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Howard Wolowitz

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Howard Wolowitz
The Big Bang Theory character
Simon Helberg as Howard Wolowitz
First appearance"Pilot"
Portrayed bySimon Helberg
In-universe information
NicknameFruit Loops (as an astronaut)
GenderMale
OccupationAerospace Engineer
FamilyMrs. Wolowitz (mother)
SpouseBernadette Rostenkowski
RelativesLewie (uncle)
Murray (uncle, deceased)
Barbera (aunt),
Jeanie (second cousin)
Elliot (uncle)
David (cousin)
ReligionJudaism
NationalityAmerican

Howard Joel Wolowitz,[1] M.Eng is a fictional character on the CBS television series The Big Bang Theory, portrayed by actor Simon Helberg. Among the main male characters in the show, Howard is distinguished for lacking a doctoral degree, for still living with his mother, and for believing himself to be a "ladies' man". Simon Helberg's character is named after a computer programmer known by the show's co-creator Bill Prady.[2]


he looks like the drummer for Silverstein Paul Koehler


Biography

Howard is a Jewish Aerospace Engineer at Caltech's Department of Applied Physics who often hangs out at Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon Cooper's (Jim Parsons) apartment. He is best friends with Rajesh Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar). He was born in 1981 as specified in season one's episode "The Pancake Batter Anomaly".

Howard sports a bowl-style haircut and tends to wear loud, vintage, 1960-era outfits, a V-neck or t-shirt over a turtleneck or dickey which sport a variety of pins, and always has skinny jeans and an alien pin. He is also fond of unusual belt buckles, which have included a Nintendo controller, a silver Batman logo, a 45 RPM record insert, a Klingon communicator, and a buckle containing the superhero the Flash.

Personality

Like his friends, Howard is a big fan of comic books and superheroes. His current and preferred personal transportation is via his Vespa motor scooter. He also lives with his mom who is known to scream at him all the time.

Besides English, Howard can speak several languages including French, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic, and the constructed language Klingon from the Star Trek franchise. Although in the show, Howard has been mentioned to speak these languages, the writers have not explored his proficiency much. In the season three episode "The Precious Fragmentation", he also has shown he knows some words in Sindarin, one of the two dialects of the fictional Elvish language that J.R.R. Tolkien invented for the Lord of the Rings novels. The episode "The Wiggly Finger Catalyst" also reveals he knows American Sign Language.

Howard fancies himself a "ladies' man" and he provides outrageous pick-up lines whenever there is a female present, resulting in humiliating turn-downs. Howard describes himself as a romantic,[3] although he usually comes across as overtly sexual, and in the words of Penny, disgusting.[4] However, Penny's animosity toward Howard has mellowed somewhat since Howard began dating Penny's work colleague Bernadette, to whom he is now married. When Howard found an ALF doll and revealed that it filled a void for him when his father left, Penny felt sympathetic and began to feel she better understood his behavior.

Howard, much like Penny, dislikes many of Sheldon's antics, but he has grown accustomed to them. One time, Penny asked how Sheldon had gotten friends and Howard simply replied "We liked Leonard".[5]

Howard is allergic to peanuts. If Howard consumes peanuts he has an anaphylactic reaction and consequently they pose a life-threatening risk to him. He also mentioned having transient idiopathic arrhythmia. Howard is proud of the fact that he has only 3% body fat, which Raj notes makes him look like a human chicken wing.

Although Jewish, Howard is not very serious about his faith and does not keep kosher. For instance, he eats pork, and when the price of pork went up at the group's favorite Chinese restaurant, he remarked "it's getting tougher and tougher to be a bad Jew".[6] On another occasion, when Howard tried to date Sheldon's sister, Missy, he said he would kill his rabbi with a pork chop if his religion was an impediment, and one of the reasons he was happy to continue dating Bernadette (who is Catholic) was the chance to really annoy his mom. Despite this, Howard has shown some belief in his faith. When he and Raj posed as goths to pick up women, he wore fake-tattoo sleeves and refused to get real ones (although he attempted to get one but was too scared of the needle). It is noted in "The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis" that he observes Hanukkah. He also apparently attends High Holiday services, as Sheldon once critically noted that he was not available to compete in Halo during those times.[citation needed] In "The Financial Permeability" he made the sign of the Cross—a Christian practice—during an encounter with Kurt, Penny's ex-boyfriend.

As of the episode "The Herb Garden Germination", he is engaged to Bernadette when she said yes to his marriage proposal. They eventually married in "The Countdown Reflection," the Season 5 finale.

Work

Unlike Leonard, Sheldon, and Raj, Howard does not have a Ph.D. and is sometimes mocked about it, especially by Sheldon and the department head, Dr. Gablehauser. He defends himself by pointing out that he has a master's degree from MIT.[7] Because he does not have a doctorate., Dr. Gablehauser refers to him as "mister" while referring to his friends as doctors, and Sheldon often says that he is the least smart of the four "nerd" characters, as shown in "The Bus Pants Utilization", where the guys develop an iPhone app and Sheldon refers to them as "three geniuses and their friend Howard".

Howard is usually seen working on equipment to be used in NASA missions and the International Space Station, though many times he is careless about it.

In the first episode, Howard mentioned working on the design of a satellite that orbits a moon of Jupiter taking high-resolution photos.[8]

Having worked on the Mars rover project, he invited his date, Dr. Stephanie Barnett, to drive it at a secret facility. Instead, the rover became stuck in a Martian ditch and he spent the rest of the night with Sheldon and Raj trying to undo the damage. When this proved unsuccessful, he decided to erase the hard drives of the facility to cover up his meddling, only to later find out that the rover had discovered the first clear signs of life on mars.[9] When he made it onto a new team for the Defense Department laser-equipped surveillance satellite, Howard was not granted security clearance after Sheldon revealed the rover incident to an investigating FBI agent.[10]

On another occasion, Howard worked on a zero-gravity human-waste disposal system, essentially a "space toilet", that was deployed in the International Space Station. He later realized the equipment had a structural weakness and again sought the help of his friends to correct it. The solution proved unsuccessful and an incident on the station ensued (Raj referred to this as the "zero-gravity human-waste distribution system").[7]

Being the engineer among his physicist friends, he assumes the role of leader for small hands-on projects. He was the primary force behind "M.O.N.T.E.", a killer robot designed to enter a robot fighting competition. The robot was destroyed by Barry Kripke's own robot, the "Kripke Krippler", in an unofficial match before the start of competition.[11]

In the season 4 premiere, Howard developed a robotic arm for the International Space Station. Realizing how much it felt like an actual arm, he used the arm to masturbate, only to get the arm stuck on his penis. He called Leonard and Raj, but neither were willing to get too "hands on" and help free him from the arm's grip. He was afraid to use the computer controlling the arm as it thought it was holding a screwdriver and would start twisting. Eventually, Leonard and Raj took Howard to the hospital, where the attending nurse went against Howard's fears and turned off the computer, freeing Howard. The episode's tag scene implied that Howard tried to use the arm to masturbate again and ended up in the same predicament.

Howard likely has the most hands-on and mechanical aptitude of the four as well. It appears he has soldering and electrical/wiring abilities as shown when he built the robot fighter M.O.N.T.E.

Howard will visit the International Space Station as a Payload Specialist on Expedition 31 and has the astronaut nickname "Froot Loops".[12] At first NASA cancelled his flight to a very relieved Howard, but then the mission is moved up causing Howard and Bernadette to move up their wedding. A very nervous Howard is launched into space.

Family

Howard is noted for still living with his overbearing mother, who is oblivious to his accomplishments as a grown-up and usually treats him like he is still a child, filling the cliché of a Jewish mother.

Mrs. Wolowitz (voiced by Carol Ann Susi) is never seen on-screen, but her voice is heard when he is at their house or when he talks to her on the phone. She only communicates with Howard by yelling to him in an obnoxious manner, which results in awkward long-distance conversations, with Howard frustratedly yelling back at her. Her nosy nature and her barrage of questions make Howard's life tense at home, which prompts him to call her a "crazy old lady". It is revealed in "The Cohabitation Formulation", however, when Howard briefly moves in with Bernadette, that he likes being "mothered" to some extent. In "The Apology Insufficiency", Sheldon observes that Howard seems to have "an unresolved Oedipal complex".[13]

In "The Precious Fragmentation", Howard reveals that his father left his family when Howard was 11. His mother bought him an ALF doll to help Howard try to get over it. When Howard finds a similar doll at a garage sale, he starts talking to it as if he were 11 again, asking him to find his dad and bring him home. This causes Penny (who usually avoids Howard and is disgusted by him) to be sympathetic. The trauma of his father's desertion and the lack of a father figure throughout adolescence may be the root of much of Howard's behavior. So far Howard is the only character out of the main cast who has never had a family relative appear on-screen. In "The Shiny Trinket Manuever", it is mentioned that the birthday party where he did his magic show was his cousin's party but it is unknown who his cousin was in the group of children that were present.[14]

Relationships

Howard is consistently depicted as the most sex-crazed of the guys. For example, he develops a mathematical formula for the likelihood of his having sex by applying and modifying the Drake equation to include the "Wolowitz coefficient", which he defines as "neediness times dress size squared". He states, "I'm a horny engineer,... I never joke about math or sex".[15]

Howard's techniques in approaching women are varied, including magic, card tricks, ventriloquism, and techniques from the Mystery Method, such as peacocking and negging.[9][16]

Along with Leonard and Raj, Howard also attempts to date Missy, Sheldon's twin sister. His offer is not accepted.[17]

Katee Sackhoff appears as herself in "The Vengeance Formulation" where she is fantasized as Howard's dream girl. She appears again in season 4, in the same role.

Since the beginning of the series, Howard shows an interest in Penny, but the interest is primarily sexual and she always turns him down. After yet another approach by Howard, Penny finally confronts him about how he treats women. This greatly affects Howard and he falls into a depression, missing work and staying home. When Penny apologizes, Howard tells her about his past relationships and Penny shows some sympathy for him; after her comforting words, Howard tries to kiss her, but she reacts by punching him in the face. With the situation resolved, Penny believes they have come to an "understanding", but Howard instead thinks he was merely "half-way to pity sex" with her.[11]

Howard engages in a "friends with benefits" relationship with Leslie Winkle, which brings him a few benefits besides sex.[18] However, he still becomes depressed when Leslie dumps him some time later. In order to cheer him up, Leonard and Raj take Howard to Las Vegas and manage to hire a prostitute for him.[19]

When the guys travel by train to a symposium in San Francisco, Howard gets a chance to talk to Summer Glau (portraying herself). His clumsy attempts at impressing the actress fail, despite his being in a confined environment with her for multiple hours.[20]

During a camping trip with Leonard and Raj, in which they all get stoned by eating cookies laced with a drug (likely marijuana), Howard reveals he lost his virginity to his second cousin Jeanie after his uncle's funeral. This fact prompts incessant teasing from Leonard and Raj.[21]

Despite the fact that Howard is undeniably obsessed with women, some believe him to be in a homosexual relationship with Raj. The belief is proposed by Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, Leonard's mother. She says she believes them to be in an "ersatz homosexual marriage".[22] Raj and Howard have several arguments during the series, in which Raj repeatedly accuses Howard of leaving him for everyone who is only slightly better looking, which appears Raj to be assuming the cliché female role in partnership arguments. However, Raj and Howard's relationship is mostly close. Raj often whispers comments to Howard when Penny is in the room, which allows him an avenue of communication, given Raj's chronic inability to speak to women.

In recent seasons, Howard is in a romantic relationship with Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch). A waitress paying her way through graduate school for microbiology studies, Bernadette is introduced to Howard by Penny. At first she and Howard do not get along, as they appear to have nothing in common. However, when they find out they both have overbearing mothers they immediately feel a connection. They are particularly pleased that it could enrage both Howard's Jewish mother and Bernadette's Catholic mother to find out their kids are dating. They also each note that they lost their virginity in Toyota vehicles. Subsequently, Howard realizes Bernadette represents a real opportunity to develop a lasting relationship and, in an impulsive manner, he proposes to her. Although Bernadette rejects his offer, they remain a couple for a time.[23]

There is often a running gag between Leonard and Howard mocking Raj for still being single. In The Plimpton Stimulation, Howard briefly mentions that he and Bernadette broke up a couple weeks earlier, but did not mention it since he "was waiting for the right time". It is later revealed that the relationship ended because Bernadette caught Howard having cyber sex with "Glacinda the Troll" on World of Warcraft, who is later revealed to have been played by a male member of the university. By the end of the episode, the two discuss their problems and restart their relationship from the beginning.[24]

Season 4 introduces Howard's "latent homosexual tendencies" when George Takei appears as himself in an imaginary conversation with Bernadette and Katee Sackhoff over his relationship status with Bernadette, which is a reminder of what Leonard's mother earlier says about the ersatz marriage.

In, "The Herb Garden Germination", Howard once again proposes to Bernadette, this time in front of his friends. To Raj's dismay (he had developed feelings for Bernadette) she accepts. However, during their engagement, Bernadette is awarded her Doctorate degree and reveals that she has gotten a job at a pharmaceutical company which promises a "buttload of money." Although he claims to have supported her new career, Howard's friends mock him for not having a Doctorate, with Penny calling the others doctors then remarking that Howard knows a lot of doctors. The situation reaches its breaking point when he and Bernadette have an argument after she buys him a Rolex. He interprets it as a sign that she will be the main breadwinner.[25]

The souring of relations grow worse when he learns from Raj that, in addition to having slept with Penny, Raj also was writing love poems and fantasizing about Bernadette, which leads to Howard distrusting Bernadette and believing that she may cheat on him with Raj.[26]

More recently, Howard accepts that Bernadette may be the main breadwinner in their relationship, since they've agreed that if they have kids, he will stay at home with them while she continues to work. [27]

At his bachelor party, a drunk Raj describes Howard losing his virginity to his second cousin, his Las Vegas prostitute experience and their three-some with a pudgy Sailor Moon girl at ComicCon which Wil Wheaton uploads to the Internet. Bernadette picks them up and is furious after seeing the video and is wondering how she can marry a man that she doesn’t seem to know, though she does forgive him after he apologizes.[28]

Bernadette tells Howard that she wants to be married to him before he is launched into space. After an abortive attempt to be married at city hall before it closed, they agree to be married on the roof of the apartment building. Bernadette is escorted down the aisle by her father and is married by Raj, Leonard, Penny, Sheldon and Amy who all became ministers for the occasion. The ceremony is photographed by an orbiting satellite for the Google Earth website. [29]

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Apology Insufficiency". The Big Bang Theory. November 4, 2010. No. 07, season 4
  2. ^ Is the world ready for an Asperger's sitcom?
  3. ^ "The Fuzzy Boots Corollary". The Big Bang Theory. Season 1. Episode 3 (3). October 8, 2007. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ "The Tangerine Factor". The Big Bang Theory. Season 1. Episode 17 (17). May 19, 2008. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "The Jerusalem Duality". The Big Bang Theory. Season 1. Episode 12. April 14, 2008. 6:07 minutes in. CBS. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ "The Financial Permeability". The Big Bang Theory. Season 2. Episode 14 (31). February 2, 2009. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ a b "The Classified Materials Turbulence". The Big Bang Theory. Season 2. Episode 22 (39). May 4, 2009. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help) Cite error: The named reference "S02E22" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Pilot". The Big Bang Theory. Season 1. Episode 1 (1). September 24, 2007. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ a b "The Lizard-Spock Expansion". The Big Bang Theory. Season 2. Episode 8 (25). November 17, 2008. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ "The Apology Insufficiency". The Big Bang Theory. Season 4. Episode 7. November 4, 2010. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ a b "The Killer Robot Instability". The Big Bang Theory. Season 2. Episode 12 (29). January 12, 2009. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ "The Friendship Contraction". The Big Bang Theory. Season 5. Episode 15. February 2, 2012. 02:20 minutes in. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ http://bigbangtrans.wordpress.com/series-4-episode-07-the-apology-insufficiency/
  14. ^ "The Shiny Trinket Maneuver". The Big Bang Theory. Season 5. Episode 12. January 12, 2012. 00:41, 01:00 and 09:44 minutes in. CBS. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ "The Hofstadter Isotope". The Big Bang Theory. Season 2. Episode 20 (37). April 13, 2009. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ "The Middle Earth Paradigm". The Big Bang Theory. Season 1. Episode 6 (6). October 29, 2007. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ "The Pork Chop Indeterminacy". The Big Bang Theory. Season 1. Episode 15 (15). May 5, 2008. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ "The Cushion Saturation". The Big Bang Theory. Season 2. Episode 16 (33). March 2, 2009. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ "The Vegas Renormalization". The Big Bang Theory. Season 2. Episode 21 (38). April 27, 2009. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ "The Terminator Decoupling". The Big Bang Theory. Season 2. Episode 17 (34). March 9, 2009. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  21. ^ "The Adhesive Duck Deficiency". The Big Bang Theory. Season 3. Episode 8 (48). November 16, 2009. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ "The Maternal Capacitance". The Big Bang Theory. Season 2. Episode 15 (32). February 9, 2009. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ "The Plimpton Stimulation". The Big Bang Theory. Season 3. Episode 21. May 10, 2010. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ "The Hot Troll Deviation". The Big Bang Theory. Season 4. Episode 4. October 14, 2010. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  25. ^ "The Roommate Transmogrification". The Big Bang Theory. Season 4. Episode 24. May 19, 2011. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  26. ^ "The Skank Reflex Analysis". The Big Bang Theory. Season 5. Episode 1. September 22, 2011. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  27. ^ "The Shiny Trinket Maneuver". The Big Bang Theory. Season 5. Episode 12. January 12, 2012. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  28. ^ "The Stag Convergence". The Big Bang Theory. Season 5. Episode 22. April 26, 2012. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  29. ^ "The Countdown Reflection". The Big Bang Theory. Season 5. Episode 24. May 10, 2012. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
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