One of the best parts of The Big Bang Theory is watching the relationship between Sheldon Cooper and everyone he interacts with. One would think he would be relatively “normal” around his roommate Leonard, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Even after living with and working alongside each other for years, Sheldon still treated Leonard as if he was just a tenant sharing space.
Taking his love of rules and guidelines to the extreme, Sheldon created an epic roommate agreement in which Leonard must agree to in order to remain living there. Although Leonard didn’t always follow the agreement, he tried to save face in front of Sheldon as to not upset him. Nevertheless, these are just 10 of the rules from Sheldon and Leonard’s roommate agreement that brought all the giggles on the long-running show.
SECTION C
According to Section C, Fandom notes “Sheldon can call for an emergency meeting.” It doesn’t matter where Leonard or Sheldon is, if something needs to be discussed, Sheldon can call for an emergency meeting.
In the episode “The Vartabedian Conundrum,” of the second season, Leonard realizes he’s way more serious with his girlfriend Stephanie than he realized, but since she’s a doctor, Sheldon takes advantage of her knowledge and bedside manner. After she diagnoses him with an inflamed larynx and Leonard realizes she’s going too fast — an emergency meeting was granted upon them and Leonard and Stephanie called it quits.
FRIENDSHIP CLAUS
Anyone who’s a major contributor in the face of technology or science is a huge guru in the eyes of the gang on The Big Bang Theory. So just in case anyone ever had the chance of meeting Bill Gates, Sheldon was not allowed to do so without the friendship of his buddy, Leonard.
In the Friendship Claus, Big Bang’s Fandom page notes, “Sheldon will take Leonard swimming to Bill Gates’ house should he ever be invited.” The gang never did go swimming at Bill’s house, but they did get to meet him in the hotel lobby!
UNNAMED CLAUS: TRANSPORTATION
When Leonard first moves into Sheldon’s apartment, one of the first negotiations is for Leonard to drive Sheldon to work. Thankfully, they both worked at Caltech. so it was no sweat off Leonard’s back. Not only did Sheldon not drive but he did not have a car. If he needed to go somewhere when everyone in his friend group was busy, he took public transportation (to his dismay). As the series went on—and Sheldon and Leonard became more comfortable—Leonard had to take Sheldon practically everywhere.
SECTION 8, SUBSECTION C, PARAGRAPH 4: COITUS
The rule about coitus in the roommate agreement was definitely directed at Leonard since Sheldon didn’t partake in that kind of activity until he was with Amy for years (and years…).
If Leonard wanted to bring a girl home after a night out on the town, he needed to give Sheldon 12 hours notice beforehand. If Leonard did not give Sheldon 12 hours notice, he did his best at being sneaky, but that rarely worked.
ADDENDUM J
If two roommates are going to have a roommate agreement, I could see a majority of the rules being surrounded around the bathroom. In their agreement, there needs to be “an adequate supply of hot water” when Sheldon is showering after Leonard. There was also a remark about the number of people showering at once. This came to light when Sheldon had to use the bathroom in an urgent matter and realized Leonard and his ex-girlfriend Priya were showering together. The next day, you better believe Sheldon delivered Leonard with two violations for breaking simple bathroom rules.
UNNAMED CLAUS: PIZZA NIGHT
Adorably so, this friend group loves to have dinner together. We see them practically every night sitting around the coffee table eating takeout (with Raj sitting on the floor, of course).
Per the roommate agreement, Sheldon insists on having different kinds of foods on different nights of the week. In particular, Thursday was pizza night — pizza from Jets, no less. If Sheldon or Leonard wanted to change it up and try somewhere new, they’d need to have a public hearing along with a “60-day comment period.”
THE ROOMMATE REVIEW
Just like in the workplace, Sheldon holds an annual review on Leonard’s performance as a roommate. Both Leonard and Sheldon have broken the rules in their agreement before, but it never leaves one of them homeless. Instead, it usually leads to fines or the silent treatment until they’ve cooled off!
UNNAMED CLAUS: HOUSE GUESTS
In an unnamed claus, Sheldon is pretty adamant about house guests and requires 12 hours notices from Leonard if he’s having someone spend the night. It’s typically Leonard who needs the approval of Sheldon before having someone spend the night, but in one episode, Sheldon actually has Dr. Elizabeth Plimpton stay the night. Although this setup was strictly professional, Plimpton and Leonard crossed the line when they had coitus behind Sheldon’s back.
UNNAMED CLAUS: FURNISHINGS
Throughout the course of 12 seasons, it may not seem like Sheldon changed much, be he truly did. This is in big part to his friends and girlfriend, Amy.
When Leonard first moved in, Sheldon barely had furniture in his apartment, making it look like no one even lived there at all. Over time though, Leonard made their little house a home and Sheldon had to get over his particular ways (especially since he loves “his spot” on the couch). According to the roommate agreement, if anyone wanted to change the furnishings they had to be approved by a committee (i.e. Sheldon).
UNNAMED CLAUS: PETS
It’s rather interesting that the only person to have a pet of any kind of Raj. Sheldon did become friendly with a bird once but it flew away. In later seasons, he and Amy did go shopping for a turtle, but their argument over their relationship made them realize a turtle wasn’t in the cards at that time.
However, even if Sheldon and Amy did want a turtle, he’d be breaking his own rule. In the roommate agreement, he stated that pets were actually banned unless they were service animals!
