Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory really did have the best friends. They drove him everywhere, respected his bathroom schedule and helped him get over many of his hang-ups. Sheldon’s amazing transformation was heavily influenced by the efforts of his squad of friends over the years.
But the gang also lied to Sheldon quite often to manage his tantrums since he can be quite a baby when he doesn’t get his own way. And though some lies were quite necessary, some of them were uncalled for. Here’s just a few of the needless lies the gang told Sheldon throughout the course of the series.
When Howard, Raj And Leonard Lied About Sheldon’s Experiment
The gang concocted a cruel lie simply because they were sick of Sheldon during their North Pole expedition, which was rather irresponsible. Leonard, along with Raj and Howard, tampers with Sheldon’s experiment because several failed attempts had made him unbearably cranky. But this thoughtless approach to a major, high-profile commissioned experiment is very odd, uncalled for, and also rather uncharacteristic for three leading scientists who spent so much of their time on the experiment.
Moreover, Leonard had been living with Sheldon for many years and he could have certainly come up with another way to deal with Sheldon rather than messing with the big-ticket experiment.
When Leonard Lied To Sheldon About A California Law
It’s possible that Leonard made up the lie when he was younger and was struggling to deal with Sheldon’s anxiety over eating in new restaurants. But it was needless, nonetheless. Leonard lied to Sheldon when he made up an imaginary law named the "California Restaurant Workers’ Solemn Oath Of Ethics And Cleanliness."
There is obviously no such law and Leonard made it up. The lie was really silly and it’s also very easy to verify, so it wasn’t well-planned and didn't really make Sheldon any less anxious about strange environments.
The Lie About A Zombie Movie
Sheldon had never seen the cult zombie flick 28 Days Later and neither had he seen the Sandra Bullock comedy titled 28 Days. These two films are obviously easy to mix up but Penny tricks him into watching the Sandra Bullock film instead of the Danny Boyle zombie film.
Even halfway through the film, Sheldon seemed to have no idea that 28 Days doesn’t feature any zombies and it’s about a newspaper columnist’s rehab stint. The lie seems really unnecessary, especially as Penny had nothing to gain from it.
Howard’s Lie About A Card Trick
Howard made up a prank involving a fake card trick to mess with Sheldon and the squad quickly joined in to torment Sheldon. But the entire set-up seemed really harsh, simply because they didn’t have a point to prove or even an agenda against him.
Sheldon had, of course, humiliated Howard publicly and mocked his profession in the past. But the lie quickly escalated from an innocent prank to something quite cruel because everybody except Sheldon was in on it. It also visibly bothered Sheldon, so it came across as unprovoked.
When The Gang Lied To A Sick Sheldon
Why would Raj, Howard and Leonard actually have to go AWOL just to avoid a sick Sheldon? Sheldon is quite a handful when he is unwell and none of his friends wanted to take care of him, so each of them makes up different lies instead of simply telling him the truth about how they feel.
Their lies seemed rather extreme because, except for Leonard, they could simply stay in their own homes or go about their lives and not respond to Sheldon’s calls or texts and didn’t need to come up with an elaborate plan to avoid him. Not to mention leaving a sick friend to tend to himself is rather cruel.
When Leonard Lied About Sheldon’s Favorite Restaurant
Leonard designed a rather elaborate lie when Sheldon’s favorite restaurant closed down. Sheldon has cashew chicken for dinner every Monday, which comes from Schezwan Palace, but when the restaurant closed up shop, Leonard bought 4,000 Schezwan Palace containers so he could buy Sheldon’s cashew chicken from a different restaurant and pack it in the containers to trick him.
Leonard went to such extreme measures because he believed Sheldon doesn’t cope well with changes but this lie isn’t just cruel, but also quite unnecessary. Sheldon has coped with bigger changes and there were many other ways to break the news to Sheldon instead of misleading him for two years.
When Amy And Bernadette Lied To Sheldon
Amy was quite wary of Sheldon’s rants about his career set back and Bernadette was sick of listening to Penny complain about her acting gig, so they simply lied to Sheldon and Penny so they could hang out with each other.
But Sheldon is no stranger to the concept of someone needing space, and if Amy had sat him down and told him that she just wanted to have some me-time, Sheldon would have definitely understood. Amy did not have to lie and tell him that she was sick.
Howard’s Lie About Stephen Hawking
Sheldon absolutely idolized the late Stephen Hawking and when Howard tells his friends that he has been offered a job to work alongside him, Sheldon is overjoyed since he thinks he can now meet him. But Howard takes this opportunity to teach Sheldon a lesson for demeaning him on various occasions. He makes Sheldon perform some hilarious tasks just to get back to him, and during the final task, he informs him that he had already given his paper to Hawking and he liked it.
This lie came across as quite needless and it didn’t really establish anything since Sheldon went back to his old ways, as most fans predicted.
When Leonard Lied To Sheldon About The Athenaeum Club
It’s unclear as to why Leonard lied about the exclusivity of the Athenaeum Club at Caltech. When Sheldon and Amy decide to hold their wedding at the historic club, Leonard tells Sheldon he was not a member. But later Sheldon sees him and Penny eating at the club and Leonard reveals he is in fact, still a member.
It can’t be that he doesn’t want to help Sheldon and Amy with their wedding, so his lie is quite implausible and entirely needless, and if he was honest, he could have helped Sheldon and Amy out.
When Amy Lied About Her Sickness
Amy performed quite a few social experiments on Sheldon to help him with his issues with boundaries, but pretending to be sick didn’t really help her out in any way. She was down with fever for a while, but even after she recovered, she kept on pretending to be sick, as she enjoyed Sheldon’s attention and the baths he drew for her.
But she didn’t make much headway with him vis-a-vis their physical interaction, because even after the episode, Sheldon continued to be physically aloof for a long time and she wasn’t able to make him feel any more comfortable than he allowed himself to be.