Top 10 Funniest The Big Bang Theory Episodes

With an IQ of 187, there are very few things Sheldon Cooper can’t figure out. But Howard’s card trick in the season four episode, “The Prestidigitation Approximation,” is one such thing. He tries to reverse engineer it, he tries tagging the cards, but no matter what he does, he just gets more and more frustrated. What’s great about the episode is that, while the initial trick is a legit card trick, Howard fakes it with Raj’s help after that first one.. Penny also plays along by pretending she’s figured out how the trick is done, adding to Sheldon’s overblown frustration. On a side note: Who else is impressed by Howard’s pencil trick?

In the previous entry, Sheldon was trying to figure out Howard’s trick. In this episode, he’s trying to figure out why graphene sheets appear to make electrons behave as if they don’t have any mass when they’re traveling through them. As the lack of an answer leads to a lack of sleep, Sheldon begins to act more and more irrational, eventually leading to the fan favorite ‘Bazinga in a ball pit’ scene. His next decision to find some lowly work to free up his prefrontal cortex to work on the problem, leads to a funny scene with the voice of Lisa Simpson, Yeardley Smith. Eventually, he decides to work at the Cheesecake Factory, with Leonard getting a little revenge for all of Sheldon’s constant food demands being another great moment.

While it was always sad when Penny and Leonard broke up, the silver lining was that we would usually get at least an episode or two with Penny’s favorite rebound guy, Zack. And the season four episode, “The Justice League Recombination” was one of the best. The guys making fun of Zack to start the episode is funny, but Penny calling them out on it provides a true stop and think moment amidst the laughs. And there sure are a lot of laughs: from Zack’s knowledge of the “Archie” comic universe, to Raj being demoted to Aquaman in their Justice League for the New Year's Eve Costume contest at the video store.

In future episodes, we would see Sheldon get into back and forth revenge battles with Leonard, Howard, Raj and even Barry Kripke. But here, we get to see him hilariously go at it with Penny in season two’s “The Panty Pinata Polarisation.” When Penny gets her “third strike,” Sheldon bans her from the apartment and begins an escalating war that ends when Leonard gives her Sheldon’s Kryptonite. And while all that is going on, Howard and Raj are using their smarts and a military drone to locate the “America’s Next Top Model” house.

The season four finale is titled “The Roommate Transmogrification,” but will always be better known as “the episode when Penny and Raj possibly hooked up.” But that’s at the end, and we don’t want to forget how funny this episode was leading up to that “Quick Draw” moment. Leonard and Priya’s Star Trek play sends Raj into the proverbial arms of Sheldon’s apartment, the lips of mouth-to-mouth Mona and the bed of Dr. Hofstadter. And speaking of doctors, Howard has to deal with his fiance getting her Ph.D and a job that makes her a lot more money then he does. There’s plenty of funny here and we’re not just talking about Penny’s answer to the question, “When does a monkey have a trunk?”

Penny and Leonard were the central couple of the show from day one, but at some point The Shamy overtook them and it all culminated with arguably the best wedding of the series in season 11. Sure, Howard and Bernie had Google Maps and Leonard and Penny had two ceremonies, but Sheldon and Amy had Mark Hamill. And Luke Skywalker beats them all. The episode also had the formulation of super-asymmetry, Stuart impressing the ladies with his “Star Wars” knowledge and Barry Kripke singing “At Last.” We laughed, we cried, we ranked it number five.

This episode features two separate storylines, both of which are equally filled with laughs. On one side we have Raj, Howard and Leonard spending the night in the desert watching HBO and accidentally getting high while waiting to see the Leonid Meteor Shower. There are a number of great moments after the guys eat the pot cookies, but Raj trying to slow the earth’s rotation stands out as one of the best. It’s also in this episode when Howard reveals who he lost his virginity to. Back in Pasadena, Sheldon drives Penny to the hospital after she falls in the shower. Sheldon trying to be sensitive is great, but we can’t forget Penny, high on painkillers, asking Sheldon to sing her “Soft Kitty.”

Although Raj made sure everyone got a gold coin, the real winner in the end was everyone who watched this great season seven episode. Although Penny and Sheldon are often together, this episode wonderfully scavenged for new laughs via the less common Bernadette/Leonard and Howard/Amy pairings. While the latter bonded over a love of Neil Diamond, the former had some issues gelling as a team. And although Raj wasn’t on the hunt, the only people who loved his introduction of the game more than Sheldon and Amy was us.

Leonard’s hair, Sheldon’s spot, Howard’s dickie and Raj’s fashion choices: there’s so much good stuff in this flashback episode we don’t have enough time to get to it all. This episode came near the end of the third season and gave us the origin story of so many of the classic “Big Bang” gags we had already come to know and love, including the broken elevator. The signing of the first roommate agreement is one of the best scenes of the entire series, while the moment when they both turn towards the door waiting for their future selves to arrive is priceless.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

“The Love Spell Potential”
Howard & His Celebrity Impressions Steal the Show as the D&D Master

“The Opening Night Excitation”
What’s Better: “Star Wars” or Sex?

“The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition”
Amy Becomes Sheldon’s Girlfriend While on a Date with Stuart

“The Terminator Decoupling”
A Train Ride to San Francisco with Moon Pie and the Terminator

“The Tangerine Factor”
Our Introduction to Schrödinger's Cat

This episode could top the list for just the Leonard Nimoy napkin scene alone. But while that’s arguably the funniest moment of the entire twelve seasons, the rest of the episode has lots of funny things worth mentioning as well. Leonard’s man crush sets up plenty of LOLs, including the constant searching for someone to ask about his sore leg. But in the end, the napkin scene, the multiple gift baskets and the rarely-seen Sheldon hug is a Saturnalia miracle that gets us right in the heart, and the funny bone, every single time.