The Social Group

The Social Group or Team Leonard refers to the group of best friends consisting of the main characters of The Big Bang Theory and its spin offs, including Young Sheldon. This term is first used to described the group of best friends by Sheldon in Season 2's "The Panty Piñata Polarization" although Leonard has used the term previously in Season 1's "The Middle-Earth Paradigm" to describe Penny's friends. 
==History==
The social group or Team Leonard was formed when Leonard befriended Howard and Raj, as told in retrospect in Season 3's "The Staircase Implementation". As Sheldon was living with Leonard, Sheldon constantly butted in when the three were hanging out and he quickly became a member of the group. He later established himself as the group's leader and comic relief although no one agreed that he was either. 
Penny joined the group after moving next to Sheldon and Leonard in the "pilot episode". She was "officially" recognized by Sheldon as a permanent member of the social group in "The Panty Piñata Polarization" right before she was banished briefly for unwilling to move away from Sheldon's Spot. Or when Penny officially acknowledged that they were friends in "The Euclid Alternative. Bernadette joined shortly after she started dating Howard in Season 3's "The Gorilla Experiment". Amy started hanging out with the group in Season 4's "The Zazzy Substitution", and she mentioned officially being part of the group in Season 4's "The 21-Second Excitation". The three girls formed their own social group and have frequently been hanging out together as Penny's Posse.
Raj's sister Priya started hanging out with everyone in the group after she had developed a relationship with Leonard during her stay in Los Angeles, as seen in "The Cohabitation Formulation" (4.16). The other girls actually formed a Priya-hating group behind her back in the beginning as she and Penny did not get along because of Penny being Leonard's ex-girlfriend. They began to accept each other eventually though shortly thereafter Priya returned to India and she's out of the group.
Stuart was invited by Raj into the group in "The Decoupling Fluctuation" (6.02) after Howard went to space, and Sheldon approved of him staying in the group around the time of Howard's return when he offered the guys 30% off at the comic book store in Season 6's "The Re-Entry Minimization".
Sheldon once "befriended" Kripke so as to use the new Open Science Grid Computer that Kripke controlled. He had to kick Raj from his friends because he could not maintain five friendships. He ousted Kripke and got Raj back shortly afterwards when Kripke told him time on the computer followed an official schedule instead.
Amy forced Sheldon to realize that Leonard was the true nucleus of the group instead of him in Season 4's "The Toast Derivation". As a result, Sheldon tried to create a new social group with himself as the leader. He invited Stuart, Kripke, Zack and TV's LeVar Burton over to his apartment for a good time. Burton did not show up (until very late). Sheldon abandoned his new friends when "they were having fun wrong".
==Group Members==
===Members===
* Leonard Leakey Hofstadter - (The leader of the group) the nucleus,as described in the conversation between Sheldon and Amy in the bar in "The Toast Derivation" (4.17). muscleAs described by Sheldon in "The Precious Fragmentation" (3.17) when the guys are going up the stairs with a box of stuff from a garage sale. and Kirk. (Captain James T. Kirk).As compared to the Star Trek character by Sheldon in "The White Asparagus Triangulation" (2.09) when he is crashing Leonard's date with Stephanie at home.
* Sheldon Lee Cooper - the whimsical elf. Things revolve around him and he often makes many choices for the group, smart one and Spock.
*Penny Hofstadter - as of "Pilot" (1.01). The female character in the sitcom. She has her posse since Season 4's The 21-Second Excitation.
* Howard Joel Wolowitz - the funny one and second in command of the group. and Scotty (Montgomery Scott).
* Rajesh Ramayan Koothrappali - the group historian,As referred by Leonard in "The Hawking Excitation" (5.21). lovable foreigner and "the guy who always gets killed". or the Star Trek guy in the red shirt.
* Amy Farrah Fowler - as of "The Zazzy Substitution" (4.03; Started hanging out with the gang) and "The 21-Second Excitation" (4.08; Became a main cast member).
* Bernadette Maryann Rostenkowski-Wolowitz - as of "The Gorilla Experiment" (3.10; Started hanging out with the gang) "The Hot Troll Deviation" (4.04; Became a main cast member).
* Stuart David Bloom - as of "The Date Night Variable" (6.01) until the "The Bakersfield Expedition" (6.13) and once again as of "The Locomotion Interruption" (S8E1). Also he was once invited by Sheldon to form a new social group in "The Toast Derivation" (4.17). Before joining the group, he could have been considered a very close associate.
*Denise - She joined the group in Season 12 when she started dating Stuart.
=== Honorary Members ===
* Wil Wheaton is also an honorary member of the group and also an ally of them. Wil is well-liked by everyone by the team, but he and Sheldon have an on again and off again friendship.
* Barry Kripke - befriended by Sheldon for his wish of using the new Open Science Grid Computer; got kicked out when Sheldon found out he was no use to his cause. Barry is still an honorary member of the group and ally.
* Zack Johnson - once joined the guys to dress as the Justice League and entered a costume contest held by the comic book store in "The Justice League Recombination" (4.11). He is an honorary member and ally of the group.
** Barry and Zack, along with Stuart, were members of Sheldon's failed social group, created to be independent of Leonard as the nucleus, as seen in "The Toast Derivation" (4.17).
*Bert Kibbler - a co-worker and friend of the guys who occasionally hangs out with them. He is another honorary member of the group and their ally.
=== Previous Members ===
This section lists people that have been part of the social group and have been treated as part of the main circle for a span of time.
* Emily Sweeney - main character from "The 2003 Approximation" (9.04) to "The Application Deterioration" (9.18), though she seldom takes part in any gatherings and is no longer in it by Season 10.
*Leslie Winkle - used to join the guys at activities on occasions (main cast member from "The Codpiece Topology" (2.02) until "The Cushion Saturation" (2.16) and later in "The Celebration Experimentation" (9.17).
*Stephanie Barnett - not counting her boyfriend Leonard, only hung out with Sheldon, though he said she was only "tolerable". But then he compared her to Dr. McCoy in Star Trek. He did like to have a medical doctor around to keep checking up on his hypochondria.
*Priya Koothrappali - She joined the group during her stay in Los Angeles while dating Leonard during season 4. 
==Group Undertakings==
Teaming for the Physics Bowl: The guys enter the university Physics Bowl as a team in "The Bat Jar Conjecture" (1.13). In a simulated run, Sheldon ignores the others' buzzes and keeps answering for them, leading to the three kicking him off the team. Sheldon goes on to form his own team with some common staff from the university, and the three get Leslie Winkle to be their fourth team member. Sheldon's team loses when he does not allow one of his teammates, who was once a physicist in the former Soviet Union, to answer the final question.
DEFCON 5: The guys come to Howard's rescue when he tried to impress a girl, Stephanie Barnett, by taking her to a NASA facility and letting her drive the Mars rover, but has got the rover stuck in a ditch instead, as seen in "The Lizard-Spock Expansion" (2.08). Leonard is asked to send Stephanie home (and they end up making out and starting a brief relationship). Raj and Sheldon try to help Howard to save the rover but fail. Then they destroy all the evidence and run. NASA then announces that evidence of life has been found on Mars in the ditch he got the rover stuck in and can't claim credit for it. 
Woboto-a-woboto: The guys make a killer robot, the Mobile Omnidirectional Neutralization and Termination Eradicator, or MONTE, to enter the Southern California Robot Fighting League Round Robin Invitational in "The Killer Robot Instability" (2.12). But they are challenged by Kripke to fight his killer robot, the Kripke Krippler. MONTE did not survived the fight.
Penny Blossoms: Penny starts a business of making and selling flower barrettes in "The Work Song Nanocluster" (2.18). Sheldon and later the other three help her with production and setting up a website.
The North Pole expedition: Sheldon is offered to go on a National Science Foundation expedition to the magnetic North Pole to detect slow-moving monopoles in order to confirm string theory in "The Monopolar Expedition" (2.23). The other three join him as his support team. They return three months later in "The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation" (3.01), and Howard tells Sheldon that they tricked him into believing he had found the magnetic monopoles by creating static from turning on and off an electric can opener because he acted like a "dictator" the first few weeks when they found nothing. Sheldon has already sent an email to everyone at the university announcing his success. He has to send a retraction email to set the record straight. His reputation is severely damaged as a result.
Speech for Chancellor's Award for Science: Sheldon is afraid to give a speech at the coming Chancellor's Award for Science in "The Pants Alternative" (3.18). Raj, Penny and Leonard come together to help him overcome his stage fright. Howard just stands by with his superpower of "the ability to pretend like I give a damn".
The bowling matches: Sheldon leads the guys and Penny against Stuart's team in two bowling matches in "The Wheaton Recurrence" (3.19). Sheldon's team loses the first match after Penny breaks away over a fight with Leonard about her not returning Leonard's "I love you" the previous night. They have a second match again and this time there is a bet. Sheldon's team loses again after Wil Wheaton from Stuart's team sways Penny into breaking up with Leonard. The four guys dress as superheroines and a supervillainess in the comic book store for losing the bet.
New Year's Eve costume party: The guys invite Zack and Penny to join them dressed as the Justice League of America in the comic book store's New Year's Eve costume party in "The Justice League Recombination" (4.11). Penny nearly backs out, but Leonard finally talks her into going together. They win "Best Group Costume" in the party.
The Lenwoloppali Differential Equation Scanner: Leonard comes up with an idea for a handwriting-recognition differential equation solving app in "The Bus Pants Utilization" (4.12). The 4 guys form a team to write the app, with Leonard as the leader. Sheldon keeps trying to steal the leadership and proves to be impossible to work with, and is quickly fired from the team. Sheldon is later persuaded by Penny to apologize (sarcastically) to the guys and is accepted back to the team. Then he goes back to his previous behavior and is fired a second time. He ends up working for Penny for her "Project Shoe".
Attending a science conference: The guys, Amy and Bernadette have all been invited to speak in an annual science conference (The Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies' Symposium on the Impact of Current Scientific Research on Societal Interactions) in "The Love Car Displacement" (4.13). Amy invites Penny to come along. As things have happened during their car trip and the night at the hotel, half of them are not in a good mood when they host their talk on "Science and Society". A number of personal issues get into the talk and Penny leaves early for home with someone else. The rest drive home later, not without some trouble.
Fund-raising for the university: President Siebert orders the guys to attend a fund-raiser in "The Benefactor Factor" (4.15). One of the wealthy donors, Mrs. Latham, invites Leonard to dinner to talk about his research and hits on him. Leonard feels uncomfortable, but Sheldon encourages Leonard to go along with it to get millions of dollars for the department. She manages to seduce him in the end. He is applauded by his colleagues when he enters the cafeteria of the university.
Getting Sheldon's WoW stuff back: Someone hacked Sheldon's World of Warcraft account and stole all his items and gold within in "The Zarnecki Incursion" (4.19). The guys help him track down the thief and they go to the thief's house by car to get his virtual stuff back. The thief does not comply and the guys return empty-handed. But then Leonard's car breaks down. They get Penny to come and take them home, but she helps them get Sheldon's stuff back from the thief in the end.
Leonard and Penny reunite: Leonard (having broken up with Priya) decides to ask Penny out on a date and envisions a fantasy, in which things do not go well the second time around, but he decides to go ahead and ask her out anyway, Penny agrees to this and they restart their relationship again. 
==Trivia==
* Sheldon calls he and his best friends a "homogenous group" while he fires Raj from his friendship in "The Friendship Algorithm" (2.13).
* Bernadette is the only group member not to appear on or get involved in "Sheldon Cooper presents Fun with Flags"
* Bernadette is the only group member not to meet Wil Wheaton until the episode "The Celebration Experimentation" (S9E17) where as only before then, only Penny, Amy and the men has had met him so far.
** She is probably the only group member not to be involved with any of the "Star Trek" franchise (nor any of the "Star Wars" franchise) and whereas only Penny, Amy and one or two of the men are involved with some of that sci-fi stuff to which is why Bernadette got very cross with Sheldon for doing a wedding vow in Klingon and even more crosser for one last second when Sheldon had said "The Klingon High Council" during the rooftop wedding of Howard and Bernadette in "The Countdown Reflection" (S5E24).
* Leonard being group leader might reflect that Leonard is the main character in the show.
* Stuart is the only member who has yet to make an appearance in "Young Sheldon". By that time, he would've been a teen.
* All of the members of the social group, current or former, have the "y" sound at the end of their name, whether it be by their actual name or nickname (Shelly, Lenny, Penny, Howie, Koothrappali, Amy, Bernie, Stewie and even Emily and Leslie).
* All of the main 8 members of the Social Group (except Penny, but she later became a Hofstadter) have the letter O in their surnames (Sheldon Lee Cooper, Leonard Leakey Hofstadter, Howard Joel Wolowitz, Rajesh Ramayan Koothrappali, Penny Hofstadter, Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, Amy Farrah Fowler, Stuart Bloom).
** This is a trait also shared by the Pokémon series, namely with every region from the core series bearing a name with an O in it (up to the Alola region from Generation VII).
*They are referred as "The Gang" by fans.
== Gallery ==
Click here to see the gallery.
==Videos==
File:Comic-Con 2010 Big Bang Theory Panel - Part 3
File:The Big Bang Theory Final Curtain Call and Emotional Walk-Through of the Stage.
File:Find Out Which ‘The Big Bang Theory’ Star Is the Most Emotional as Series End Nears
File:Fall TV 2010 - 'The Big Bang Theory'
==References==
Category:Characters
Category:Sheldon Cooper
Category:Leonard Hofstadter
Category:Penny
Category:Howard Wolowitz
Category:Rajesh Koothrappali
Category:Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz
Category:Amy Farrah Fowler
Category:Stephanie
Category:Zack Johnson
Category:Priya Koothrappali
Category:Stuart
Category:Shamy
Category:Howard-Bernadette
Category:Leonard and Priya
Category:Husband
Category:Emily Sweeney
Category:Raj-Emily Together
Category:Season 1 (The Big Bang Theory)
Category:Season 2 (The Big Bang Theory)
Category:Season 3 (The Big Bang Theory)
Category:Season 4 (The Big Bang Theory)
Category:Season 5 (The Big Bang Theory)
Category:Season 6 (The Big Bang Theory)
Category:Season 7 (The Big Bang Theory)
Category:Season 8 (The Big Bang Theory)
Category:Season 9 (The Big Bang Theory)
Category:Season 10 (The Big Bang Theory)
Category:Season 12 (The Big Bang Theory)
Category:Groups