Characters / The Big Bang Theory: The Core Group

The Big Bang Theory Main Character Index
The Core Group (Sheldon Cooper, Penny) | Family Members | Secondary Characters | Minor Characters

---

The Main Cast from The Big Bang Theory.

General

• Athletically Challenged: The four boys are all very poor athletically. One episode that highlights this is "The Rothman Disintegration", where Sheldon and his Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Barry Kripke compete over a newly vacated office with a one-on-one game of basketball, on the reasoning that both being equally bad at sports gave them an even playing field. 45 minutes in, neither of them has sunk a single basket. They move on to a free throw contest, but that too is a bust. Sheldon finally wins when they resort to seeing who can bounce the ball highest. ("Who's 'unsatisfactory in PE' now?")
• Book Smart: Except for Penny, they are all brilliant when it comes to science and academics.
• Bully Magnet: The main boys claim they spent most of their lives being bullied. Even Amy and Bernadette have been bullied at school, the latter for her short stature. Averted with Penny who was The Bully herself, though she's much nicer as an adult.
• Butt-Monkey: All the male characters are this in different ways (Leonard for being an Extreme Doormat, Sheldon for being The Friend Nobody Likes, Howard for being a Momma's Boy without a doctorate, and Raj for being Alone Among the Couples), as they are all frequently mocked and regularly put themselves in embarrassing situations. The three girls have better luck.
• The Cameo: Their younger selves make an appearance at the end of the Season 2 finale of Young Sheldon, that aired after the Parent Shows Series Finale, when Sheldon mentions one day he would meet a group of people that would accept him as their friend.
• Commedia dell'Arte: The core group is a fairly direct adaptation of the common Commedia archetypes.
  • Gli Innamorati: Leonard and Penny's fluctuating relationship is a driving force for the entirety of the series, and the two of them have to struggle with the difficulties of their mutual attraction.
  • Il Dottore: Sheldon, who acts high and mighty over his knowledge and academic accomplishments, but drops to being a Know-Nothing Know-It-All in unfamiliar situations, especially social situations.
  • Il Capitano: Howard aims high as a self-proclaimed ladies' man early on, even attempting to make a move on Penny. He later develops elements of Arlecchino through his relationship with Bernadette.
  • Pierrot: Raj is hardworking and supportive of his friends wherever possible (especially with Howard), but is the unluckiest in love thanks to his early inability to talk to women, and staying Alone Among the Couples even afterwards.
  • Colombina: Both Amy and Bernadette are this, being accomplished scientists themselves but stay mostly down-to-earth and career-focused.
• The Comically Serious: Most of the main characters are professional scientists but at the same time, they are all very quirky and immature nerds who engage in comedic hijinks.
• Disappeared Dad: With the exception of Raj, most of the boys have had absent fathers growing up. Sheldon's dad died when he was 14, Howard's walked out when he was 11, and Leonard's dad was too busy with his job to spend time with him.
• Five-Man Band: During the seasons before Bernadette and Amy become main characters: Leonard is The Leader, Howard is The Lancer, Sheldon is The Smart Guy, Penny is The Big Girl and Raj is The Heart. Though Howard and Sheldon can trading places as Howard is The Engineer and Sheldon has a Foil dynamic with Leonard.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sheldon (choleric), Raj (melancholic), Leonard (phlegmatic), and Howard (sanguine).
• The Friends Who Never Hang:
  • Howard and Amy are this despite their shared love of Neil Diamond and appreciation for magic, which is acknowledged in one episode when they are briefly alone together and Amy says that the last time that happened was a few years ago. It's likely that Howard's difficult relationship with Sheldon and Amy's closer bond with Penny rather than Bernadette is why they don't spend much time together outside the group. Bernadette and Leonard are another but more minor example as while a few episodes show they have a friendship outside the group, most of their interactions seem based on the fact that Leonard and Penny were the only couple besides Sheldon and Amy that Bernadette and Howard were friends with. This is also true with Howard and Penny as while she grows to like Howard more in the later seasons there are very few episodes about them specifically by that point. Finally, Raj and Amy rarely have any storylines together.
  • Ironically, Howard and Sheldon actually spend plenty of time together despite their dislike for each other. This eventually leads Howard to try and become a better friend to Sheldon in one episode after Bernadette brings up that they have known each other for many years, and while they don't necessarily become closer after they do act nicer to each other in comparison to previous seasons.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: All the guys and Amy were isolated and picked on at school for being nerds. By contrast, Book Dumb Penny has always been very popular.
• Jerkass Ball: While Howard and Sheldon are probably the worst offenders out of the main cast, all of the main characters are capable of acting very petty, selfish and mean. Even Leonard (despite being level-headed and rational) has his faults.
• Lovable Coward: Specifically the main male protagonists. According to Leonard, they’ve spent their whole lives running away from fights.
• Manchild: While most of them are intelligent scientists who are passionate about their careers, they all certainly have moments where they act very immature due to arguing with each other over the smallest things.
• Nerds Are Pervs:
  • Howard Wolowitz, pre-Character Development, is a lecherous twerp who starts hitting on Penny the moment that he meets her. He has been known to have masturbatory fantasies involving Katee Sackhoff, and was caught by his Love Interest Bernadette having online sex with "Glucinda the Troll", causing a temporary break-up between the two.
  • Amy Farrah Fowler also qualifies. When Penny pays her a compliment while chaperoning an early date between Sheldon and Amy, Amy asks if Penny is a lesbian, then notes that she'd have been more flattered if that was the case. When doing research on slumber parties on her smart phone, she notes that girls engage in "harmless experimentation in lesbianism", and attempts to put this into practice with Penny, while Bernadette says she would have just stuck to eating raw cookie dough. And lest anyone think that this behavior extends solely to Penny, when Sheldon catches Amy faking sick to get attention from him, she suggests (with barely contained enthusiasm) that he spank her.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between:
  • In the main trio, Leonard is the nice Extreme Doormat, Sheldon is a grade-A vain and pompous genius (mean), and Penny mediates with her sweetness and occasionally bitchy tendencies (in-between).
  • In early seasons, Bernadette is nice (sweet and polite), Penny is mean (snarky and occasionally bitchy), and Amy is in-between (well-meaning but a bit of an annoying Attention Whore). In later seasons, Amy is nice (very patient with her boyfriend), Bernadette is mean (often a short-tempered Tiny Tyrannical Girl, and borderline Bitch in Sheep's Clothing), and Penny is in-between (laid-back but snarky and sometimes selfish).
• No Social Skills: The four boys and Amy. Most of the humor is about how utterly inept they are at functioning outside their own nerdy society.
• Only Sane Man: Leonard and Penny. Fitting that they're a couple. Penny more so. Leonard may be the most sociable and conventional of the boys, but Penny is saner by virtue of not being awkward, more assertive, knowing how to explain things without confusing people, and essentially knowing how to survive in the real world and do real-life stuff such as fishing.
• Pair the Smart Ones: Played straight with the couples Sheldon/Amy and Howard/Bernadette, being all highly educated academics. Zig-zagged with the couple Leonard/Penny, since the latter is not Book Smart, but they are the two characters with the most common sense, and both usually serve as a Cloudcuckoolander's Minder to the rest of the group.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Leonard, Amy, and Bernadette are scientists who wear Nerd Glasses. The trope was once invoked by Penny, who wore a pair of Purely Aesthetic Glasses that made her look smarter, and sexier, simply by tilting them down and saying, "molecule".
• Stereotypical Nerd: The show is premised on the idea of two nerdy guys and their two nerdy friends interacting with the Brainless Beauty / Book Dumb, Girl Next Door, Penny. So naturally, most of the main cast fits this to a T, with the exception of Penny and later-addition Bernadette, who is a subversion. The rest of the group are all different degrees and variations on the trope, with the main four guys being wimpy, unathletic, Trekkies, comic book and video game nerds, into LARPing, Dungeons and Dragons, and The Lord Of The Rings, in addition to their math and science focused areas of expertise with a very Limited Wardrobe.
  • Leonard: An experimental physicist and Sickly Neurotic Geek in Nerd Glasses, Leonard begins as a Shrinking Violet, Extreme Doormat (to Sheldon), Dogged Nice Guy and Hopeless Suitor (to Penny). He has a history of being a Bully Magnet and is the show's resident Butt-Monkey, leading to him being socially awkward and a Nervous Wreck. Out of all of the guys on the show, he grows out of this stereotype the most as he gains self-confidence, making him gradually become a Clueless Chick-Magnet.
  • Sheldon: The modernized reconstruction on the classic trope, theoretical physicist Sheldon swaps the overly formal bland clothes for fandom t-shirts (although he used to wear formal clothes as a child in Young Sheldon), but otherwise is the embodiment of the trope. He has No Social Skills but doesn't care as he believes most people to be intellectually inferior anyways and will tell them this to their faces. Among a group of doctors, he is still The Smart Guy. He's frequently the Butt-Monkey and had a Hilariously Abusive Childhood filled with bullies.
  • Howard: A Jewish and Nerdy aeronautical engineer with a bowl cut, often wearing plaid button down shirts tucked into unflatteringly tight and belted pants a la Disco Dan. He's also a pervy Casanova Wannabe, becoming an Abhorrent Admirer for Penny early on.
  • Raj: The resident Bollywood Nerd astrophyscist with a fondness for sweater vests over khakis. While he can talk to his friends just fine, he Cannot Talk to Women, Sheldon's psychologist mom even diagnosing him with selective mutism, leading to him to be the only one of the group in later seasons to not have a partner and he becomes Allegedly Dateless for a while.
  • Amy: As Sheldon's neurobiologist Distaff Counterpart, she shares many of his same traits (The Stoic, Insufferable Genius, No Social Skills, Brutal Honesty), just with Nerd Glasses, and in a dowdy skirt and sweater, while also lacking his interest in nerdy pop culture things like comics and Star Trek, making her The Bore. She comes from a Friendless Background because of her abrasiveness and Extreme Doormat personality.
  • Bernadette is a glasses-wearing microbiologist with a penchant for cardigans and other more conservative clothing. When she was first introduced, she exhibited some Ditzy Genius tendencies, not understanding most of the jokes the guys made, but this seems to be more because she doesn't share their interest in nerdy hobbies rather than because she has No Social Skills; her kindness and friendliness (pre-Flanderization) were her defining character traits. However, she has been selected as one of the fifty most beautiful female scientists in California, and she has discussed her rather extensive dating experience in the past.
• Three Plus Two: More like, Three plus Two plus Two. Penny, Leonard and Sheldon are clearly the main three characters all the way through the series, complemented by Howard and Raj, with Bernadette and Amy joining later.
• Town Girls: Cute and girly Bernadette (femme), awkward Brainy Brunette Amy (neither) and The Lad-ette Penny (butch).
• True Companions: Penny quickly becomes this with the boys in early seasons, switching between Team Mom and One of the Boys. Between season 4 and 5, Amy and Bernadette also become members of their companionship, especially after befriending Penny.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • Sheldon towards everyone due to being a Jerkass and The Friend Nobody Likes, but it's most pronounced in his relationship with Leonard, Penny, and Howard.
  • Howard and Raj fit this, usually Howard making comments about India, but Raj gets some zingers back: after having Smokey the Bear explained, Raj mentions a similar cartoon mongoose in India who warned children about cobras.
    Howard: You had to be told not to play with poisonous snakes?
    Raj: You had to be told not to burn down the forest?
• With Friends Like These...: Sheldon is a Jerkass who rarely shows respect to any of his friends and forces them to do things for him. His friends are Deadpan Snarkers who badmouth him behind his back and are actually happy when he is not around.
  • Sometimes Raj and Howard are bad friends to Leonard as whenever he is upset about something they mock him. For example, when his emotionally abusive mother visits him, they take an opportunity to mock him rather than comfort him. It’s telling that Sheldon, of all people, typically comforts Leonard when he is upset.
• Women Are Wiser: The three couples. Penny is more worldly and socially adept than Leonard; Bernadette is much more mature than Howard; initially averted with Amy, who starts off as a quirky Ditzy Genius (in season 4 and 5) but eventually becomes the reasonable Straight Man to her boyfriend Sheldon.
• World of Snark: The only thing more prevalent than nerdy references is deadpan snarkery. Penny, Leonard, and Sheldon have loads of glorious three-way Snark-to-Snark Combat (or two-way, depending on how many are in the room), while Raj and Howard argue Like an Old Married Couple (which Bernadette eventually gets in on), and Amy can more than hold her own with Sheldon.

Leonard Hofstadter

Leonard Leakey Hofstadter, Ph.D.

Played by: Johnny Galecki

Voiced by: Gabriel Cobayassi (Latin-American Spanish dub), Jesús Alberto Pinillos (European Spanish dub)

"Twelve years after high school and I'm still at the nerd table..."

Ostensibly the main character, Leonard is the most normal of the guys by never having any outlandish quirks and generally operates as the Only Sane Man. He (and his friends) work at Cal Tech, his field being in Experimental Physics. He has lived with Sheldon since late 2002 and is his best friend, though Sheldon's quirks annoy him to no end. He instantly gained a crush on Penny when she moved into the apartment across the hall and much of the show is about how they both change from interacting with each other.

---

• Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: In Season 5, Leonard has a Long-Distance Relationship with Priya. In "The Good Guy Fluctuation" (Season 5, episode 7) he asks out Alice for a date. Before anything sexual happens, Leonard has second thoughts and confesses to already having a girlfriend.
• Afraid of Needles: Leonard is so afraid of having to get stitches for his hand that he vomits — and when Howard sees them, as does he.
• Act of True Love: Leonard buys Penny a car (which is obviously pretty expensive) to help her get to auditions and to allow her to continue to pursue acting after she quit her job. Penny is left so overwhelmed with joy at Leonard's act of kindness that she is left in tears and tightly hugs and kisses him in gratitude.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: His dynamic with Penny is this, despite there fears and reservations, they both truly love each other and get back together and get married.
  • Even though they aggravate each other constantly, he and Sheldon are bestfriends and Sheldon even names his son after Leonard (Although he won't admit it)
  • He's also best friends with Howard and Raj who both enjoy his company and like him as a person despite snarking at him constantly.
  • Also forms friendships with Amy and Bernadette, although he instantly befriends Bernadette, it takes longer for him and Amy to become good friends but they eventually do in Season 5.
• Babies Ever After: Him and Penny in the Grand Finale, with the reveal she is secretly pregnant.
• Better as Friends: His relationship with Penny goes back and forth from this. Even though things are less complicated when they aren't together, there is no denying their attraction to each other.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: The Little Guy to Sheldon's Big Guy. Sheldon is 6' 1" (1.86 m) and towers over the 5' 5" (1.65 m) Leonard.
• Big Damn Kiss: Shares multiple ones with Penny throughout the series.
• Birthday Hater: Completely averted, he actually never had a birthday because his mother refused to let him celebrate one as his birth was actually her achievement. He eventually begins to celebrate them despite a failed attempt by Penny to throw him one in season 1.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Sometimes. In season 3, it was his idea to tamper one of Sheldon's experiments at the North Pole to come back home. In "The Locomotion Reverberation" he gifts Sheldon a trip to be a train conductor in Nevada, but only to get Sheldon out of their hair for a few days. Although both examples can be justified due to Sheldon being... well, Sheldon.
• Blind Without 'Em: When Leonard's glasses are accidentally broken at the movie theatre, his eyesight is so bad that he doesn't have any hope in watching the film, so has to return to his apartment (and risk running into a sick and needy Sheldon) just to get his spare pair.
• Brainy Brunette: A male version of this trope, he did go to Princeton and holds a Ph.D.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: According to Sheldon and his mother, since Leonard does very little original research of his own. Although his work in confirming the results of others' experiments is crucial work in validating modern scientific theories, but people like Sheldon and Mrs. Hofstadter are unlikely to appreciate this even though they rely on scientists like him regularly.
• Broken Bird: The emotional abuse he suffered from his mother (being apathetic to his accomplishments and using him as examples in her psychology books) is the reason behind his insecurities and neediness. It's hinted at repeatedly through the show that part of Penny's attraction to him is recognizing he sometimes just needs a hug and the positive response from her affection. Leonard discovered that truth in the seventh season after questions about his mother's book for a psychology class brought on another depressed stage, with Penny being much more attentive to him afterwards (which he tried to exploit, which ended badly).
• Bully Magnet: Like all his male friends, he was this for most of his life.
  Leonard: There's this guy, Jimmy Speckerman, who used to torment me in high school.
  Sheldon: Is this the fellow who peed in your Hawaiian Punch?
  Leonard: No, that was a different guy.
  Sheldon: Was he the one who wedgied you so hard, your testicle reascended, and you spent your whole Christmas break waiting for it to come back down?
  Leonard: No, that was a different, different guy.
  Sheldon: Was he the one who used your head to open a nut?
  Leonard: No.
  Sheldon: Oh, oh, oh. Was he the one who made you eat your arm hair?
  Leonard: No, but, actually, that was this guy's sister.
• Butt-Monkey: The show has gone out of its way, particularly in later seasons, to make his life more and more miserable... and it's always Played for Laughs, regardless of Leonard's progressively damaged psyche.
• Character Development: He was always friendly and desired to be more social, but he had a hard time making friends and dealing with the opposite sex, the first season especially had him as painfully shy when in awkward situations. Interacting with Penny his already existent skills multiplied to where he is far less likely to put his foot in his mouth in the process. Penny even comments that she is the one who crafted him into becoming decent boyfriend material.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: To Sheldon, to the extent that Leonard sometimes appears in Sheldon's dreams to advise him on real life.
  Leonard: I'm not here, Sheldon. You're having a guilt-ridden dream.
  Sheldon: Do you have any evidence to support this hypothesis?
  Leonard: How about that gorn sitting on the couch?
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: He is still stuck in a frame of mind where he is a nervous geek who has to work really hard to get a girl's attention, when the truth is he has actually become far more social and friendly, and that has made him be far more attractive to the opposite sex.
  Alex: You're cute, you're funny. Maybe you're getting hit on and you don't even know it.
  Leonard: Really?
  Alex: [stunned] I'm... pretty sure...
  Leonard: [Beat] Hahahahaha! I gotta get back to work, thanks for listening.
  Alex: [disappointed] No problem.
  Leonard: Hope — hope no girls rip my clothes off on the way! Hahahaha!
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Notably, the only time he starts doing the "crazy" part was in a sixth season episode regarding Penny working with a classmate, confronting the guy with an anonymous tip that her boyfriend has "gang" connections. Before this, he could certainly seethe with jealousy at times, but rarely did it manifest in something crazy. In the Thanksgiving episode, he ends up hounding Penny to divorce Zack^note It was a Las Vegas wedding, which Penny believed was fake. Sheldon suggests that it frustrates him because Penny resolutely rejects Leonard's proposals but could easily get married to Zack
• Deadpan Snarker: Around Sheldon, at least. Sheldon, being Literal-Minded and often Sarcasm-Blind, doesn't always catch it, even occasionally interpreting Leonard's snarky responses as genuine.
• Desperately Craves Affection: Due to his mother denying him of any affection growing up, he quickly jumps at any chance for sex with another woman or a romantic relationship. Unfortunately, this also means that it's one of his screw-ups when it comes to relationships - as this causes him to be blind to red flags. He fails to see how demanding and possessive Priya is and probably still hasn't after breaking up with her due to her infidelity.
• Dogged Nice Guy: He could provide a trope image, spending the first two seasons pining after Penny.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: It takes 12 Seasons but by the end, he's overcome his traumatic relationship with his mother, found professional success and is expecting a child with his beloved wife Penny.
• Embarrassing First Name: He mentions that he doesn't like the name Leonard because it ends in the syllable "-nerd". Then again, he was off his tits on cannabis cookies at the time, so whether this was a spontaneous expression of a long-held resentment or a drug-induced epiphany that he forgot when he stopped rattling is up in the air. Although he is aware that his name is dorky when sober on some level
  Penny: You play the cello?
  Leonard: Yeah, my parents though that naming me Leonard and putting me in all AP classes wasn't getting me beat up enough.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Leonard Leakey Hofstadter, after the famous anthropologist Louis Leakey. (It has nothing to do with his history of bed wetting.)
• Endearingly Dorky: This is even lampshaded in a Season 6 episode, when Sheldon's new assistant reveals her crush on him. Penny feels very insecure and angry that Leonard didn't tell her personally, so Leonard comes to apologize by playing his cello in the melody of "Mary Had A Little Lamb."
  Leonard: Sorry Alex hit on me, hit on me, hit on me,
  Sorry Alex hit on me,
  I had no idea I'm cute. [goofy grin]
  Penny: [Beat] Damn it, you are cute.
• Energy Weapon: His specific field of study usually goes towards experiments involving lasers. He got a government grant to experiment on their weapons application but jokes on how far they are from practical use "I can remove hair from 2 miles away!"
• Even the Guys Want Him: When Leonard demonstrates to Raj how he can be more popular with girls by being more confident (and removing his glasses). Raj is mesmerized by it.
• Extreme Doormat: He rarely tries to stand up to Sheldon (snarky comments aside) and will usually put up with his antics, no matter how ridiculous and unreasonable they are. He also has shades of this around Penny, as lampshaded in one episode.
  Leonard: Fine, I'll do it. But not because of them, because I love you.
  Penny: Thank you.
  Raj: Pushover.
  Howard: Spineless.
  Sheldon: Still hasn't bought milk even though I told him two days ago!
• Fatal Flaw: Leonard's own insecurity about being considered a good match for Penny is one, which may be why it fuels his Crazy Jealous Guy tendencies.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Phlegmatic. He is the resident Nice Guy, the one his friends (particularly Sheldon and Penny) can depend on, incredibly patient, and tends to forgive slights on his person.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: While he's a bit awkward, he's by far the most pleasant and well-adjusted of the main four scientists and gets along well with most people.
• Give Geeks a Chance: In earlier seasons, Leonard was sporadically paired with the equally geeky Leslie Winkle, but it's Penny he fixated on and she gradually began to return his feelings. After they broke up Leonard started a brief relationship with Raj's sister, Indian bombshell Priya. However, Leonard and Penny still cared about each other and evetually reconciled and married.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: Played with. It's been noted that he has nice eyes/looks more handsome without his glasses, but he's Blind With Out Them and his attempt at using contacts left him with an eye patch.
• Happily Married: To Penny. Despite facing some issues in their marriage during Season Ten, they both are very loving and devoted to each other.
• Height Angst: He had always been complaining about how short he is, and is often mocked for it, but it doesn't quite bother him any more since he is taller than Howard, Amy, and Bernadette.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: While their relationship isn't quite as good as Howard and Raj's, ultimately Leonard and Sheldon are inseparable and both need the other despite the many times they irritate each other.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Leonard's parents weren't the best people, with Beverly having been the most emotionally abusive of the two while Alfred was apparently more neglectful. Leonard often talks about how his mother used him as a test subject for her books, is completely dismissive of him and his achievements, and how her coldness meant he had to find other ways to get affection including building a hugging machine. The show however treats all of this as a joke, with even Leonard's loved ones occasionally laughing at some of his childhood stories.
• Hypocrite: He gets angry at Raj for sleeping with Penny in his own bedroom despite the fact that he got slept and got involved with Raj’s sister Priya, even after Raj made it clear to him that he was uncomfortable with their relationship.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: It's clear to everyone, including himself, that someone as beautiful as Penny is way out of his league.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: His cold and neglectful upbringing has left him with a very strong need for affection. Much of his Character Development over the years centers on him figuring out the difference between sexual pleasure and genuine love, and he grows to appreciate the latter more as his relationship with Penny progresses.
• I'm a Man; I Can't Help It: You'd think the guy would have more sense than Howard around women, yet decides to pursue a relationship with both Alice and Priya. Even worse, he asks Penny if it's alright being unfaithful if it means he can get non-stop pleasure.
• Insecure Love Interest: Even during his wedding speech to Penny, he says, "I don’t think I’ll ever understand how someone like me could get to be with someone like you. Maybe I don’t need to understand it, I just need to be grateful." Due to his insecurities and self-deprecating humor, he still thinks Penny is too good for him even after they've been together for years.
  Sheldon: Oh, look who's in favor of compromise, the woman who married Leonard Hofstadter.
  Leonard: Hey, she didn't compromise. She settled. There's a difference.
  Penny: Yeah. You tell him, babe.
• In-Series Nickname: His aunt called him "Lenny". The nickname is used occasionally by Sheldon and Penny. However, when it was used by Kurt in "The Financial Permeability", Leonard didn't like it ("I don't really go by Lenny, but that's okay").
• Karma Houdini: That time he screwed a kid named Dennis Kim over in "Jerusalem Duality" just so Sheldon couldn't become more insufferable than what he already is. He hosts a "Bring your daughter to work day" to distract him with a beautiful girl. The beautiful girl would later ruin Dennis' life by introducing him to sex and alcohol, completely throwing him off his promising career and his doctorate. May we also mention that Dennis was going to do all of this to smuggle his grandfather from North Korea all the way to America? Not only did Leonard cause a kid to throw away his promising career as a doctor, but also left his grandfather to be executed in North Korea. Naturally, he feels bad about this but would later forget about it and isn't too troubled about this decision.
• Limited Wardrobe: Tends to wear a khaki jacket with a built-in hoodie and "dorky" t-shirts like the recycle symbol or the chemical composition of caffeine, along with flat-soled shoes and corduroy pants. But he does have two different Star Trek uniforms, dress and casual!
  • The hoodies gradually begin to go near the end of season seven as Leonard gradually begins simplifying his clothing choices to either plain jackets or unbuttoned shirts over five seasons; to the point that he no longer wears hoodies unless as outerwear.
• Literally Loving Thy Neighbor: With Penny. Sheldon's mother points this out almost word for word in an episode.
• Lovable Nerd: Leonard is adorably geeky, and easily the nicest and most likable of the four guys. It helps he's very often The Woobie.
• Love Interest: For Penny, thus providing much of the show's plot impetus.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Feminine Boy to Penny's Masculine Girl. It's a product of Penny's personality that she doesn't take any crap from people while Leonard will just suffer through humiliation to avoid conflict. It's also sometimes played with, as she certainly likes girly things and can be quite emotional at times.
• Meaningful Name: Named for television producer Sheldon Leonard, anthropologist Louis Leakey, and the Hofstadters (Richard, Douglas, etc.).
• Middle Child Syndrome: He has an older sister and a younger brother, neither of whom are seen, but do seem fairly successful in their respective businesses. As such, his mother tends to favor of his siblings, while considering him her disappointing child.
• Nice Guy: Originally, despite sometimes being a little snarky, Leonard was the nicest out of the main four guys. After the first season, he slowly Took a Level in Jerkass. But despite that, he remained more friendly and kind than any one else.
• Oblivious to Love: See Clueless Chick-Magnet above, Sheldon's assistant, Alex, makes it blatantly obvious that she likes him by listing reasons why other women would like him. He just laughs it off. Later in the episode, he gets a blatantly-flirty text from her and just thinks aloud: "What a friendly girl..."
• Official Couple: With Penny, as it is pretty clear they are the main romantic relationship of the series.
• Only Sane Man: Easily the most "normal" of the geeks. He even frequently acknowledges what he and his friends are doing is completely insane, although he usually participates anyway. He does have his moments of insanity though such as in "The Itchy Brain Stimulation" which ironically has Sheldon at his sanest.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Unlike Sheldon, he comes from a family of well-educated people who apparently are far more famous in their respective fields: an anthropologist father, a psychologist/neurobiologist mother, a medical researcher sister, and a lawyer brother.
  Alex: Oh, hi, Dr. Hofstader!
  Leonard: Hi Alex, but please, call me Leonard. Dr. Hofstader is my father... and my mother... and my sister... and our cat. Although I'm certain Dr. Boots Hofstader's title is honorary.
  • He's also this when Amy and Sheldon are trying to decide who will be their main/gentleman of honor and best man/woman respectively. Out of their friends and Sheldon's brother Leonard ranked last for both of them in the point system they had made, and despite being Sheldon's best friend he only had five points while having ten points for Amy.
• Parental Substitute: He takes on a fatherly role to Sheldon at times: taking care of his transportation needs, shopping for food and clothing, making sure he goes to bed on time and is often the one he goes to for advice on relationship matters. When he and Penny were dating they served as surrogate parents, when they broke up Sheldon was like a child in a divorce. That led to a lot of Does This Remind You of Anything? dialogue as he and Penny renew their friendship for Sheldon's sake.
• Proud to Be a Geek: Subverted. The only one of the main guys who is actually embarrassed by his geekiness, especially when in the presence of "normal" people. He once mentions that he doesn't like his name Leonard because it ends in the syllable "-nerd".
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Used almost exclusively around Penny, not even when dating other women. Heavily lampshaded in the sixth season opener when Penny wanted to talk about her doubts on their relationship but his undivided attention lead her to skipping the discussion and take him to bed as a distraction.
• Self-Deprecation: He's a master at it (though not as much as Stuart or Raj), even joking to Alex about the idea that he'd be a Chick Magnet.
• Shipper on Deck: Clearly supports Howard/Bernadette and Sheldon/Amy. He even unwillingly sets Penny back up with a guy she brutally dumped!
• The Short Guy with Glasses: 5 foot 5 inches (1.65 m), highly intelligent and wears glasses. Befitting the trope. Albeit a protagonist in an Official Couple.
• Shrinking Violet: He started out really shy and awkward in the first season and he still kind of is in the later seasons.
• Sickly Neurotic Geek: He's the complete package. Poor eyesight, asthma, lactose intolerance, deviated septum, crippling psychological issues, the list goes on.
• Smart People Play Chess: He plays and in a Season 5 episode, teaches Penny to play. She beats him in their very first game.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: He is a highly intelligent man who wears glasses. Although interestingly enough he is the only one out of the main four to actually wear glasses.
• Straight Man: Leonard plays this role, largely for Sheldon's comic lines, and sometimes for funny lines from other characters as well.
• Strong Girl, Smart Guy: Smart Guy to Penny's Strong girl. Leonard is a smart scientist, Penny is stronger than the rest of the group, to the point of being a Girly Bruiser.
• Team Dad: Despite his snarkiness, Leonard increasingly becomes this throughout the series, especially the "tough but fair" stereotype, particularly towards Sheldon.
  Penny: [to Sheldon] Leonard and I are in a relationship, and occasionally we're gonna fight. But no matter what happens between us, we will always love you. Right, Leonard?
  Leonard: [apprehensive] "Always" is a long time. [They stare at him] Sure, always.
• Took a Level in Badass: Leonard was always one of the more normal and friendly of the group, but in the early seasons he was very timid and strove to avoid conflict whenever possible just because he was too much of a pushover to win. In later seasons, his relationship with both Penny and Sheldon became much more even-handed as he isn't as easy to manipulate.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After the first season he slowly became more whiny, short-tempered and rude - of course, so did the other characters. But despite that, Leonard was mostly the one to continue to remain rather friendly, kind, mature and level-headed most of the time.
• Totally Radical: His attempts at being cool usually end up as this, even if the slang is fairly contemporary. His use of phrases like "Later, bro." come across (purposefully) awkward.
• Translator Buddy: Leonard spends much of his time translating Sheldon's sayings (and explaining his habits) to Penny and other strangers.
• Trekkie: Like his friends, he loves Star Trek, especially Star Trek: The Next Generation. He once dressed as Captain Picard for a convention.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Leonard is quite dorky and isn't that bad looking (although he's still short, socially awkward, horribly dressed and has a receding hairline), but compared to the stunning Dude Magnet Penny sure looks that way. It's actually a deconstruction when you think about it, since Leonard is hopelessly insecure about his flaws and gets jealous when Penny is around better looking guys, while Penny feels insecure about Leonard's intelligence and passion, fearing that she brings nothing to the table in their relationship besides her good looks.
• The Unfavorite: His mother favors his brother and sister over him. Leonard's brother is a tenured law professor at Harvard University. Leonard's sister is a cutting-edge medical researcher, working with gibbons to cure diabetes. They are more successful in their chosen fields, so their mother considers Leonard her disappointing child. She has published a book with that as its subject.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Between him and Penny. Resolved as of their marriage in Season 9.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Tries to prove himself as a brilliant scientist to his cold igloo of a mother. Doesn't help that Sheldon has a closer relationship with her and that she somewhat admitted his siblings' success, but she treats Leonard as some kind of scientific experiment.
• Will They or Won't They?: With Penny, although his interest in her is admittedly much stronger. The show built upon the first two seasons of flirting and false starts just to get them officially together in the third. They break up before the end of the season and don't get back together until mid way through the fifth season. They spend the next year or so trying to feel secure enough being together (Leonard's insecure about her attractiveness, Penny's insecure about his intelligence) and once they both come to grips with what they want out of their relationship they get engaged at the end of the seventh season. And even from there their engagement takes time.
• With Friends Like These...: His friend Sheldon shows him no respect, and regularly ridicules his work. Sheldon is also stubborn, selfish and demanding, getting on Leonard's nerves. Leonard still usually goes along with Sheldon's wishes but often badmouths Sheldon behind his back, and some of his snarky remarks can be pretty mean.

Sheldon Cooper

Sheldon Cooper, Ph.D.

Played by: Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory), Iain Armitage (Young Sheldon)

Voiced by: Luis Alfonso Mendoza (Latin-American Spanish dub)

"I don't understand why in this group, 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 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 trends, celebrity gossip, etc.) or even romance. He thinks he's superior to... well, to everyone.

---

• For tropes related to Sheldon, see here.

Penny

Penny Hofstadter

Played by: Kaley Cuoco

Voiced by: Mireya Mendoza (Latin-American Spanish dub)

"You know where I was all afternoon? Auditioning with fifty other blondes for an anti-depressant commercial... They said I was too perky..."

Nebraska-born neighbor of Leonard and Sheldon, moved there in the pilot. She aspires to be an actress, but to pay the bills she works as a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory. Initially friendly but distant to the guys, she grew to become One of the Boys. She has an average intelligence which is overshadowed by being around these super-geniuses, but displays common sense and social awareness that the others almost completely lack. Her relationship with both Leonard and Sheldon opened her up to the concept of higher thinking and she has found some difficulty going back to keeping "regular" people as company.

---

• For tropes related to Penny, see here.

Howard Wolowitz

Howard Joel Wolowitz, M.Eng.

"Have you met my mother? I live in Jewish hell."

Played by: Simon Helberg

Voiced by: Irwin Daayán [speaking voice] and Luis Leonardo Suárez [singing voice] (Latin-American Spanish dub), Iván Jara (European Spanish dub)

"The way I see it, I'm halfway to pity sex."

Of the four male leads, the only one without a doctorate (for which he gets made fun of a lot despite that he has a master's degree from MIT and is an aeronautical engineer). Some group of geeks have Basement-Dweller, others do not, as he lives at home with his mother, despite being in his late 20's at the start of the show. In addition, he is Jewish and practices the faith but enjoys not eating kosher from time to time. Also, among the group, he was a Casanova Wannabe until he met and started dating Bernadette.

---

• Abhorrent Admirer: To Penny, he behaved rather rude until she gave him a verbal beatdown.
• All Men Are Perverts: A classic example, at least in early seasons, the Season 7 premiere even has Sheldon tell Penny that Howard looked up her nude scene online shortly after meeting her.
• Always a Child to Parent: His mother always treated him like a little kid despite being an engineer at Cal Tech. That he usually indulged her when it suited him didn't help matters.
• Anti-Hero: Despite his over the top and offputting ways of trying to get with women and having no qualms about basking in his friends' misery sometimes, he still is a decent person and softened big time after meeting Bernadette.
• Basement-Dweller: Eventually removed in the sixth season when he marries and moves in with Bernadette. Long beforehand the show had gone to great lengths to give this trope some Hidden Depths, acknowledging the cultural tendency of Jewish children to live with their parents until marriage. Howard's father also left them when he was eleven, he was always hesitant to leave because he knew she would be left all alone without him. It also helps that unlike most examples of this trope in fiction, Howard has a good job and doesn't depend on his mother financially.
• Beta Couple: With Bernadette. Likely implemented because of the irony that the pervy swinger ends up being the first of the group to get married.
• Book Dumb: According to Sheldon, for being "just" an engineer and the only one without a Ph.D. As Howard points out, many engineers simply don't bother going for a PhD after getting their Masters, since they are already more than qualified for most of the jobs in their field.
• Boring, but Practical: Howard being an engineer winds up being this. He's not making revolutionary discoveries like the other guys aim to but as he points out to them once he's made genuine contributions that have been implemented into the world around them, something they can't really claim. The crowning example of this would be how his engineering work qualified him to become an astronaut and go into space.
• Brainy Brunette: He fills this role along with over half of the other characters, including Leonard, Sheldon, and Raj. He even once notes that (stereotypically) brunettes tend to be the smartest girls.
• Brief Accent Imitation: He sometimes mimics Raj's accent, the first time was a lot more cartoony making him "sound like a Simpsons character." Later times it's accurate and uncannily similar to Raj's specific voice. He sometimes does the same with Bernadette by imitating her vocal pitch, which she has expressed annoyance towards.
• Butt-Monkey: He's often made fun of by Sheldon and everyone else (sometimes, even Penny) for him lacking a doctoral degree, his relationship with his mother and his Casanova Wannabe status. He was also the Butt Monkey to the other astronauts who constantly picked on him and bullied him when he was in space.
• Casanova Wannabe: His success with women is inversely proportional to the effort he puts into trying to get anywhere with them. Mainly because his idea of "effort" concerning women consists of skeevy pickup lines, pretending to be a goth, hookers, and/or just outright being a creepy, sexist asshole. When he originally doesn't try hard with Bernadette, he finds himself doing much better, and eventually bonds with her by being himself, instead of trying to act out his inaccurate self-image.
• Character Development: After getting together with Bernadette, he's actually started to become nicer, more honest and less sleazy. He could still be a Jerkass from time to time, but he's still better than before. The few times his sleazy personality appears (i.e. ogling women at a gym), it only serves to remind you of how far he's come. This comes to a head in Season 5's "The Stag Convergence" where he openly admits to Bernadette he is disgusted with how he was before and that he changed because of her.
  Penny: That was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard, and it came out of you!
• Commonality Connection: Even if Sheldon is usually dismissive of him, in "The Explosion Implosion" they bond over old model rockets and their respective bad childhoods (particularly daddy issues). He and Bernardette also first started bonding over their shared experiences with overbearing mothers.
• Consistent Clothing Style: Howard wears turtlenecks under button-downs, often in clashing colors.
• Cultural Rebel: Enjoys non-Kosher foods. His favorite meal at the Cheesecake Factory is a bacon cheeseburger — "breaking two Jewish dietary laws at the same time." Those 2 laws would be eating pork and mixing dairy with beef.
  Leonard: The price of pork went up.
  Howard: It's getting tougher and tougher to be a bad Jew.
• Cunning Linguist: Or so he thinks. In reality, he only knows enough of each language he claims to speak in order to hit on women unsuccessfully. However, he's the only one in the group who knows sign language.
• Damned by Faint Praise:
  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.
• Deadpan Snarker: Over the course of time, he evolved into the second-biggest one among the group, after Penny. From the second biggest snark-catcher (after Sheldon), no less.
• Disappeared Dad: Howard's father left his wife and his son when Howard was 11.
• Disco Dan: He's a preening ladies' man, but apparently his sense of what's stylish comes from images of sci-fi conventions from, say 1966-75. Hence the Beatles haircut, turtlenecks, etc.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Is hit by this when he comes back to earth after getting into space. Most of his friends got annoyed of him talking about his trip in space.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Was dubbed "Fruit Loops" by the other NASA astronauts. Named after his favorite brand of cereals. The other astronauts overheard his mother mentioning his taste for the cereal.
• The Engineer: His official status in the group. Howard has a master's degree in engineering from MIT and works for NASA as an aeronautical engineer, which eventually earns him a coveted spot on the next Soyuz rocket to the ISS.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite being a sleazebag himself, even he's put off by Barry Kripke's unabashed perviness and obnoxious personality.
• Expy: Howard is very similar to Terry, the perverted nerd character Simon Helberg played in A Cinderella Story.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Sanguine. Typically friendly and cheerful, confident of his skills, a charmer at his best moments (even if he started out as a creep), very talkative, and has a talent for comedy.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Leonard and Raj get along with him fine, but it's made very clear that he and Sheldon are not really friends, otherwise. Penny also disliked him immensely in the first few seasons, until he learned to show her some respect.
• Friend to All Children: Sort of. At least in contrast to his wife.
• Geek Physiques: His small size and thin build are the source of many jokes for people who know him. Howard is 5 feet, 4 inches (1.63 m) tall, and weighs 118 pounds (53.52 kilos).
• Henpecked Husband: To Bernadette. He bonds with his father-in-law over the fact both are this.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: He and Raj are close. Many a joke on the show is about how they are perhaps too close and perhaps not so heterosexually...
• Hidden Depths:
  • He was at least somewhat aware of how women viewed him but felt that if he didn't try so hard he would never have a shot otherwise. In a Season 5 episode, he admits he's always wanted children, showing behind the sleazy flirting he's always wanted to settle down and raise a family.
  • He is almost always the one to display a talent that would be put to use, such as sign language. He's a pretty good singer, and, as demonstrated on the show, a phenomenal pianist.
  • As Bernadette points out, while she and the others makes fun of him for doing magic and think it's stupid, that doesn't change the fact that he is genuinely great at it. The show has often gone back and forth on this, either showing him making mistakes or doing only a few basic tricks while other times showing he has a real talent for it.
  • "The Imitation Perturbation" shows that Howard is knowledgeable about the etymology of certain words and understands some legal matters, which he uses to make fun of Sheldon while dressed as him for Halloween.
• Homoerotic Subtext: With Raj. Dr. Beverly Hofstader even stated they behaved like a committed couple. Season 12 makes the subtext more clear when Howard pulls a Race for Your Love at an airport to convince Raj to stay in Pasadena.
• House Husband: After coming to terms with the fact that Bernadette isn't good with children, he reluctantly agrees to be this once they decide to raise a family.
• In-Series Nickname: Bernadette calls him "Howie".
• Insistent Terminology: He does not live with his mother—she lives with him.
• Irony: The biggest sleaze and perv of the group is the first to settle down. Despite not having a Ph.D, he has probably done the most in terms of accomplishments.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While this becomes a more apparent factor of his character as the series progresses, there have been indications even from earlier episodes. He clearly possesses an ostensibly sensitive nature, there are severe implications that his flirtatious nature was based on a desire for genuine companionship (lampshaded to an extent when he enters a relationship with Bernadette). He undeniably possesses some degree of compassion and genuinely cares for his friends, most of his undesirable characteristics are associated with his overly confident and sexually frustrated nature (which are almost completely nonexistent when he and Bernadette officially enter a relationship).
• Jewish and Nerdy: He's a Jew and frequently makes self-deprecating comments about it. He works for NASA and holds a degree in space engineering. Like his friends, he's a lot into sci-fi, comic books, video games, robots, and other geeky stuff.
• Kissing Cousins: He lost his virginity to his second cousin Jeanie when he was 15 years old.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: Howard thinks it's hot when Bernadette yells at him and sounds exactly like his mother.
• Limited Wardrobe: He always wears a turtleneck, which Amy later suggests might be connected to the fact he was circumcised. He also typically wears fairly tight clothing, unique belt buckles and an alien lapel pin (that apparently has some meaning but will never be revealed to the world).
• Lovable Sex Maniac: He was obsessed with sex and women, making him a rather sympathetic sleaze. He calms down a bit when he gets into a long-term relationship with Bernadette.
• Manchild: He's very dependent on his mother to take care of many of his basic needs. When he (briefly) moves in with Bernadette, he sees nothing wrong with expecting her to cook his meals and do his shopping and laundry for him.
• Man of a Thousand Voices: Not only does Howard love to do impressions, he happens to be quite good at them, too. In "The Love Spell Potential", Howard serves as the DM for a Dungeons & Dragons game, and incorporates impressions of Nicolas Cage, Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and even Raj into the characters he creates for the game.
• Momma's Boy: While he makes jokes about his mother's weight, voice, and even makes quips about her dying, he nonetheless becomes very angry when Raj lampshades it, saying, "Don't you bring my mother into this!" There's also the fact he lets her treat him like a child half the time. Eventually explained that this developed from his father leaving them... he stayed her little boy so she could focus on loving him instead of feeling alone and worthless.
• Nice Jewish Boy: At the beginning of the series, Nice Guy was probably the last thing you'd use to describe him. Though by the end of the second season, he had learned at least some manners, he was still way too oversexed. With the introduction of Bernadette, he's become a Nice Guy. Granted, he can get mean, but he's at least not dropping Double Entendres in every single one of his lines.
• Omniglot: Can speak seven languages, including sign (Klingnon doesn't count) and once translated a Russian physics paper for the group despite admitting that his Russian was rusty. He's not completely fluent in his foreign languages though, given a Chinese waiter disparaged his ability to speak Mandarin.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Him being the only one of the boys to never have a Ph.D is one of his main sources of ridicule. Even a few characters outside the main group (such as Dr. Eric Gablehauser) ridicule him for it.
• Only Sane Employee: When forced to babysit Sheldon, unlike Leonard or Raj who are resigned to attempting to appease him, Howard rarely cuts Sheldon any slack or puts up with his crap for very long.
  Howard: Well, my power is the ability to pretend like I give a damn about your piddly-ass problem.
• Overshadowed by Awesome:
  • Played for Laughs, despite having the most tangible effect on world progress than his friends (major engineering projects with NASA) and having a Masters degree from MIT, him not having a doctorate is a frequent Running Gag.
  • Averted in Season 5 when he fully shines. Even Sheldon is impressed that Howard is going into space. Well, impressed but certainly not more respectful, since in Season 7 he outright tells Howard: "Truth be told, as a child, I did dream of going to space. Those astronauts were my heroes. And when you got to go, it was hard for me."
• Practically Different Generations: Howard is in his mid/late thirties when he meets his half-brother Josh, who's in his twenties.
• Proud to Be a Geek: Like Raj, while aware of the social awkwardness it can cause, he seems quite content with their geekiness.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He was completely sleazy around Penny until she tore into him mid-Season 2, which devastated him until Leonard coerced her to apologize. While a joke was made he didn't learn his lesson, it is notable that he was no longer behaving like that around Penny afterward.
• Ridiculously High Relationship Standards: Howard has a ridiculously high beauty standard that initially has him contemplate turning down a long term relationship with Bernadette (though he's fine with one night stands with pretty much anyone). Sheldon defends Howard's standards, saying that it is a genetic imperative to find the most desirable mates, then quickly turns it around, saying that whether Howard mating was in humanity's best interests was a whole other debate.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Manly Man to Raj's Sensitive Guy. His interpretation of manly is more just being unabashedly sleazy.
  • Interestingly, Howard has been on both sides of this trope. The fact that he's geeky, weak and not very athletic makes him come across as not very masculine compared to Mike's (Bernadette's dad) manly man whenever the two interact. Mike seems to look down on Howard for this reason, or at least he did before Howard became an Astronaut.
• Sickly Neurotic Geek: He is asthmatic, allergic to peanuts, almonds, and walnuts, prone to canker sores and pink eye, succumbs to seasickness, has an incredibly high genetic risk of heart illness, and has transient idiopathic arrhythmia.
• Small Name, Big Ego: With regards to his skills with women. Howard thinks he is a pickup artist, while his advances tend to creep them out.
• Terrible Pick-Up Lines: Howard Wolowitz is full of these. Penny eventually loses it and calls him out, mainly on his assessment of her as "doable".
• That Man Is Dead: Regarding his sleazy personality.
• The Runt at the End: Much is made of the fact that he's the only one of the guys (and the only one of the group besides Penny) who doesn't have a Ph.D. Played straight in "The Griffin Equivalency"
• Took a Level in Kindness: Used to be a humongous sleazebag. While he still retains some of these tendencies, he's grown out of it a lot, which he attributes to Bernadette.
• Trekkie: Star Trek is one of the group's favorite franchises. They especially dig Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation. When they went to a con once, he was dressed up as a Borg drone from TNG.
• Two Decades Behind: His outfits are over the top, always very bright and colorful. For example in "The Lizard-Spock Expansion", Howard wears "a shiny blue turtleneck, a belt buckle with a golden crown inside a shield, a black and gold studded belt; pointy gold slip-on shoes; and black leather pants." His outfits would be more in place in the 1980s and 1990s.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Heavily downplayed, they've simply acknowledged that there is an attractiveness gap between him and Bernadette. In addition, we actually see the courtship in full so we can see how well they match up in intelligence and sense of humor.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Mostly with Sheldon and Penny.
• Voice for the Voiceless: Raj often whispers what he intends to say and Howard interprets for him. Sometimes he says nothing or something completely else for laughs.

Raj Koothrappali

Rajesh Ramayan "Raj" Koothrappali, Ph.D.

"Well, I'm a Hindu. My religion teaches that if we suffer in this life we are rewarded in the next. Three months at the North Pole with Sheldon and I'm reborn as a well-hung billionaire with wings."

Played by: Kunal Nayyar

Voiced by: Alfredo Leal (Latin-American Spanish dub, seasons 1-4) Miguel Ángel Ruiz (Latin-American Spanish dub, seasons 5-12), Álvaro Navarro (European Spanish dub)

"Excuse me! I have selective mutism, a recognized medical disorder."

The Token Minority, Raj is from New Delhi working in America on a visa as an astrophysicist. He is so shy around women, he is incapable of talking in their presence (even if not speaking to them, he can't talk if they are a part of the social group), eventually identified as Selective Mutism. The most consistent method of overcoming this is through alcohol, but he has tried several anti-anxiety medications with varying results.

---

• Allegedly Dateless: He started to become this once the Leonard/Penny, Howard/Bernadette and Sheldon/Amy pairings became more prominent, as that left him as the single guy of the group, and became even more pronounced when he overcomes his mutism. Although plenty of times it is shown that he is genuinely weird and creepy on first dates, and if he can get through that he has a better chance at longer relationships. But in the eleventh season he ended up with multiple women he managed to sleep with after first dates, making it unclear if it is this trope or Character Development as he became more self-reliant and confident. In the twelfth season, he dealt with his frustration over being unable to form a true commitment with any woman and after witnessing all his male friends find love and get married, by asking his dad to find him a wife through an arranged marriage.
• Alone Among the Couples: He's the only one in the group without a girlfriend for most of the series. Lampshaded frequently in later seasons, especially after Sheldon of all people lands a girlfriend in Amy. He sometimes acts like a jerk due to being somewhat bitter about it. In season 5, when the girls interrupt their guys-only weekend playing a Star Wars video game, Raj opens up about his insecurities of being the only single person in the group and missing their pre-girlfriend days.
  Raj: Excuse me. I have something to say. None of you may realize it, but I was very much looking forward to this weekend. It was gonna be like the old days; the four of us hanging out, playing video games before you guys all got girlfriends. Do you have any idea what it's like to be the only one without a girlfriend? Even if I get one someday, I'll still be the guy who got a girl AFTER SHELDON COOPER!
  • In season 12, he becomes really irritated of being alone that he lets his father arrange a marriage with Anu, who is his exact opposite in how their view marriage and love. Despite this they work well as a couple as they compromise with each other so both can be happy and they even end their engagement so they can start dating properly. However when Anu reveals she was offered a job in London she asks if he would move to be with her with Raj saying that his life, job and friends are in Pasadena. When she then asks if he is actually happy he reveals he hasn't been for years, which convinces him that he should go to London to propose to Anu since she might be his last chance at happiness. Howard convinces him to stay however by saying that there is someone in Pasadena who he's meant to be with, and seeing how much his friend cares for him makes Raj stay.
• Ambiguously Bi:
  • He is the go-to guy for the Homoerotic Subtext, but even then the only guys he exhibits that behavior around tend to be close friends he feels comfortable around (mostly Howard). Most of the time he recognizes that something he says came out sounding weird or effeminate, but other times he is completely unaware of the Innocent Innuendo. By and large, it's clear he is attracted to women (why else would he clam up in their presence?) it's just filtered through his personality quirks "Dance number aside, I'm SO not gay."
    Raj: [to Howard] Last night, I had a dream, we got so rich from the app we made, you and I bought matching side by side mansions. But, there was a secret tunnel connecting your front yard to my back yard. What do you think it means?
    Howard: It means next time we play handball, I'm showering at home.
  • While playing Dungeons & Dragons:
    Raj: The first ogre I see, I'm gonna run up behind him, whip out my wand, and blast my magic all over his ass!
  • He has participated in a threesome with Howard and an chubby female Sailor Moon cosplayer, which they never told anyone about. Although, Raj said he and Howard never actually touched or made physical contact with each other due to there being "200 pounds of Sailor Moon" between them.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Howard points out that it's his inability to talk around women that keep his less pleasant traits hidden in some contexts.
• Bollywood Nerd: He's Indian, nerdy, and the Token Minority of the group.
• Butt-Monkey: His inability to speak around women occasionally makes him this, as he has to whisper his comments to Howard, who pretends he said something completely different.
• Camp Straight: He fits many of the Camp Gay stereotypes but is attracted to women. According to Raj: dance number aside, he is definitely not gay.
• Cannot Talk to Women: When sober. Now completely cured ever since Lucy broke up with him.
• Character Development:
  • Despite his selective mutism being almost his primary character trait, he is slowly working through it. One issue brought up in Season 6 was that despite his handicap, he was rather selfish concerning women "I want them to love me for me... but they have to be super-hot, like a 9 or a 10." He then met Lucy, a mousy, timid girl with a lot of social anxiety and they bond over their struggles. When she dumps him for pushing her too hard to meet his friends, he is shaken up enough to talk to Penny sober, officially cured of his mutism.
  • Season 10 also has him become more self-sufficient. He stops relying on his parents' money and eventually earns enough money to buy his own home.
  • Season 11 has him develop more confidence and assertiveness. He starts to stand up to Howard's constant ribbing and gets a job at a planetarium. He even starts improving his style.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He definitely has his moments of this.
  Raj: [completely out of nowhere] I'm thinking about adopting some sort of quirky affectation like a pipe or a monocle or a handlebar mustache.
  Leonard: Why, for all the girls out there looking for the Indian Monopoly Man?
  Raj: This is not a safe place. You can't share anything here.
• Cultural Rebel: Raj hates his own home country, India and everything to do with it, including and especially Indian food. He loathes talking to his parents for this reason, knowing they're going to try to guilt him into returning there. Also similar to Howard who is a Jew who eats Pork, he is a practicing Hindu who goes against Hinduism's dietary guidelines by eating beef (especially hamburgers). When an FBI agent visits his apartment and he mistakenly believes that she's there to deport him:
  Raj: Please don't send me back to India! It's so crowded. It's like the whole country is one endless Comic-Con, except everyone's wearing the same costume — Indian Guy!
• The Cutie: In the early years. He was very shy, a Cute Mute around women, and he has been described in-universe as "a cutie-pie".
• Did Not Get the Girl: He is the only one of the core cast who is still single by the end of the series.
• Endearingly Dorky: Despite being so shy around girls that he can't talk in their presence, many women find him "a cutie-pie" and, in early seasons, if any of the guys is to succeed in one of their from-time-to-time escapades for wooing girls, it's usually Raj.
• Everything Is Racist:
  • Interprets many comments as racist and insulting to his Indian identity.
    Howard: You may now thank me.
    Raj: For what? Making me sound like a Simpsons character?
  • You kind of have to agree with him about the cell phone voice recognition software.
    Leonard: Let me try one! Calling Mcflono Mcfloonyloo!
    Cell phone: Calling... Rajesh Koothrappali.
    Raj: Oh! Impressive! ...and a little racist.
  • After Howard imitates the Bollywood Breakdance routine that Raj performed whilst heavily inebriated the night before:
    Raj: That's very offensive.
    Howard: Yeah, we all thought so.
  • This even applies when the potential racism isn't even aimed at Indians:
    Raj: Spiders give me the jeebie jeebies.
    Howard: It’s heebie jeebies.
    Raj: I know, but that sounds anti-Semitic.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: In Season 11 Raj changes his hair from a straight combed down look to be curlier and more unkempt as a response to his and Howard's temporary falling out. He keeps it that way for the rest of the series.
• Fatal Flaw: Raj has a bad tendency to just throw himself into things way too passionately, which tends to drive people off. This mostly shows up in his efforts at romance, where he comes on much too strongly for the women he's trying to connect with and winds up pushing them away. His relationship with Lucy fell to pieces largely because he kept trying to push her to be more social and her anxiety was just too overwhelming to handle it. By contrast his relationship with Emily was the longest lasting one he had and with her he dialed back his usual excesses and was much calmer about their relationship. His overexcited behavior also caused some issues during Bernadette's first pregnancy as he kept trying to be part of everything with her and Howard and had a habit of overdoing it to help them.
• Foreign People Are Sexy: More cute than actually sexy...but Raj still tries to milk this for all it's worth.
• Flanderization: He started off just as nerdy as the rest, his primary quirk being so shy he couldn't speak in front of women and a few jokes around him being a Funny Foreigner. His shyness and the Homoerotic Subtext in his relationships with the guys (since he rarely talks to women) eventually grew into him being Ambiguously Gay with a lot of Innocent Innuendo and very rarely is there not a joke about him being the Token Minority.
• Formerly Fat: Subverted. In "The Mommy Observation", Raj narrates a sob story about being fat as a child. "I was 200 pounds (90,72 kilos) by the time I was in middle school. Kids were mean. Cows may be sacred there, but it doesn’t help if you look like one." Leonard then reveals that Raj is lying. He has seen pictures of Raj in his school years and knows his friend was never a fat kid. Raj then admits it, saying "No, I was svelte as a gazelle."
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Melancholic. He is the group's sensitive guy. He is also moody, goes through periods of depression, is insecure about his chances with women, and quirky to a fault.
• Fridge Logic: He tends to start these kinds of discussion In-Universe, regarding the guys' various comic book, sci-fi, and fantasy fandoms.
• Friendless Background: Ambiguous use. In "The Mommy Observation", Raj narrates a sob story about being fat and lonely as a child, entertaining himself through inventing his own stories and games. Promising to himself that if he ever gets any friends, he will play these games with them. The story was supposed to elicit sympathy and guilt for his friends to play murder mystery dinner with him. The fat part is immediately revealed to be a lie, but it is left unclear if he really was lonely in his younger years.
• Funny Foreigner: This trope is even name-dropped by Sheldon when describing everyone's respective roles.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Howard (though the "hetero" part is up for debate).
• Hidden Depths: He has some talent in make-ups and planning parties. If you want metrosexual stuff, go to him.
• Homoerotic Subtext: With Howard, they actually kiss once, not intentionally, though. He and Howard also indirectly kiss when they're testing some internet software... He is also enticed by Leonard's demonstration of confidence and as of Season 6, he's been getting these moments with Stuart. Season 12 makes the subtext more clear when Howard pulls a Race for Your Love at an airport to convince Raj to stay in Pasadena.
• Innocently Insensitive: At times, especially with Janine Davis after her husband left.
• Insecure Love Interest: With essentially all his love-interests. Especially in season 7, when he was dating Emily.
  Emily: That's kind of adorable.
  Raj: Are you, are you sure? Because this is the part of the night where I've said something stupid and the girl usually leaves.
  Emily: I'm still here.
  Raj: Yeah, but now you make me wonder what's wrong with you.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: He's a self-labeled 'Metro-sexual' and has most of his family and friends thinking he's gay. The fact that he's more feminine than the show's female characters doesn't help.
• In Vino Veritas: Can only talk to girls if drunk or medicated until the Season 6 finale when he finally is able to speak to Penny, Bernadette, and Amy while sober. He has no problems talking to his mom or sister (or Mrs. Wolowitz), though, thankfully.
• Jerk Justifications: In later seasons, he seems to be more bitter about being the only one of his friends still single. When Sheldon and Amy (the last unmarried couple of the group) get engaged, he goes to Stuart's comic book store to buy them an engagement present. After a few minutes, he shows his true bitter feelings by suddenly dismissing buying them a present (as the couple "found love") and asks Stuart what he has for someone "bitter and alone".
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He morphed into this in the later seasons due to his bitterness about being the only one without a girlfriend in his group and becoming more selfish as a result but he's still ultimately a good guy.
• Late to the Realization: He doesn’t realize that he’s been cured of selective mutism until a day later.
• Limited Wardrobe: Almost always wears a sweater-vest and switches off between a tan and blue jacket.
• Lovable Nerd: Like Leonard, though he becomes less lovable in later seasons due to his increasing bitter attitude about his near-dead love life.
• Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: Among his failed crushes and love interests we have: his best friend's girlfriend, the female computerized voice of his IPhone, a deaf girl who turns out to be a Gold Digger, a socially anxious girl who can barely talk to people, a Nightmare Fetishist, a Cuban cleaning lady, and more. He also tried to date Penny after they drunkenly hooked up, though they didn't actually have sex because he climaxed before they even started not realizing she still loves Leonard. After many years, all his friends are happily married and he's still the only one without a relationship. Stuart is not an exception; even he began dating his new co-worker.
• Money Dumb: Raj is cushioned from the realities of life in the USA - until his rich father withdraws the financial cushion that has been bankrolling him. Straight away Raj runs into serious trouble - maxed-out credit cards are only part of it - and his friends question all manner of extravagances and fripperies when they attempt to balance his budget.
• Nice Guy: More so in the beginning. See Took a Level in Jerkass.
• Non-Idle Rich: Raj's family apparently is very wealthy, but he still chooses to have a career. According to Sheldon, they are halfway between Bruce Wayne and Scrooge McDuck.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: "Raj" is his nickname and is used more often than his actual first name. Amy is the only one who calls him Rajesh.
• Out of Focus: He never completely disappears from the show but among the primary cast in the later seasons, he typically gets a couple of A Day in the Limelight episodes and not a whole lot else to do in between. This is more noticeable after Amy and Bernadette became more prominent, as they ended up taking time away from his interactions with Sheldon and Howard.
• Proud to Be a Geek: Like Howard, while aware of the social awkwardness it can cause, he seems quite content with their geekiness.
• Pungeon Master: Most of the Incredibly Lame Puns come from him.
• The Quiet One: His inability to talk to girls while sober aside, he is decidedly the one of the foursome who talks less - in many scenes, his participation consists basically of throwing a snarky comment here and there.
• Secretly Wealthy: Zig-Zagged. While he and Priya never hid the fact that they came from money, he managed to keep the fact that his parents have a fortune comparable to those of Bruce Wayne and Scrooge McDuck (Sheldon's wording) a complete secret from Leonard and Howard for at least a decade. Sheldon only knew because he notorized some paperwork for Raj and Dr. Koothrappali, Sr. a couple of times.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Sensitive Guy to Howard's Manly Man.
• Shrinking Violet: Around women.
• Spoiled Brat: Sometimes, though it's underplayed and when it is brought up it's usually Played for Laughs, such as when his father cut off Raj's allowance for spending a month's rent on a toy helicopter, and then Raj manipulated both of his parents for money.
• Stealth Pun: He's an astrophysicist who is obsessed with celebrities. So he's into stars, and stars.
• That Came Out Wrong: Raj is pretty much the poster boy for this.
  Raj: Oh, great! The first monster I see, I'm gonna sneak in behind him, whip out my wand, and blast my magic all over his ass!
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • In the earlier seasons, if any of the guys were going to get lucky when at a party, it would end up being him, the guy with the most trouble talking to girls. In the later seasons, as the others have become more successful, he has slowly spiraled into depression over how much more pronounced his issues are. Still, every so often, he does manage to get a girlfriend for a brief time and in the sixth season, he meets Lucy, who stuck around longer than most.
  • In the season 6 finale, Lucy dumps him in the most hurtful way possible. This comes with a miracle when this breakup causes Raj to overcome selective mutism.
• Throwing Off the Disability: After a rather heartbreaking experience in Season 6, Raj can finally talk to women without being drunk.
• Token Minority: He is the only Indian guy in the group, and the only one not white. He actually likes to play this up, hoping his exotic looks give him an edge.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Has started going down this direction. At the beginning of the series, he was actually one of the nicest ones in the group. But as of Season 4, has advocated for Howard and Bernadette to break up so he could get with her, to the point where he has a dream about Howard dying and him getting with Bernadette, and instead of congratulating them upon their engagement, he pitifully cries to himself. Then he supposedly sleeps with Penny and is unapologetic about any of it, even keeping it a secret that he and Penny did not actually have sex. Howard did say that Raj has always been obnoxious, but his inability to speak to women when sober prevented others from experiencing his jerk-ass tendencies as much. This is highlighted in the Season 7 opener, where after being cured of his mutism he still has problems with saying the completely wrong thing. In Season 9, he spends most of the show dating two women at the same time and bragging about it with his friends.
• Totally Radical: Tends to add "Dude" at the end of/beginning of sentences.
• Trekkie: Like his friends, he's a Star Trek fan.
• Twofer Token Minority: He's Indian and has selective mutism.
• The Voiceless: Whenever a woman is around. Generally results in them thinking he only speaks Hindi.
• Wham Episode: The Season 6 finale. Lucy dumps him and Penny goes to console him, discovering he is now cured of his mutism.
  Penny: That's the booze talking.
  Raj: No, it's not! I haven't had a drink since last night.
  

Amy Farrah Fowler

Amy Farrah Fowler, Ph.D.

"As my mom used to say, 'When you're doing a puzzle, it's like you've got a thousand friends'. She was full of fun lies like that."

Played by: Mayim Bialik

Voiced by: Gaby Ugarte (Latin-American Spanish dub, seasons 3-5), Jessica Ángeles (Latin-American Spanish dub, seasons 6-10), Cynthia Chong (Latin-American Spanish dub, seasons 10-12), Marta García (European Spanish dub, seasons 3-6), Isabel Fernández Avanthay (European Spanish dub, seasons 6-12)

"Aw, it's the alcohol and drug peer pressure my mother warned me about, I was beginning to think it was never going to happen. Yes, please!"

Sheldon's Distaff Counterpart, the group found her during a dating site prank they pulled on Sheldon. She grows attached to Penny and becomes both her best friend and Foil. As a result she formed a distaff relationship compared to Sheldon and Leonard. While she mirrored Sheldon in almost every aspect initially, over time she branched out through both her friendship with Penny and feeling a romantic attraction to Sheldon.

---

• Abhorrent Admirer: Not so in looks, but in behavior. She starts off as a subversion of this trope (only wanting to fake a relationship with Sheldon to placate her concerned mother), but then goes on to make unwanted advances at both Sheldon and Penny. Played for Laughs, naturally.
• Air Guitar: It might be unconscious, but when listening to harp music, Amy moves her fingers as if she's playing along.
• All Women Are Lustful: In clear contrast to the largely-asexual Sheldon, Amy has strong lustful urges. At first, she is portrayed as being like Sheldon and completely opposed to sexual contact (bluntly telling Sheldon on their first date that all physical contact is off the table). But, as her storyline goes on, she begins to open up to the idea of sex, find men (and women, i.e., Penny) attractive and is always the eager one for sexual intimacy during her relationship with Sheldon. Very eager. During her yearly birthday sex that Sheldon gifts her with, DO NOT mess with her special birthday present. Ever.
• Ambiguously Bi:
  • Though her interest in males has developed a bit since her initial appearance, she's very appreciative of Penny and fawns over her more than any other character seen in the show thus far. She's made a few sparse comments of the same type about Bernadette as well. For example, she gave Penny a very large painting of the two of them, and told her that it originally had the two of them nude but she had it changed as she didn't want it to "challenge their heterosexuality".
  • An alternative to this is more of a perpetual Stupid Sexy Flanders, she's straight but openly appreciates the attractiveness of her own gender.
  • One time, Amy mentions Penny has a better chance of getting with her than Leonard does.
• Attention Whore: ... would hardly begin to describe her.
  Amy: Today is not about you! Today is about Howard and Bernadette and me!
• Beta Couple: With Sheldon.
• The Bore: Initially an even worse case than Sheldon was, considering she has none of the same interests in entertainment as any of the group. After Character Development, she makes an effort to be less boring.
• Brainy Brunette: She's a neurobiologist, after all.
• Broken Bird: Unlike Sheldon, who is implied by family members to have always been as he is, there are hints that Amy had a very lonely and troubled childhood that resulted in her current character. One of the main foundations for her character is the fact she never had a single friend as a kid (even the anti-social Sheldon had at least one good friend as a kid) and wanted nothing more than such. In some ways, in adulthood, she is desperate to make up for the lack of friendship she craved as a kid and missed out on.
• Brutal Honesty: Amy is a firm practitioner of this.
• But I Would Really Enjoy It: Frequently invokes this whenever she tries to convince Sheldon to turn their relationship physical.
• Catchphrase: "Hi, bestie" to Penny.
• Celebrity Paradox: In an episode before her introduction, Raj referred to "that girl from Blossom being really smart." Evidently, Amy and her actor Mayim Bialik co-exist here.
• Character Development: She actually gets more development than any other character (except maybe Howard). When Amy was first introduced, she was emotionally repressed, The Stoic and basically a female Sheldon. Since she's become friends with Penny and Bernadette she's opened up socially and has become a far more friendly person who, unlike Sheldon, makes genuine efforts to get along with other people. Despite her improvements, in late Season 4 and Season 5 (and to a lesser extent, Season 6), Amy often comes off as blunt, desperate, eccentric, and even creepy (her pseudo-lesbian comments about Penny), and her desire to be normal and accepted sometimes made her an Attention Whore. However in the last few seasons her weirdness and annoying traits have become almost completely non-existent; she's now one of the most normal characters on the show, much Closer to Earth than Sheldon (who is still the weirdo of the group), well aware of her boyfriend's quirks, but still endlessly patient and willing to put up with him all because she does genuinely love him nonetheless.
• Characterization Marches On: Two-fold. Her first few episodes she was almost an exact, if female, copy of Sheldon, complete with having similar character tics and vocabulary. She eventually grew to be some combination of Casanova Wannabe and Shrinking Violet, one who was ecstatic to be friends with Penny, a cheerleader type. It's been explained as rapid character growth because of her friendship with Penny, but still causes a strange contrast with her earlier portrayal. In a second example, throughout Season 4 and nearly every episode of Season 5, she would make some sort of flirtatious remark in Penny's direction, with Penny switching off between being flattered and disturbed. It hasn't shown up since the start of Season 6.
• Chastity Couple:
  • With Sheldon, much to her dismay. Initially, they agreed there would be no physical relationship, but Amy soon developed into wanting one. While Sheldon has no interest in it (and doesn't recognize certain behavior, like helping her bathe and rubbing VapoRub on her chest is arousing to her), he has admitted that she has influenced him and he considers theirs a deeply intimate relationship, even if they aren't physical. She accepts this and decides to simply go at his own pace regarding physical intimacy.
  • As of "The Opening Night Excitation" in season 9, she and Sheldon finally enter a physical relationship after several years of no sexual intimacy. He decided to do so after they had briefly broken up, but got back together and he wanted to show how much he genuinely loves her. Needless to say, Amy is thrilled at this and can barely contain her glee. It's implied that their sex life is very satisfying to her; Sheldon innocently remarks during a conversation with the group how he and Amy take hours to finish having sex. At this, Amy silently but proudly grins to herself.
• Closer to Earth: While she's Sheldon's intellectual equal, she gloats less (though she's just as blunt), is more aware of social norms, and actually has some desire to be normal. She also doesn't seem to have any geeky interests like Sheldon. Except for the harp. And, in Season 4, she connected Penny to an EEG while she cries.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Later episodes have often her being this to her boyfriend Sheldon (especially when he's being unintentionally tactless and insensitive), and she plays this role more often than Leonard or Penny.
• Covert Pervert: Though she doesn't actually make any attempt to actually hide it, it's still pretty surprising whenever she not-so-subtly talks about her masturbatory habits. Subverted, however, with bananas. She eats them horizontally.
  Amy: My mother says that's how good girls eat them.
• Distaff Counterpart: Began as one to Sheldon, but her friendship with Penny and Bernadette has led to...
• Divergent Character Evolution: Was originally a female Sheldon, but grew out of it.
• Endearingly Dorky: When Stuart expressed an interest in Amy, his reasons for it was that she didn't look upon him "with ball-shriveling contempt." Basically saying that she was cute and not intimidating. Try watching her reaction to Sheldon giving her a Tiara without thinking she is anything but the most precious thing to ever live.
• Extreme Doormat: Said that she had promised herself, that if she had gotten friends she'd do whatever they said, and admits it's lucky for her the group found her before a cult did.
• First Kiss: Sheldon and Amy (mutually) kiss for the first time in "The Locomotive Manipulation" (Season 7, Episode 15) and both enjoy it. Technically, they kiss for the first time in season 4, but Amy is drunk at the time and did not remember it (or anything else that night) the next day. Sheldon offers to forget about it and that they can "start over" if she wanted. She agrees.
• Former Teen Rebel: Sort of inverted. She was not actually this when she was a teenager but clearly wants to be this in the present. Whenever one of the others take her along on legally dubious activities (like repainting Sheldon's parking spot) she seems to get a thrill over it.
• For Science!: Seems to really enjoy performing experiments on her friends.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: There are only three women in the ensemble, but she is the Phlegmatic. She is incredibly patient and accommodating in her dealings with Sheldon, a good listener, and rather shy and insecure.
• Friendless Background: She has a preoccupation with friendship activities, especially with Penny, because this is the first time in her life she's been able to experience anything of the sort.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: She was this at first in the group and in her trio with Penny and Bernadette. Upon meeting the guys, everyone (except Sheldon) strongly disliked her because she was still a female-Sheldon and insulted them. She gets better as she became more socially developed, but was still odd and made others uncomfortable. This also becomes a plot point in one episode when Amy gets upset when the girls go shopping without her (due to how she talked about tribal rituals that grossed them out and they wanted a day without such talk). She seems to mostly grow out of it as the three of them become better friends, and Amy even grew closer to Bernadette (even though she considers Penny her best friend). In a later episode, we actually find her and Bernadette ditching Penny so they can have more intellectual conversations together without her.
• Generic Cuteness: Played with. There is a stated attractiveness gap between her and someone like Penny or Bernadette. As is common with the homely trope She Cleans Up Nicely, but her default state is very unflattering clothes, hairstyles and even hygiene (her "perfume" is dandruff shampoo, and she has a stated dandruff problem). One of the most interesting things about her relationship with Sheldon is that it began as a pure Strange Minds Think Alike companionship where they appreciated someone else who thought the same way they did, and from that they became appreciative of each other's physical attributes even though it is not what is considered traditionally attractive. ^note Mayim Bialik brings this trope in this interview about "geek girls" with Kari Byron of MythBusters, mentioning that her "ethnic" looks made her less likely to have guys approach her compared to her more conventionally attractive friends.
• Give Geeks a Chance: An extremely Rare Female Example.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Amy has a passive-agressive jealous streak. She gets jealous of Bernadette and her friendship with Penny. Amy really wants to be considered Penny’s best friend over Bernadette.She might also be jealous of Bernadette’s personal life, including having a husband less complicated than Sheldon, her active sex life, and her two children. Even of Penny as she admitted this to Leonard due to Penny's strong bond with Sheldon.
• Harp of Femininity: She is seen owning one and often plays it for recreation or when she's sad.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Despite her mother initially being shown to be a pretty normal person concerned by her daughter's lack of a social and dating life, it was later revealed she was a very overbearing and conservative woman who refused to let Amy watch Grease out of fear it would convince her to join a gang and she would lock Amy in a closet when she misbehaved. Much like Leonard's issues with Beverly, this is only played for laughs.
• I Am Not Pretty: Averted, considering she's a traditional Hollywood Homely character. She knows what's attractive about her and can appreciate Penny's looks without being insecure or jealous.
• I Can Change My Beloved:
  • One of the reasons she puts up with Sheldon is because she believes she can change him into a more "normal" person, just like she herself changed. She even wrote a fanfiction about how she would wish it to go. Once Amy does eventually give up on changing Sheldon and believes he will never change, even for her. She breaks up with him as a result. Ironically, it is after the breakup that Sheldon finally opens up more emotionally and physically in order to get her back, bringing them back together with a much stronger resolve as a couple. A majority of fans and viewers also agree that Amy did manage to change Sheldon for the better... even if took a very long time. Later on in their relationship, Bernadette comments on the complexity of an experiment Amy and Sheldon were working on. Amy responds with, "Well, I turned this one (points to Sheldon) into a functioning boyfriend - so the sky's the limit!"
  • Played a bit more comically in season 12 when Amy tricks Sheldon into wanting children with her after he expressed that he didn't want any. Raj picks up on her tactics and points out how she is trying to get Sheldon to change his mind about having kids. He implies she can't do it, given Sheldon's stubborn nature. Amy deadpans that she got Sheldon, a germaphobe who was terrified of intimate relationships, into having sex with her and marry her. She remarks if he really wants to doubt her abilities now. Raj nods in agreement at this. At the end of the episode, Amy's plan works and Sheldon is suddenly interested in having children. Amy subtly smirks to herself in pride at her successful plan.
  • Her influence over Sheldon is more seriously shown in the series finale. Sheldon holds a very selfish and insensitive attitude towards the group during his Nobel Peace award. His attitude is a serious Took a Level in Jerkass and everyone is on the verge of leaving altogether because of it. He refuses to acknowledge his fault in it, causing Amy to finally snap and tell him off. She brutally yet honestly tells him how he drove their friends away because of his attitude and always does this to them. He says he doesn't mean to do so, to which she answers that they all know that and it's the only reason they've put up with him for years. He asks if this includes her. She sadly yet truthfully admits yes, sometimes, which stuns him. It is only after this moment that Sheldon finally has a Jerkass Realization, apologizes to everyone for his behavior and makes amends with the group. Amy is in near tears at his sudden display of character growth.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Introduced as a Last Episode, New Character in season 3 and has become part of the core cast since season 4.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: She craves companionship and friends because she was very lonely in her childhood, teenage years and young adulthood until she met Sheldon and his social group. She's willing to do many things to make Penny, a cheerleader type, her particular friend.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Amy demonstrates this in "The Weekend Vortex" during a drinking/coin toss game with Penny. Penny is shocked at how skilled Amy is, leading her to explain that she spent a lot of time throwing coins into wishing wells during her childhood, wishing for friends.
  Amy: At a certain point, you start doing trick shots just to keep things interesting.
• Innocently Insensitive: Told Bernadette during wedding dress shopping that she's beautiful but still not as beautiful as Penny.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • In "The Locomotive Manipulation", Sheldon suggests several pet names for her. They are all rather insulting: Gollum, "Flaky", "Princess Corncob", and "Fester". Amy finds all of them unacceptable.
  • In "The Spoiler Alert Segmentation", Penny calls her "Ames".
• Insufferable Genius: In the early seasons, she was a toned-down version of Sheldon, and thus wouldn't hesitate to tell you the brutal details of how the universe or neurobiology worked. As of the sixth season, though, her insufferability has nearly vanished, especially in her almost... normal boyfriend-girlfriend complaints with Sheldon.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: Unlike Sheldon, she went unwillingly through this; hence, her craving for social interactions in general, especially with other women.
• It's All About Me: Shows tendencies at times. Her speech at Howard and Bernadette's wedding:
  Amy: Bernadette, I want to thank you for allowing me to be your maid of honor. I also want you to know, that I will be happy to do it again if this marriage craps out.
  Leonard: Thank you, Amy. Very touching.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She genuinely doesn't seem to realize how rude she can be (especially to Penny), but when she thinks Penny's depressed she rushes to cheer her up. Or she's thrilled about being a bridesmaid in Howard and Bernadette's wedding. When they decide to get married at the courthouse before he gets into space, she wears her bridesmaid dress and tiara and angrily stops the others from fighting.
• Last Episode, New Character: In Season 3. Notable in that it was a very brief appearance and all we knew of her was her name and the fact she was almost identical to Sheldon. Nothing was known of whether she was a scientist like the others, and by the following season, Mayim expressed amusement that they matched their degrees.
• Limited Wardrobe: Although her sense of fashion has changed extensively via contact with Penny, she is typically seen in very old-fashioned sweaters and skirts. Penny once remarks on how the most scandalous outfit Amy will wear involves merely showing off her ankles. Amy once admitted that her entire outfit once belonged to her grandmother. In the season 12 finale, she sees a picture publically taken of her and is distraught at her plain appearance. Raj convinces her that if she is unsatisfied with her looks, then to change it. She buys herself a whole new wardrobe and updated fashion style.
• Meta Casting: Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler, a neurobiologist, is played by Dr. Mayim Bialik, a neurobiologist and a child star on Blossom.
• Mother Nature, Father Science: She forms a classic scientific duo with Sheldon with her in Biology (nature) and Sheldon in Physics (hard science).
• No Social Skills: Zigzagged. Amy has no natural social skills and comes off as awkward and weird at times, which socially turns off Penny and Bernadette at times. But, as a neurobiologist, she is fascinated with societal behavior and knows a large portion of them. However, it's all book knowledge, and she's both poor at application, and there are rather big holes in her knowledge.
• Not So Above It All: She initially presents herself as a female Sheldon, with a monotone voice and a tendency to ignore social conventions. She can often keep up with Sheldon’s odd tendencies. However Penny and Bernadette find out she’s actually just socially awkward with a willingness to open up to others and an eagerness to make friends.
• Odd Friendship: With Penny. If the setting was in a school, Penny would be the popular attractive girl and Amy would be the loser nerd.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: In Season 4.
• Punny Name: Her name is a play on "Fair or Foul" but has never been called out inverse.
• Queer People Are Funny: She's the go-to girl for when the gay jokes turn lesbian, in Season 5 she would make a remark towards Penny Once an Episode. This was almost eliminated outright in Season 6. However, it made a resurgence in Season 8.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: She typically wears rather dowdy clothing with a long skirt and shapeless sweaters (along with Mayim Bialik's self-described "ethnic" looks), but in part, due to Penny's influence she sometimes manages to dress up for special occasions and catch others off-guard with how well she turns out. Fans also noticed how attractive she became in the Nurse Chapel costume while "Playing Doctor" with Sheldon Star Trek-style. She also wasn't bad looking as Snow White either when the girls hit Disneyland. When she goes wedding dress shopping, she looks absolutely beautiful in the first couple dresses she tries on. Penny and Bernadette are both stunned by how great she looks. In the finale, on Raj's suggestion, she decides to use some of her Nobel prize money to treat herself to a haircut, new glasses, and a flattering wardrobe, and the effect is jaw-dropping. You can actually hear members of the studio audience gasping at beautiful Amy actually is once she finally cleans herself up.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Two-fold, her kindred relationship with Sheldon makes her the only person he has even been remotely attractive to romantically (he has otherwise enjoyed attention from others, but in an It's All About Me sort of way). She has also shown a lot of uncomfortable interest in Penny, while not really demonstrating interest in women as a whole.
• Sixth Ranger: She joined the group in Season 4 and becomes part of the regular cast.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Like Bernadette and Leonard she wears glasses. She is also highly intelligent.
• The Stoic: At first. She gets better after a while.
• Too Kinky to Torture: At one point, she gets sick, and Sheldon is induced to come and take care of her as per their Relationship Agreement. She enjoys his solicitous behavior so much that she starts faking her illness to keep him around and continue giving her physical affection (such as rubbing Vapo Rub on her chest or bathing her). Once he finds out, he decides that his only recourse is to take her over his knee and spank her (remembering that was a punishment kids suffered in his family for getting into trouble). She pretends to be disappointed at this, but can barely hide her glee and involuntarily expresses excitement as he spanks her. He remarks she isn't supposed to enjoy it, so she suggests he spank her harder.
• Took a Level in Badass: Starts becoming more mature and as Penny put it, her life has improved since she first befriended the group. She starts asking more of Sheldon in their relationship and even decided to temporarily separate from Sheldon after he's been selfish far too many times.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Starts out as rude to the whole gang like Sheldon, but when she becomes friends with Penny and Bernadette and starts having more of a social life, she becomes kinder and more mature, stars becoming unlike Sheldon and also becomes good friends with Leonard, Howard and Raj.
• TV Genius: Being a Distaff Counterpart to Sheldon (more evident in her early appearances).
• What Does She See in Him?: Downplayed. The obvious inferral is that Amy's major reason for being attracted to Sheldon is because he's so socially inept that he doesn't even notice her own social clumsiness. Still, compared side by side, Amy is the far more likable and normal individual, whereas Sheldon is The Friend Nobody Likes. She's even lampshaded it during the season 5 episode "The Spoiler-Alert Segmentation", proclaiming that his personality quirks that others find "abhorrent and rage-inducing", she finds to be "cute as a button". Subverted when, after Sheldon finally pushes her too far with his selfishness, she actually does call him out, and even temporarily breaks up with him. This sudden action makes Sheldon start to change his ways to get her back, which works and the two become a much stronger and stable couple.
• Womanchild: Amy shows on several occasions a level of immaturity, though not as much as her boyfriend. However, unlike most examples, she's closer to a teenager than a child. She treats her friendship with Penny and Bernadette as if she's in the cool girl clique at high school, has a very teenage attitude towards sex and relationships, tries on several occasions to act cool (like a teenager from the 1990s) and reacts to attention other girls don't want positively. A lot of this stems from simple isolation and never having the teenage social experience she dreamed of as a kid.
• Women Are Wiser: From season 6 onwards, she's much more level-headed and mature than Sheldon, to the point that she eventually becomes his Cloudcuckoolander's Minder (as well as The Conscience), partially replacing Penny and Leonard in that role.

Bernadette Rostenkowski

Bernadette Mary-Anne Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, Ph.D.

Played by: Melissa Rauch

Voiced by: Gwendolyn Flores (Latin-American Spanish dub), Cristina Yuste (European Spanish dub)

"I remember the first time I looked through a microscope and saw millions of tiny micro-organisms. It was like a whole other universe. And if I wanted to I could wipe it out with my thumb like a god!"

Howard's miniature-sized romantic interest. A microbiologist, she is often the voice of reason and by far the gentlest character of the show. In a contrast to the other scientists of the show, she doesn't have much difficulty in navigating a successful social life. Despite being sweet and bubbly, she can and has gotten angry enough to scare the others. She started out as a friend of Penny who also worked at the Cheesecake Factory to pay for her schooling, she later graduated with her doctorate and is working a very lucrative job for a pharmaceutical company.

---

• Bad Liar: Never, ever get Bernadette to lie. It will go very badly indeed. For tropes involved see: Suspiciously Specific Denial, Hurricane of Excuses, Acting Unnatural, and Invention Pretension indeed.
• Beta Couple: With Howard. Their relationship is actually a bit more of a roller coaster than most examples, as they had broken up for some six months between the third and fourth seasons and every other episode of the fifth season was introducing a new relationship hurdle they had to get through. Although them getting through the tough parts showed how good they are for each other, leading up to their marriage.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Despite being possibly the nicest character on the show, she has a real temper when angry. Her line of work is also extremely morally sketchy — she makes bioweapons for God's sake! Her vicious side comes out in full in "The Parking Lot Escalation" with an argument between Howard and Sheldon spilling over between her and Amy. She will go from demure to outright venomous in a second.
  Bernadette: I'm the one who had your car towed!
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: More and more after each season.
  Penny: Damn, you're sneaky.
  Bernadette: Yeah, but I'm little, so it's adorable.
  • Amy lampshades this in the final season:
  Amy: [imitating Bernadette's voice] I'm being unnecessarily hurtful but with a sweet voice.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: She is fairly well endowed, and this was mentioned in the show.
  Howard's Mom: [regarding a custom made vest] She has a tricky figure, she's short and stacked like me!
• The Bus Came Back: She returned in "The Hot Troll Deviation" and got back together with Howard.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • One of her defining traits in her introductory episode is that she didn't really get any of the jokes the others would share, and behaved a little bit like Sheldon. Her second episode was similar (In response to Howard seriously proposing to her "Is this one of those jokes I don't understand?"). In her third episode she admitted to laughing just because it made Howard smile, while still not getting them (though she would try to explain some jokes to the others). Since then it's never reappeared. She admits in a Season 4 episode that this was a front to protect Howard's manhood and disguise her real intelligence.
  • Mid-Season 4, her personality started to evolve to what she is best known for, a sweetheart with an undeniable vicious side. A Season 7 episode lampshades it, after a minor subplot with her mistaking a "Get Well Soon" card for a co-worker in the hospital for a Retirement card ("Good luck with wherever you end up"), she expresses some relief that the co-worker is in no shape to actually read it. Howard, bemused, asks if she was like that before they got married.
  • In her first episode, she mentions her mother behaves similar to Howards's Mom, with overprotectiveness, establishing a Birds of a Feather scenario with Howards. This fact is never brought again. This can be contributed to the fact that Bernadette's mom has only appeared once and is a Satellite Character at best.
• Child Hater: It stems back to when she was forced to take care of her younger siblings because her mother worked full time. This caused problems for Howard, who always dreamed of becoming a father.
• Child-Like Voice: Bernadette, who has a PhD in microbiology and works for a big pharmaceutical company, has a high, squeaky voice. It fits her short stature and perky demeanor, but also contrasts with the bossy, domineering personality she later develops.
• Competition Freak: More pronounced in the latter seasons.
  • During Raj's scavenger hunt, she is merciless, berating Leonard for moving slowly (despite the fact that he has asthma and running quickly could potentially trigger an asthma attack), and was willing to run over pedestrians so that she could win.
  • In the twelfth-season episode "The Citation Negation", she asks Denise (Stuart's comic book store assistant) to teach her how to play Fortnite after her initial failure at it. After her failed attempt at one-upping Howard (which she reacts by reminding Howard that she makes more money than he does) despite the aforementioned tutorial with Denise, she gets vindication by playing against Penny instead.
• Covert Pervert: Don't let her cuteness fool you. She is not above putting on schoolgirl and Disney Princess outfits to turn on Howard. It was lampshaded early on, she and Howard broke up offscreen in the third season and when she reappears in the fourth she confesses that she was frustrated that Howard never put the moves on her. Howard was flustered, as he was trying to be a gentleman and didn't realize she was ready.
• Cute and Psycho: She is usually sweet, demure, innocent, even a bit of a woman child at times, but she has a very short fuse and is extremely impatient and will go off on someone over seemingly small things and is quick to give Howard ultimatums if he has a dilemma that involves her. She also almost never stops smiling. And it's always the exact same toothy smile, even when she casually mentions the potentially weaponizeable biological specimens she's working with, or threatening someone with grievous bodily harm.
• Cute, but Cacophonic: When she gets angry she yells a lot, at which can match Howard's mother.
• Cuteness Proximity: Loses it with recreating prom and when it comes to Disneyland and dressing as Cinderella.
• The Cutie: She's cute, small, sweet and her high-pitched voice is adorable.
• Daddy's Girl: Her father appears to have a soft spot for her, calling her his "little girl".
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Played with, her father barely hides his contempt for Howard as a person but has expressed some admiration for Howard's accomplishments.
• Deadpan Snarker: More so after she Took a Level in Jerkass, but she has a surprisingly snarky streak even in the early days, that just gets more pronounced over the years.
• Ditzy Genius: Her original characterization in Season 3 and early Season 4. She's introduced as a microbiologist with an interest in physics as well (every bit Howard's intellectual equal) but also rather ditzy, seemingly oblivious, and unable to understand Howard's jokes. However the ditzy aspect of her personality was dropped and was replaced by her aggressive nature and Tsundere traits.
• The Dreaded: She's widely feared by the people in her workplace, which includes her boss.
• Flanderization: In early seasons, the writers occasionally would have her say something uncharacteristically mean or violent. The joke was that because she was normally so sweet, seeing her act that way was funny (in a Beware the Nice Ones way). As the show went on, these outbursts become more and more common, and the Bernadette of later seasons is a very short-tempered and competitive person.
• Freudian Excuse: In "The Imitation Perturbation", she reveals that she has been picked on by the other kids for her short height and squeaky voice during her childhood.
  Bernadette: She called me out for being mean? Well, I've had to be mean. It's hard to be taken seriously when you're always the smallest person in the room.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: There are only three women in the ensemble, but she is the Sanguine. Typically friendly and cheerful, compassionate when her friends have problems, forgiving of Howard's flaws and indiscretions, and personally charming.
• Fun Size: Bernadette is the sweetest, cutest member of the gang. At 4' 11" (1.50 m), she's also the shortest. She needs a stepping stool just to see through her peephole.
  Bernadette: I've never seen you wear this dress, it's adorable!
  Penny: That's because on me, it's a shirt.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Her short-tempered and aggressive nature becomes a Running Gag in later seasons.
• Heel Realization: In an interesting subversion of The Unfair Sex, she was unsettled when Howard announced his chance to go to outer space because he didn't discuss it with her first. Howard apologized and tried to backtrack with a formal couple discussion on the matter, and she flatly stated he wasn't going and dragged his mother into the argument. It was only after talking with Amy and Penny did she realize that she was in the wrong. Quoth Amy, "We're not here to judge. We're just here to be supportive until you realize what a despicable thing you've done."
• Height Angst: Like Leonard, she is annoyed by how short she is (4'10"-5'0"). She sometimes blames her mother for smoking during her pregnancy with her and laments she's too short for most amusement park rides and some grade school children are taller than her.
• Hidden Depths: Normally polite, sweet, and kind. This does not translate to being soft or a pushover. When the girls cosplay as princesses, however, her demeanor changes... "I'm driving the car, it was my idea, I'm gonna be Cinderella. You bitches got a problem with that, we can stop the car right now!"
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl:
  • Within the core group, Bernadette is the shortest while Sheldon is the tallest.
  • Her ex-boyfriend Glenn, played by 6'7" (2.01 m), former basketball player Rick Fox.
• Hypocrite: She and Howard hit a rough spot in their relationship before getting married due to Bernadette not wanting to have kids. Years later, she tells Penny it is crazy she doesn't want kids, saying "you only think you don't want kids, but once you have kids, you'll realize that you did want them". In the same scene though she states she is allowed to say her kids "ruin everything".
• Hypocritical Humor: She sometimes calls Howard short or small.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Introduced as a recurring character in season 3 and has become part of the core cast since season 4.
• The Ingenue: She's rather oblivious to Howard's double entendres at first. Subverted because she later mentions that she puts on this facade to make Howard feel more secure in his own intelligence.
• In-Series Nickname: Her former college professor and boyfriend Glenn calls her "Bernie". Howard heard the nickname from Glenn and took up using it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She is an odd combination of this and Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. While she has a bad temper and can be pretty nasty, she has a nicer side as well.
• Lady And A Scholar: Pre-flanderization Bernadette is a microbiologist who is also genuinely friendly and polite. She's never socially inept like the other scientists of the show.
• Limited Wardrobe: She typically likes flower-print skirts and button-up sweaters.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The Light to Penny's Dark. Penny is the more seductive of the two, more sexually experienced, and has a more noticeable temper. Bernadette is less overtly flirtatious, has a more stable love life, and she is slower to anger. (Though Bernadette can be more intimidating as seen in Season 8). They are close friends.
• Mad Scientist: Some of her work in microbiology seems to veer into this territory, if she wasn't joking!
• Magical Girlfriend: Howard seems to see her as one. He actually was a geeky loser, and terribly unlucky at love before meeting her. Then she entered his life. She is beautiful, sweet, and devoted to him. Although she is not extraordinary, other than her Mad Scientist tendencies.
• Maternally Challenged: Played with. Her mother ran a day care, in addition to being the eldest Bernadette ended up having to take care of a lot of kids growing up. That means she is actually extremely skilled at dealing with children, including Sheldon, but got burned out having to deal with children for so long. So even though she has the skills she rarely has the patience. She was initially not even interested in having kids of her own, but gradually came around to it because of Howard.
• The "Mom" Voice: Bernadette shows a propensity for doing the "Mom" Voice when she's dealing with Sheldon after he's refused to sleep and she chastises him as she would a five year old child and orders him to bed. She also has an uncanny ability to imitate Howard's actual mother's voice when pushed.
• Ms. Fanservice: She wears normal clothes to work, but in later seasons she wears a lot of fan-servicey clothes at home.
• The Napoleon: Short and mean as a junkyard dog, which she later revealed was a defense mechanism due to the bullying she received for her height.
• Noodle Incident:
  • She and her fellow microbiologists apparently crossed the Ebola virus with the common cold. Not that they'd ever admit it. "That would be a terrible, terrible thing!"
  • In another incident:
    Bernadette: So Amy, what are you gonna be working on at Cal Tech?
    Amy: I'm leading a study to see if deficiency of the monoamine oxidase enzyme leads to paralyzing fear in monkeys.
    Bernadette: Well, if they're anything like humans, the answer's yes.
    Amy: Wait, you've... you've done this experiment on humans?
    Bernadette: You mean like death row inmates with nothing to lose? No, that would be unethical.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: In early seasons, she admits to doing this around Howard at times, to make him feel smart.
• Older Than They Look: Bernadette is in her thirties, but her short stature and high pitched voice gets her mistaken for an adolescent. A child of a co-worker even calls her a "mean kid with big boobies".
  "Look at me, listen to me. The first thought when you see me isn't 'That's a scientist' it's 'I wonder if her mommy knows where she is.'"
• Out of Focus: In season 11, she gets very little to do in most episodes after she is put on bed rest. Deliberate because it is Melissa Rauch's actual pregnancy.
• Overly Long Name: After her marriage, she is, officially, Bernadette Marianne Rostenkowski-Wolowitz. Penny jokes that she should claim the website of that name before someone else does, only for Bernadette to reveal that Howard already has.
• Parenting the Husband: To Howard, who is still a Manchild Momma's Boy.
  Bernadette: Why are you being a baby?
  Howard: I'm not a baby. I'm a grown man, and I made the bed. Now where's my star?
• Perpetual Smiler: Bernadette is always smiling. And it's the always same smile, (see her picture above) whether she's enjoying time with her friends or saying some incredibly creepy and threatening things. Seriously, she wears the same damn smile when offhandedly commenting on her lab crossing Ebola with the common cold. And denying having done so a second later. Not to mention the conversation she has with Howard about how to talk to her father.
• Pink Means Feminine: She is seen wearing pink outfits in several episodes.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: In Season 4.
• Put on a Bus: In "The Plimpton Stimulation". Offscreen, no less.
• Really Gets Around: When she was in college.
  Bernadette: Okay, if it's not Michael, then what do you want to name him (the baby)?
  Howard: Harry, like Potter or Houdini.
  Bernadette: It doesn't bother you that I have an old boyfriend named Harry?
  Howard: Okay. How 'bout Al or Max or Ted or Kevin?
  Bernadette: Same answer.
• Shiksa Goddess: The Shiksa Goddess to Howard. She fits the type by being blonde and blue-eyed. They initially connect over freaking out their families. Bernadette, being Catholic, is thrilled at the prospect of freaking out her parents. Their relationship has since moved beyond that joke.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: More apparent in her earlier appearances as her sweetness and affection towards Howard is what tempered his lecherous behavior. She would often describe him in an affectionate way that oddly enough just reinforced What Does She See in Him?, like calling him a "Jewish Greyhound." It ends up being discussed late Season 10 that whenever one of them are in between projects they tend to focus more time and affection on the other, the big example was Howard tracking her down at a park, giving her a big hug and a lot of sloppy kisses.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Despite her height, her apparent meekness and her mannerly behavior, she's among the rare characters able to make Sheldon shut up and abide. She can even handle Howard's mother, which is NO easy feat.
• Sixth Ranger: Is introduced in Season 3, and joins the main cast in Season 4.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: She's got a Ph.D in microbiology and wears glasses.
• Smarter Than You Look: People tend to forget she is a microbiologist due to her personality. She once said she either wanted to be a microbiologist, physicist, or an ice dancer.
• Stalking Is Funny if It Is Female After Male: Bernie, who has spying equipment on the car from her times walking in behind her boyfriends, is a believer on this trope, and lampshades it in "The Mistery Date Observation":
  Penny: We should have brought binoculars.
  [Bernadette crossly produces a pair of binoculars]
  Bernadette: Right here.
  [Penny takes the binoculars off Bernadette]
  Leonard: We just happen to have those in the car?
  Bernadette: Kinda. Before I met Howie, I liked to keep close tabs on my boyfriends.
  Leonard: By stalking them?
  Bernadette: [she is not amused] No. Stalkers are creepy. I'm just a harmless little girl with military-grade spy equipment.
• Teacher/Student Romance: She dated one of her college professors, Glenn, for a year.
• Team Mom: She and Penny take turns on this. She can even handle Sheldon.
• Tiny Tyrannical Girl: She's under 5 ft but still scares the bejesus of her friends, husband, and co-workers (this includes her boss).
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Girly Girl to Penny's Tomboy. Bernadette loves to dress as a Disney Princess, dresses in florals and skirts, and gets excited about her prom do-over. She makes Penny look butch.
  • Bernadette (girly) and Emily Sweeney (tomboy). Emily has a morbid sense of humour. In fact that she became a dermatologist because it's a line of work where she's allowed to cut people. Needless to say, Bernadette was a little creeped out when Emily shared this with her.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Seems to get more and more pronounced each season. Most of this is belittling Howard. Season 8 especially. Penny only nabs the sales rep job because the hiring manager was too afraid of her to say No to Penny. A later episode revealed she once called said hiring manager's 7-year-old grandson a wuss at a company picnic. Another episode of said season paints her as the mean girl of the group.
• Tsundere: Type B. She's usually a sweetheart, but when she gets angry... Due to Flanderization, she becomes more of a type A in later seasons, especially to Howard.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Let's face it. Bernadette is way out of Howard's league—Howard, while not ugly, is a perverted, creepy loser, in sharp contrast to Nice Girl Bernadette, who is also much more fashionable than him. This is often lampshaded by Penny, who wonders what Bernadette sees in Howard.
• Vocal Evolution: Bernadette's voice was always pitched higher than Melissa Rauch's natural voice. Her initial voice is much less "squeaky" than her later voice (although that also varies depending on the episode).
• What Does She See in Him?: Sometimes invoked by Penny when it comes to her relationship with Howard. The funny part was that Penny herself set them up and was dumbfounded that it worked out as well as it did.
• What the Hell, Hero?: To Raj when Leonard reveals to Howard that Raj used to have a thing for her. Of course, she also calls him a "Cutie Pie" after she's done chewing him out.

---