Kunal Nayyar's 5 Favorite The Big Bang Theory Episodes Delivered Classic Raj Moments

Throughout 12 years and the same number of seasons, Kunal Nayyar played Raj Koothrappali on Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady's massively popular sitcom, "The Big Bang Theory" (though, as fans learned eventually, Nayyar almost got fired by the network before the show became a huge success). Raj is an important part of the main group — which otherwise includes Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), Leonard and Penny Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco), Howard Wolowitz and Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz (Simon Helberg and Melissa Rauch), and Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik) — and it's hard to imagine the series without him. So, with that in mind, did Nayyar have any favorite moments or memories from his time as Raj?

In a retrospective posted by TBS (a channel known for frequently airing "The Big Bang Theory" in syndication) on Facebook on the day that the series finale, "The Stockholm Syndrome," aired on CBS, Nayyar opened up about episodes he particularly loved — and the moments that made them so special. From a major piece of his character's evolution to some of Raj's much sillier moments, here are Nayyar's favorite episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" and why he's so fond of them.

When we first meet Raj in season 1 of "The Big Bang Theory," he's saddled with a really strange "quirk." Based on a guy that co-creator Bill Prady knew in real life, Raj can't talk around women due to social anxiety — and while this condition, known as selective mutism, is real, the way Raj can find a temporary cure for it hopefully isn't. What I mean by that is that Raj can only talk to a woman if he's really drunk.

This first comes up in "The Grasshopper Experiment," the eighth ever episode of "The Big Bang Theory," in which Raj finds out that his domineering parents have arranged for him to go on a blind date. Based on the fact that Raj can't even squeak a single syllable when he's around Penny, the gang rallies to figure out how they can possibly help their friend overcome his anxiety-driven selective mutism on the date in question. When they have some drinks at Penny's place because she's working on bartender training at the Cheesecake Factory, they realize that if Raj is extremely intoxicated, he talks to Penny.

Obviously, this all leads to Raj completely ruining his date because he's too drunk to act normal despite being able to speak. So, what did Kunal Nayyar say about the episode? "This was the first time I spoke to Penny with a drink in my hand," he said in the video. "And the worldwide sales of Grasshoppers tripled." (That's a reference to the cocktail Raj enjoys at Penny's place, which is a completely out-of-date drink composed of green crème de menthe, white crème de cacao, and heavy cream. There is, of course, no evidence behind Nayyar's claim, and I personally doubt its veracity.)

Most fans of "The Big Bang Theory" remember the season 3 episode "The Adhesive Duck Deficiency" because it's the one where Sheldon helps Penny after she slips and falls in the shower. So, why is it one of Kunal Nayyar's favorite episodes of the series? Because of Raj's plotline with Leonard and Howard.

While Sheldon and Penny are elsewhere, Leonard, Howard, and Raj go out camping in the desert hoping to catch the Leonid Meteor Shower when they meet a van full of girls with some, uh, "special" cookies. You can see where this is going: They all get really, really high without fully understanding what's going on. From commenting on how silly Leonard and Howard's American accents sound to cooking up a lurid fantasy about becoming the ruler of an animal species, Raj definitely feels the effects of the cookies. "If I could speak the language of rabbits, they would be amazed, and I would be their king," he opines at one point. Meanwhile, Leonard whines about "nerd" being in his name and Howard admits that he lost his virginity to his cousin. "I would be kind to my rabbit subjects at first," Raj continues, undeterred, as his friends chatter around him. "One day, I hold a great ball for the President of France. But the rabbits, they all hate me and don't come. I'm embarrassed, so I eat all the lettuce in the world and make them watch." As they hang out and eat all of the food they brought, they miss the meteor shower completely but still have a really great time.

"Getting high in the desert with the guys and then giving an entire speech about being the cruel king of a land of rabbits was definitely out there for me," Nayyar recalled to TBS.

In season 6 of "The Big Bang Theory," the boys prepare to visit the Bakersfield Comic-Con — which Sheldon says is better than the massive San Diego convention that "went all Hollywood" and isn't about comic books anymore — when, predictably, disaster strikes. With Sheldon dressed as Data, Leonard as Picard, Howard as a Borg drone, and Raj as Worf, the boys set out in Leonard's car but stop in the desert to take some photos of themselves in costume. While they're putting together the perfect pose, someone steals Leonard's car (because he left the keys in the ignition like a clown) and takes all of their everyday clothes and their phones.

Because nobody will pick up four hitchhikers in full "Star Trek" costumes, the guys wander to a local diner. There, they stick out like a collective sore thumb until Howard's overprotective mother Mrs. Wolowitz, who's heard but never seen throughout the show, gets them a rental car to come home. Raj, characteristically, can't resist a joke about the specific rental agency and irritates all of his friends. "Spending nine hours in 'Star Trek' makeup? Not so fun," Kunal Nayyar recalled. "Getting to make a joke about 'renting a car from Enterprise?' Priceless."

In season 4 of "The Big Bang Theory, Penny is dating a nice, beefy himbo named Zack (Brian Thomas Smith), and because of Zack's resemblance to Superman, the show's main characters manage to convince the guy to dress as the superhero for a local comic book store's costume contest. Leonard was originally supposed to be Superman, but when Zack takes over the role, Leonard chooses Green Lantern ... leaving Raj to dress up as Aquaman, complete with a fake seahorse around his waist. (In the episodes leading up to this, Raj takes frequent digs at Aquaman, making it clear that he believes the comic book character absolutely sucks.)

"Attaching a foam seahorse to my waist and yelling 'Aquaman sucks!' while dressed up as Aquaman was a real treat," Kunal Nayyar joked in the retrospective. "That is, before Jason Momoa actually made Aquaman cool." Nayyar is obviously referring to Momoa's role as the underwater hero in multiple DC Extended Universe films, but still, he should give himself just a tiny bit of credit: He made Aquaman funny, at least.

It takes quite a while, but in season 11 of "The Big Bang Theory," Raj finally undergoes a style transformation ... in that he stops straightening his hair. In the episode "The Confidence Erosion," Raj and his bestie Howard are fighting because Raj is upset that Howard won't stop making jokes at his expense. As a result, Raj lets his naturally curly hair shine, and it's revealed that he only straightened his hair to fit in with "cool" Americans like Howard.

In Jessica Radloff's 2022 book "The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series," Kunal Nayyar said that he really felt the emotional weight of Raj's seemingly simple makeover. "It was so nice when [they stopped straightening it] because it was almost as if he was regaining his identity that he had lost," Nayyar told Radloff. "It happened in such a beautiful way. He had a fight with his best friend, and said to Howard, 'You've bullied me my whole life.' Even though he really hadn't, he's like, 'You've just put me in this box and I want to be free of it.' It was so well done."

In that TBS video, Nayyar explained why he loves "The Confidence Erosion" so much: "Because after 11 years of flat ironing my hair — I finally got to wear it curly and natural as it is." You can check out all of these episodes, along with the rest of "The Big Bang Theory," on HBO Max.