Chuck Lorre is a writer, creator, and producer with the magic touch when it comes to comedy on television, with shows like Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, The United States of Al, and Young Sheldon to his name, among many others. With Young Sheldon hitting the milestone of 100 episodes on March 31, Lorre hit a milestone of his own, and what better way to celebrate than with a visual gag – or gags – worthy of a sitcom?
As any longtime viewer of a Chuck Lorre comedy likely knows, episodes end on vanity cards that share everything from his thoughts to jokes to personal messages in the single second between the final scene and whatever airs next. He selected a special card to honor Young Sheldon hitting 100, and then used a card at the end of United States of Al to poke fun at it. In the process, he revealed a personal milestone: this was his 700th vanity card.
First things first – take a look at his Young Sheldon celebration:
If you're anything like me, you're not well-versed enough in that style of math to be able to tell what the solution is, so it's a good thing that it's no secret that Young Sheldon was hitting 100 episodes on March 31. In a way, Chuck Lorre lucked out that his 700th vanity card happened to fall on the same night and the same time slot as the milestone for the Big Bang Theory spinoff, which frequently calls back to Big Bang. After all, he's an executive producer on no fewer than four current shows, so #700 could have easily fallen on a random episode of Bob Hearts Abishola, B Positive, or United States of Al.
In fact, United States of Al – which aired a new episode directly after Young Sheldon – featured a 701st vanity card that poked fun at the 700th. Whereas Chuck Lorre took no personal credit with the equation celebrating 100 episodes, he used #701 to hilariously pat himself on the back for some laughs. Take a look:
The vanity card tradition for Chuck Lorre shows began back with Dharma and Gregg, which ran from 1997 - 2002 and featured Thomas Gibson in a pre-Criminal Minds comedic role. It has since continued through Lorre's long list of hits. Episodes have spent exactly one second for each of these shots over the past 25 years, so 701 seconds amounts to nearly 12 minutes. If you – for some reason – ever watched them all back to back, it would take some time! And possibly give you a headache.
Viewers can be pretty confident that Chuck Lorre will hit more milestones moving forward, with Young Sheldon going strong in the ratings in Season 5 and the other current comedies doing well enough on CBS. You can find new episodes of Young Sheldon and United States of Al on Thursdays at 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. ET respectively on CBS, and check out our 2022 TV schedule for some more viewing options moving forward. If you want to revisit earlier days of Young Sheldon, you can do so with a Paramount+ subscription.
