The Best Time Raj Ever Broke Character On The Big Bang Theory
"The Big Bang Theory" blooper reels are often almost as funny as the show itself. Watching Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco or any of the other actors break character and speak in their real voice and laugh their genuine laugh after messing up is always hilarious and makes you feel like you get to know what the actors are really like as people. Cuoco seems like a lot of fun, because she's always laughing and being playful. Johnny Galecki gets comically frustrated when he messes up lines, always exclaiming "Balls!" And Kunal Nayyar seems more prone to getting tongue-tied than the other actors.
If you watch the "Big Bang Theory" blooper reels on YouTube, a pattern emerges in the clips that feature the man who plays sweater vest-favoring astrophysicist Rajesh Koothrappali. He either kind of forgets where he is and doesn't say his line — one time he missed his cue because he was eating soup that was so good he got distracted — or he can't get the line out for some reason. The best time Raj ever broke character was a time he was having a particularly hard time delivering a tongue-twisty line of dialogue. It was such a struggle that it started throwing his co-stars off, too.
Come on, Kunal!
The scene in question comes from the Season 6 episode "The Holographic Excitation," in which Raj helps plan a Halloween party at Stuart's (Kevin Sussman) comic book shop. Early in the episode, Raj is sitting with his friends in the Caltech cafeteria and telling them about his idea for a costume. The line is "Oh by the way, can I borrow your bullwhip and fedora? I was thinking of dressing up as Indiana Jones's mocha-skinned love child, Indian Jones." And he just can't get it out. To be fair, it's a pretty difficult line. The "of" and "as" are easy to mix up, "Indiana/Indian Jones"are too, and "mocha-skinned love child" is all-around awkward. It all adds up to a line that would be hard for any actor to say. But Nayyar seems to get so in his head about getting it wrong that he can't do anything but get it wrong.
There are two sections of flubs in the blooper reel. The first half is about the first half of the line, about the bullwhip and fedora. In these bloopers, Jim Parsons and Simon Helberg start laughing and blow the takes. But these bloopers seem like they may have actually been filmed after the second section of bloopers, which find Nayyar unable to say the "Indian Jones" line. Over and over again, he messes up the line. He finally gets through "of/as" only to get tripped up on "Indiana/Indian." At the end, he finally gets the line out, but it doesn't sound natural. It sounds like he was trying too hard to get it right. After a beat, he says "I have to say that again, don't I?" It's a funny kicker to a scene that was clearly frustrating for Nayyar to film.