Hidden Things You Missed In The Big Bang Theory

Not only is The Big Bang Theory one of TV's most popular shows, it's also full of fun easter eggs and tidbits for the fans to discover. The main characters on the show are all geniuses who happen to also be giant geeks, and the show's producers have really embraced nerd culture. There are constant references to comics and science fiction thrown into show. Some of these are obvious, but others are a little harder to notice.

Sheldon pretty much always wears solid colored T-shirts, usually with some sort comic or science fiction logo in the middle. The most common shirt that he wears is a red Flash shirt, although he's often seen wearing orange, green, yellow, and blue. While it makes sense that Sheldon would have a fairly simple fashion sense, there's actually a deeper meaning to his outfits. In the Green Lantern comics, each color corresponds with a mood or emotion. Green is courage, yellow is fear, blue is hope and red is anger. The viewer can usually tell what sort of mood Sheldon is in based on the color of shirt he's wearing. Which explains why the red shirt is the most common shirt, because he's often upset with having to deal with the less intelligent people he's surrounded by.

Speaking of clothes, the main nerds on the show always wear pretty much the same outfit. It's not uncommon for TV characters to have a fairly predictable variety of outfits, but this show takes this to a whole new level. Sheldon, as previously stated, wears a T-shirt over a long sleeve shirt. Leonard wears his hoodie, and Raj really seems to love the collared shirt under a sweater look. Howard constantly wears a turtleneck or dickie underneath his shirt. Amy, being more of a nerd than the other girls, also pretty much always wears a sweater and skirt, although she does mix things up more often than the guys. This is very similar to cartoons, where animators always draw the characters wearing the same clothes, every single day. This could be an homage to that. Or just laziness from the wardrobe department.

Wil Wheaton has a recurring role on the show, where he plays a fictionalized version of himself. He has several run-ins with Sheldon, who used to idolize him but then grew to hate him. In one episode, after Wheaton was rude to Amy, Sheldon accidentally gets drunk and shows up Wheaton's house to fight him. If you look closely, you can see that Wheaton's house number is 1701, which a reference to the serial number of the USS Enterprise on Star Trek. Wheaton became famous for playing ensign Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, of course. In the same episode, Sheldon visits Amy's apartment, which is numbered 314, a reference to the mathematical figure Pi. Basically, everyone in Sheldon's life lives in a house or apartment with a coincidentally important number.

Bernadette, Howard's pint-sized yet surprisingly aggressive wife, has a pretty distinct voice. She speaks in a high pitched octave, almost as if she's trying to sound like a mouse. It's one of her main characteristics, which is weird because she didn't have it when she first appeared. Melissa Rauch developed the voice as the character continued to appear. That makes sense behind the scenes, but shouldn't the characters on the show be freaked out that this grown up's voice changed?

Sheldon is a very particular person with some very strange tastes. For example, he has a favorite number, which is 73. He went into a detailed explanation about why it's such a great number, citing the fact that it's a prime number, it's inverse is a prime number, and a bunch of other mathematical reasons that went over most of our heads. Another thing Sheldon would like about 73 is that 1973 is the year Jim Parsons, the actor who plays Sheldon, was born. Of course, there's no way Sheldon could ever find out this information without destroying the boundaries between several different dimensions.

Each of the nerds presents a different archetype. Sheldon is the socially inept but incredibly smart one, Raj has almost no self-confidence when it comes to women, Leonard is desperate to be liked, and Howard is a perv. Even after getting married, Howard has remained the group's hound dog. While he makes it clear how horny he constantly is, it actually goes much deeper than you realize. We've seen Howard's bedroom at his mom's house many times, and it's a shrine to being a man-boy. It looks like somebody tried to combine the Playboy mansion with a comic book store. Like all of the other nerds, Howard has a collection of comic book and science fiction memorabilia displayed in his room. If you look closely, however, you'll see that he only has female characters displayed. That's how dedicated this guy is to being a creeper, he can't even collect toys without getting aroused.

The main plot during the early seasons of the show was driven by Leonard chasing after Penny. Their relationship has always been a little rocky, especially based on how different the two characters are. Leonard is a theoretical physicist working at a prestigious university, and Penny was an aspiring actress, waitress, and most recently, a pharmaceutical rep. He's shy and nerdy, she's outgoing and part of the cool crowd. Leonard wears glasses, Penny doesn't. While that might not seem like that big of a deal, it's actually pretty significant. Out of all the guys, Leonard is the only one that needs to wear glasses. On the other side, Penny is the only girl that doesn't wear glasses. It's a physical representation of how both characters are outliers from their group of friends, which is probably why they're able to get along with each other. As it turns out, all you need to build a strong relationship is an opposite but parallel need for eyewear.

Before reading any further, ask yourself if you know what Penny's last name is. Unless you're a crazed super fan, then you probably answered "no." Her full name has never been revealed on the show, and according to the producers, it never will be. This wasn't something that was necessarily done on purpose, however. It just never came up, and by the time people noticed, too much time had passed. The show's producers have stated that there's no way to reveal the name after this much time and have it be satisfying, so they just won't do it. The show's creator, however, revealed that her last name is Barrington during an interview prior to the show's ninth season. It's not official until it happens in the show, however. Those are rules on continuity, and they're very strict about this. For now, Penny's last name is still a big ol' question mark.