One Person Influenced Both Sheldon And Raj On The Big Bang Theory

If you're a fan of "The Big Bang Theory," you probably watch Chuck Lorre's sitcom and think that nobody could possibly act like any of the outlandishly nerdy characters in real life. Well, think again! According to Lorre himself and his co-creator Bill Prady, both Sheldon Cooper and Raj Koothrappali — two main characters played by Jim Parsons and Kunal Nayyar, respectively — were inspired by one guy Prady knew decades before he ever created the duo.

In a 2022 chat with Entertainment Weekly, interviewer Keith Langston asked how the show's creative team decided to give Raj "selective mutism," meaning that he can't talk around women because he's too intimidated. Apparently, this was a thing Prady actually witnessed. "Bill worked with a guy in the 1980s, a computer programmer, that was actually like that," Lorre said.

Prady confirmed that this was true, but that he also took inspiration from this mysterious, thankfully unnamed computer programmer for Parsons' character. "Yes, and that attribute actually belonged to the fellow who had most of Sheldon's attributes as well," Prady clarified. "Somehow, in our discussions, [the selective mutism] moved out of the Sheldon character and into Raj." (To be fair, the idea of Sheldon being quiet in nearly any situation feels absurd.)

"Yeah, we created two characters out of that one guy," Lorre added. So how close was this real-life example to Raj's on-screen selective mutism?

According to this interview, Bill Prady spent time with a guy in real life who would get so nervous around women that he would simply go silent whenever they were around. "It was a really interesting thing to watch because if we were talking and a woman came into the room, he would just stop talking," Prady recalled. "And then she would leave, and he would start talking again. Obviously, we started noticing it. It's a real thing, selective mutism. It's an anxiety condition. He was just so anxious around women that his solution was to not talk."

This is basically exactly how it works for poor Raj, a hopeless romantic who wants nothing more than to settle down with a girl he loves — and Prady, Chuck Lorre, and their writers added another element to Raj's selective mutism that makes the whole thing just a little ... unsettling. Even though Raj is too anxious to talk to women or even utter a syllable when they're around, he can talk to women if he's extremely drunk. Sure, the intention here was clearly that Raj's inhibitions are lowered when he has something to drink, but it's also a little sketchy that alcohol literally unlocks his ability to speak. Luckily, Raj's selective mutism ultimately vanished from the show, and it's all thanks to another character: Kaley Cuoco's female lead Penny.

It's at this point in the interview that both Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre realize that Penny, who helps all of the guys in the main cast come out of their shell, basically changes every major character trajectory on "The Big Bang Theory."

"And Penny is the one who cured Raj," Prady said. "She was the pivot point for all these characters. She was also the one who told Howard [Wolowitz, played by Simon Helberg], 'You're not a ladies' man ... you're disgusting.' But she also introduced him to Bernadette [Rostenkowski, Howard's eventual wife played by Melissa Rauch]. She impacted all these characters in such a major way."

"Penny was a risk," Lorre responded, to which Prady added, "Exactly. Personally, I think the world is a terrifying place, and I hate parties and talking to people and all that, so I get that idea of, "Maybe I should just stay home and watch 'Star Trek' ... 'Star Trek' is my friend, and 'Star Trek' has never failed me."

"Sheldon had a very circumscribed life," Lorre said of Jim Parsons' character and his relationship with Kaley Cuoco's Penny. "But Penny was this random element that was introduced into their lives and changed them forever. Sheldon was never able to have the rigid order he wanted after her arrival." Sheldon and Penny end up developing a very sweet friendship, so clearly, the co-creators were onto something when they let Penny help out all the guys and basically force them to let loose a little.

"The Big Bang Theory" is streaming on Max now.