Sheldon's Explanation For His Lack Of A Texas Accent Doesn't Hold Water In Real Life

Stereotypes are generally not true or healthy. They can be annoying and hurtful at the best of times. In a thread in the r/AskReddit subreddit, u/luckytopher asked what non-Texans think of Texans and u/Drmonkeydonkey made a really good point about the different cultures in Texas. "The sheer size of Texas alone precludes anyone from making any kind of generalizations about its entire population. Case in point: Talk to a Southern Texan about a Pan handler or a guy from DFW. Need further evidence? Compare East and West Texans." It's true that any large area is likely to have multiple cultures, and painting all of Texas with one brush is lazy at best, and damaging at its worst.

In the pilot episode of "Young Sheldon," after Sheldon's older brother Geogie complains about not getting tater tots for dinner in his rich southern accent, the voice of the narrator, adult Sheldon, tells the audience, "It was family dinners like this that led me to adopt a mid-Atlantic accent. Nobel prize winners 'ought not be ordering tater tots," saying the last few words in a mockingly thick Texas accent. The implication, of course, is that Sheldon doesn't wish to be viewed as a Texan because of the perception that Texans aren't particularly smart. Obviously, that's another such generalization that isn't fair across an entire state or region. Certainly there are lots of different types of people who come from Texas, and to suggest that one couldn't be a Nobel Prize winner, well there's a fundamental flaw with that.

According to an article in the Fort-Worth Star Telegram, there have been 18 Nobel Prize winners to have been teaching in the Lone Star State at the time that they won their award. But out of those 18, at least one can call himself a Texas native. According to the Nobel Prize website, the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to James P. Allison, who was born in Alice, Texas. Allison won his award in conjunction with Tasuku Honjo for establishing a new form of cancer therapy which stimulates the body's immune system to attack cancerous cells, pushing past a natural break on the immune system. "I never dreamed my research would take the direction it has," Allison said in an article for The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. "It's a great, emotional privilege to meet cancer patients who've been successfully treated with immune checkpoint blockade. They are living proof of the power of basic science, of following our urge to learn and to understand how things work."

Even within the "Big Bang Theory" and "Young Sheldon" universe, Texans can win Nobel Prizes, as "The Big Bang Theory" did end with Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik) and Sheldon winning the Nobel Prize for their work on the theory of asymmetry. Furthermore, Jim Parsons is a Texas native as well (per Biography), so it's a little strange that his character is so dismissive of Texas accents in the pilot episode.