Wow, nice shirt . . . Moonpie.

Sheldon Cooper says Revenge is a dish best served cold in Klingon. On a T-shirt. Because that's awesome.

I love that this line has been immortalized in T-shirt form, not only because it's one of the funniest in the episode, but when we were rehearsing the scene it comes from, I grew a level in comedy acting:

During one of the run throughs, when Jim did his Klingon bit, I turned to Kevin and asked him, "Did he just say 'revenge is a dish best served cold' in Klingon?" like I was trying to figure out if that's actually what happened, like maybe I misunderstood him. Chuck Lorre told me that it would be funnier if I was more exasperated. "You're just here to play this game, and now some guy is quoting Klingon at you. This happens everywhere you go," he said. 

I sighed dramatically, and said, "Oh, it does." Everyone laughed, hard, and Chuck pointed his finger at me. "Yes. That is exactly the way to play that beat."

When Chuck gave me that note, I grokked how to play Evil Wil Wheaton (The Big Bang Theory version), and I could see the comedy in every beat I played for the rest of the show. I totally grew a level in comedy acting, and learned something about letting go of who I really am, so I could embrace the Delightfully Evil version of myself (who I seriously hope will return in the future, because OMG was it fun to play him.)

You know, it occurs to me that some of you may have questions about what it was like to work on Big Bang Theory. If you leave them in the comments, I'll do my best to answer as many of them as I can today.

214 thoughts on “Wow, nice shirt . . . Moonpie.”

  1. Nice shirt. And thanks again for sharing the experience with us. I’d like to see a similar shirt (Sheldon’s face) but the quote “Now…Fetch me Wil Wheaton!!!”
    Haven’t had a chance to read through all the comments (Damn job) but any chance of having “Evil Wil Wheaton” as a recurring character?
    Matt

  2. Oh, they are _very_ different.
    Dramatic roles require a lot of backstory development, and sometimes one scene can take several days to film, so it's vital to remain emotionally connected to it the entire time, which can be exhausting (and tough on normal people in my life off the set.) Comedy, though, happens in real time, and is mostly about timing and what actors call "the music" in the scene. In both cases, I spend a lot of time making sure I have the words and understand the scene, but that's where the similarities in preparation end.

  5. Hi Wil,
    I have so far only seen the first season of BBT (haven’t seen your episode yet!) but I’m finding that I don’t like Penny and don’t understand why she’s desirable, aside from her looks. I look forward to catching up on the series and seeing your episode when this season comes out on DVD!
    Steve

  6. They are obviously horrible by today’s standards, not least because of all the mysogyny and similar politically incorrect elements but they are most certainly a product of their time.
    The “science” is mostly risible (all planets of the solar system are inhabited) but there are also some decent ideas and some of the plots are really entertaining.

  9. That is an awesome shirt. I wish I could get it with the phrase in Spanish. Although everyone knows it as a Klingon saying, it’s actually a real proverb from Spain. (My people do share some characteristics with Klingons.)
    I just gifted my 12-year-old nephew with the first season box set of TBBT. He is a huge geek and loves the show. One odd thing though – I had to tell him that he’d never get half the humor on the show until he starts watching Star Trek. For all his geekiness, he’s never seen a single episode. Which to me is really really weird.
    Question: Do the guys ever have trouble with all the technical dialogue on the show? I watch them rattling off the most complicated language and wonder if they ever find it difficult. Did you see them tripping up at any point?
    I’m in with everyone here about your episode being awesome, by the way. Your delivery of the final zinger was evil perfection.

  11. I hate to be That Guy, but the shirt is actually wrong. The second word should be bIr with a capital eye, not a lowercase ell. Yet another text copying job borked by sans-serif fonts!

  12. I bet you have a TODO list as big as LA…lol. I for one would love to read your account on the show too. Bill Prady seems to have a good head on his shoulders, that’s for sure! Thanks so much for your response. As always, keep up the great work you do. It means a lot to all of us the way you interact with your fans. You are truly a cool guy!

  13. I pitched some ideas to Bill before I'd seen the script. He said they were very funny, but he didn't think they had a place in the script. Still, hearing from Bill Prady that my ideas were funny made me feel pretty damn good.

  16. I’ve an odd question sparked by your response to one of these comments. In reference to a friend of yours, you said,
    “He’s incredibly intelligent, and sometimes has trouble relating to people who aren’t as smart as he is because he’s thinking and operating in more dimensions than most people.”
    Do you ever find yourself acting as almost a translator between him and others? I ask because I do that for one of my friends and never considered others might too.

  17. Yeah, not just for this person, though. In my life, I find that I do a lot of translating from geek to normal, and normal to geek.

  21. facebook has an application where you take a little quiz and find out which big bang theory character you are. i was *so* stoked to find out i was evil wil wheaton! i have it on my profile page for all to see. (i didn’t even know that was an option!).
    *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

  22. I only saw snippets of the episode on Youtube, my favorite part being the space shot of earth and the Wrath of Khan-esque yell of Wheaton. What was your favorite bit within that scene with you and Sheldon?

  23. Getting to deliver the line, "Game over … Moonpie." It's not every day that an actor gets to drop one of those sensational exit lines in a scene.

  24. Hey, Wil–
    I know you say you’re not in the same league w/the BBT writers, but you have the comedy pedegree (ACME et al), the acing chops, the first-hand experience of working on the show, you know the characters, AND you’ve written TREK manga, (which anyone can tell you is QUITE the writing challenge): I say to you, if you can write TREK, you can RAWK on BBT. Why not submit for next seaon, since they were given a 2-season option by CBS? You couldn’t be more qualified. Just sayin…’ Qapla!

  26. Not a question but a big thank you for taking that role otherwise I would never have seen The Big Bang Theory. It si my new favorite show (also my super nerdy boyfriend loves it too)

  28. You said in a previous comment:
    “I did a lot of my laughing when I wasn’t in the scene. When I was in a scene, I was so focussed on being Evil Wil Wheaton and not screwing up, I didn’t have the luxury of breaking”
    So you are saying there is no blooper-worthy footage of you delivering your lines?
    Seriously, though, I have also grown to enjoy BBT. I try to watch it when I can, but I can’t get my wife pulled away from watching House long enough for me to get her more levels in Geek Comedy and Culture. I have run into a similar issue in the past when I have tried to introduce anything else in the geek realm to her. The only things I was ever fortunate enough to get her to do was play Magic and 3e D&D.
    She still thinks my man-crush on you is unhealthy. Wonder what she’ll think when she hears my new ringtone [hint: you made reference to it in your most recent RFB liner notes 😉 Audacity is your friend :)]

  30. Probably one of the best cameo appearances I’ve seen in a long time. I don’t know what it is about it, but I get a huge kick out of an actor playing themselves and it turns out they’re nothing like people expect.
    Evil Wil is absolutely fantastic and I hope he makes a return (I’m positive he will).
    My question is, was playing the evil persona a bit therapeutic in some regard, even though it was just for laughs?
    It would definitely be better than actually hauling off and flipping out at someone in real life…

  32. Oh, pretty please? (Post the schedule, that is.)
    I have to work Saturdays unless I do some serious rearranging, so I didn’t buy my ticket or start the boss-bugging to get off that Saturday on the off chance you would be the keynote speaker. I waited to see if I needed to. (I fail at gaming, so the pull of PAX was whether or not you and some others would be there.)
    Stupid me.
    So, I am left without a Saturday ticket or three day ticket, but I am only two hours away, so if there’s anything going down on Sunday, I could do a single day ticket. Here’s hoping!

  33. “I did a lot of my laughing when I wasn’t in the scene. When I was in a scene, I was so focussed on being Evil Wil Wheaton and not screwing up, I didn’t have the luxury of breaking”
    So you are telling us you had absolutely no blooper-worthy moments when they were filming you?

  34. Hi. I’m Chris. My company makes all of the officially licensed BBT shirts and I want to say thanks for catching this! Your theory on how we messed this up was dead on. We will be correcting this on future print runs of this design. Send me your address and size and I’ll send you this shirt for free. It will be a collectors item one day. 🙂
    How does this version look?
    http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i137/crisisinthecity/BTAS1018.jpg
    Chris

  35. Hey Wil. Let me know where to ship and your size and I’ll send some free shirts your way as well! It’s definitely one of their funniest episodes to date. Also if you or anyone have any BBT t shirt ideas, feel free to send em my way. We love consumer feedback.
    Thanks!
    Chris

  37. It's always therapeutic (in the sense that it's incredibly fun, and having fun is therapeutic in its own way) to play characters like Evil Wil Wheaton, Chaos, and Fawkes, because those guys are totally unlike who I really am. That's one of the best parts about being an actor for me.

  44. The Big Bang Theory is one of my favorite shows, but due to it not being available online and the fact that I don’t have cable, I can only watch it in its DVD form. So I have been waiting patiently to watch the Evil @wilw episode since it aired. And I’m getting antsy. But how much do I love that you were on that show? Please. It’s like nerdgasm for me. Over here in the kingdom of Nerdom, where I live. It is awesome sauce. And I can’t wait to see it.

  46. I try to catch that show when I can and love it. Not only is it really funny, but it has two of my fave actors from my generation in it 🙂

  47. I find that really interesting. I’m afraid that if I had that kind of focus I’d still break. Then again, that’s why you’re the actor and I’m not 🙂
    A few other questions:
    Is there a particular comedic actor/actress you would love to work with?
    You mentioned getting to meet Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) after his show. Did he happen to have someone playing Captain Carl? I would be curious to see who he asked to play that role in his act after Phil Hartman’s untimely death.

  48. There’s a song about The Big Bang Theory from Sheldon’s POV and you’re mentioned in the first line.

    And, okay, I wrote it, but I’m just about that shameless.

  49. I must commend you on the usage of “grokked”. Not only in grammer and comprehension, but in incorporating yet another medium and expansive universe into your daily life. Now if you had just had the ‘frak off’ tshirt on as well we may have all started jumping on the furniture like exciting chimps.
    I always appreciate the classics………….

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