The Big Bang Theory has a permanent place in pop culture history as one of the most popular sitcoms ever created. And it’s not hard to see why: the cast is fun, the stories are light, and the jokes are frequent. Ironically enough for stories about insanely smart characters, this might be the perfect show to throw on when you want to turn your brain off.
Of course, if your brain is off, you might miss some of the strangest mistakes in this show. We’re not talking about little mistakes, either, but the kind that make you wonder if the producers were even paying attention.
Don’t believe it? Keep reading to discover the biggest mistakes in The Big Bang Theory!
Penny’s father secretly changed his name?
He doesn’t appear that often, but Penny’s father cast a long shadow over the show. He is a reminder of his daughter’s past and also serves as a very macho counterpart to Leonard, Penny’s exceedingly geeky love. However, one question we still have about this character is what his real name is!
In the season 2 episode “The Maternal Capacitance,” Penny refers to her dad as “Bob.” Throughout the rest of the show, though, he is referred to as “Wyatt” instead. This change is never addressed, and because Bob is not a nickname of Wyatt, we’re still not sure what this character’s real name is.
Acclaimed scientist doesn’t understand drugs
Early on in The Big Bang Theory, Leslie Winkle was another contender for Leonard’s affection. Unlike Penny, she is a brilliant fellow scientist, and she shows off her big brain while propositioning Leonard. When he hesitates to hop in the sack, Leslie wonders if he has feelings for Penny. Perhaps encouraging Leonard to make a movie, Leslie describes having seen Penny with dilated eyes, a condition that she thinks could be explained by either sexual attraction or heroin addiction.
It’s a cute line in the show’s breezy humor tradition, but it makes no sense. You see, heroin actually causes pupils to get smaller rather than bigger. Therefore, a line meant to showcase how smart Leslie is actually underscores how little she really knows.
Sheldon doesn’t know Superman?
One of the main things about Sheldon’s character is that he has a deep love for superheroes, specifically Superman. He also has an Eidetic memory that helps him remember just about everything. However, after he described how Superman saved Lois Lane from falling in the first Superman movie, we had to question both Sheldon’s memory and his superhero film knowledge.
Sheldon claims Superman swoops down to save Lois, but he actually flies up from the ground. The resident genius also claims the hero saves the damsel in distress when she is only two feet off the ground when she is, in fact, much higher in the air. This may sound nitpicky on our part, but multiple mistakes about such an iconic scene are enough to make us question how much of an expert Sheldon really is!
Sheldon’s weird spelling mistake
You might be willing to give Sheldon a pass when it comes to getting details about Superman wrong. However, what if this genius character were to make the kind of mistake that would embarrass a failing middle schooler? We’re sad to inform you that this is exactly what happened in the episode “The Cruciferous Vegetable Amplification.”
In this episode, Sheldon has a bunch of equations scribbled on a whiteboard as he frantically tries to determine if he’ll be alive long enough to experience the singularity. Look closely at the board and you’ll see that Sheldon somehow misspelled “fusion” by including the letter “H.” Look, Sheldon, we know you’re worried about dying, but this is a pretty embarrassing mistake!
Other scientists make spelling mistakes, too
Normally, Sheldon takes pride in being much smarter and more accomplished than his closest friends. He seems particularly disdainful of Howard, someone he sees as “just” an engineer. For that reason, we think he’d likely hate to know that he and Howard share something in common: an inability to spell simple words.
In “The Hawking Excitation,” audiences are meant to focus on Sheldon’s frantic attempts to win over Howard so he can be introduced to famous scientist Stephen Hawking. Look past that, though, and you’ll notice that the door to Howard’s lab has a sign advertising a “resticted area.” It’s another embarrassing spelling mistake that makes us wonder if any of these nerds can spell!
Why does Sheldon lie about being able to dance?
Across both The Big Bang Theory and the Young Sheldon show, we learn quite a few details about Sheldon’s life. So many details, in fact, that it can be hard to keep up with them all. And when it comes to certain details, it seems like even the writers had trouble keeping track!
For example, in “The Gothowitz Deviation,” Sheldon insists that he doesn’t dance, full stop. However, in the next season and beyond, he is both willing and able to dance. Unless he just picked up a ton of moves between seasons, this looks like inconsistent writing.