The Big Bang Theory Scene That Jim Parsons Found Hard To Shoot

Although “The Big Bang Theory” is relatively mild and family-friendly, at least compared to its contemporaries like “How I Met Your Mother” or “Modern Family,” it did still regularly delve into sexual humor. Howard’s always got some skeevy joke to tell and there are no shortage of jokes about Penny’s sex life. With Sheldon (Jim Parsons), however, the show was borderline G-rated; the character had seemingly zero interest in sex for the first few seasons, and even by the end of the show, the evidence of his libido was still scant. The introduction of Amy (Mayim Bialik) in the season 3 finale helped clarify him as heterosexual, though that label for Sheldon’s sexuality will always have a giant asterisk next to it.

Sheldon’s lack of interest or awareness of sex is what helped make one risqué joke in season 6’s “The Fish Guts Displacement” work so well. His storyline involves Amy pretending to be sick in order to trick him into being more intimate with her. He eventually discovers the ruse, so Amy convinces him that some punishment is required. And so became the famous scene where Sheldon spanks Amy, oblivious to the fact that Amy doesn’t consider it a punishment at all.

It’s a scene that could’ve been creepy, but it works because of how sexless Sheldon (and to a slightly lesser extent, Amy) has been throughout the entire show. It was tough on the actors, however, in part because they couldn’t stop laughing the whole time. 

“I would say it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do because I found it tremendously amusing,” Parsons said in a 2013 panel. The scene was originally supposed to be filmed off-camera, with a shot of Amy’s monkey reacting to the sight serving as the scene’s punchline, so the last-minute change complicated things a bit. 

“I was pissed, because I thought ‘Well damn it, I would have practiced how to control myself if I’d known all week,’ but all week I was slapping that ass off camera,” Parsons said. He added about Bialik, sitting beside him, “You have no idea how game she is.”

At the same panel, Bialik joked that “there was some redness” after filming the scene, due to the multiple takes. Parsons joked that the spanking needed to be real “to get the sound we want,” adding, “It’s all in the name of art.”

In another interview for Jessica Radloff’s 2022 book “The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series,” Parsons elaborated on the experience a little more, explaining how the last-minute change with the scene made him feel: “I was spitting nails, I was so mad at these people for putting me on camera … and I couldn’t quit laughing, which was only making me more mad because I suddenly couldn’t do my job.”

The scene ended up being one of the most memorable bits in the whole series, one referenced and meme-d a lot by fans. And there must’ve been something in the air around Hollywood at the time, because the animated sitcom “American Dad” pulled a very similar sequence in its spring 2013 episode “The Missing Kink,” airing just a few months later. That episode features housewife Francine (voiced by Wendy Schaal) tricking her husband Stan (Seth MacFarlane) into spanking her, with the stern, no-nonsense Stan not quite understanding the situation. 

Of course, the version of the storyline we got on “The Big Bang Theory” was the far more memorable of the two, given that its live-action format meant the actors had to put a lot more on the line. It was a risky scene for Bialik and Parsons to go through with — maybe not as risky as a BDSM scene that got a “The Big Bang Theory” episode banned in the UK, but still — and as far as “TBBT” fans are concerned, the gamble paid off.