10 Most Annoying The Big Bang Theory Characters, Ranked

Even if you're a huge fan of "The Big Bang Theory," the wildly popular CBS sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady that ran for 12 seasons and the same number of years, you have to admit that not every single character is a total winner. The series centers around a group of nerdy guys — Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar), and Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) who meet and befriend Penny (Kaley Cuoco), an outgoing and bubbly newcomer. After some time, Penny is, thankfully, joined by two other female characters — Mayim Bialik's neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler and Melissa Rauch's microbiologist Bernadette Rostenkowski — and the main ensemble is complete.

So which characters on "The Big Bang Theory" just kind of stink? That's what we're here to discuss. Outside of the main group, "The Big Bang Theory" plays host to a ton of guest stars and guest performers, from scientists and academics like Stephen Hawking and Neil DeGrasse Tyson playing themselves to guest arcs from luminaries like Regina King and Christine Baranski. Spoilers for the series follow, but without further ado, here are all 10 of the most annoying "Big Bang Theory" characters ranked from least offensive to outright terrible.

Played by John Ross Bowie — who adopted a bizarre sort of Elmer Fudd voice for the character during his audition that ultimately stuck — Barry Kripke, a string theorist who works with Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, and Raj at the California Institute of Technology, is designed to be irritating. Specifically, he's designed to be Sheldon's nemesis (alongside Sheldon's other nemesis, "Star Trek" alum Wil Wheaton playing a twisted version of himself), so to be fair, the audience isn't supposed to like him. In that way, it's a testament to Bowie's ultra-committed performance that Barry is as deeply unlikable as he is.

Part of this is because — again, by design! — Barry doesn't have much of an inner life and only exists to bother Sheldon and the gang when the narrative calls for a foil, so there's nothing for audiences to cling to or relate to where he's concerned. Ultimately, the only "redeeming" thing about Barry is that he pushes Sheldon professionally and encourages the resident theoretical physicist on "The Big Bang Theory" to do his best work. Bowie will reprise his role on the "Big Bang Theory" spin-off "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe" — we'll come back to Stuart — so maybe, as an actor, he'll get more to work with by then.

Unfortunately for Leslie Winkle, a scientist at CalTech who works with Sheldon, Leonard, and Howard (and has romantic dalliances with two of those three), she was never meant to be on the show for very long. As executive producer Steve Molaro told writer Jessica Radloff in her 2022 book "The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series," Leonard and Penny were endgame, and Leslie — played by Johnny Galecki's former "Roseanne" co-star Sara Gilbert — wasn't meant to stick around.

"We wanted love interests for Leonard and were just looking for stories," Molaro confessed. "It was also a great way to add female scientists, because Leslie was at the university as well. And Chuck [Lorre] had a history with Sara from 'Roseanne. But we were never looking for a permanent, everlasting relationship for Leonard because we always thought he would date Penny on and off. We weren't looking to find a permanent girlfriend for him. We were adding characters and seeing what worked and what was leading to fun stories."

This, honestly, helps explain why Leslie is so ... dour. Gilbert's performance is good, but she isn't given a whole lot to work with, and Leslie's main character trait seems to be that she hates everyone and everything around her, which just isn't fun to watch. Sadly, when Leslie exists the show in its third season, it doesn't feel like such a bad thing.

Similar to John Ross Bowie's Barry Kripke, the character of Bert Kibbler, played by veteran stand-up comedian Brian Posehn, suffers from a distinct lack of interiority, so that's probably a large part of the problem here. Unlike a lot of the other characters on "The Big Bang Theory," Bert doesn't work in theoretical fields or physics, but is a professor of geology at CalTech, so his whole thing is just ... rocks. Yes, you read that right. Bert's entire deal is "rocks."

The issue with Bert, though, is that his complete lack of social skills actively makes other characters uncomfortable, which just results in an awkward viewing experience. Take, for example, the time where Bert keeps bringing Amy rocks he likes in the Season 7 episode "The Occupation Recalibration," at which point he asks her out even though she's dating Sheldon. When Amy caves and agrees to go for whatever reason, Bert simply ... decides they're on a date. (Do we need to explain why this entire situation is bad? Probably not!) Honestly, besides "rocks," Bert's main character trait is that he makes people — especially women — feel weird. Since Posehn is bringing Bert back for "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe," here's hoping they make some adjustments to his character, particularly because Posehn is such a funny guy otherwise.

There's a recurring issue with Raj on "The Big Bang Theory" that boils down to one thing: the show can't figure out how to pair him off romantically even as all of his friends end up together (Penny and Leonard get married, Bernadette and Howard settle down with two kids, and Amy and Sheldon's slow-burn romance also ends with a wedding). This issue is especially apparent with Emily Sweeney, one of his love interests played by Laura Spencer. Emily is pretty unremarkable until the show makes a particularly baffling decision and throws Penny and Raj in bed together after a drunken and messy night; even though they don't actually sleep together, the damage is done, and Emily and Penny end up hating each other.

It should go without saying that letting a supporting female character openly despise the show's lead female character is just a poor narrative choice, putting aside the frankly bizarre choice to make anyone, including the audience, think even for a moment that Penny and Raj hooked up. After this all goes down, Emily is just unpleasant and ends up separating Raj from the rest of the group, so it's a relief when she eventually vanishes after Season 10.

Much like Leslie Winkle before her, Dr. Stephanie Barnett — a surgical resident played by Sara Rue — is one of Leonard's love interest, so eventually, she leaves the show to clear the way for Penny and Leonard to be together. Throughout Stephanie's run on "The Big Bang Theory," though, she's just really irritating. Even though Howard is the one who initially pursues Stephanie, she falls for Leonard and the two start dating; unlike some of Leonard's other partners, Stephanie does, to her credit, remain relatively calm about Penny's presence in his life (by this point, the two have already attempted one relationship). The problem with Stephanie is that she somehow makes Leonard uncomfortable, which is pretty remarkable considering that's usually his job.

Partway through Season 2 of "The Big Bang Theory," roommates Leonard and Sheldon notice something: Stephanie has moved into their apartment without telling anybody. This move takes Stephanie from "pretty unremarkable" to "outright insane," and after Leonard, who's uncharacteristically in the right for once, calls her out on it, she disappears and never comes back. With the utmost due respect to Rue, this is for the best.

"Garfunkel and Oates" comedians and songstresses Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome both appear on "The Big Bang Theory," but strangely, they never interact directly; Micucci plays one of Raj's girlfriends, Lucy, and Lindhome portrays the character we're talking about here, Ramona Nowitzki. A postdoctoral graduate student who reveres Sheldon Cooper and his work, Ramona serves one purpose and one purpose only: she exists to help Sheldon realize, more than once, that Amy is the true love of his life. How? Ramona keeps hitting on him.

To be clear, anyone hitting on Sheldon on "The Big Bang Theory" is played for laughs because he's so openly opposed to most forms of romantic and physical intimacy — even his relationship with Amy, his one and only, moves at a snail's pace — but Ramona literally doesn't do anything but express bizarre romantic interest in a confused Sheldon, who doesn't reciprocate his feelings. Ramona laying a surprise smooch on Sheldon is what drives him to eventually propose to Amy at all, but it's frustrating that the show had to invent a woman out of whole cloth who's obsessed with Sheldon just so he could realize he loves a woman who genuinely and truly loves him back.

To be incredibly fair to the resident comic book store owner on "The Big Bang Theory," Kevin Sussman's Stuart Bloom, it's not his fault that he's so annoying. It's obvious that, underneath his sadsack exterior, Stuart has a huge heart and genuinely cares about the gang, all of whom he considers his close friends; in fact, one of his late-show plotlines involves him becoming an unexpectedly loving caretaker to Howard and Bernadette's two young children. The show just saddles Stuart with so many messy and depressing plotlines that he's bleak to watch, and it gets to a point where his mere presence just sort of makes you feel sad.

Besides being perpetually and painfully single until he finally meets and woos Denise (Lauren Lapkus) at the end of the series, Stuart ends up experiencing a major loss when the comic book store catches fire late in the show, and he's constantly saddled with financial issues and health problems that consume his very being. Stuart is a drag. Again, this isn't his fault, but just the way he's written. He is going to headline the spin-off "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe," though — and Lapkus is also returning as Denise — so maybe the show can give Stuart something fun to do in his next outing.

Now we're getting into the "good" stuff, and by that we mean dunking on some of the main characters of "The Big Bang Theory." First up? That would be Howard Wolowitz, who fancies himself a "ladies man" at the beginning of "The Big Bang Theory" despite all evidence to the contrary. The evidence in question is that Howard is sleazy, creepy, and straight-up weird; at various points, he gives Penny a teddy bear with a nannycam in it so that he can watch her disrobe in her home, uses a flying drone camera to spy on a house where contestants from "America's Next Top Model" might potentially be sunbathing unclothed, and uses a camera mounted on a remote-controlled car to look up Penny's skirt. (When Penny, the most frequent object of Howard's outright creepiness, calls him out on being a weirdo, he gets so upset that he takes to his bed and Penny has to apologize to him). 

One could argue that Howard is "changed" by his relationship by Bernadette, and to his credit, he does absolutely adore her — the song he writes and performs for her during an anniversary where she's in quarantine due to a lab experiment gone wrong is a definitive highlight — and he's a very good dad when they have their children Halley and Neil. Still, there are a lot of plotlines on "The Big Bang Theory" where Bernadette simply asks Howard to be helpful around the house that they share and he acts like a total baby about it, so let's not canonize Howard just yet. Yes, Howard is annoying, but he's not the most annoying.

Where do we even begin with Leonard Hofstadter? Let's get one thing out of the way: part of the problem at play here is that Johnny Galecki might be the worst actor at "fake eating" in television history, so whenever Leonard is "enjoying" a "meal" with his friends — something that happens almost constantly on "The Big Bang Theory" — it's physically painful to watch Galecki hold his fork like an alien and shove food around without even bothering to pretend to ingest it. Now that we've got that out of the way, Leonard is a judgmental and often rude jerk who objectifies women like Penny and puts them on pedestal, only to throw tantrums when they don't behave exactly as he hopes.

Right from the beginning of his relationship with Penny, Leonard is more invested than she is and is also decently cowed by her, but that doesn't stop him from, say, telling Penny he loves her and becoming an absolute menace when she doesn't say it back immediately. At other points in the series, Leonard makes it clear that he doesn't respect Penny's intelligence, even rewriting one of her community college papers for her because he assumes she won't do a good job, and he even cheats on her while he's away on a research mission and doesn't bother to tell her he kissed somebody else until they're about to elope in Las Vegas. On top of everything else, Leonard, who wants children, doesn't seem to believe Penny when she repeatedly says she isn't sure she wants to be a mother, but regardless, the show rewards him with Penny's surprise pregnancy at its conclusion. Leonard can be insufferable, but still, he's not the worst of the worst.

That's right: the most irritating character on "The Big Bang Theory" is its main character, Sheldon Cooper. This is in no way a knock on Jim Parsons' performance, which is uniformly excellent. The problem is that Sheldon can be so incredibly and unbelievably insufferable that one starts to wonder why Leonard, Raj, Howard, Penny, Amy, and Bernadette even speak to him in the first place. Sheldon is a genius, sure, but his firm belief that only he understands anything about the world or how it works — and his open and obvious disdain for anyone whom he considers intellectually inferior to him, which is actually everyone — is really hard to watch at times, and the way he treats his friends can be downright odious as he frequently and repeatedly insults them. Sheldon loves directing his ire at Penny in particular because she didn't graduate from college and doesn't work in a scientific field, which is especially gross; the fact that they become really close friends by the end of "The Big Bang Theory" remedies that somewhat.

The worst impulse of Sheldon's character, though, is how he treats his adoring girlfriend Amy. Even though Amy clearly wants a relatively normal physical relationship with Sheldon and he's not comfortable with that — which is fine! — the way Sheldon treats Amy, which is to regard her as disgusting for even wanting physical intimacy in the first place, is just really, really mean. Sheldon mostly course-corrects by the end of "The Big Bang Theory," but even in the final episode, he behaves so poorly towards his friends that they almost ditch him ahead of his Nobel awards ceremony. There are a lot of annoying characters on "The Big Bang Theory," and Sheldon is the worst of them.

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