Rajesh Koothrappali
 |
This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (April 2010) |
|
|
This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (January 2010) |
| Rajesh Koothrappali | |
|---|---|
 Kunal Nayyar as Dr. Rajesh Koothrappali |
|
| First appearance | "Pilot" |
| Portrayed by | Kunal Nayyar |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Raj |
| Occupation | Astrophysicist |
| Title | Doctor |
| Family | Dr. V.M. Koothrappali (father) Mrs. Koothrappali (mother) Priya Koothrappali (sister) 3 unnamed brothers 1 unnamed sister |
| Relatives | Sanjay (cousin) Venkatesh (cousin) Unnamed uncle |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Nationality | Indian |
Rajesh Ramayan "Raj" Koothrappali,[1] Ph.D. (born October 6[2]) is a fictional character on the CBS television series The Big Bang Theory, portrayed by actor Kunal Nayyar.
Rajesh is Howard Wolowitz's (Simon Helberg) best friend and one of the central characters of the show. He works as an astrophysicist in the Physics Department at Caltech. His principal characteristic is a case of selective mutism which does not allow him to talk to women outside of his family.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Rajesh, who is normally called Raj or by his surname Koothrappali by Sheldon Cooper, is from New Delhi, India, yet despises Indian food, and his knowledge regarding Indian culture and Hinduism is disputed by Sheldon Cooper. He was born into a wealthy family and has five siblings, one of which is a previous girlfriend of Leonard, Priya. He is normally seen wearing a layered combination of a shirt and a vest, khakis, and a jacket. He wore a red cap only in the pilot episode.
All of the guys enjoy playing Halo every Wednesday at Sheldon and Leonard's apartment and occasionally at Koothrappali's apartment.[3] They also play Age of Conan excessively, with Raj stating he has experienced gaming addiction.[4]
[edit] Personality
In general terms, Raj is more patient with Sheldon than Leonard, Howard, or Penny; however Sheldon is oblivious to this as he once cut him off as a friend.[5]
Raj has a "nervous bladder", meaning he gets an urge to relieve himself when under stress. This was shown when Penny got angry at him, and when he accompanied Leonard to confront Kurt over some money Kurt owed Penny.[6]
One of Raj's primary personality quirks is his tendency to act or speak inappropriately according to the situation, especially when it is not called for, often earning him glares and negative remarks from the other characters. In the episode "The Love Car Displacement", when Leonard and Penny are about to have sex in a hotel room, he walked into the room and slept in the room, oblivious to what he had just interrupted. Later in that episode, when called by Sheldon to speak, he joins in the argument between Howard and Bernadette, though Sheldon had obviously hoped for him to salvage the conference's discussion about science.
Another recurring joke is how in his assimilation of American pop culture, Raj has developed a weakness for media that is more commonly consumed by females. Typically, one of the boys will slander the media in question (examples include Eat, Pray, Love, The Notebook, and Sex and the City) and Raj will eagerly put a word in to defend it, usually through an exasperated Howard, since it is normally Penny or Bernadette who brings up the topic. Their bickering only accentuates the homosexual undertones between him and Howard.
When hanging out with the guys, despite his particular Indian accent, Raj is noted for using slang ("fo' shizzle") and excessively using the word "dude". While he seems to speak fluent Hindi, his mother tongue is English.[7][8][9]
[edit] Selective mutism
Raj's principal characteristic is his shyness and inability to speak around women, which is a recognized medical condition known as selective mutism. In the show, this was alluded to by Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, Leonard's mother.[10] Raj also states he has selective mutism in the episode "The Cornhusker Vortex".[11][12] Raj is able to speak in the presence of women only when they are part of a crowd, if he has been drinking alcohol (or thinks he has been), if he is under influence of drugs, or if he is unaware of their presence.[13] He notes, however, that this is an improvement over his previous affliction, in which the presence of women would cause him to lose bladder control. Additionally, he has no problem speaking to his mother or sisters, or any female relatives.
Since many of the scenes involve Penny, when Penny is around, Raj remains silent until she leaves, or alternatively he whispers what he wants to say to Howard, who then repeats his words or responds to his question out loud; sometimes, however, Howard uses Raj's inability to provide amusement for himself, such as when Howard "confesses" on Raj's behalf that Raj stalks Penny with binoculars, or when Sheldon calls Penny over to their table to silence Raj and Howard refuses to act as a mouthpiece and tells Raj "Suck it up; (Sheldon) won." One time during a conversation, Raj accidentally uttered a few words ("good story") much to the surprise of his friends, but he immediately realized Penny was there and he shut his mouth promptly and covered it with both hands.[14] A recurring gag is for Raj to find himself left all alone when his friends make plans to go somewhere, his selective mutism forbidding him from speaking up to join in. Sheldon once called Penny nearby while having an argument with Raj in order to make him stop talking. Penny occasionally likes to torment him about it, such as saying "Yo Raj, talk to me", when she enters the apartment.
Alcohol appears to suppress Raj's social anxiety, since he is capable of prolonged conversations with women after drinking even a tiny amount. Eating a bite of rum cake once proved sufficient to overcome his problem. However, it also tends to make him loud and obnoxious.[13] When the main characters took a train to an academic conference in San Francisco, Raj was able to talk to Summer Glau (playing herself) while drinking beer. However, when Leonard discovered that the beer was non-alcoholic and that Raj was under a placebo effect, Howard used this to his advantage, resulting in Raj returning to his usual mute self.[15]
Raj has also experimented with medications that suppress social anxiety, but they tend to have side effects. When Sheldon's sister Missy comes to visit, Raj takes a drug that enables him to talk to Penny and Missy with no problem, but results in involuntary repetitive hand motions. In a recent episode, Raj considers taking a presumably different drug of similar nature, but worries that the drug might affect his rationality. Sheldon encourages him to take the drug, and he does so in a coffee shop. The drug enables him to speak to a woman at a nearby table with no problem, but it ultimately results in him jovially stripping naked in the middle of the coffee shop without seeming to notice.
However, in Season One Episode 7, The Dumpling Paradox, we see Raj retorting when Leonard jokingly suggests cutting Raj in half in order for the group to play Halo without Howard while Penny is still in the room. To this Raj responded, "Oh sure, cut the foreigner in half. There's a billion more where he came from."
[edit] Family
Raj regularly communicates with his parents, Dr. and Mrs. V.M. Koothrappali back in India via webcam. When they become meddling or judgmental, he "brings his parents" into Leonard and Sheldon's apartment via his laptop. In the Season 2 finale, Mrs. Koothrappali and Mrs. Wolowitz have an argument because the latter doesn't believe that there isn't a single Outback Steakhouse restaurant in India.
A running gag in the series is Raj portraying himself as having come from humble origins and growing up in poverty in India, only for his friends to remind him that his father is a gynaecologist, drives a Bentley (which he protests was a "lease"), and had servants growing up.[13] In the episode "The Wiggly Finger Catalyst," Sheldon (who is a Notary Public), reveals that Raj's family is a lot wealthier than he lets on (he says that it is "halfway between Bruce Wayne and Scrooge McDuck").
Raj's cousin, Sanjay (or, as he says his friends know him as "Dave from AT&T Customer Service") works in a call centre, and is mentioned in a number of episodes. Once, Raj was seen trying to avoid going back to India for his cousin's wedding, since Raj's parents had once more arranged a date for him.[16]
Another of Raj's cousins, named Venkatesh, is a lawyer who has poor negotiation skills, even admitting that he himself is useless.
Raj has three brothers and two sisters. Raj's sister Priya has a one-night stand with Leonard in Season 4, which leads to a brief fight between Leonard, Raj, and Howard for breaking the "pinky swear" they made about never trying to make a move with her. Later in the series, Priya and Leonard start a relationship, against Raj's wishes, which is also rather awkward as she is living with Raj at the time. In the Season 4 finale, Raj also had to temporarily move into Sheldon's apartment after overhearing Leonard using Star Trek references as sex metaphors to his sister.
[edit] Work
Raj is an astrophysicist in the Physics Department at Caltech, being known for a noted publication on Kuiper belt object size distribution.[9]
For his discovery of a planetary object beyond the Kuiper belt, 2008 NQ17, which he named "Planet Bollywood", Raj was included in People magazine's "30 (Visionaries) Under 30 (Years of Age) to Watch", received a larger office, and became a celebrity of sorts, drawing the envy of his friends.[17]
After six months of failed research on the composition of trans-Neptunian objects, Raj feared the prospect of being deported back to India (at which point, he describes spending his time at work as "mostly checking e-mail and messing up Wikipedia entries"). To stay in the country, he sought out a research position in stellar evolution with Professor Laughlin; the job proposition failed as the research team included an attractive female, and Raj accidentally drank a little too much and made a sexually explicit comment. Raj ended up working alongside Sheldon "exploring the string theory implications of gamma rays from dark matter annihilations".[9] Ironically, he noted once before wanting to be the "Indira Gandhi of particle astrophysics (except with a penis)".[13]
[edit] Relationships
Raj has not been involved in any lasting romantic relationship, mostly due to his inability to speak to women. However, he is much more successful in casual sex than the more sexually aggressive Howard. He once dated Lalita Gupta, a childhood friend, in an arrangement made by his parents. With Raj only able to speak to her under the influence of alcohol, the date went badly and Lalita left the drunk and obnoxious Raj to have dinner with Sheldon.[13]
When Raj was invited to People magazine's reception, he became drunk again and presented Penny to his parents (via webcam) as his girlfriend. Later, he had to apologize to Penny for his behavior. Although he tried apologizing through a written note, Penny forced him to utter a barely audible "sorry".[17]
Raj also sought to date Sheldon's attractive fraternal twin sister, Missy. To do so, he took an experimental drug to correct his anxiety disorder. However, he was unable to ask her out as the effect of the medication wore off.[18]
When Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, and Raj were on a train to San Francisco, the latter three tried talking to Summer Glau. After drinking what he thought was a beer, Raj talked to Summer, being flirty and smooth, and she took a liking to him. When Howard pointed out that his beer was non-alcoholic, Raj stopped in the middle of his conversation, was embarrassed, and rushed away from Summer without saying any more.
Raj revealed that he has a girlfriend while in the comic book store, after Leonard claimed that the two of them were the only ones without them. She has never appeared in the show, but he claims that she is deaf, so his inability to speak with women isn't an issue.[19] Raj has a crush on Howard's girlfriend, Bernadette, and is visibly unhappy when she accepts Howard's marriage proposal.
Despite both being ostensibly heterosexual, Raj and Howard often act like they are in a homosexual relationship. This was described by Leonard's mother, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, as an "ersatz homosexual marriage".[10] Even Raj's parents are aware of this, as Raj's mother once noted "the closest thing we have to a daughter-in-law is that Jewish boy Howard!", which an alarmed Raj quickly denied.[11] Despite the denials, Raj often takes up the stereotypically "female" role in arguments with Howard, once expressing his displeasure at Howard constantly ditching him to chase women he wants to sleep with.
In the 2011 season 4 finale, Penny and Raj spend the night together, during which time they both get drunk and, despite agreeing to remain good friends, end up in bed together . The next morning, both are ashamed and embarrassed, and they agree to pretend it never happened, but they are caught by Leonard, Sheldon, and Howard as they try to leave, causing Penny to think about moving back to Nebraska. In the opening episode of season 5, Raj reveals to Penny that they did not have sex; instead, Raj ejaculated prematurely and they fell asleep. However, Penny promised not to tell the guys.
Later in season 5, Penny thought she found the perfect match for Raj by hooking him up with a woman who was deaf. However, it turns out she only liked Raj for his money and left him when she found out his parents would cut his financial ties if they continued to see each other.
[edit] Creation and casting
Raj did not appear in the original, unaired pilot of the series, where only Sheldon, Leonard, and a much different version of the Penny character, called Katie, were present. The test audiences reacted negatively to Katie, but liked Sheldon and Leonard. In the new pilot, Raj and Howard were added.[20] Series co-creator Bill Prady stated: "The idea was, if they like these first two guys, let’s give them two more".[20] Rajesh's social anxiety around women is inspired by a former co-worker of Prady.[21][22] Originally the character was called "Dave", and was an American born to Indian parents. However, this was changed when Nayyar was given the role, because he was "so Indian".[23]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "The Vegas Renormalization". The Big Bang Theory. April 27, 2009. No. 21, season 2
- ^ "The Prestidigitation Approximation". The Big Bang Theory. CBS. March 10, 2011. No. 18, season 4. 01:56 minutes in.
- ^ "The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem". The Big Bang Theory. November 3, 2008. No. 6 (23), season 2.
- ^ "The Barbarian Sublimation". The Big Bang Theory. October 6, 2008. No. 3 (20), season 2.
- ^ "The Friendship Algorithm". The Big Bang Theory. January 19, 2009. No. 13 (30), season 2.
- ^ "The Financial Permeability". The Big Bang Theory. February 2, 2009. No. 2 (19), season 2.
- ^ "The Vengeance Formulation". The Big Bang Theory. CBS. October 12, 2009. No. 9, season 3. 04:30 minutes in.
- ^ "The Psychic Vortex". The Big Bang Theory. CBS. January 11, 2009. No. 12, season 3. 14:06 minutes in.
- ^ a b c "The Pirate Solution". The Big Bang Theory. CBS. November 23, 2009. No. 4, season 3. 17:51 minutes in.
- ^ a b "The Maternal Capacitance". The Big Bang Theory. February 9, 2009. No. 15 (32), season 2.
- ^ a b "The Cornhusker Vortex". The Big Bang Theory. November 2, 2009. No. 6 (46), season 3.
- ^ Series 3 Episode 06 – The Cornhusker Vortex Big Bang Theory transcripts.
- ^ a b c d e "The Grasshopper Experiment". The Big Bang Theory. November 12, 2007. No. 8 (8), season 1.
- ^ "The Bat Jar Conjecture". The Big Bang Theory. April 21, 20087. No. 13 (13), season 1.
- ^ "The Terminator Decoupling". The Big Bang Theory. March 9, 2009. No. 17 (34), season 2.
- ^ "The Guitarist Amplification". The Big Bang Theory. November 9, 2009. No. 7 (47), season 3.
- ^ a b "The Griffin Equivalency". The Big Bang Theory. October 13, 2008. No. 4, season 2.
- ^ "The Porkchop Indeterminacy". The Big Bang Theory. May 5, 2008. No. 15 (15), season 1.
- ^ "The Desperation Emanation". The Big Bang Theory. October 21, 2010. No. 5, season 4.
- ^ a b "'Big Bang Theory': 'We didn't anticipate how protective the audience would feel about our guys'". Variety. 2009-05-08. http://weblogs.variety.com/season_pass/2009/05/big-bang-theory-we-didnt-anticipate-how-protective-the-audience-would-feel-toward-our-guys.html. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
- ^ "Quantum Mechanics of The Big Bang Theory". The Big Bang Theory DVD featurette.
- ^ "Come up with a new theory: Sheldon does NOT have Asperger's". TV Squad. 2009-08-14. http://www.tvsquad.com/2009/08/14/come-up-with-a-new-theory-sheldon-does-not-have-aspergers/. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
- ^ "Paley Festival Recap ‘09: THE BIG BANG THEORY". theTVaddict.com. 2009-04-17. http://thetvaddict.com/2009/04/17/paley-festival-recap-%E2%80%9809-the-big-bang-theory/. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
|
|||||||||||||||||
