Sheldon Cooper, for many fans, is an enigma of intelligence and character. He's one of the brightest and most confident minds in The Big Bang Theory world, yet he often hardly seems competent and understanding as a person. As the series has put it, he's like a robot, a praying mantis, or a puppet wishing to become a real boy. That is to say that Sheldon has his quirks and things fans both love about him.
However, as eccentric as he might be, Sheldon is far from a master of secrets (that's also the exact reason why he was denied a military job). He is open about his feelings, interests, sense of superiority, as well as his knowledge and insights, to every single member of The Big Bang Theory group. Yet, as much of a human encyclopedia as he can be, there are still a few things about Sheldon Cooper and the actor who plays him that fans may not know.
Jim Parsons Can Actually Play The Theremin
One of Sheldon's unique talents on the show is being able to play the theremin. As per his words, he became interested in it because of the original Star Trek theme.
While this just seems like a weird hobby made to fit Sheldon's character, Sheldon's actor, Jim Parsons, is actually able to play the theremin himself. So, when the show has Sheldon play it, they're not piping in the sound effects. Parsons is showing his inner Sheldon by actually playing it.
He Has The Most Screen Time In The Series
Sheldon Cooper, always one to be the center of attention, has the most screen time out of everyone in The Big Bang Theory. This is despite him sharing top billing with Penny and Leonard and the fact that Parsons and Johnny Galecki (Leonard's actor) have both appeared since the early stages of the show.
Sheldon has been seen in every single episode of The Big Bang Theory and has been in more collective minutes. Furthering his role as the very mascot of the show, Young Sheldon has continued to make more content featuring Sheldon.
He Has A Mexican Peso Stuck In His Nose
Though the series never shows it (and for good reason), Sheldon Cooper actually has a Mexican peso stuck inside his nose. In "The Shiny Trinket Maneuver," Sheldon gets into a heated conversation with Leonard about coins getting lodged into people's body parts and reveals that a bully long ago shoved a peso up his nose.
To make matters worse, the peso is still there, making air travel and any other event involving a metal detector quite a nightmare. Hopefully, if he's ever at a toll booth in Mexico, he can just sneeze.
He Was Born In A K-Mart
Sheldon is very open about his humble roots coming out of East Texas. These origins, however, just kept getting humbler every time he touches on his childhood, especially when his mother reveals where exactly he was born.
In "The Luminous Fish Effect," Sheldon's mother reveals that she gave birth to him and Missy on the floor of a K-Mart. Sheldon has certainly come a long way for a guy who came into the world just a few feet from discounted jeans.
"Bazinga" Was Created As An Office Prank
Jim Parsons has credited his famous catchphrase, "Bazinga!" to one of the show's writers, Stephen Engel. Engel apparently started pranking executive producer Bill Prady by hollowing out his grapefruits and taping them back together.
Whenever Prady tried to eat one of his favorite snacks, he'd be met with an empty fruit and Engel coming out of nowhere saying "Bazinga," his version of "Gotcha." The crew apparently thought the word was catchy and decided to incorporate it into the season 2 finale. Little did Engel know, his words would be immortalized on television.
Scientists Named A Bee Bazinga
Sheldon's catchphrase has become so catchy that real-life scientists are actually using it as a scientific term. Specifically, a group of Brazilian biologists discovered a new species of bees in 2013.
In honor of one of their favorite television characters and to differentiate the bee from a similar species, they decided to name it the Euglossa Bazinga. On top of his Nobel Prize, this has to be one of Sheldon's biggest, scientific accomplishments.
His Mother Is Played By A Mother And Her Daughter
Mary Cooper is one of the most important people in Sheldon's life, which probably wasn't always an easy job, given how socially awkward Sheldon can be. She was wonderfully portrayed in The Big Bang Theory by Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress, Laurie Metcalf. Interestingly enough, Laurie's real-life daughter, Zoe Perry, currently plays the younger Mary Cooper in The Big Bang Theory spin-off, Young Sheldon.
With the added benefit of some generational talent, Mary Cooper's family values seem to be baked into her at multiple levels. Who knows if Zoe's own daughter will get to play Mary if the producers ever plan another spin-off?
He Was Originally Named Kenny
It's weird thinking of Sheldon as anyone else but Sheldon Cooper; but when the story was still in its formative years, he was presumably called Kenny. The original title for The Big Bang Theory was actually "Lenny, Penny, and Kenny." By process of elimination, Leonard and Penny have obviously kept their names since the original writings, leaving Sheldon, who must have been Kenny.
His new name likely came after some rewrites, where the creators actually wanted to name him and Leonard after a famous, television producer, Sheldon Leonard.
His Three Knocks Are Because Of His Father
One of The Big Bang Theory's biggest running gags is Sheldon's classic three knocks. Specifically, it's whenever he needs to hound Penny for something, and he begins to knock her door off its hinges and calls for Penny in an annoying rhythm. As silly as this is, this is actually one of Sheldon's most misunderstood traits. Sheldon actually reveals in "The Hot Tub Contamination" that he does this because of a traumatic experience when he was little.
One day, he accidentally walked in on his father being intimate with another woman (not Sheldon's mom). This was so hard on Sheldon that he made it a big deal to always knock three times before entering a room, ensuring that he'd never walk in on something similar.
He Has A Son Named After Either Spock Or His Best Friend
In addition to learning more about Sheldon's childhood, Young Sheldon also has plenty of moments where Sheldon reveals how his future is going, and one of the most surprising reveals has been the fact that he and Amy have had children. So far, only one has actually been named: Leonard Cooper.
Sheldon reveals that he actually wanted to name him Leonard Nimoy Cooper, but Amy had apparently rejected this. Instead, they settled for just Leonard, honoring both Spock and likely the very person Sheldon spent more than 10 years living with and another fan favorite, Leonard Hofstadter.