The lyrics to the Big Bang Theory theme song have one major mistake

The theme song for Chuck Lorre and Bill Brady’s 2007 sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” It was written and performed by the Canadian rock band Barenaked Ladies. The world at large knows the band best from their 1998 quadruple platinum selling record “Stunt” which included the hit single “It’s All Been Done” and of course the smash hit “One Week”. If you want to hear a member of Generation side and said that I have been angry for five days, ever since you laughed at me and told you to collect this, and come back to see me.” Etc. etc.

Barenaked Ladies’ rendition of title track “The Big Bang Theory” was characteristically choppy, speeding through its lyrics as it described the creation of the universe. Like “The Big Bang Theory” itself, the song is suitably morbid, making for a rapid-fire series of mostly easy-to-understand scientific and historical references.

However, as it turns out, it’s not nerdy enough. Some auditors (read: all of us nerds) can point out a specific scientific error: “The whole universe was in a hot, dense state,” Barenaked Ladies sings, “and then about 14 billion years ago, the expansion began (wait for it!).” The following section contains some problems. “The Earth began to cool, and autotrophs began to salivate. Neanderthals developed tools.”

Autotrophs, as you remember from high school biology, are organisms that can convert abiotic substances—carbon, or sunlight, for example—into nutrients. Plants, algae and bacteria are autotrophs. Autotrophs do not salivate.

Of course, one can give Barenaked Ladies some leeway here, as the word “drool” could have been used in a figurative sense. One can use “salivation” to describe any type of appetite, not just the type that stimulates a person’s salivary glands. You may have heard the word “drooling”, for example, to describe lust, i.e. drooling over a celebrity’s crush. One might not drool at the sight of Idris Elba, for example. When autotrophs began to drool, they were probably just hungry for the sunlight they needed to survive. He’s a cute little incarnation of moss.

However, there is another error describing the development of tools by Neanderthals. Neanderthals, as we all know, are a species of Homo sapiens that lived in Asia about 400,000 years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch. Shortly after this time, early humans developed clothing and art. However, tools were developed much earlier than Neanderthals. The oldest known Paranthropus tools discovered by anthropologists date back to about 3.2 to 3.5 million years ago, during the Pliocene epoch. This is, as we all probably know, the Stone Age. It is more accurate to say that Australopithecus afarensis or Australopithecus africanus, the inhabitants of the Stone Age, developed tools. Neanderthals were already using tools from the jump.

The lyrics to “Big Bang Theory” go on to say “We built a wall! We built the pyramids!” This makes it seem as if history happened in that order, which of course it did not. The Great Wall of China was built gradually from around the 7th century BC, and was made of connected segments by Emperor Qin Shi Huang in around 200 BC. The famous parts were not built until the Ming Dynasty more than 1,500 years later. Build on The Great Pyramids of GizaMeanwhile, it began around 2600 BC, long predating the oldest pieces of the Great Wall.

Barenaked Ladies needed to do more research before they started recklessly writing songs.