TBBT's Sheldon Had Only One Friend He Respected, And It Wasn’t Leonard

Summary:

• The Big Bang Theory was a CBS hit sitcom that aired from 2007 to 2019.
• The show followed a group of scientist friends welcoming their new neighbor Penny to their lives.
• One of the guys, Sheldon Cooper, who had the least developed social skills of all of them, treated all of his friends poorly, aside from Raj.

If there's one thing we've all learned for certain about Sheldon Cooper through not only 12 seasons of The Big Bang Theory but also 6 released seasons of Young Sheldon, it's that he's completely confident in his own intellectual superiority. Especially when it comes to the people around him, his group of friends, and his family.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of the people he surrounds himself with are recognized scientists with matching degrees and various accomplishments in their respective fields, Sheldon has always been the one to look down on them.

However, this treatment never affected one of his friends, Raj Koothrappali, who worked as an astrophysicist in the physics department at Caltech. And the Internet is sure to have the answer to how Raj managed to avoid being constantly laughed at by Sheldon when no one else could.

Who Was Raj In The Big Bang Theory?

The four main characters of The Big Bang Theory, except for the aspiring actress Penny, were involved in scientific work at the California Institute of Technology, also known as Caltech. Sheldon Cooper was a senior theoretical physicist, while Leonard, his roommate and best friend, was an experimental physicist.

Howard Wolowitz, Raj's best friend, worked at the same institution as an aerospace engineer and even became a NASA astronaut at some point in his career. But even that did not stop Sheldon from making fun of his work and looking down on him, considering only his own studies worthy. So how was Raj different?

As fans suggest, it has to do with Sheldon's own deep fascination with all things cosmic. The fact that Raj is competent in a field in which he finds true wonder makes Sheldon gain respect for him more quickly. Besides, as shown in the episode The Pirate Solution (S3E4), Raj has proven to know more about it than Sheldon.

As for Howard, his engineering job doesn't excite Sheldon nearly as much, which is why he continues to make fun of it. And when he proves he can do more and gets selected by NASA, Sheldon's jealousy won't let him easily accept his success, so he humiliates his friend the only way he knows how.

If you are feeling nostalgic and want to re-watch The Big Bang Theory to get your dose of friendly scientific banter, you can binge the show on Netflix.