Top 10 Underappreciated The Big Bang Theory Episodes

In “The Separation Triangulation,” Raj sleeps with a very recently separated woman and Sheldon rents his old room in order to keep his work separate from his apartment and Amy. This episode doesn’t get talked about much, but there’s a lot of good stuff to go around, from the running gag of Raj pausing at the end of his………………. planetarium shows to Leonard going crazy because Sheldon is being a quiet and respectful tenant. As for each dilemma: of course Raj would befriend the woman’s ex and root for their love story. And when Sheldon gets Leonard on a technicality in the new rental agreement, Leonard feels good about the familiarity of it all.

This Season 9 episode is strangely underappreciated, especially given that it features one of the things that always makes for a great “Big Bang” episode: drunk Sheldon! An inebriated Sheldon Cooper is always good for some great laughs and this episode is no exception. When Howard finds out Bernie’s pregnant, he’s super excited… at first. However, he moves to super freaked out pretty quickly and the guys take him out for a drink to calm him down. This is when Sheldon gets tipsy, and also when Howard comes up with the idea for the advanced guidance system. Then it’s karaoke time as Bernadette sits on the stage and everyone sings to her, the highlight of which is Raj and Leonard’s rendition of “Push It.”

When discussing the Comic-Con episodes, everyone always remembers the one where the guys can’t get tickets for San Diego or have their car stolen on the way to Bakersfield. Meanwhile, Penny getting an invitation to sign autographs at the Van Nuys Comic-Con is often forgotten. But it shouldn’t be. And not just because of Leonard’s awesome change maker. Although Penny is the one signing autographs, it’s Leonard who becomes the star of the convention when the guys find out he married the gorilla movie girl. The series makes a lot of Penny-is-too-hot-for-Leonard jokes, but these are some of the best ones. We also can’t forget Sheldon and Amy having people over for brunch, which leads to another great drunk Sheldon scene.

No, we didn’t put this one on the list because of Leonard's “sexy graduate” cap and gown costume - although we have to admit he does wear it well. While Leonard’s heartfelt “it gets better” speech does speak to all of us less-than-popular kids, it’s Howard and Sheldon who steal the show in this episode. Raj can’t get his new drone to work, so engineer and MIT graduate Howard tries to fix it. However, he ends up taking it apart in frustration and, when that doesn’t work, relents and calls customer service, which leads to one of the best jokes of the entire series…

When people talk about “Big Bang” flashback episodes, they always mention the great Season 3 episode “The Staircase Implementation,” where Leonard meets Sheldon for the first time and we learn how the elevator broke. But as many fans of the show know, there’s another great flashback episode that doesn’t get the appreciation it deserves. When Howard, Raj and Leonard remember that they mined some Bitcoin seven years prior, what we get is a great series of flashbacks as the guys try to remember where the crypto currency is now. Although, the final discovery doesn’t make any of them happy.

Did you know that Fig Newtons were named after a town in Massachusetts and not the scientist Sir Isaac Newton? We did, too, but only because we’ve seen the Season 3 episode “The Gorilla Experiment,” in which Sheldon tries to teach Penny “a little physics.” He also teaches her some stuff about Leonard’s work and the derivative nature of his current research. But to use one of Penny’s favorite expressions, that part was all “jibber jabber” to us. Howard going all jealous beast mode on Leonard is another great moment from this underappreciated episode.

Even casual “Big Bang” fans know about Sheldon’s spot, the place on the couch that is, as he describes it as “the singular location in space around which revolves [his] entire universe.” Well, in a very funny extension of the “spot” running gag, Season 6 finds Sheldon and Howard in a battle over Howard’s parking spot at the university, a spot that used to belong to Sheldon, and as far as he’s concerned, still does. The back-and-forth battle features many memorable moments, the best of which involves each of them using their naked bodies as weapons in the spot war. The fight even boils over to their significant others, leading to Penny getting her nose broken.

It’s hard to imagine Penny as a hardcore gamer and it’s almost impossible to think that any guy would ever say no to a date with her. And yet in the Season 2 episode, “The Barbarian Sublimation,” we are witness to both such things. When Penny - feeling down about her life and career - discovers the “Age of Conan” MMORPG, she becomes obsessed and constantly bugs Sheldon with questions. In an effort to get her off his back, Sheldon secretly sets her up on a dating site. But when the guy shows up, the Penny he meets isn’t exactly what he was expecting. In the end, it’s Howard who unwittingly helps her break the habit, cold turkey.

The two stars of this awesomely underappreciated episode are again Sheldon and Howard. In the main storyline, Sheldon wants to get a haircut, but when his regular barber isn’t available, he refuses to cut his hair and his entire regimented existence is tossed aside for a bongo-playing life of chaos. But as great as the bongo-playing scene is, one could argue it’s topped by Howard’s monologue about his night of NASA survival training. Assuming you aren’t severely dehydrated, you could find yourself crying with laughter as he describes his intimate evening with an armadillo.

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

“The Cohabitation Experimentation”
Sheldon & Amy Move In Together & Raj Learns the Sex of Howard & Bernie’s Baby

“The Troll Manifestation”
Sheldon & Leonard Are Trolled by Stephen Hawking While the Girls Troll Each Other

“The Focus Attenuation”
Just Because Penny Has to Work Doesn’t Mean Amy & Bernadette Can’t Paint Vegas Red

“The Precious Fragmentation”
One Ring to Rule Them All & Penny Punches Sheldon in the Face

“The Matrimonial Metric”
Sheldon & Amy Secretly Test Their Friends to Pick Their Best Man & Maid of Honor

How this episode doesn’t get talked about more, we just don’t understand, because Season 11’s “The Solo Oscillation” is a great one in which every storyline hits the funny bone. There’s Howard being too busy for band practice with Raj, causing Raj to team up with Bert, which leads to our first taste of “Six Tons of Granite.” Then we have Amy and Leonard bonding over their high school nerdiness, forcing Penny to escape to Sheldon’s apartment, where she takes a couple minutes to help him solve string theory. And it gets even better when she returns to her place and drops the proverbial mic after filling Leonard and Amy in on the newfound theory.