Top 10 Sheldon, Leonard, Raj & Howard Moments on The Big Bang Theory

It’s Halloween season and Sheldon is working late at the university when he hears a spooky voice calling his name. He heads out into the hallway and encounters a number of scare pranks that he tries to pretend don’t bother him at all. Eventually, Howard and Raj emerge laughing but Sheldon refuses to admit he was scared. But as they head back to Sheldon’s office it’s Leonard’s turn to finish him off. And with the help of an alien mask, and the element of surprise, he does just that, causing Sheldon to faint, and then some.

The “Big Bang” guys are very, very smart, but also very, very unathletic. So, when they decide to get more exercise, they have a hard time finding a sport that interests them. That is, until they see that Barry Kripke has started a fencing club. Given that, among other things, fencing doesn’t require running, jumping or catching, it sounds good to them. And it’s good for us, too, from Howard and Raj’s “Princess Bride” references, to the wild fighting when Kripke’s back is turned and Sheldon wanting to “touch” his friends. Whenever you watch this episode, be en-garde for laughs.

While most of us would be wary that cookies baked by women driving a microbus and wearing Grateful Dead t-shirts would have a little something... extra, Howard, Raj and Leonard aren’t. When the three of them head out to the desert to see a meteor shower, Howard does a little lady recon for him and Raj and brings back cookies from a couple of tie-dye-wearing teachers. The guys naively chow down on the treats and soon after are all high as a kite and revealing all kinds of personal details, including Raj’s rabbit power fantasy, Leonard’s problem with his name and Howard’s first sexual partner. Raj even helps Leonard out by using his mind to slow the Earth’s rotation.

Because Leonard and Penny eloped, Leonard didn’t get to have a bachelor party. So, Howard and Raj organize a surprise one for the four guys in Mexico. Of course, Sheldon is not at all excited about the idea… that is, until he finds out they’re driving there in physicist Richard Feynman’s van and are going to stay in his house. Well, they were going to stay in his house, but they get a flat tire and never make it there. And while that sucks for them, it’s great for us because it provides viewers with a very funny series of scenes in which the guys try to remove a stuck lug nut, with the last problem being, as they say in Mexico, muy caliente.

Besides introducing “You’re so money” into every college dude’s lexicon, the movie “Swingers” also taught us that Las Vegas is the place to go to get over a breakup. So that’s exactly where Leonard and Raj take Howard when he gets unceremoniously dumped by Leslie Winkle. Although Howard initially doesn’t want to leave the room, the guys lure him down with the promise of huge shrimp and keep him there with the help of a certain someone they met at the bar. It all makes for a memorable episode, one that’ll be referenced by the characters themselves later on this list.

Howard has always wanted kids, but when he finds out Bernadette is pregnant, he goes from super excited to super freaked out pretty quickly. To help him relax, the guys take him out to a bar, and over drinks accessorized with little umbrellas, Howard comes up with the idea for the infinite persistence guidance system. Also at the bar, Sheldon gets drunk, thinks the kitchen is the bathroom and offers to beat up the bartender. And he also proves that, even when filled with alcohol, he’s still smarter than everyone.

No, the Bakersfield Comic-Con isn’t as good as the San Diego Comic-Con, but for these guys, comic-cons are like pizza - even the bad ones are good. So, they grab their Trek costumes and head off for Bakersfield. Unfortunately, as with their road trip to Richard Feynman’s house in Mexico, they never make it to the convention. Although, this time, it isn’t a flat tire that stops their progress, but rather Leonard’s car being stolen while they’re in the midst of a photo shoot. Seeing them walk into a diner in full Trek garb will make you laugh and feel sorry for them all at the same time.

For this moment, we want to take you back to 2003 when Leonard had long hair, Howard had a perm, Raj wanted to be Sonny Crockett from “Miami Vice,” apparently, and Sheldon was even more wooden and robot-like. Yes, in this episode we get a flashback to when Leonard first moved in with Sheldon. The scene where they sign their first roommate agreement is great, but maybe the most important revelation in the episode is when we finally find out how that darn elevator broke. And that moment involves all four of the guys - although Howard and Raj are merely witnesses to Leonard’s big oopsie and Sheldon’s day-saving heroism.

In Season 1, Leonard buys a time machine. Okay, so it isn’t a real time machine, but it is a full-size replica of the time machine from the classic sci-fi movie “The Time Machine,” which, for these guys, is super cool. And it only gets better once they finally get the thing up the stairs, into the apartment and take it for a test drive. As Leonard pulls back on the lever and the big wheel starts to spin, Howard, Raj and Sheldon do their best moving-quickly-through-the-future impression. The scene is brilliantly funny even if you’ve never seen the 1960 film. But if you have, then you get the reference and might appreciate it even more.

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

The Kissing Simulator, “The Infestation Hypothesis”
Leonard’s Mother Wouldn’t Be Surprised to See This

Music From “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization”
Stanley Kubrick Would Be Proud

The Guys Go to Their First Party at Penny’s, “The Middle-Earth Paradigm”
When You Start a Party at 7:00, These Guys Get There at 7:00, or 7:05

Refresh! Refresh! Refresh!, “The Convention Conundrum”
Sometimes Hitting Refresh Over and Over Still Doesn’t Get You Comic-Con Tickets

Pigeon in the Clean Room, “The Clean Room Infiltration”
It Turns Out That Pigeons Do Like Slim Jims

At the end of the fifth season, Howard gets married, but this time, a preliminary bachelor party is thrown. And although Barry Kripke is disappointed there aren’t any strippers, we have no complaints about this hysterical moment. To celebrate Howard’s pending nuptials, each of his friends say a few words about the man of the hour. First, Sheldon roasts him, Bazinga! Then Leonard, angry that Penny doesn’t think he can get crazy, brags about having sex in the ocean. And then there’s Raj, who gives the room a rundown of the women Howard has been with. And you know what they say: it’s all fun and games until your fiancée sees the video online.