Howard Wolowitz

Howard Joel Wolowitz is faculty at Caltech's Department of Applied Physics who often hangs out at Leonard and Sheldon's apartment. He designed a satellite which is currently orbiting a moon of Jupiter taking high-res photos and some of the components he has built are on the ISS. He doesn't show signs of discontentment like Leonard, but rather is confident enough to try to woo Penny with his knowledge of languages, of which he knows six. Most of the languages were revealed in only the matter of one episode; in revealed order, they are English, French, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic, and Farsi. Wolowitz also speaks some Klingon (and plays Klingon Boggle) as well as some Elvish, the fictional language created by J.R.R. Tolkien for The Lord of the Rings. Howard, like Raj and Leonard, is Sheldon's colleague. They are often annoyed with Sheldon's antics, but have grown accustomed to them, and help Sheldon when possible. He has an IQ in the 140 - 150's.He is portrayed by Simon Helberg.

Family
Howard is noted for living with his overbearing Jewish mother, who always makes his life miserable at home, and apparently, is oblivious to his accomplishments as a grown-up and usually treats him like he is still a child, filling the cliche of a Jewish mother, often prompting Howard to call his mother a "crazy old lady". Despite this, Howard seems to appreciate his Mother's cooking, especially her brisket, a dish what Howard referrs throughout (unlike the turbriskefilte, a turkey stuffed with a brisket stuffed with gefilte fish, which he says he 'doesn't even chew' but 'swallows like pills'.). In "The Precious Fragmentation", Howard reveals that his father left the family when Howard was eleven years old. To help Howard overcome this, his mom bought him an Alf doll to console Howard. Although it is not stated what really happened, Howard assumes that his father did not like him.

Trivia

 * Howard has a different chest hair count in "The Cushion Saturation" and "The 21-Second Excitation".
 * He designed the outer space toilet as the Wolowitz waste disposal system for NASA, which he doesn't get much respect for, with Mrs. Latham calling him a "Space Plummer".
 * Howard wears alien pins on his collar in every episode.
 * Even though Howard is Jewish, like Raj, Wolowitz does not seem to take his faith seriously and hardly keeps Kosher.
 * Howard wears vans or converse.
 * Wolowitz is a huge fan of Stephen Hawking and likes to watch tapes of his lectures, preferably ones prior to 1985, " before he became a 'creepy' computer voice" (Hawking lost his voice due to a tracheotomy performed after a life-threatening bout of pneumonia and now communicates using a voice synthesizer).
 * Wolowitz may not be as competent a polyglot as he believes. In The Dumpling Paradox, a waiter at a Chinese restaurant, referred to Wolowitz as "...your annoying little friend who thinks he speaks Mandarin." As evidence, he addressed Penny in Mandarin saying ("洗个痛快澡"! - Have a Good Shower!") spoken in the wrong tones. Another time, where he addressed to Penny in Russian, he said ("Ты очень красивая девушка" — "You are a very beautiful girl"), but had a bad pronunciation. However, he speaks his French in the appropriate manner without any speaking errors.
 * Wolowitz spends a large amount of time playing MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, where he plays a night elf hunter named Wolowizard with a pet tiger named Buttons. And Age of Conan where he is a Guardian named Sir Howard of Wolowitz.
 * Howard enjoys (and is very decent at) DDR.
 * Howard is allergic to peanuts and when he does eat one, his face goes pink and swells up very badly.
 * Sheldon, and others pick on him for not possessing a PhD (he only has a masters degree).
 * Howard owns an Alienware computer.
 * Howard has a Dell XPS M1210 with a 6 Cell Battery.
 * Howard owns a Motorola V3, Nokia N95 and various iPhone cellphones.
 * Howard's personal wardrobe and grooming styles are based on Davy Jones from The Monkees, usually including a 1960s hip bowl-style haircut (even though he chose to have a '70s disco style afro and goat beard 7 years ago) and a brightly colored shirt.
 * Howard can beatbox, albeit badly.
 * The character is named after show producer Bill Prady's former business partner in a software development company, Howard Wolowitz.
 * Howard's mother, played by Carol Ann Susi, threatened to take Howard out of the will as long as "the whore of Omaha", was around, Penny's friend Christy.
 * Howard lives with his mother, though he maintains that his mother lives with him.
 * Howard gets around Pasadena by means of gas-powered scooter with a basket on the front although he may have gotten a car because in the Robotic manipulation he states that he smuggled the robotic arm to his car.
 * Howard sports a number of belt buckles, including a chimpanzee, deli sandwich, a film projector, Nintendo controller and the 'Superman Returns' shield. Many of his belt buckles are purchased from thealley.com
 * Howard has transient idiopathic arrhythmia, which causes him to have an irregular heartbeat.
 * Howard has a Masters Degree in Engineering from MIT.
 * He is a Aerospace Engineer.
 * Howard thinks that when Penny rejects him that she is actually flirting with him.
 * He is the only one of the group, other than Penny, to lack a Ph.D. He is sometimes mocked by Sheldon for this.
 * Howard sang "Baby Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me" in the car on the way to a "great little sushi place that has karaoke."
 * Howard does not seem loyal to his Jewish faith, as it is revealed that he is only eating kosher at High Holy days; although he did say he wouldn't get a real tattoo so he could be buried in a Jewish cemetery.
 * Howard is at least part inventor in the defective "Zero Gravity Waste Disposal System" on the ISS and uses his mother's meatloaf to test it.
 * Howard plays the drums on Rock Band.
 * Howard lost his virginity in a Toyota Corolla to his cousin by accident.
 * Howard lost his virginity to his cousin Jeannie at his aunt Barbara's house after his uncle Murray's funeral ended. They apparently locked eyes over the pickled herring and ever since Howard gets aroused and ashamed by looking at pickled herring.
 * We have never seen Howard's mother so far, but have heard her a great deal.
 * Howard once went to medical school, but dropped out because he easily gets nauseated when he sees injuries (as seen in The White Asparagus Triangulation when he appears sick when he sees stitches on Leonard's hand).
 * Howard says in "The Friendship Algorithm" that he's thinking about growing a mustache but it's not until The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation he appears with one, having grown a massive beard at the North Pole and keeping the mustache when they shave their beards off.
 * According to "The Apology Insufficiency", his middle name is Joel.
 * Howard has 3% body fat (Raj says he looks like "a human chicken wing" when he's at the beach).
 * In "The Alien Parasite Hypothesis", Howard mentions having taken a karate lesson when he was 11. He claims that he could have become more proficient if his mother could have arranged a carpool.
 * Howard is no longer a ladies man as he now has a girlfriend and recently made fiance, Bernadette.
 * Like a common nerd, Howard was bullied as a child. He received the common treatment of wedgies and swirlies.
 * He has 100 pounds of weight.

Phrases Howard has used to hit on women, mainly Penny:
 * "See a Penny, pick her up, and all the day you'll have good luck."
 * (Howard was dressed as Robin Hood on Halloween but everyone thought he was Peter Pan:) "I got a lot of fairy dust with your name on it."
 * (Trying to hit on Summer Glau, an actress in Firefly as well as The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Raj later stole this line to use himself) "It's hot in here; it must be Summer."
 * "Are you from Mars? Because your ass is out of this world."
 * "Your ass must be jelly, because jam doesn't shake like that."
 * He has also called Penny a "cheesecake-scented goddess".