn't share his mother's Christian beliefs, he seems to vary between atheism, agnosticism, apatheism and even acknowledging God and/or Jesus' existence at times. [[note]]It's pretty much irrefutable that Jesus existed historically. Whether he was divine or not is [[FlameBait best discussed elsewhere]].[[/note]]
* DirtyCoward: In the episode where [[ItMakesSenseInContext he and Raj were in the steam tunnels]], and he abandons Raj there when some rats show up. Later Raj gives him a WhatTheHellHero speech.
* DitzyGenius: He's a brilliant scientist, but is absolutely, painfully clueless in almost every other aspect of life.
* DumbassHasAPoint: He is largely clueless with regard to relationships but sometimes does have an impressive insight with those.
* DysfunctionalFamily: He has several bad memories of his parents fighting and that is reflected in some present events (he returns to being 10 when Leonard and Penny fight). It is commonly implied he grew up in a very unstable home. He also commonly implies or even outright states on occasion that his father was a severe alcoholic. He had a very poor and somewhat abusive relationship with both his siblings. There are some other things where he considered his parents to be AbusiveParents but they were just trying to treat him like a normal child (he wanted a titanium centrifuge for his birthday, [[FelonyMisdemeanor they gave him a motorized dirtbike]]).
* EvilGenius: Sheldon occasionally invokes this on purpose. Leonard has already noted that Sheldon's "one lab accident away from becoming a super villain".
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Sheldon's mom is the only one who can override his irrational behavior. He also seems quite devoted to his grandmother, or "Meemaw", as he calls her.
* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Averted. He doesn't go for Amy as Snow White.
* TheFinickyOne: He has a thing for making people sign written agreements, is something of a germaphobe and is very picky about where he sits.
* FirstKiss: His first kiss with Amy was in Season 4's "The Agreement Dissection" when a drunken Amy kisses Sheldon, and he deems it "fascinating." She also kisses him when he buys her a tiara in Season 5, after they've started dating. However their BigDamnKiss is in "The Locomotive Manipulation" (Season 7, Episode 15), the first time Sheldon initiates it and they both enjoy it.
* {{Foil}}: Primarily for Leonard, but can be this for Raj and Howard. Many of his nerdy interests and behavior can be seen as somewhat of an extreme version of the other three. While nowhere near as intolerable as Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, and Howard do show a sense of neediness that can irritate other characters.
* ForScience: The only reason he gives for putting ground-up moths into Leonard's food, claiming it was to determine at what concentration food begins to start tasting "mothy".
* ForWantOfANail: Discussed in "The Cooper Extraction", where we see that Leonard not moving in with Sheldon meant he would've moved in with Raj and not cared about meeting a woman, letting himself go. Without Sheldon, Leonard wouldn't have had a foil to play his awkwardness off of and Penny would've turned him down from the get-go. Amy would've remained a social outcast, miserable and desperately seeking friends. No Leonard and Penny means that Bernadette never gets set up with Howard, who remains with his mother and eventually goes ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' on her. Lastly, without Leonard in the picture to circumvent her [[WMG/TheBigBangTheory theorized]] high sex drive, Penny would've made many advances on Sheldon, likely have given up, then end up settling for a idiot like Zack.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: The Choleric. He insists on taking decisions for the group, making him the de facto leader, he is devoted to his work, he is a goal-oriented person (who will go to any lengths to achieve said goals), he is typically overconfident, passionate for the things he cares about. He also has the flaws of the type such as being overly Bossy, needlessly stubborn, vindictive, insufferably arrogant, insensitive to the feelings of others, and rude to other people
* FreakOut: The sheer quantity of changes he experiences in Season 7 is too much for him to handle. [[spoiler: They include his new field of work, Leonard and Penny getting engaged, the possibility of Leonard moving out, Stuart's comic book store burned to the ground, him getting more intimate with Amy, the death of Professor Proton and so on...Sheldon goes beyond his breaking point and leaves on a train to straighten his ideas.]]
* FreudianExcuse: He reveals to Penny that the reason he knocks three times is that [[spoiler: When he was a teenager, he entered a room without knocking, to find his Father committing adultery. Him knocking is to give who ever is in the room a chance to get dressed]].
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: So much that the guys kick him off the team for the Physics Bowl in "The Bat Jar Conjecture". And when Sheldon wants to accept an offer to go on an arctic expedition, they are excited about being Sheldon-free for three months. Penny once asks exactly how he got any friends in the first place and Howard answers that they liked Leonard. In the episode where Leonard, Raj, and Howard are on a camping trip:
-->'''Leonard:''' Too bad Sheldon couldn't come with us.\\
'''Raj:''' Yeah, it's just not the same without him.\\
''[silence for a second and then the three guys start laughing]''
* GeekPhysiques: He was described by another character as looking like a praying mantis. The other three geeks also have skinny physiques. It's just that Sheldon's is more pronounced due to being a head taller than the other three.
* GoodIsNotNice: A perfect example in that he's really a good and well-intentioned person, but he's so obnoxious, selfish, and condescending that he comes off as irritating.
* GradeSkipper: It's been mentioned numerous times on the show that Sheldon was much younger than traditional age when he went to high school and college.
* GreenEyedEpiphany:
** Season 5 shows that Sheldon has grown very possessive of Amy, if nothing else. When Leonard states that he and Amy had quite a fun time together at a wedding party and playfully threw in sexual innuendo about this "fun time", Sheldon's reaction? A karate chop to Leonard's neck and then:
---> '''Leonard''': Why did you do that?\\
'''Sheldon''': To send a message: She's not for you.\\
'''Leonard''': What?\\
'''Sheldon''': Not! For you!
** Later when Amy begins to date Stuart, Sheldon "officially" upgrades the status of their relationship to boyfriend and girlfriend.
* TheGrinch: Sheldon hates Christmas, claiming it's a knockoff of the pagan celebration of Saturnalia, bemoaning being forced to participate by his zealously religious mother as a child, etc., all to the annoyance of Leonard, who just wants some Christmas cheer because ''he'' was forced to write papers by his family on Christmas. It all comes to a head during a Christmas themed game of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' where Sheldon leaves Santa (whom they were supposed to be saving) to die, ruining the game and Christmas spirit for all involved. He declares that the real reason he hates Christmas is that Santa never granted him his wish of bringing his "Pop-Pop" (grandfather, and the only family member to encourage his interest in science) back as a kid.
* HardOnSoftScience: [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] with him to the point of absurdity. Not only does he regard the social sciences as "largely hokum" (although despite this, he deeply respects Leonard's psychologist mother, however, she's also a neuroscientist), but he also speaks disparagingly of ''other hard sciences'', referring to the geology department as "the dirt people" and having a falling out with Leslie Winkle because she favored supergravity theory over superstring theory. The only non-scientific discipline he has not expressed open contempt for is the law, probably due to his mania with rules.
-->'''Sheldon:''' I have never said that you [Howard] are not good at what you do. It's just that what you do [Engineering] is not worth doing.
* HatesBeingTouched: He's terribly awkward about getting close to people, sometimes due to his germophobia and sometimes because he's so bad at showing emotions. In later seasons, he gets a bit better.
-->'''Sheldon:''' It's not a touch phobia, it's a germ phobia. If you'd like to go put on a pair of latex gloves, I'll let you check me for a hernia.
* HeCleansUpNicely:
** When he has to give a speech, Penny takes him out to buy a new outfit. Sheldon emerges from the changing room looking stylish, dapper and let's face it, handsome, in a black suit. Penny can see how much a decent suit changes his gangly appearance. Sheldon finds the outfit absurd - his usual suit is a garish checked number.
** In Season 6, when Penny gives him a new haircut, Amy is shocked when she sees it and insists that Penny change him back -- because she's worried he might attract other women. "I don't want him walking around like sex on a stick!" (Sheldon agrees. "She's right. I'm too hot.")
* HenpeckedHusband: After a fight with Amy, he has decided to be one to avoid major fights in the future. So when Amy tells [[spoiler:Levar Burton]] he's a worse actor than [[spoiler:Wil Wheaton]] Sheldon tells the former while he may not actually think so, he must agree with Amy. [[spoiler:Levar]] understands completely. This does not normally occur, as he is mostly the dominant one in their relationship.
* HeroicSacrifice: Not a lethal one, but during a paintball war his comrades (Leonard, Howard, and Raj) have no enthusiasm due to prior events, and don't really want to fight. Sheldon proceeds to walk outside, into the open, and take several shots to motivate them into fighting, resulting in victory. [[MundaneMadeAwesome Complete with slow-motion]] and a ''Film/{{Platoon}}''-style [[ShoutOut "death"]].
* HiddenDepths: Sheldon proves to be surprisingly understanding and helpful when hearing about his friends' love problems. He also knows a lot about football, though it's only because his father always made him watch the games as a child, rather than out of his own interest; plus he grew up in Texas, where he mentions that football is inescapable there. Also thanks to his father he is apparently a crack shot with both a bow and a gun. Due to his upbringing, he is also a skilled ballroom dancer and archer. At times, he seems to know more than the other guys about proper social interaction, but his knowledge is shallow and he's ''very'' poor at applying it to real-life situations.
* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Sheldon is revealed to have been so traumatized by his parents' constant fighting when he was a child that he is unable to be around people arguing. He goes so far as to run away from his apartment when roommate Leonard won't stop arguing with his girlfriend. He relates multiple incidents of being bullied (sometimes by his own siblings) that fit the trope, such as discovering string theory, due to being beaten round the head with a book about it.
* HollywoodNerd: A tall, svelte attractive man who is noted by his girlfriend as looking like "sex on a stick" when he gets a more flattering haircut.
* HonorBeforeReason: Will often avoid taking the easy way out of things, though this usually leaves him worse off than before.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Calls Priya a know-it-all for explaining [[LittleKnownFacts the origins of the "toast"]]. This is in spite of in 90% of his conversations, he brings up such topics at any given chance.
* HypocriticalHumor: Often accuses Leonard of being a narcissist and wanting to make everything about him, without a hint of irony.
* InformedAbility: Although the other scientists do have some level of respect for his abilities (Leonard at one point calling him "one of the greatest minds of the 21st century") Sheldon is by far the most fervent admirer of his own intellect, but he frequently makes mistakes (especially in non-scientific fields, sometimes even then) and besides being given an award by the University all his accomplishments are second-hand information. Lampshaded by President Siebert, "The board tells me he has a beautiful mind, but I just think he's bananas."
* InnocentBigot: Occasionally says things that may be considered offensive without realization.
* InnocentBlueEyes: He has large, expressive blue eyes. They may or may not be a physical manifestation of how clueless he is when it comes to social interaction, despite his intellectual brilliance.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Even when he's trying not to be an InsufferableGenius (usually at the request of one of the other guys), he has a problem of insulting people anyway without realizing it. It's debatable whether or not he realizes how insufferable he really is. Much of his innocent insensitivity stems less from his arrogance and overbearing manner than his total ignorance of social conventions. For example, in one conversation with Penny, he asks her where she currently is on her menstrual cycle. He doesn't understand why it's inappropriate.
* InsaneTrollLogic: Sheldon's thought processes are very alien, and he occasionally purposefully distorts logic to get his way.
** If he cannot have his way or if he manages to fail at an activity then he will often dig deep to find some way to justify why he didn't succeed. After failing at [[DrivesLikeCrazy learning how to drive]] he decided he was an [[EvolutionaryLevels evolved form of humanity]] that was smarter but incapable of driving properly.
** In Season 4, he and Amy play a game called "Counter-Factuals", where they offer a ForWantOfANail scenario where the world is different in some manner, and figure out what the answer to a question is. In this game, Sheldon rationalizes that if a giant beaver ruled the world, it would lead to a chain of events that results in the cheese danish never being invented due to worldwide flooding.
** By the rules of the Roommate Agreement, if he and Leonard vote on something and it's a tie, he settles the tie. Leonard reminds that he voted ''against'' this, to which Sheldon counters he voted "yes", and he settles all ties, so it was a yes.
** Subverted in some other ways. Though some of his lifestyle choices are strange to outsiders, he has well-thought-out reasons for them that make sense, if in a SuperOCD way. For example, [[ThisIsMyChair his spot on the couch]] comes with a list of reasons ''why'' it is his spot, from balanced airflow in the room to allowing maximum interaction with guests (with minimal head turning) while still allowing a proper view of the TV without distorting the image.
* InSeriesNickname:
** His mother and sister call him "Shelly", though he does not seem to like the nickname. Leonard and Penny have occassionally used the same term. His grandmother calls him "Moonpie", because he is so sweet to her. When Penny uses the nickname, however, Sheldon replies: "No one calls me Moonpie but Meemaw".
** In "The Isolation Permutation", a drunk Amy nicknames him "cuddles".
* InsistentTerminology: He is not a rocket scientist. He's a theoretical physicist! Also, he takes great pains to point out that his team t-shirt spells "The Wesley Crushers" (Those Who Crush Wesley) and not "The Wesley Crushers" (Multiple People Named Wesley Crusher). Dr. Sheldon Cooper would also have you know that he's not crazy; his mother had him tested. She later confirms this (...though she should have followed-up with that specialist in Houston). He also does not play "pranks"; he subjects people to his ''classic'' pranks. He also prefers it when accurate terms are used. One of the more notable things he prefers is to refer to sexual intercourse as 'coitus', probably to separate it from sex as in 'male or female'..
* InsufferableGenius: He's that page's image for a very good reason. Though it's been shown repeatedly that it isn't impossible to outsmart him or even point out mistakes in his work, it's a matter of being stubborn enough to fight him through the insufferable part (StephenHawking notwithstanding). He was even more insufferable as a 9 years old kid.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Though he is able to show concern and attention for his friends on occasion, Sheldon's default attitude is wildly egocentric, taking the view of "the world revolves around me" as an axiom.
-->'''Leonard:''' Sheldon, not everything is about you.\\
'''Sheldon:''' ''[pause]'' I don't follow you.
* {{Jerkass}}: Explained well by Bernadette:
-->'''Bernadette:''' He doesn't understand when he's being mean because that part of his brain is getting a wedgie from the rest of his brain.
* JerkassFacade: While he is often a jerk, he would often rather someone believe he is being selfish than admit he's acting altruistically or with genuine concern for another. Leonard is often the reason for it. When informed that Penny is thinking about ending their relationship, Sheldon confronts her in the middle of the night to talk Leonard up, claiming it is just because he doesn't like change but admitting he doesn't want to see Leonard hurt. Another time he is irrationally concerned about Leonard having a low-risk elective surgery, the lengths he goes to stop it reveals a lot about how much he really does care.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's insufferable most of the time, but he shows concern and attention for his friends in his own ways, can offer genuinely helpful advice on their problems if he's in the right mood, he's never actively malevolent to them beyond verbal jabs, and is hurt if they slight him in some way. On the other hand, his perspective on social interactions are skewed, so he doesn't understand when he does something offensive or inappropriate, he's constantly flaunting what he considers his superior intellect, and while he can offer helpful advice on a problem at times, he's just as liable to interrupt their explanation of said problem to note he doesn't care. The Heart Of Gold ''is'' there, but it's deep down under a lot of arrogance and an AmbiguousDisorder.
* KarmaHoudini: Rarely does he receive more than a slap on the wrist for all the crap he puts his friends through. In many cases, when it seems like things have come to a head and one of the other guys has finally had enough of his antics, a DeusExMachina will ensure that Sheldon escapes punishment and his obnoxious behavior is vindicated.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Eventually, his actions in his relationship with Amy catch up to him and it crashes and burns.
* KindHeartedCatLover: When he and Amy disagree over the superiority of physics vis-a-vis neurobiology, they terminate their friendship.[[note]]Sheldon's mother manages to bring them back together in the end, thanks to a little judicious reverse psychology.[[/note]] He fills the void left by her absence by adopting a plethora of cats. His mother also sings him his sick song, "Soft Kitty" whenever he's sick, and so does Penny. Sheldon even sings it to her at one point.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Sheldon tends to lapse into this when he veers away from physics and into the life sciences. Sheldon acts like he knows United States history when he doesn't. He tries to convince Leonard that he should be a history professor instead of a physicist by testing whether Leonard knows that slavery in the United States ended in 1863. It didn't. At the Renaissance Fair, when he complains about the historical inaccuracies, but doesn't realize Leonard's knight costume is at least 200 years out of date. His "defense" to a charge of running a red light in "The Excelsior Acquisition" shows he knows absolutely ''nothing'' about the law, as well. On similar lines, his beloved Roommate Agreement is full of loopholes, and doesn't stand up to the scrutiny of a legal professional. Many of his beloved factoids, when outside the sciences, are actually common misconceptions: The Romans did ''not'' sow over Carthage with salt, for instance, as any archaeology undergrad could have told him. However this is often a case of DependingOnTheWriter, sometimes he is presented as being as smart as he thinks he is (or at least knowledgeable in a broad range of areas). The Rule (following the RuleOfFunny) often seems to be that he only slips into this whenever it would actually benefit him not to.
* LackOfEmpathy: {{Subverted}} Although he often comes across as this Sheldon is perfectly capable of feeling empathy and can even be quite caring on occasion. Its just he's very bad at showing it.
* LargeHam: He can be quite overdramatic.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: With Penny. In the episode "The Intimacy Acceleration" they conduct an experiment designed to make people fall in love by asking each other a few personal questions. They don't fall in love but reflect more about their friendship and they both admit that they look on each other like a brother and a sister.
* LimitedWardrobe: Almost always wears short sleeved t-shirts with a longer shirt underneath, rolled up to the elbows. Superhero t-shirts are the most common, GreenLantern (or a symbol of one of the other Lantern Corps) and TheFlash especially. This leads to a rather amusing variation of CharacterizationMarchesOn, as in [[http://the-big-bang-theory.com/gallery/picture/274/ one early episode]] he follows the general pattern, but it's far removed from what he was later known for.[[note]]Interestingly enough, the color combination is that of classic Silver Age Lex Luthor's power armor, so maybe they went for the "evil genius" look.[[/note]]
* LiteralMinded: More than everyone else, being SarcasmBlind.
* LittleKnownFacts: Loves bringing them up in conversation, sometimes to benefit himself such as why he should have the last dumpling, because in Tia culture its reserved for the most valued member of the group.
* MadScientist: Has about as many shades as you can get while still being thoroughly grounded in reality. A brief list of examples is his willingness to try electric shocks to modify Penny's behavior by negative reinforcement, the government monitors his computer activities due to his efforts to hack their systems, as a child he attempted to build a "death ray" and to create a griffon by cross-breeding lions and eagles, and he occasionally makes references to societal reforms he plans to implement when "[he] comes to power". Lampshaded by Leonard, who notes Sheldon is "one lab accident away from becoming a supervillain."
* ManChild: While all the characters indulge themselves in childish things, Sheldon insists that ''someone'' take care of him the way his mother would when he's sick (or even just ''home''sick), locks himself in his bedroom where no one else is allowed when he's furious, curls up into a crying ball of sad on his bed when he's embarrassed, runs away from home when he's upset, is practically traumatized by the sound of people arguing[[note]]Although this one may be perfectly justified, as his parents often got into arguments when he was a child and it is also implied that a lot of the arguments were exceedingly violent (he mentioned that his father would start throwing plates and shattering them in the kitchen, and that his mom planned to place glass shards in his father's meatloaf), even when they said to Sheldon that they stopped fighting[[/note]], and is stubborn and petty beyond all reason. The only thing on this planet that can force him to behave rationally when he's angry or depressed is an order from his mother, who Leonard calls "Sheldon's Kryptonite". He also responds positively to being patronized by Penny, especially if he gets a toy robot and a comic book out of it. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Bernadette at one point, after she successfully got him to go to bed by first reasoning with him about the effects of lack of sleep, and then simply treating him like an overgrown child and sending him to bed.
* ManipulativeBastard: Although failing on most of his attempts in the first few seasons, starting Season 6 and appearing more commonly in Season 7, Sheldon begins to get more successful at his attempts to manipulate others, learning how to play off of their weaknesses to his advantage.
* MeaningfulName: Named for television producer Sheldon Leonard and possibly for physics Nobel Laureate Leon N. Cooper.
* MinorInjuryOverreaction: His response to getting a cut on his thumb? He faints.
* MommasBoy: His mother still treats him like a child and is the only person who can tell him what to do.
* MoralityPet: His mother, Amy and sometimes Penny.
* MotherNatureFatherScience: A rather blatant example with Amy, who's a biologist and him a physicist.
* {{Narcissist}}: The most fervent admirer of his own genius.
* NeatFreak: He broke into Penny's apartment to clean, because being that close to mess made him have trouble sleeping.
* {{Nerd}}: His life is almost exclusively devoted to the nerdy interests of science, science fiction, fantasy, comicbooks, and videogames.
* NeverMyFault: Which makes those rare occasions (see PetTheDog below) when he ''does'' admit his own fault even more significant, such as when he accidentally [[spoiler: cost Howard his security clearance, leading to his career suffering a serious setback.]]
* NoSenseOfHumor: Zigzagged. Sheldon has a sense of humor, but it's so separate from everybody else [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike (except for Amy)]] that he doesn't get most jokes and most people don't get his. ''And'' he always explains his jokes.
* NoSocialSkills: To the point where Sheldon seems to consider "accepted social protocol" more like inviolable laws he ''must'' obey, rather than doing nice things simply because he's trying to be ''pleasant''. Lampshaded a few times by Penny.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Although rarely a true villain, when ever he does take an antagonistic role its normally either as a petty prankster seeking revenge or a egomaniac control freak whining to others when he doesn't get his way. However in "The Itchy Brain Simulation" he proves he when he's had time to plan he can be quite impressive. He successful manipulates his own best friend into simulating OCD, and torturing himself, all while barely lifting a finger. He is certainly smart enough to plan some extremely potent revenge schemes but he tends to fail or go sideways in execution (a prank against Kripke involving a fast expanding foam ended up being sprung when members of the board are visiting his office).
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: There's only a slight hint of Sheldon's Texan accent when he normally speaks, but he does slip into it more when he's with his mother and goes full on Texas when he's drunk.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The few times he deviates from specific idiosyncrasies is treated as exceptionally odd and results in some big reactions from the characters, notably how Penny started crying when Sheldon gave her a hug for the Creator/LeonardNimoy Napkin Christmas gift.
-->'''Leonard:''' Between Sheldon giving up [[ThisIsMyChair his spot on the couch]] and you (Penny) [[InstantExpert playing chess like Bobby Fischer]], I would guess that someone went back in time and stepped on a bug, changing the course of human events.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: To an ludicrous extent in [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness the first few series]], (built a complete, functioning CT scanner up to the imaging software when he was eleven, discovered a new phase of matter but didn't even bother to present his findings and genetically engineered a bioluminescent fish, working from home, in a matter of weeks) toned down later on but still present.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: His obsession with cleanliness was evident early on, with him cleaning Penny's apartment himself while she slept and later panicking when he hears she came from a family gathering where they were sick. In the Season 1 episode "The Loobenfeld Decay", he places a bag of chicken in a take-out container into an outside bin, then recovers it a few minutes later with [[RuleOfFunny nothing more than a quick blow]]. It certainly stands out as an anomaly with his regular behavior.
* PetTheDog: He's typically very selfish and insufferable and frequently comments on how much he hates social interaction even with his closest friends. But there are a few rare moments where he actually uses his selfish behavior as a smokescreen to hide that he's actually concerned and/or happy for his friends, but doesn't want to admit that right out. For instance, he discovered through Amy that Penny had some doubts about her relationship with Leonard. So he confronts her late at night and tries talking Leonard up, saying that he just wants to keep the status quo for his own sake. As the conversation went on, he eventually asked with sincerity, "Please don't hurt my friend."
** When Mrs. Wolowitz suddenly dies in her sleep during Season 8, Sheldon tries to comfort Howard. Leonard, righteously worried that Sheldon will say something inappropriate, tries to stop him, but Howard lets him talk. He says the most heartfelt thing he has ever said in-series:
--> '''Sheldon''': [[DisappearedDad When I lost my own father]] [[FriendlessBackground I didn't have any friends to help me through it]]. You do.
--> '''Penny''': ''(sobbing)'' [[LampshadeHanging I really thought he was going to say “Let it go”]].
* PhotographicMemory: He has it, though he objects to the name and insists that it's properly called eidetic memory. He's able to recall the precise date and time of any event in his life and win complex card games through memorization
* PolarOppositeTwins: With Missy. Sheldon is wildly egocentric, only interacts with others when forced to and tends to look down on anyone who isn't as smart as he perceives himself to be. Missy is out-going, friendly, level-headed and sociable. Sheldon points out that non-identical twins will only resemble each other as much as siblings born on separate occasions.
* {{Pride}}: A lot of the problems he encounters could be avoided if he wasn't so arrogant and proud. A good example is "The Excelsior Acquisition", where he tries to fight a traffic violation on principle when a scene just before he finds out about his summons establishes he has several thousand dollars in uncashed paychecks.
* ProudToBeAGeek: Sheldon simply refuses to be anything but a geek and unlike his friends (mostly Leonard) he isn't embarrassed at all by his geekiness.
* RailEnthusiast: A fan of model railways, he even wears his own pretend-Engineer's hat. This would be rather sweet if he didn't neglect Amy for it, something which visibly offended her.
* RaisedCatholic: Was raised in East Texas by an [[HolierThanThou overly-religious]] Christian mother, but he himself does not partake in religion. Though it is unclear whether he is an atheist, agnostic, NayTheist, etc.
* TheRainMan: To an extent. His intelligence verges on SuperIntelligence, making him able to achieve prominence in his chosen scientific field. At the same time, though, it contributes to his weirdness and failure to connect with people. Even Sheldon's family and his few friends have trouble understanding and tolerating him.
* RuleOfThree: His [[http://bigbangtheory.wikia.com/wiki/Sheldon%27s_Knock characteristic knock]] on the door is a RunningGag. Three knocks, followed by calling the name or names of whoever is on the other side of the door (Penny, Amy, Bernadette, etc). Followed by a second set of three knocks and another call of the name/s. And finishing with a third set of three knocks and another call of the name/s. When the door opens before Sheldon has a chance to complete his ritual, he simply continues knocking the open door.
** There a few minor deviations of the general rule. In "The Toast Derivation", Sheldon does not call Leonard, Howard, and Raj by their names, using the phrase "all my friends" three times. In "The Anxiety Optimization", Sheldon does not call Penny, Amy, and Bernadette by their names, using the word "ladies" three times. PlayedForLaughs in "The Opening Night Excitation" as (1) he has to match the name with whoever asks him to come in, and (2) he calls Amy "Birthday Girl".
* RulesLawyer: Provided they're either rules he drafted himself or those governing the playing of TabletopGames. As Priya and "The Excelsior Acquisition" showed, he doesn't have a very good handle on the actual law. Though it is likely his arrogance plays a part in this. He was able to match her on his second try.
* SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: Sheldon is such a ChildProdigy that he entered college at age eleven and graduated with honours at fourteen. He has devoted pretty much his entire life to research since then, and this may have contributed to his lack of rudimentary social skills (such as not gloating at a judge) and his overall inability to deal with the mundane world (germophobia for instance).
-->'''Leonard:''' Sheldon's in jail?! For what?\\
'''Penny:''' For doing the same crap he always does, except to a judge.
* SarcasmBlind: ZigZagged. He understands the concept of sarcasm and can use it himself, but almost never picks it up when it's about him. He gets lucky once and a while, but it seems like guess work on his part. Leonard even made a sarcasm sign in an early episode. And Sheldon keeps track of how many times he correctly understands sarcasm. Once, when Howard made a sarcastic comment, Sheldon asked "Was that sarcasm?", and Howard sarcastically replied "No!" — which, of course, Sheldon failed to recognize the sarcasm of.
** In at least one episode, this is inverted: Sheldon takes something as sarcastic when it isn't.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Uses lots of big words, even when it's not necessary.
-->'''Sheldon''': I'm polymerized tree sap and you're an inorganic adhesive, so whatever verbal projectile you launch in my direction is reflected off of me, returns to its original trajectory and adheres to you.
* ShesNotMyGirlfriend: Amy. In his own words: "She's a girl and she's my friend, but there's [[NoHuggingNoKissing no touching or unsanitary exchange of saliva]]." Finally subverted in Season 5, where while Sheldon holds to the ban of physical intimacy, he and Amy are "officially" together, as noted by the Relationship Agreement he drew up.
** As of Season 7, occasional kissing seems to have entered their relationship. Presumably the exchange of saliva is highly sanitary.
** [[spoiler: As of "Opening Night Excitation", coitus seems to have entered their relationship.]]
* SiblingYinYang: Missy and him couldn't be more different despite being fraternal twins.
* SignatureLaugh: A sort of quick inhalation sort of thing.
* SilenceYouFool: Expect Leonard to get shut down by him if his love-life interferes with their order waiting times at bars or restaurants.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Amy is the ONLY person he has ever expressed romantic feelings towards. While other women (and men) have shown some form of attraction to him the most he ever reciprocates is an appreciation that they appreciate him. Even though a sexual relationship is still repulsive to him, he confessed to Amy that the two of them is the most intimate relationship he has ever had. [[spoiler: As of "The Opening Night Excitation", he is now in a sexual relationship with Amy.]]
* SmallNameBigEgo: Played With check "KnowNothingKnowItAll". He believes himself to be multi-talented when his only real skill is in theoretical physics but this does fall in to DependingOnTheWriter as he sometimes genuinely is near to as smart as he believes he is and has shown in-depth knowledge of other subjects and his friends do on occasion acknowledge that he really is the smartest of them. He's also very unaware of how much people dislike him and can't understand why they wouldn't want to spend time with him. But of his friends he is the most successful (being the Senior Theoretical Physicist at Caltech) and is apparently held in high regard by the physics community. Never the less its made very clear that he doesn't live up to his opinion of himself.
* SmartPeoplePlayChess: He and Leonard play three-dimensional chess (yes, it does exist). He also created 3-man chess, complete with new pieces. Unlike many of his socializing-related projects, his new rules are seemingly enjoyable and not over-complicated.
* SmugSnake: Very smug about his genius-level intelligence. He sometimes talks about himself as a new and improved human. Ironically he can often live up to his claims, its purely down to his ego that he fails.
* SocialDarwinist: As shown when his guided meditation gets sidetracked by imagining Franchise/{{Godzilla}} attacking ''VideoGame/SimCity''.
--> '''Sheldon''': People of [[{{Egopolis}} Sheldonopolis]], this is your Mayor! Follow me and I will lead you to safety. If your children cannot run, ''leave them behind!''
* SouthernFriedGenius: Subverted for the most part. Despite hailing from Texas, he displays none of the traits that are typically associated with the "redneck" aspect of the trope. This is apparently a conscious decision as it shows up when he's very upset.
-->'''Sheldon:''' No one calls me Moon-Pie but Meemaw!
* SpinOff: Because of his popularity, he later earns a show about his childhood in 2017.
* SpockSpeak: Just let this example speak for itself:
--> '''Sheldon''': Well, I'm polymerized tree sap and you're an inorganic adhesive, so whatever verbal projectile you launch in my direction is reflected off of me, returns on its original trajectory and adheres to you. [[labelnote:Translation]] [[ExpospeakGag I'm rubber, you're glue,]] [[LameComeback bounces off me and sticks to you.]][[/labelnote]]
* SpoiledBrat: Sheldon tends to embody this trope, often getting whatever he wants, how and when he wants it, no matter how unreasonable, merely by being extremely difficult. Ironically, his family seem to be the only people ''not'' enabling him.
* StaticCharacter: Justified; he [[EnforcedTrope makes an active effort]] to not change himself.
* SuperOCD:
** Don't sit on his favorite couch cushion, you'll smush it out of shape. A good example is when the cushion that was "his spot" on the sofa was stained and he spent the time in which the cushion was being cleaned slowly going crazy, eventually going to the point where he was crouching over the spot where he used to sit. Howard tries to solve the problem by grabbing Rajesh's cushion and placing it in Sheldon's spot. Rajesh starts to complain, giving us:
--->'''Howard:''' Who cares where you sit? ''You are not crazy!''
** In the thirty seconds it took Rajesh to find a new place to sit, Sheldon had found something unacceptable about the new cushion and the fun was restarted.
--->'''Sheldon:''' These shrimp are all the same size, there's no logical order to eat them in. ''[chucks them into the garbage can]''
** Sheldon always has to knock on Penny's door 3 times and each knock is followed by him calling Penny's name. Penny at one point tries to mess up Sheldon's rhythm by opening the door and imitating what Sheldon does. He feels "that's just wrong."
* SurroundedByIdiots: ''His'' opinion of everyone around him.
* TokenEvilTeammate: He's not actually evil but given the previous tropes that represent him is a different story.
* TookALevelInJerkass: In "The Itchy Brain Simulation" he goes from a merely annoying InnocentlyInsensitive {{Jerkass}} to an EvilGenius MagnificentBastard.
** Sheldon continually insulting Amy after their breakup, even though it was entirely his fault over his inability to pick up on social cues and other people's feelings, comes across as incredibly juvenile and cruel.
* {{Trekkie}}: ''Star Trek'' is one of the group's favourite franchises. They especially dig ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' and ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'. Spock is Sheldon's favorite character.
** This fact is eventually lampshaded in "''The Spock Resonance''": due to Sheldon's refusal to believe in the constant "What Would Jesus do" attitude of his mother to help with his constant bullying, he instead resorted to asking "What Would Spock do" and idolizing the character due to his approach to logic and rationale as opposed to emotions and belief (even if it still got him to be beaten up). Penny correctly points out that Spock's character is half-human, and therefore emotions are a huge part of his development in the original series and as a character overall, and by doing so demonstrates that he actually uses the character's basic description as an escape. Sheldon proves her right by digressing into a breakdown over his recent break-up with Amy and running to his bedroom.
* {{Troll}}: He's often guilty of this behavior, as demonstrated by most of his "Classic Pranks", his heckling of both Leonard and Brian Greene's lectures and when his [[RunningGag continual swiping]] of the One Ring from Leonard.
--> '''Howard''': You're not helping!\\
'''Sheldon''': I'm not trying to help! ''[smirks]''
* {{Tsundere}}: Platonic version towards Leonard. Although he constantly mocks Leonard for being a less-intelligent Experimental Physicist, he has constantly proven that he cares greatly for him.
* TwitchyEye: Gets a very prominent one when he either ''doesn't'' know something, or the others don't let him finish explaining something.
* TVGenius: This is a huge part of the sitcom's premise. Leonard, Raj and Howard are also extremely intelligent, but no where near as TVGenius as Sheldon. To reiterate, in a show where five of the seven main characters have at least one doctorate (Penny has a high school diploma, while Howard only has a masters) and most of the recurring characters are university professors or otherwise in highly technical fields, Sheldon is universally regarded as bizarre. Not incomprehensibly so, however, as he literally came with a manual. That he himself wrote in PDF format and hands out to new friends.
* {{Ubermensch}}: Sheldon has a slight disregard[=/=]disapproval of certain social protocols, his obsessive-compulsive behaviors are often seen as weird or overdone by his friends, and he outright considers compassion and understanding to be a limitation to himself. Despite all of this, Sheldon is an ''incredibly'' intelligent genius physicist, and it can't be denied that his zealous imposition of order on his household really does help himself as well as Leonard, despite his protests.
* UnclePennybags: Surprisingly -- Sheldon's lifestyle is very low-budget and he saves his money, to the point he feels perfectly comfortable giving Penny enough money to both pay her rent and fix her car when it breaks down. Despite her assumption that Sheldon's obsessive tendencies would lead him to hound her, it turns out that he's incredibly lax when it comes to lending his money. He honestly doesn't care ''when'' it's paid back, as long as it ''eventually'' is.
* UnskilledButStrong: In an intellectual sense. He's exceptionally bright, but has nearly zero technical/people/organisational skills and his default approach to problem-solving is to just stare at his whiteboard until a solution comes to him.
* TheUnsmile: Masters it and is even the page image.
* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Sheldon's self-centered egotism and condescending behavior is the source of conflict for any given episode, even just by being sick and asking for help (his obnoxious neediness at that stage is dreaded by everyone).
* VerbalTic: Sometimes refers to things with unnecessary tautologies, such as "''Franchise/GreenLantern'' Lantern", or "''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Lord of the Rings]]'' Ring".
* VirtueIsWeakness: He actively believes that being compassionate and open-minded is a weakness, to the point that he (unsuccessfully) attempted to break up with Amy when he realized her effect on his personality.
* WackyGuy: Has a tendency to come up with strange ideas and plans, which affect everyone around him. Such as trying to stay awake for days (to work on a scientfic problem), stepping in into the roles of busboy and waiter at the Cheesecake Factory without bothering to notify his new employers, tracking down Creator/JamesEarlJones to convince him to co-found a comic book convention, etc.
* WithFriendsLikeThese:
-->'''Sheldon:''' Those are traits associated with a psychopath.\\
'''Leonard:''' Are you worried about me killing you in your sleep?\\
'''Sheldon:''' No, I imagine if you were going to do so, you would have done it years ago.
* WhoopiEpiphanySpeech: Played with. While such a speech is usually one of great wisdom made by someone who isn't all that educated or book smart, it can't be said that Sheldon is either of those things. But he ''is'' very socially inept. So it comes as a surprise at times when Sheldon has rare gems of social wisdom (albeit wrapped in SesquipedalianLoquaciousness) that give Leonard new insights he couldn't see before.
->'''Played by:''' Creator/JimParsons
->'''Voiced by:''': Luis Alfonso Mendoza (Latin-American Spanish dub)
-> ''"I don't understand why in this group [[BlatantLies I never get my way.]]"''
Leonard's roommate. A child prodigy, he graduated from college at the age of 15 from East Texas and specializes in Theoretical Physics. Supposedly the smartest of the guys, but he only ends up dominating arguments and debates (both in science and in nerd trivia) because he's too stubborn to quit and resorts to [[InsaneTrollLogic crazy logic]] to win. His dedication to science and geekdom is so complete that he has almost no interest in social skills, regular pop culture (current fads, celebrity gossip, etc) or even romance. He thinks he's superior to... well, to '''everyone'''.
----
* AbandonedCatchphrase: Sheldon adopted the habit of making some surprising statement, and when met with surprise, reveal that he was joking with the catchphrase, 'Bazinga!' He also used it once when successfully pranking Leonard. He abandoned it after a while.
* AccentRelapse: Jim Parsons manages to keep his natural Texan drawl under control but there are a few times it slips out, typically done in character with Sheldon who [[ActorSharedBackground is also from Texas]]. These relapses are rather cleverly worked into the story -- it is heavily implied that Sheldon affects his rather colorless normal accent, and that his natural Texan accent creeps back into his speech when he is too angry, distressed or occasionally too drunk to hide it. One instance when he's drunk:
-->'''Sheldon:''' ''[drunk off his ass and about Amy]'' Ain't she great?\\
'''Amy:''' ''[embarrassed but flattered]'' Sheldon....\\
'''Sheldon:''' Now hows about you get us a couple of beers? ''[smacks her on the butt]''
* AccidentalHero: On multiple occasions. For instance, he stopped Leonard from giving up the secrets to the experimental rocket fuel to a spy posing as his date, by barging in and complaining about them trying to sleep together without warning him 24 hours in advance, as their roommate agreement required. He also has a lack of social filter, such as that he will attempt things that others are too timid to do themselves and by all means shouldn't work, but sometimes does. Especially when he nails an ArmorPiercingQuestion on Leonard, it tends to prove beneficial to him in the long run by forcing him to confront that option.
* {{Adorkable}}: Sheldon Cooper, a man who can somehow make wearing a plaid suit almost sexy. There's something endearingly innocent in his total inability to behave like a normal human being.
* AffectionateNickname:
** His mother and sister call him "Shelly", and ''only'' they are allowed to refer to him as such.
** His grandmother calls him "Moon Pie" and he calls her "Meemaw"....and nobody calls him Moon Pie but Meemaw!
* AfraidOfBlood: Sheldon faints at the sight of his own blood after cutting his thumb while attempting to dissect a brain. He later removes the bandage to prove to Penny how serious the wound was and promptly faints again.
* TheAlcoholic: He inherits the gene from his dad, who drank himself to death. It's implied that he's fully aware of it, as he makes a concerted effort not to drink, but on the few occasions that he does, he does not stop.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Sheldon displays symptoms of ''lots'' of different disorders depending on RuleOfFunny.
* AnnoyingLaugh: Whether it's supposed to be his way of actually laughing, or as a sarcastic chuckle for what us lower forms see as "humor", it's annoying.
* AnnoyingPatient: Sheldon suffers from severe social ineptitude, as well as mild hypochondria, making him an absolutely awful person to have around when he becomes [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZb-LpW-pwM sick]].
* AntiHero: He mostly cares about himself and, intentionally or not, he belittles his friends on a regular basis. He's also arrogant, strict, petty and demanding. Despite this, he does genuinely care for his friends, and a hybrid of that, lack of malicious intent behind his actions, suffering from severe AmbiguousDisorder, child-like traits and multiple PetTheDog moments stop him from becoming unlikeable.
* {{Asexuality}}:
** Sheldon is conspicuously uninterested in romance, and is one of those rare TV characters whose asexuality is made more or less explicit in-universe.
--->'''Penny:''' I know this is none of my business, but I just... I have to ask: what's Sheldon's deal? Is it girls...? Guys...? Sock puppets...?\\
'''Leonard:''' Honestly, we've been operating under the assumption that he ''has'' no deal.\\
'''Penny:''' Come on, everyone has a deal.\\
'''Howard:''' Not Sheldon. Over the years we've formulated a number of theories about how he might reproduce. I'm an advocate of mitosis.
** He's familiar with the concepts of physical or romantic attraction, but doesn't apparently experience those things himself. Any time he "clicks" with someone in a romantic way, it is always juxtaposed with a common scientific enthusiasm. While the possibility of sexual attraction has appeared from time to time (when Amy kisses him in Season 4, he says "Fascinating", which ''could'' indicate that he found the experience pleasurable or at least interesting), he is written largely as someone who puts intellect and science first and mocks his friends for not doing the same.
---> '''Leonard:''' I can't believe you're going to have Howard choose between sex and ''VideoGame/{{Halo}}!''\\
'''Sheldon:''' No, I'm asking him to choose between sex and ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}''. As far as I know sex hadn't been upgraded to include hi-def graphics and advanced weapon systems.\\
'''Leonard:''' Right, all sex has is nudity, orgasms, and human contact.\\
'''Sheldon:''' [[SarcasmBlind My point.]]
** In a Season 3 episode, Penny falls in the shower and breaks her arm. She calls for Sheldon to help, because she knows the sight of her naked would literally do nothing for him. In fact, Sheldon spends more time whining about the possibility of getting injured driving than appreciating the fact that he got to enjoy Kaley Cuoco "in the altogether."
** In Season 7, Sheldon gives a TakeThat kiss to Amy to mock her for her idea of a "romantic weekend". Then moves in closer, holds her, and holds the kiss for over ten seconds. Later in their relationship, they seem to have no issue making out while on dates.
** The finale of Season 8 shows that Sheldon was willing to propose to Amy before she broke up with him. Given his reliance on "social convention," he likely would have had a proper honeymoon with her.
** [[spoiler: Possibly asexual but no longer a virgin as he consummated his relationship with Amy in "The Opening Night Excitation".]]
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Sheldon usually has issues with maintaining focus when he is unable to work at the university. He goes from one project in the morning to the third or fourth by the time Leonard gets back home.
* BadBadActing: His "Fun with Flags" podcast has him delivering his lines in a monotone and sounds like a speech synthesiser. He also directs his lines directly at the camera, and his body language is cold and uninviting.
* BadLiar: If he thinks too hard it's virtually impossible for him to maintain a lie, keeping secrets drives him insane. But if he works up an overcomplicated backstory to the lie then he can manage it okay, but that requires some prep work including falsifying evidence and sometimes a Facebook profile. His trouble is knowing the proper scale of lying -- his intricate preparations would be rather good lies for a government intelligence agency. In terms of deflecting attention from a white lie Leonard told to avoid having to watch Penny sing, it was way over-designed with the belief anything less would fall apart. If it's an improvised deception in the moment, he can stumble along.
* BastardBoyfriend: To Amy whom he verbally abuses and treats like crap, to be fair, he treats everyone like crap. It's PlayedForLaughs.
* BerserkButton: He has numerous examples:
** Perhaps it would be best to begin with an in-universe listing...
---> '''Raj:''' What did you do? Did you change the contrast or brightness settings on the television?\\
'''Leonard:''' No.\\
'''Raj:''' Did you take a Band-Aid off in front of him?\\
'''Leonard:''' No.\\
'''Howard:''' Did you buy generic ketchup, forget to rinse the sink, talk to him through the bathroom door?\\
'''Raj:''' Adjust the thermostat, cook with cilantro, pronounce the T in often?\\
'''Leonard:''' No!\\
''[{{beat}}]''\\
'''Howard:''' ...Did you ''make fun of trains?''
** Don't mention Creator/WilWheaton around Sheldon, unless you want a "WHEEEEEAAAATOOOOOONNN!" that would make [[BigWordShout Shatner proud]]. (They made up at the end of "The Russian Rocket Reaction" and are now good friends -- according to Sheldon, anyways). Unfortunately, Creator/BrentSpiner then inadvertently replaces Creator/WilWheaton on Sheldon's Mortal Enemy list.
** The ''WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}'' character. This is a reference to a 1 panel webcomic strip known as "It's Goofy Time". Sheldon's dialogue is a direct copy of the non-goofy character from it.
--->'''Penny''': What's wrong with Goofy?\\
'''Leonard''': Beats me... he's fine with [[WesternAnimation/PlutoThePup Pluto]].
** Don't sit in Sheldon's spot on the couch. You will regret it.
** While Sheldon is almost fine with cheap shots aimed at his mother, ''do not insult his Meemaw.'' (Grandmother)
** Being let down by his friends, but ''especially'' Leonard, is another one. After Kripke humiliated him on NPR, his misery is compounded when he finds out Leonard laughed.
** Sheldon usually doesn't resort to physical violence, but question the legitimacy of his work and back up your claims with tangible proofs and all bets are off!
** The following exchange:
--->'''Sheldon:''' You want me to share credit?\\
'''Scientist:''' Yes.\\
'''Sheldon:''' [[GetOut GET OUT.]]
** A minor example, but only his mother and sister are allowed to call him "Shelly". Also, only his "Meemaw" is allowed to call him "Moon Pie."
** Amy is a new one -- Sheldon actually physically assaulted Leonard (via a weak karate chop to the neck), when he felt that Leonard might consider a relationship with her (like Amy, he seemed to be aware that Leonard might rebound with her).
* BetaCouple: Although his relationship with Amy is a complex one, it is significantly more stable then Leonard/Penny. This is accurate to Asperger syndrome (although his attitude to sex is not). If he didn't believe a relationship with Amy would last, he wouldn't bother. Their relationship continues because Amy feels exactly the same way.
* BigDamnKiss: [[spoiler: In the middle of an annoyed rant about romance, the normally very asexual Sheldon ''actually initiates a kiss with Amy'' in "The Locomotive Manipulation." And he ''liked'' it.]]
** Gets a second one in Season 9 [[spoiler: with Penny. It turns out it was AllJustADream, rooted in Leonard's anxiety]].
** Also in Season 9, [[spoiler:the kiss he shares with Amy after they get back together]].
* BigEgoHiddenDepths: Sheldon may qualify as many of his breakdowns show that while underneath his ego, he is in many ways still just a little kid who doesn't understand the world and hasn't recovered from multiple traumatic incidents that occurred during his childhood, he does genuinely care about his friends and several episodes have implied that his ego stems from some sort of coping mechanism (he tries to reason that his childhood bullies hurt him cause they were jealous of him).
* BigGuyLittleGuy: The Big Guy to Leonard's Little Guy. Sheldon is 6' 1" (1.86 m) and towers over the 5' 5" (1.65 m) Leonard.
* BirthdayHater: Sheldon has some mental scars from past birthdays relating to his general aversion to socialization. [[spoiler: Subverted as he's willing to endure Amy's birthday in "The Opening Night Excitation."]]
* BlackFace: In an episode of Fun with flags, [[Creator/LeVarBurton LeVar Burton]] stops by again:
-->'''Sheldon:''' Since you're here I'd like to get your opinion on something, in honor of Black History I portrayed George Washington Carver in a loving tribute that my roommate called "wildly racist." What do you think? (Shows Burton a tablet.) ''Hi, my name is George.''
-->'''[=LeVar=] Burton:''' Oh, hell no...
-->'''Sheldon:''' See Leonard, its not racist.
* TheBore: Frequently. His flag podcast is incredibly bland and colorless, and he often railroads the conversation onto topics that only he finds interesting (such as railroads). Sheldon, being the way he is, takes the disinterest as signs of his audience's intellectual inferiority.
* BrainyBrunette: A genius with dark hair.
* BreakTheHaughty: His inflated sense of entitlement and superiority often end up putting him through a thorough, and often well-deserved, HumiliationConga. Subverted in that he never loses his arrogance, no matter how hard he may have been humiliated. He actually faints when Dr. Stephen Hawkings points out a small mathematical error in the paper Sheldon gave him.
* BrilliantButLazy:
** He's certainly very smart and works very hard on things, but has actually accomplished very little, especially compared to Raj and Howard, who have both been at the centre of major stories about their accomplishments. It may be a result of InformedAbility, seeing as his ''offscreen'' resume is fairly impressive.[[note]]He ''has'' won numerous accolades such as the Chancellor's Award, the Stevenson Award (at fifteen!), received an NSF grant, and was invited to present his findings on Bose-Einstein condensates. Also, of all the [=CalTech=] employees on the show (i.e, everyone except Penny and Bernadette), he is furthest up the career ladder -- his job title is Senior Theoretical Particle Physicist, implying that he is the highest-ranked or at least a highly-ranked such scientist on the faculty. Furthermore, in ''The Bat Jar Conjecture'', he was able to match the combined talents of Leonard, Raj, Howard and Leslie Winkle ''on his own''. If he had just been able to put aside his [[FatalFlaw pride,]] he would have won.[[/note]]
** Averted in Season 7. In "The Romance Resonance", he discovers how to synthesize a new heavy element, it doesn't get him mainstream fame but it quickly becomes a big buzz in the scientific community to the point the cafeteria applauded him. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it turns out that he stumbled across the discovery by accident after misreading a chart and making a mathematical error. And ''then'' it comes out that the team that tested his hypothesis faked their results, so he didn't "discover" anything after all]].
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Averted. It's made clear that, however smart he may be, he's nowhere near as valuable or talented as he thinks and he's been fired with little issue at least once, although comments from President Siebert seem to suggest that there are at least some people on the university board who feel he plays this trope straight.
* BrutalHonesty: Due to his problems with lying, Sheldon normally tells the truth in the most brutal way possible, and then won't realise why they're offended. It caused a lot of problems to his family when he was a kid.
* ButtMonkey: Often on the receiving end of a lot of humiliation and punishment. Not that he doesn't bring it on himself, though.
* CallingYourBathroomBreaks: Socially awkward in this department doesn't even begin to cover it.
-->'''Sheldon:''' Around what time in the morning do you have a bowel movement?\\
'''Leonard:''' Er...whenever I need to?\\
'''Sheldon:''' ''[sigh]'' I'm sorry, I'm not renting this room out to hippies.\\
'''Leonard:''' Okay, okay, around 8:00.\\
'''Sheldon:''' Hmm, I can't do that, is 7:30 okay?\\
'''Leonard:''' Yeah, okay, whatever!
* CannotKeepASecret: He either slips into IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou or comes up with needlessly-elaborate lies that fall apart under their own weight. However, if he is given a pre-prepared and reasonably concrete deception he can muddle by.
* CannotTellALie: Whenever he tries to lie, he exhibits incredibly obvious nervous facial tics.
* CantHoldHisLiquor: He almost never drinks casually but it doesn't take much for him to lose it, once getting tipsy after only using tequila as mouthwash. In addition there has been a few times he was unaware of what he was drinking because it was spiked. In Season 7, he begins drinking more commonly at some social events, although he is still not particularly interested in doing so, nor does he seem to enjoy it that much. Never the less his tolerance seems to have increased with his change. Luckily, he's quite a fun drunk.
* CatchPhrase:
** "Bazinga". (Dropped this somewhere around Season 6).
** There's his, "Excuse me!" when he wants to argue a point or just disagrees with something.
** (''Knock, knock, knock'') Penny. (''Knock, knock, knock'') Penny. (''Knock, knock, knock'') Penny. [[InterruptedCatchphrase Sheldon even gets a little annoyed when Penny opens the door before he finishes!]]
** "I'm not crazy. My mother had me tested."
* CelibateHero: As far as being openly contemptuous of any kind of sexual desire.
* CelibateEccentricGenius: At least, before Amy Farrah Fowler came along. Even his dynamic with Amy isn't particularly conventionally romantic.
* CharacterDevelopment: Sheldon hanging out with Penny and the gang leads him to become more and more human. Three particular Season 5 episodes involve him pushing out his personal boundaries, discovering that his rigid scheduling to regulate his life doesn't need to be so inflexible and his life won't collapse if he does things a little differently now and then. Shortly into his relationship with Amy, he was reluctant to keep to his end of the agreements in the Relationship Agreement. In a later episode, when Amy is sick, after some initial hesitation, he agrees to uphold the agreement and take care of her, and does go vigilantly. During Season 6, he notes that he has become more comfortable with physical contact, and admits that someday, perhaps, he and Amy might be physically intimate. In Season 7, he seems noticeably calmer, slyer, and quicker than before. [[spoiler: In Season 9, he DOES [[TheirFirstTime get physically intimate with Amy]].]]
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Considering the sheer number of quirks he acquired after the first few episodes, it's somewhat of a shock to see him in the early stages. Sheldon wasn't quite as socially inept or uptight in earlier episodes and may not even have been established as asexual yet. He was still an arrogant jerk, but more of a friend ribbing another instead of having a huge ego mixed with an AmbiguousDisorder. As such:
** Asexuality: He casually refers to Penny being beautiful and immediately recognizes Leonard is attracted to her, seems to (mildly) compete for her attention and when they visit a sperm bank, Leonard makes an off-hand comment that Sheldon is a "semi-pro," the implications in such a context [[ADateWithRosiePalms should be obvious]].
** Social Skills: He advises Leonard that discussing bowel movements isn't appropriate when he invites Penny to lunch. As early as the second episode it becomes a RunningGag Sheldon rarely understands sarcasm. In the first episode, nearly ''all'' of his jokes are sarcastic quips at Leonard's expense. In later episodes, it becomes a challenge to get Sheldon to admit that he's wrong, regardless of whatever outrageous thing he's done or said. In the second episode, although he still believes that cleaning Penny's apartment without her permission was the right thing to do, he offers a sincere apology to her face after some prodding by Leonard.
** Language: His CatchPhrase "Bazinga" did not show up until the late second season. He was also not the first person to use "coitus" as SpockSpeak for sex (that was actually Howard), and in fact simply used the word sex. While he didn't have a potty mouth, he did use swear words [[PrecisionFStrike rather judiciously]] a few times ("Oh gravity, thou art a heartless bitch."), in later seasons he would either censor himself ("I wanted to avoid offending the ho's"), others ("Cockamane?" "I felt uncomfortable with the word Leonard used") or use old fashioned terms ("ninny").
* ChastityCouple: He and Amy agreed there would be no physical relationship, but over time Amy developed into wanting one. While he has no interest in it (and doesn't recognise certain behavior, like helping her bathe and rubbing Vapo Rub on her chest is arousing to her) he has admitted to her and others that she influenced him and ''he'' considers theirs a deeply intimate relationship even if they aren't physical. [[spoiler: Their relationship became physical as of "The Opening Night Excitation".]]
* ChildProdigy: While he definitely was, attending college at 12 and getting his first of two Ph.Ds at age 16, it's possible he's a deconstruction of the concept. His intelligence vastly alienated him from his family, gave him a big ego, made him highly neurotic and socially inept, and though it may or may not be related to his childhood brilliance he's also something of a man-child. He has a journal record of his attempts at potty-training, from the journal itself "April 18 -- This is humiliating, what was wrong with diapers?"
* ChosenConceptionPartner: To Amy, who propositions him for sex under the explanation that it's their duty to sire future geniuses.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Far too many examples to list.
* CluelessChickMagnet: Sheldon has gained not one, but ''two'' devoted groupies. As well, he ignores a girl who actually ''goes into his room and sits on his bed'', and unwittingly manages to pick up a gay man. After Sheldon ends up charming Raj's date (a successful dentist), causing her to leave for the date with him instead, he then completely fails to understand why he would see her again.
-->'''Sheldon:''' Why would I see her again? I have a dentist.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The shirts Sheldon wears, taken from Green Lantern comics, can sometimes indicate his moods.
** Red = Anger
** Orange = Greed
** Yellow = Fear
** Green = Courage
** Blue = Hope
** Indigo = Compassion
** Violet = Love
* TheComicallySerious: In fact, it's pretty much his entire shtick (aside from neurosis, passive-aggressiveness and love of trains.)
* CommitmentIssues: Sheldon struggles with committing to Amy and then from there moving forward in their relationship. The issue stems from having previously thought of himself as a CelibateEccentricGenius who is above time wasting romantic notions, and having an aversion to change. In one episode, both Leonard and Amy decide to move too fast for their partners and put moving in on the table. Sheldon and Penny are forced to confide their hesitations about it to each other.
* ControlFreak: He regulates when his roommate can use the bathroom. (8:20 am, since you ask).
* CrazyCatLady: Gender inverted. In "The Zazzy Substitution" (Season 4, Episode 3), Sheldon and Amy break up. He tries to fill the void in his life by adopting 25 cats. This is treated as disturbing.
* CrazyJealousGuy: If any guy shows minor interest in Amy Farrah-Fowler.
--> '''Sheldon''': ''[karate-chops Leonard]'' She is NOT for you!
* CrazyPrepared: His flat is ready for every catastrophe.
* {{Cuckoosnarker}}: Though SarcasmBlind, he tends to make sarcastic (or InnocentlyInsensitive) quips at his friends and colleagues (and pretty much everyone).
* CulturalRebel: He's pretty far removed from the stereotypical Texan he was raised to be. He also affects an accent he perceives to be more educated, slipping back into his native Texan drawl when ''very'' angry or distressed.
* CutenessProximity: Falls into this when he started out naming the plethora of cats after scientists, until he got to Zazzles.
--> '''Sheldon''': I was going to name him Hermann von Helmholtz, but he's so... ''Zazzy''.
* CutLexLuthorACheck: Sheldon's eidetic memory would make him very successful in a variety of conventional career fields, and in one episode we see he's very courteous and helpful when he takes it upon himself to aid customers at a computer store. Too bad he's so arrogant he sees such fields as beneath him and is dedicated to theoretical physics.
* DeadpanSnarker: Further in keeping with the depiction of AspergerSyndrome; this is the type of humour that Aspies are most at home with.
--> '''Leonard''': Sheldon, how could you sit there and let [Howard and Raj] watch my date with Penny?\\
'''Sheldon''': They were clever, Leonard. They took advantage of my complete lack of interest in what they were doing.
* DependingOnTheWriter: The degree of Sheldon's irreligion and views on God seem to be this. While it's clear that he doesn't share his mother's Christian beliefs, he seems to vary between atheism, agnosticism, apatheism and even acknowledging God and/or Jesus' existence at times. [[note]]It's pretty much irrefutable that Jesus existed historically. Whether he was divine or not is [[FlameBait best discussed elsewhere]].[[/note]]
* DirtyCoward: In the episode where [[ItMakesSenseInContext he and Raj were in the steam tunnels]], and he abandons Raj there when some rats show up. Later Raj gives him a WhatTheHellHero speech.
* DitzyGenius: He's a brilliant scientist, but is absolutely, painfully clueless in almost every other aspect of life.
* DumbassHasAPoint: He is largely clueless with regard to relationships but sometimes does have an impressive insight with those.
* DysfunctionalFamily: He has several bad memories of his parents fighting and that is reflected in some present events (he returns to being 10 when Leonard and Penny fight). It is commonly implied he grew up in a very unstable home. He also commonly implies or even outright states on occasion that his father was a severe alcoholic. He had a very poor and somewhat abusive relationship with both his siblings. There are some other things where he considered his parents to be AbusiveParents but they were just trying to treat him like a normal child (he wanted a titanium centrifuge for his birthday, [[FelonyMisdemeanor they gave him a motorized dirtbike]]).
* EvilGenius: Sheldon occasionally invokes this on purpose. Leonard has already noted that Sheldon's "one lab accident away from becoming a super villain".
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Sheldon's mom is the only one who can override his irrational behavior. He also seems quite devoted to his grandmother, or "Meemaw", as he calls her.
* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Averted. He doesn't go for Amy as Snow White.
* TheFinickyOne: He has a thing for making people sign written agreements, is something of a germaphobe and is very picky about where he sits.
* FirstKiss: His first kiss with Amy was in Season 4's "The Agreement Dissection" when a drunken Amy kisses Sheldon, and he deems it "fascinating." She also kisses him when he buys her a tiara in Season 5, after they've started dating. However their BigDamnKiss is in "The Locomotive Manipulation" (Season 7, Episode 15), the first time Sheldon initiates it and they both enjoy it.
* {{Foil}}: Primarily for Leonard, but can be this for Raj and Howard. Many of his nerdy interests and behavior can be seen as somewhat of an extreme version of the other three. While nowhere near as intolerable as Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, and Howard do show a sense of neediness that can irritate other characters.
* ForScience: The only reason he gives for putting ground-up moths into Leonard's food, claiming it was to determine at what concentration food begins to start tasting "mothy".
* ForWantOfANail: Discussed in "The Cooper Extraction", where we see that Leonard not moving in with Sheldon meant he would've moved in with Raj and not cared about meeting a woman, letting himself go. Without Sheldon, Leonard wouldn't have had a foil to play his awkwardness off of and Penny would've turned him down from the get-go. Amy would've remained a social outcast, miserable and desperately seeking friends. No Leonard and Penny means that Bernadette never gets set up with Howard, who remains with his mother and eventually goes ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' on her. Lastly, without Leonard in the picture to circumvent her [[WMG/TheBigBangTheory theorized]] high sex drive, Penny would've made many advances on Sheldon, likely have given up, then end up settling for a idiot like Zack.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: The Choleric. He insists on taking decisions for the group, making him the de facto leader, he is devoted to his work, he is a goal-oriented person (who will go to any lengths to achieve said goals), he is typically overconfident, passionate for the things he cares about. He also has the flaws of the type such as being overly Bossy, needlessly stubborn, vindictive, insufferably arrogant, insensitive to the feelings of others, and rude to other people
* FreakOut: The sheer quantity of changes he experiences in Season 7 is too much for him to handle. [[spoiler: They include his new field of work, Leonard and Penny getting engaged, the possibility of Leonard moving out, Stuart's comic book store burned to the ground, him getting more intimate with Amy, the death of Professor Proton and so on...Sheldon goes beyond his breaking point and leaves on a train to straighten his ideas.]]
* FreudianExcuse: He reveals to Penny that the reason he knocks three times is that [[spoiler: When he was a teenager, he entered a room without knocking, to find his Father committing adultery. Him knocking is to give who ever is in the room a chance to get dressed]].
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: So much that the guys kick him off the team for the Physics Bowl in "The Bat Jar Conjecture". And when Sheldon wants to accept an offer to go on an arctic expedition, they are excited about being Sheldon-free for three months. Penny once asks exactly how he got any friends in the first place and Howard answers that they liked Leonard. In the episode where Leonard, Raj, and Howard are on a camping trip:
-->'''Leonard:''' Too bad Sheldon couldn't come with us.\\
'''Raj:''' Yeah, it's just not the same without him.\\
''[silence for a second and then the three guys start laughing]''
* GeekPhysiques: He was described by another character as looking like a praying mantis. The other three geeks also have skinny physiques. It's just that Sheldon's is more pronounced due to being a head taller than the other three.
* GoodIsNotNice: A perfect example in that he's really a good and well-intentioned person, but he's so obnoxious, selfish, and condescending that he comes off as irritating.
* GradeSkipper: It's been mentioned numerous times on the show that Sheldon was much younger than traditional age when he went to high school and college.
* GreenEyedEpiphany:
** Season 5 shows that Sheldon has grown very possessive of Amy, if nothing else. When Leonard states that he and Amy had quite a fun time together at a wedding party and playfully threw in sexual innuendo about this "fun time", Sheldon's reaction? A karate chop to Leonard's neck and then:
---> '''Leonard''': Why did you do that?\\
'''Sheldon''': To send a message: She's not for you.\\
'''Leonard''': What?\\
'''Sheldon''': Not! For you!
** Later when Amy begins to date Stuart, Sheldon "officially" upgrades the status of their relationship to boyfriend and girlfriend.
* TheGrinch: Sheldon hates Christmas, claiming it's a knockoff of the pagan celebration of Saturnalia, bemoaning being forced to participate by his zealously religious mother as a child, etc., all to the annoyance of Leonard, who just wants some Christmas cheer because ''he'' was forced to write papers by his family on Christmas. It all comes to a head during a Christmas themed game of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' where Sheldon leaves Santa (whom they were supposed to be saving) to die, ruining the game and Christmas spirit for all involved. He declares that the real reason he hates Christmas is that Santa never granted him his wish of bringing his "Pop-Pop" (grandfather, and the only family member to encourage his interest in science) back as a kid.
* HardOnSoftScience: [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] with him to the point of absurdity. Not only does he regard the social sciences as "largely hokum" (although despite this, he deeply respects Leonard's psychologist mother, however, she's also a neuroscientist), but he also speaks disparagingly of ''other hard sciences'', referring to the geology department as "the dirt people" and having a falling out with Leslie Winkle because she favored supergravity theory over superstring theory. The only non-scientific discipline he has not expressed open contempt for is the law, probably due to his mania with rules.
-->'''Sheldon:''' I have never said that you [Howard] are not good at what you do. It's just that what you do [Engineering] is not worth doing.
* HatesBeingTouched: He's terribly awkward about getting close to people, sometimes due to his germophobia and sometimes because he's so bad at showing emotions. In later seasons, he gets a bit better.
-->'''Sheldon:''' It's not a touch phobia, it's a germ phobia. If you'd like to go put on a pair of latex gloves, I'll let you check me for a hernia.
* HeCleansUpNicely:
** When he has to give a speech, Penny takes him out to buy a new outfit. Sheldon emerges from the changing room looking stylish, dapper and let's face it, handsome, in a black suit. Penny can see how much a decent suit changes his gangly appearance. Sheldon finds the outfit absurd - his usual suit is a garish checked number.
** In Season 6, when Penny gives him a new haircut, Amy is shocked when she sees it and insists that Penny change him back -- because she's worried he might attract other women. "I don't want him walking around like sex on a stick!" (Sheldon agrees. "She's right. I'm too hot.")
* HenpeckedHusband: After a fight with Amy, he has decided to be one to avoid major fights in the future. So when Amy tells [[spoiler:Levar Burton]] he's a worse actor than [[spoiler:Wil Wheaton]] Sheldon tells the former while he may not actually think so, he must agree with Amy. [[spoiler:Levar]] understands completely. This does not normally occur, as he is mostly the dominant one in their relationship.
* HeroicSacrifice: Not a lethal one, but during a paintball war his comrades (Leonard, Howard, and Raj) have no enthusiasm due to prior events, and don't really want to fight. Sheldon proceeds to walk outside, into the open, and take several shots to motivate them into fighting, resulting in victory. [[MundaneMadeAwesome Complete with slow-motion]] and a ''Film/{{Platoon}}''-style [[ShoutOut "death"]].
* HiddenDepths: Sheldon proves to be surprisingly understanding and helpful when hearing about his friends' love problems. He also knows a lot about football, though it's only because his father always made him watch the games as a child, rather than out of his own interest; plus he grew up in Texas, where he mentions that football is inescapable there. Also thanks to his father he is apparently a crack shot with both a bow and a gun. Due to his upbringing, he is also a skilled ballroom dancer and archer. At times, he seems to know more than the other guys about proper social interaction, but his knowledge is shallow and he's ''very'' poor at applying it to real-life situations.
* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Sheldon is revealed to have been so traumatized by his parents' constant fighting when he was a child that he is unable to be around people arguing. He goes so far as to run away from his apartment when roommate Leonard won't stop arguing with his girlfriend. He relates multiple incidents of being bullied (sometimes by his own siblings) that fit the trope, such as discovering string theory, due to being beaten round the head with a book about it.
* HollywoodNerd: A tall, svelte attractive man who is noted by his girlfriend as looking like "sex on a stick" when he gets a more flattering haircut.
* HonorBeforeReason: Will often avoid taking the easy way out of things, though this usually leaves him worse off than before.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Calls Priya a know-it-all for explaining [[LittleKnownFacts the origins of the "toast"]]. This is in spite of in 90% of his conversations, he brings up such topics at any given chance.
* HypocriticalHumor: Often accuses Leonard of being a narcissist and wanting to make everything about him, without a hint of irony.
* InformedAbility: Although the other scientists do have some level of respect for his abilities (Leonard at one point calling him "one of the greatest minds of the 21st century") Sheldon is by far the most fervent admirer of his own intellect, but he frequently makes mistakes (especially in non-scientific fields, sometimes even then) and besides being given an award by the University all his accomplishments are second-hand information. Lampshaded by President Siebert, "The board tells me he has a beautiful mind, but I just think he's bananas."
* InnocentBigot: Occasionally says things that may be considered offensive without realization.
* InnocentBlueEyes: He has large, expressive blue eyes. They may or may not be a physical manifestation of how clueless he is when it comes to social interaction, despite his intellectual brilliance.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Even when he's trying not to be an InsufferableGenius (usually at the request of one of the other guys), he has a problem of insulting people anyway without realizing it. It's debatable whether or not he realizes how insufferable he really is. Much of his innocent insensitivity stems less from his arrogance and overbearing manner than his total ignorance of social conventions. For example, in one conversation with Penny, he asks her where she currently is on her menstrual cycle. He doesn't understand why it's inappropriate.
* InsaneTrollLogic: Sheldon's thought processes are very alien, and he occasionally purposefully distorts logic to get his way.
** If he cannot have his way or if he manages to fail at an activity then he will often dig deep to find some way to justify why he didn't succeed. After failing at [[DrivesLikeCrazy learning how to drive]] he decided he was an [[EvolutionaryLevels evolved form of humanity]] that was smarter but incapable of driving properly.
** In Season 4, he and Amy play a game called "Counter-Factuals", where they offer a ForWantOfANail scenario where the world is different in some manner, and figure out what the answer to a question is. In this game, Sheldon rationalizes that if a giant beaver ruled the world, it would lead to a chain of events that results in the cheese danish never being invented due to worldwide flooding.
** By the rules of the Roommate Agreement, if he and Leonard vote on something and it's a tie, he settles the tie. Leonard reminds that he voted ''against'' this, to which Sheldon counters he voted "yes", and he settles all ties, so it was a yes.
** Subverted in some other ways. Though some of his lifestyle choices are strange to outsiders, he has well-thought-out reasons for them that make sense, if in a SuperOCD way. For example, [[ThisIsMyChair his spot on the couch]] comes with a list of reasons ''why'' it is his spot, from balanced airflow in the room to allowing maximum interaction with guests (with minimal head turning) while still allowing a proper view of the TV without distorting the image.
* InSeriesNickname:
** His mother and sister call him "Shelly", though he does not seem to like the nickname. Leonard and Penny have occassionally used the same term. His grandmother calls him "Moonpie", because he is so sweet to her. When Penny uses the nickname, however, Sheldon replies: "No one calls me Moonpie but Meemaw".
** In "The Isolation Permutation", a drunk Amy nicknames him "cuddles".
* InsistentTerminology: He is not a rocket scientist. He's a theoretical physicist! Also, he takes great pains to point out that his team t-shirt spells "The Wesley Crushers" (Those Who Crush Wesley) and not "The Wesley Crushers" (Multiple People Named Wesley Crusher). Dr. Sheldon Cooper would also have you know that he's not crazy; his mother had him tested. She later confirms this (...though she should have followed-up with that specialist in Houston). He also does not play "pranks"; he subjects people to his ''classic'' pranks. He also prefers it when accurate terms are used. One of the more notable things he prefers is to refer to sexual intercourse as 'coitus', probably to separate it from sex as in 'male or female'..
* InsufferableGenius: He's that page's image for a very good reason. Though it's been shown repeatedly that it isn't impossible to outsmart him or even point out mistakes in his work, it's a matter of being stubborn enough to fight him through the insufferable part (StephenHawking notwithstanding). He was even more insufferable as a 9 years old kid.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Though he is able to show concern and attention for his friends on occasion, Sheldon's default attitude is wildly egocentric, taking the view of "the world revolves around me" as an axiom.
-->'''Leonard:''' Sheldon, not everything is about you.\\
'''Sheldon:''' ''[pause]'' I don't follow you.
* {{Jerkass}}: Explained well by Bernadette:
-->'''Bernadette:''' He doesn't understand when he's being mean because that part of his brain is getting a wedgie from the rest of his brain.
* JerkassFacade: While he is often a jerk, he would often rather someone believe he is being selfish than admit he's acting altruistically or with genuine concern for another. Leonard is often the reason for it. When informed that Penny is thinking about ending their relationship, Sheldon confronts her in the middle of the night to talk Leonard up, claiming it is just because he doesn't like change but admitting he doesn't want to see Leonard hurt. Another time he is irrationally concerned about Leonard having a low-risk elective surgery, the lengths he goes to stop it reveals a lot about how much he really does care.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's insufferable most of the time, but he shows concern and attention for his friends in his own ways, can offer genuinely helpful advice on their problems if he's in the right mood, he's never actively malevolent to them beyond verbal jabs, and is hurt if they slight him in some way. On the other hand, his perspective on social interactions are skewed, so he doesn't understand when he does something offensive or inappropriate, he's constantly flaunting what he considers his superior intellect, and while he can offer helpful advice on a problem at times, he's just as liable to interrupt their explanation of said problem to note he doesn't care. The Heart Of Gold ''is'' there, but it's deep down under a lot of arrogance and an AmbiguousDisorder.
* KarmaHoudini: Rarely does he receive more than a slap on the wrist for all the crap he puts his friends through. In many cases, when it seems like things have come to a head and one of the other guys has finally had enough of his antics, a DeusExMachina will ensure that Sheldon escapes punishment and his obnoxious behavior is vindicated.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Eventually, his actions in his relationship with Amy catch up to him and it crashes and burns.
* KindHeartedCatLover: When he and Amy disagree over the superiority of physics vis-a-vis neurobiology, they terminate their friendship.[[note]]Sheldon's mother manages to bring them back together in the end, thanks to a little judicious reverse psychology.[[/note]] He fills the void left by her absence by adopting a plethora of cats. His mother also sings him his sick song, "Soft Kitty" whenever he's sick, and so does Penny. Sheldon even sings it to her at one point.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Sheldon tends to lapse into this when he veers away from physics and into the life sciences. Sheldon acts like he knows United States history when he doesn't. He tries to convince Leonard that he should be a history professor instead of a physicist by testing whether Leonard knows that slavery in the United States ended in 1863. It didn't. At the Renaissance Fair, when he complains about the historical inaccuracies, but doesn't realize Leonard's knight costume is at least 200 years out of date. His "defense" to a charge of running a red light in "The Excelsior Acquisition" shows he knows absolutely ''nothing'' about the law, as well. On similar lines, his beloved Roommate Agreement is full of loopholes, and doesn't stand up to the scrutiny of a legal professional. Many of his beloved factoids, when outside the sciences, are actually common misconceptions: The Romans did ''not'' sow over Carthage with salt, for instance, as any archaeology undergrad could have told him. However this is often a case of DependingOnTheWriter, sometimes he is presented as being as smart as he thinks he is (or at least knowledgeable in a broad range of areas). The Rule (following the RuleOfFunny) often seems to be that he only slips into this whenever it would actually benefit him not to.
* LackOfEmpathy: {{Subverted}} Although he often comes across as this Sheldon is perfectly capable of feeling empathy and can even be quite caring on occasion. Its just he's very bad at showing it.
* LargeHam: He can be quite overdramatic.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: With Penny. In the episode "The Intimacy Acceleration" they conduct an experiment designed to make people fall in love by asking each other a few personal questions. They don't fall in love but reflect more about their friendship and they both admit that they look on each other like a brother and a sister.
* LimitedWardrobe: Almost always wears short sleeved t-shirts with a longer shirt underneath, rolled up to the elbows. Superhero t-shirts are the most common, GreenLantern (or a symbol of one of the other Lantern Corps) and TheFlash especially. This leads to a rather amusing variation of CharacterizationMarchesOn, as in [[http://the-big-bang-theory.com/gallery/picture/274/ one early episode]] he follows the general pattern, but it's far removed from what he was later known for.[[note]]Interestingly enough, the color combination is that of classic Silver Age Lex Luthor's power armor, so maybe they went for the "evil genius" look.[[/note]]
* LiteralMinded: More than everyone else, being SarcasmBlind.
* LittleKnownFacts: Loves bringing them up in conversation, sometimes to benefit himself such as why he should have the last dumpling, because in Tia culture its reserved for the most valued member of the group.
* MadScientist: Has about as many shades as you can get while still being thoroughly grounded in reality. A brief list of examples is his willingness to try electric shocks to modify Penny's behavior by negative reinforcement, the government monitors his computer activities due to his efforts to hack their systems, as a child he attempted to build a "death ray" and to create a griffon by cross-breeding lions and eagles, and he occasionally makes references to societal reforms he plans to implement when "[he] comes to power". Lampshaded by Leonard, who notes Sheldon is "one lab accident away from becoming a supervillain."
* ManChild: While all the characters indulge themselves in childish things, Sheldon insists that ''someone'' take care of him the way his mother would when he's sick (or even just ''home''sick), locks himself in his bedroom where no one else is allowed when he's furious, curls up into a crying ball of sad on his bed when he's embarrassed, runs away from home when he's upset, is practically traumatized by the sound of people arguing[[note]]Although this one may be perfectly justified, as his parents often got into arguments when he was a child and it is also implied that a lot of the arguments were exceedingly violent (he mentioned that his father would start throwing plates and shattering them in the kitchen, and that his mom planned to place glass shards in his father's meatloaf), even when they said to Sheldon that they stopped fighting[[/note]], and is stubborn and petty beyond all reason. The only thing on this planet that can force him to behave rationally when he's angry or depressed is an order from his mother, who Leonard calls "Sheldon's Kryptonite". He also responds positively to being patronized by Penny, especially if he gets a toy robot and a comic book out of it. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Bernadette at one point, after she successfully got him to go to bed by first reasoning with him about the effects of lack of sleep, and then simply treating him like an overgrown child and sending him to bed.
* ManipulativeBastard: Although failing on most of his attempts in the first few seasons, starting Season 6 and appearing more commonly in Season 7, Sheldon begins to get more successful at his attempts to manipulate others, learning how to play off of their weaknesses to his advantage.
* MeaningfulName: Named for television producer Sheldon Leonard and possibly for physics Nobel Laureate Leon N. Cooper.
* MinorInjuryOverreaction: His response to getting a cut on his thumb? He faints.
* MommasBoy: His mother still treats him like a child and is the only person who can tell him what to do.
* MoralityPet: His mother, Amy and sometimes Penny.
* MotherNatureFatherScience: A rather blatant example with Amy, who's a biologist and him a physicist.
* {{Narcissist}}: The most fervent admirer of his own genius.
* NeatFreak: He broke into Penny's apartment to clean, because being that close to mess made him have trouble sleeping.
* {{Nerd}}: His life is almost exclusively devoted to the nerdy interests of science, science fiction, fantasy, comicbooks, and videogames.
* NeverMyFault: Which makes those rare occasions (see PetTheDog below) when he ''does'' admit his own fault even more significant, such as when he accidentally [[spoiler: cost Howard his security clearance, leading to his career suffering a serious setback.]]
* NoSenseOfHumor: Zigzagged. Sheldon has a sense of humor, but it's so separate from everybody else [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike (except for Amy)]] that he doesn't get most jokes and most people don't get his. ''And'' he always explains his jokes.
* NoSocialSkills: To the point where Sheldon seems to consider "accepted social protocol" more like inviolable laws he ''must'' obey, rather than doing nice things simply because he's trying to be ''pleasant''. Lampshaded a few times by Penny.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Although rarely a true villain, when ever he does take an antagonistic role its normally either as a petty prankster seeking revenge or a egomaniac control freak whining to others when he doesn't get his way. However in "The Itchy Brain Simulation" he proves he when he's had time to plan he can be quite impressive. He successful manipulates his own best friend into simulating OCD, and torturing himself, all while barely lifting a finger. He is certainly smart enough to plan some extremely potent revenge schemes but he tends to fail or go sideways in execution (a prank against Kripke involving a fast expanding foam ended up being sprung when members of the board are visiting his office).
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: There's only a slight hint of Sheldon's Texan accent when he normally speaks, but he does slip into it more when he's with his mother and goes full on Texas when he's drunk.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The few times he deviates from specific idiosyncrasies is treated as exceptionally odd and results in some big reactions from the characters, notably how Penny started crying when Sheldon gave her a hug for the Creator/LeonardNimoy Napkin Christmas gift.
-->'''Leonard:''' Between Sheldon giving up [[ThisIsMyChair his spot on the couch]] and you (Penny) [[InstantExpert playing chess like Bobby Fischer]], I would guess that someone went back in time and stepped on a bug, changing the course of human events.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: To an ludicrous extent in [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness the first few series]], (built a complete, functioning CT scanner up to the imaging software when he was eleven, discovered a new phase of matter but didn't even bother to present his findings and genetically engineered a bioluminescent fish, working from home, in a matter of weeks) toned down later on but still present.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: His obsession with cleanliness was evident early on, with him cleaning Penny's apartment himself while she slept and later panicking when he hears she came from a family gathering where they were sick. In the Season 1 episode "The Loobenfeld Decay", he places a bag of chicken in a take-out container into an outside bin, then recovers it a few minutes later with [[RuleOfFunny nothing more than a quick blow]]. It certainly stands out as an anomaly with his regular behavior.
* PetTheDog: He's typically very selfish and insufferable and frequently comments on how much he hates social interaction even with his closest friends. But there are a few rare moments where he actually uses his selfish behavior as a smokescreen to hide that he's actually concerned and/or happy for his friends, but doesn't want to admit that right out. For instance, he discovered through Amy that Penny had some doubts about her relationship with Leonard. So he confronts her late at night and tries talking Leonard up, saying that he just wants to keep the status quo for his own sake. As the conversation went on, he eventually asked with sincerity, "Please don't hurt my friend."
** When Mrs. Wolowitz suddenly dies in her sleep during Season 8, Sheldon tries to comfort Howard. Leonard, righteously worried that Sheldon will say something inappropriate, tries to stop him, but Howard lets him talk. He says the most heartfelt thing he has ever said in-series:
--> '''Sheldon''': [[DisappearedDad When I lost my own father]] [[FriendlessBackground I didn't have any friends to help me through it]]. You do.
--> '''Penny''': ''(sobbing)'' [[LampshadeHanging I really thought he was going to say “Let it go”]].
* PhotographicMemory: He has it, though he objects to the name and insists that it's properly called eidetic memory. He's able to recall the precise date and time of any event in his life and win complex card games through memorization
* PolarOppositeTwins: With Missy. Sheldon is wildly egocentric, only interacts with others when forced to and tends to look down on anyone who isn't as smart as he perceives himself to be. Missy is out-going, friendly, level-headed and sociable. Sheldon points out that non-identical twins will only resemble each other as much as siblings born on separate occasions.
* {{Pride}}: A lot of the problems he encounters could be avoided if he wasn't so arrogant and proud. A good example is "The Excelsior Acquisition", where he tries to fight a traffic violation on principle when a scene just before he finds out about his summons establishes he has several thousand dollars in uncashed paychecks.
* ProudToBeAGeek: Sheldon simply refuses to be anything but a geek and unlike his friends (mostly Leonard) he isn't embarrassed at all by his geekiness.
* RailEnthusiast: A fan of model railways, he even wears his own pretend-Engineer's hat. This would be rather sweet if he didn't neglect Amy for it, something which visibly offended her.
* RaisedCatholic: Was raised in East Texas by an [[HolierThanThou overly-religious]] Christian mother, but he himself does not partake in religion. Though it is unclear whether he is an atheist, agnostic, NayTheist, etc.
* TheRainMan: To an extent. His intelligence verges on SuperIntelligence, making him able to achieve prominence in his chosen scientific field. At the same time, though, it contributes to his weirdness and failure to connect with people. Even Sheldon's family and his few friends have trouble understanding and tolerating him.
* RuleOfThree: His [[http://bigbangtheory.wikia.com/wiki/Sheldon%27s_Knock characteristic knock]] on the door is a RunningGag. Three knocks, followed by calling the name or names of whoever is on the other side of the door (Penny, Amy, Bernadette, etc). Followed by a second set of three knocks and another call of the name/s. And finishing with a third set of three knocks and another call of the name/s. When the door opens before Sheldon has a chance to complete his ritual, he simply continues knocking the open door.
** There a few minor deviations of the general rule. In "The Toast Derivation", Sheldon does not call Leonard, Howard, and Raj by their names, using the phrase "all my friends" three times. In "The Anxiety Optimization", Sheldon does not call Penny, Amy, and Bernadette by their names, using the word "ladies" three times. PlayedForLaughs in "The Opening Night Excitation" as (1) he has to match the name with whoever asks him to come in, and (2) he calls Amy "Birthday Girl".
* RulesLawyer: Provided they're either rules he drafted himself or those governing the playing of TabletopGames. As Priya and "The Excelsior Acquisition" showed, he doesn't have a very good handle on the actual law. Though it is likely his arrogance plays a part in this. He was able to match her on his second try.
* SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: Sheldon is such a ChildProdigy that he entered college at age eleven and graduated with honours at fourteen. He has devoted pretty much his entire life to research since then, and this may have contributed to his lack of rudimentary social skills (such as not gloating at a judge) and his overall inability to deal with the mundane world (germophobia for instance).
-->'''Leonard:''' Sheldon's in jail?! For what?\\
'''Penny:''' For doing the same crap he always does, except to a judge.
* SarcasmBlind: ZigZagged. He understands the concept of sarcasm and can use it himself, but almost never picks it up when it's about him. He gets lucky once and a while, but it seems like guess work on his part. Leonard even made a sarcasm sign in an early episode. And Sheldon keeps track of how many times he correctly understands sarcasm. Once, when Howard made a sarcastic comment, Sheldon asked "Was that sarcasm?", and Howard sarcastically replied "No!" — which, of course, Sheldon failed to recognize the sarcasm of.
** In at least one episode, this is inverted: Sheldon takes something as sarcastic when it isn't.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Uses lots of big words, even when it's not necessary.
-->'''Sheldon''': I'm polymerized tree sap and you're an inorganic adhesive, so whatever verbal projectile you launch in my direction is reflected off of me, returns to its original trajectory and adheres to you.
* ShesNotMyGirlfriend: Amy. In his own words: "She's a girl and she's my friend, but there's [[NoHuggingNoKissing no touching or unsanitary exchange of saliva]]." Finally subverted in Season 5, where while Sheldon holds to the ban of physical intimacy, he and Amy are "officially" together, as noted by the Relationship Agreement he drew up.
** As of Season 7, occasional kissing seems to have entered their relationship. Presumably the exchange of saliva is highly sanitary.
** [[spoiler: As of "Opening Night Excitation", coitus seems to have entered their relationship.]]
* SiblingYinYang: Missy and him couldn't be more different despite being fraternal twins.
* SignatureLaugh: A sort of quick inhalation sort of thing.
* SilenceYouFool: Expect Leonard to get shut down by him if his love-life interferes with their order waiting times at bars or restaurants.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Amy is the ONLY person he has ever expressed romantic feelings towards. While other women (and men) have shown some form of attraction to him the most he ever reciprocates is an appreciation that they appreciate him. Even though a sexual relationship is still repulsive to him, he confessed to Amy that the two of them is the most intimate relationship he has ever had. [[spoiler: As of "The Opening Night Excitation", he is now in a sexual relationship with Amy.]]
* SmallNameBigEgo: Played With check "KnowNothingKnowItAll". He believes himself to be multi-talented when his only real skill is in theoretical physics but this does fall in to DependingOnTheWriter as he sometimes genuinely is near to as smart as he believes he is and has shown in-depth knowledge of other subjects and his friends do on occasion acknowledge that he really is the smartest of them. He's also very unaware of how much people dislike him and can't understand why they wouldn't want to spend time with him. But of his friends he is the most successful (being the Senior Theoretical Physicist at Caltech) and is apparently held in high regard by the physics community. Never the less its made very clear that he doesn't live up to his opinion of himself.
* SmartPeoplePlayChess: He and Leonard play three-dimensional chess (yes, it does exist). He also created 3-man chess, complete with new pieces. Unlike many of his socializing-related projects, his new rules are seemingly enjoyable and not over-complicated.
* SmugSnake: Very smug about his genius-level intelligence. He sometimes talks about himself as a new and improved human. Ironically he can often live up to his claims, its purely down to his ego that he fails.
* SocialDarwinist: As shown when his guided meditation gets sidetracked by imagining Franchise/{{Godzilla}} attacking ''VideoGame/SimCity''.
--> '''Sheldon''': People of [[{{Egopolis}} Sheldonopolis]], this is your Mayor! Follow me and I will lead you to safety. If your children cannot run, ''leave them behind!''
* SouthernFriedGenius: Subverted for the most part. Despite hailing from Texas, he displays none of the traits that are typically associated with the "redneck" aspect of the trope. This is apparently a conscious decision as it shows up when he's very upset.
-->'''Sheldon:''' No one calls me Moon-Pie but Meemaw!
* SpinOff: Because of his popularity, he later earns a show about his childhood in 2017.
* SpockSpeak: Just let this example speak for itself:
--> '''Sheldon''': Well, I'm polymerized tree sap and you're an inorganic adhesive, so whatever verbal projectile you launch in my direction is reflected off of me, returns on its original trajectory and adheres to you. [[labelnote:Translation]] [[ExpospeakGag I'm rubber, you're glue,]] [[LameComeback bounces off me and sticks to you.]][[/labelnote]]
* SpoiledBrat: Sheldon tends to embody this trope, often getting whatever he wants, how and when he wants it, no matter how unreasonable, merely by being extremely difficult. Ironically, his family seem to be the only people ''not'' enabling him.
* StaticCharacter: Justified; he [[EnforcedTrope makes an active effort]] to not change himself.
* SuperOCD:
** Don't sit on his favorite couch cushion, you'll smush it out of shape. A good example is when the cushion that was "his spot" on the sofa was stained and he spent the time in which the cushion was being cleaned slowly going crazy, eventually going to the point where he was crouching over the spot where he used to sit. Howard tries to solve the problem by grabbing Rajesh's cushion and placing it in Sheldon's spot. Rajesh starts to complain, giving us:
--->'''Howard:''' Who cares where you sit? ''You are not crazy!''
** In the thirty seconds it took Rajesh to find a new place to sit, Sheldon had found something unacceptable about the new cushion and the fun was restarted.
--->'''Sheldon:''' These shrimp are all the same size, there's no logical order to eat them in. ''[chucks them into the garbage can]''
** Sheldon always has to knock on Penny's door 3 times and each knock is followed by him calling Penny's name. Penny at one point tries to mess up Sheldon's rhythm by opening the door and imitating what Sheldon does. He feels "that's just wrong."
* SurroundedByIdiots: ''His'' opinion of everyone around him.
* TokenEvilTeammate: He's not actually evil but given the previous tropes that represent him is a different story.
* TookALevelInJerkass: In "The Itchy Brain Simulation" he goes from a merely annoying InnocentlyInsensitive {{Jerkass}} to an EvilGenius MagnificentBastard.
** Sheldon continually insulting Amy after their breakup, even though it was entirely his fault over his inability to pick up on social cues and other people's feelings, comes across as incredibly juvenile and cruel.
* {{Trekkie}}: ''Star Trek'' is one of the group's favourite franchises. They especially dig ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' and ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'. Spock is Sheldon's favorite character.
** This fact is eventually lampshaded in "''The Spock Resonance''": due to Sheldon's refusal to believe in the constant "What Would Jesus do" attitude of his mother to help with his constant bullying, he instead resorted to asking "What Would Spock do" and idolizing the character due to his approach to logic and rationale as opposed to emotions and belief (even if it still got him to be beaten up). Penny correctly points out that Spock's character is half-human, and therefore emotions are a huge part of his development in the original series and as a character overall, and by doing so demonstrates that he actually uses the character's basic description as an escape. Sheldon proves her right by digressing into a breakdown over his recent break-up with Amy and running to his bedroom.
* {{Troll}}: He's often guilty of this behavior, as demonstrated by most of his "Classic Pranks", his heckling of both Leonard and Brian Greene's lectures and when his [[RunningGag continual swiping]] of the One Ring from Leonard.
--> '''Howard''': You're not helping!\\
'''Sheldon''': I'm not trying to help! ''[smirks]''
* {{Tsundere}}: Platonic version towards Leonard. Although he constantly mocks Leonard for being a less-intelligent Experimental Physicist, he has constantly proven that he cares greatly for him.
* TwitchyEye: Gets a very prominent one when he either ''doesn't'' know something, or the others don't let him finish explaining something.
* TVGenius: This is a huge part of the sitcom's premise. Leonard, Raj and Howard are also extremely intelligent, but no where near as TVGenius as Sheldon. To reiterate, in a show where five of the seven main characters have at least one doctorate (Penny has a high school diploma, while Howard only has a masters) and most of the recurring characters are university professors or otherwise in highly technical fields, Sheldon is universally regarded as bizarre. Not incomprehensibly so, however, as he literally came with a manual. That he himself wrote in PDF format and hands out to new friends.
* {{Ubermensch}}: Sheldon has a slight disregard[=/=]disapproval of certain social protocols, his obsessive-compulsive behaviors are often seen as weird or overdone by his friends, and he outright considers compassion and understanding to be a limitation to himself. Despite all of this, Sheldon is an ''incredibly'' intelligent genius physicist, and it can't be denied that his zealous imposition of order on his household really does help himself as well as Leonard, despite his protests.
* UnclePennybags: Surprisingly -- Sheldon's lifestyle is very low-budget and he saves his money, to the point he feels perfectly comfortable giving Penny enough money to both pay her rent and fix her car when it breaks down. Despite her assumption that Sheldon's obsessive tendencies would lead him to hound her, it turns out that he's incredibly lax when it comes to lending his money. He honestly doesn't care ''when'' it's paid back, as long as it ''eventually'' is.
* UnskilledButStrong: In an intellectual sense. He's exceptionally bright, but has nearly zero technical/people/organisational skills and his default approach to problem-solving is to just stare at his whiteboard until a solution comes to him.
* TheUnsmile: Masters it and is even the page image.
* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Sheldon's self-centered egotism and condescending behavior is the source of conflict for any given episode, even just by being sick and asking for help (his obnoxious neediness at that stage is dreaded by everyone).
* VerbalTic: Sometimes refers to things with unnecessary tautologies, such as "''Franchise/GreenLantern'' Lantern", or "''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Lord of the Rings]]'' Ring".
* VirtueIsWeakness: He actively believes that being compassionate and open-minded is a weakness, to the point that he (unsuccessfully) attempted to break up with Amy when he realized her effect on his personality.
* WackyGuy: Has a tendency to come up with strange ideas and plans, which affect everyone around him. Such as trying to stay awake for days (to work on a scientfic problem), stepping in into the roles of busboy and waiter at the Cheesecake Factory without bothering to notify his new employers, tracking down Creator/JamesEarlJones to convince him to co-found a comic book convention, etc.
* WithFriendsLikeThese:
-->'''Sheldon:''' Those are traits associated with a psychopath.\\
'''Leonard:''' Are you worried about me killing you in your sleep?\\
'''Sheldon:''' No, I imagine if you were going to do so, you would have done it years ago.
* WhoopiEpiphanySpeech: Played with. While such a speech is usually one of great wisdom made by someone who isn't all that educated or book smart, it can't be said that Sheldon is either of those things. But he ''is'' very socially inept. So it comes as a surprise at times when Sheldon has rare gems of social wisdom (albeit wrapped in SesquipedalianLoquaciousness) that give Leonard new insights he couldn't see before.
