Even if you’re a huge fan of “The Big Bang Theory,” you can and should admit that some of the characters on it are a bit frustrating — and that’s true for the show’s prequel and spin-off “Young Sheldon” as well. On the original show, audiences watched for twelve seasons as Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg), Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar), Penny Hofstadter (Kaley Cuoco), Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik), and Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz (Melissa Rauch) navigate life together, eventually growing up and starting families and building futures. On “Young Sheldon,” fans get the chance to see Sheldon as a child and teenager — played by Iain Armitage — and his family dynamic and life before he meets his friends.
The question remains, though. Who are the most irritating, terrible characters within the world of “The Big Bang Theory?” We’re here to answer. From a particularly irksome pastor to a major “Big Bang Theory” character (or two), here are the most hated characters on both “The Big Bang Theory” and “Young Sheldon,” in no particular order.
Pastor Jeff (Young Sheldon)
CBS
Pastor Jeff sucks. Jeff Difford, who goes by the moniker “Pastor Jeff,” is a judgmental weirdo who abandons his constituents in their times of need. Though Pastor Jeff seems like a nice, folksy guy on the surface, he’s definitely presented as an antagonist to the young version of Sheldon, who views religion with a healthy amount of skepticism (as someone with an extremely sharp scientific brain). With that said, Pastor Jeff is pretty stubborn when it comes to his debates with Sheldon, refusing to see any other point of view whatsoever.
Pastor Jeff’s worst moment, though, is definitely in the show’s fifth season. When he learns, via Sheldon’s mother Mary (Zoe Perry), that Sheldon’s brother Georgie (Montana Jordan) is expecting a child with his girlfriend Mandy (Emily Osment), he basically blames Mary and George Cooper Sr. (Lance Barber) for letting Georgie get a girl pregnant out of wedlock, and then he tells Mary that she needs to take a leave of absence from her work at the church. It’s narrow-minded, mean, and this demand devastates Mary, ensuring Pastor Jeff’s spot on this list. Just because he’s a man of God doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a good one.
Howard Wolowitz
CBS
Some people think that, by the end of “The Big Bang Theory,” Howard Wolowitz has proven that he’s a mature, responsible husband and father who bears no resemblance to the creepy cad they saw at the beginning of the series. Those people aren’t completely in the right. Right from the beginning of the series, it’s clear that Howard desperately wants to be a smooth-talking womanizer, but he’s not just weird — he’s invasive. He gives Penny a teddy bear as a gift that has a webcam in it. He rigs a drone to fly over the house that serves as the set for “America’s Next Top Model,” hoping to see a plethora of nude women. When Penny enters Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment while Howard is playing with remote-control cars, he immediately drives it right under her skirt … because there’s a camera on it.
Okay. You get it. Howard is a gross, creepy piece of work at the beginning of “The Big Bang Theory.” Yes, he marries Bernadette and they have two children, and yes, they seem relatively happy … but Howard still often treats Bernadette like a mother or a housekeeper, as she points out when he refuses to do chores. Even Howard’s best friend Raj isn’t safe; Howard spends a sort of inordinate amount of time making fun of Raj for inoffensive stuff like liking Taylor Swift. Howard changes a lot of things in his life, but Howard doesn’t change himself when all is said and done.
Mandy McAllister
CBS
In Season 5 of “Young Sheldon,” audiences meet Mandy McAllister — played by “Hannah Montana” veteran Emily Osment — and she’s dishonest right from the start. When Mandy first meets Georgie, she tells him that she’s 25 years old, and Georgie pretends that he’s 21. They’re actually both lying; Mandy is 29 years old, and Georgie is only 17. We won’t get into all of the potential legal implications of Georgie and Mandy’s relationship here, but the bottom line is that Mandy gets pregnant, leaving the young couple in a pretty tough situation.
At various points throughout “Young Sheldon,” Mandy stops paying her rent and gets evicted, pees in George Sr. and Mary’s kitchen sink, and completely rejects the baby shower Missy and Mandy try and throw for her. The fact that she stays with Georgie despite their twelve-year age difference is genuinely really unsettling, and she’s generally just a pretty irritating character. Sorry, Mandy fans — she’s just a really, really hateable character.
Leonard Hofstadter
CBS
Leonard Hofstadter is a whiny, insecure, and dismissive person who, for some reason, is rewarded for his genuinely appalling behavior and ends up with the beautiful, outgoing Penny — whom he actually marries multiple times in “The Big Bang Theory.” As soon as the series begins, Leonard develops an unhealthy, one-sided attachment to Penny, saying their “babies will be smart and beautiful” after he’s spoken to Penny exactly once — but when they actually start dating, Leonard isn’t actually that nice to her. He’s pretty clear that he’s most attracted to her looks — not her mind, which he obviously regards as inferior to his — and not only does Leonard invade Penny’s privacy, he treats her as if she’s stupid. Whether he’s reading her diary or re-writing her college papers, Leonard has basically zero respect for his wife, which he proves by kissing another woman while away on a research trip.
It’s not just the Penny stuff. Leonard also steals grant money so that he can buy a cool-looking laser for his lab. He dates his friend Raj’s sister Priya (Aarti Mann) despite Raj’s constant, strenous objections. He’s mean to anyone he regards as an intellectual inferior, especially Penny’s harmless ex-boyfriend Zack (Brian Thomas Smith). Also, Johnny Galecki is horrible at fake-eating and it’s incredibly distracting.
Sheldon Cooper
CBS
Yeah, that’s right. The most unlikable character on “The Big Bang Theory” is the lead character, Sheldon Cooper — the very same one who got his own spin-off. (Iain Armitage’s version of Sheldon is slightly more tolerable, probably because he’s just a kid; Sheldon’s behavior isn’t as cute when he’s an adult.) Throughout “The Big Bang Theory,” it’s actually understandable to wonder why any of Sheldon’s friends keep hanging out with him. He’s dismissive, sometimes outright cruel, and never takes anyone else’s feelings into consideration — and when he’s called out on any bad behavior, he frequently just doubles down. Sheldon is rude to both his superiors and inferiors at work, operating under the belief that he’s just better than everyone else. He makes fun of Howard, who’s a pretty accomplished aerospace engineer and goes to space, because he’s the only guy in the group without a PhD, and he makes fun of Penny for not finishing college.
Sheldon is also uniquely awful to Amy Farrah Fowler, whom he somehow marries on the series despite the fact that he views himself in a much higher regard than he views Amy. He treats Amy’s desire for physical intimacy as a disgusting joke, and he routinely disappoints her only for the show to simply brush off his bad behavior. Yes, Sheldon is over-the-top; he’s a sitcom character. He still sucks, though.
“The Big Bang Theory” and “Young Sheldon” are both available to stream on Max.
