Everything Sheldon's ever owned? I think not

Why am I still watching The Big Bang Theory!? It's a terrible show. Sheldon is even more obnoxious, and Raj is starting to really get on my nerves.

For a man with an eidetic memory, Sheldon (Jim Parsons) seems to forget a lot of things. In tonight's episode, "The Solder Excursion Diversion," Sheldon takes his girlfriend Amy (Mayim Bialik) to his "Fortress of Shame," a storage unit where he supposedly keeps all his material possessions that he no longer uses.

Supposedly Amy is now the only other person who knows about this storage unit, which is strange, considering that Amy had to drive him there and the storage unit supposedly contains items that predate Amy, when Leonard had to drive Sheldon around everywhere. This can be explained away, I suppose. Maybe the honest-to-a-fault Sheldon realized that Amy would appreciate the lie of his sharing this secret shame only with her.

But this other nit is a little more difficult to explain: remember the Season 3 episode in which thieves broke into the apartment Sheldon shares with Leonard and stole their "TV, two laptops, four external hard-drives, our PS2, our PS3, our X-Box, our X-Box 360, our classic Nintendo, our Super Nintendo, our Nintendo 64 and our Wii." They buy new things, and presumably the police doesn't recover any of what was stolen.

How do the things Sheldon shares with Leonard figure into the storage unit? Plus the golf ball Sheldon's brother threw at him when they were kids, how does that become one of Sheldon's possessions? And such a prized possession that he still can't bear to throw it away.


And the opening bit about Sheldon letting his computer deteriorate so much... yawn. I need to stop watching this show, it's terrible.

George III's planet

The Big Bang Theory is still on and I'm still watching it. It's a terrible show for so many reasons that I won't go in-depth about here. According to a writer for Looper, "the scientific jokes rely on the audience's lack of understanding of the principles behind them." Well, sometimes this show fails on some fairly basic knowledge of science history.

Last night's episode, "The Sales Call Sublimation," gives a perfect example of that. The side story concerns Sheldon and Raj discovering an asteroid and getting to name it. It's a decision they will not take lightly, because Sheldon says that "Sir William Herschel didn't do Uranus any favors." Um, that doesn't sound exactly right.

It is true that William Herschel discovered that planet orbiting farther away than Saturn in 1781. But he named it "Georgium Sidus" in honor of King George III. If there was any doubt that Herschel should be knighted and named Astronomer Royal, that naming choice surely clinched it.

Of course if you know just a tiny bit about 18th century politics, you realize that that name didn't go over that well outside of England. Plus it didn't help that Herschel thought he discovered a comet. The German astronomer Elert Bode was among the first to realize that Herschel had in fact discovered a planet.

Arguing that there should be consistency with the names of the previously discovered planets, Bode eventually convinced the world to call it Uranus. Bode of course wasn't thinking about the potty humor of lazy sitcom writers, and I doubt he'd care if they had chosen to blame him instead of Herschel for that planet's supposedly poor name choice.


Wikipedia shouldn't be anyone's go-to source for anything, but if the writers had bothered to at least skim the Wikipedia article, they would have noticed a section titled "Naming." Maybe they would have had the bad luck to check Wikipedia at a time that particular article was vandalized. Which is unlikely, as Wikipedia's articles on the planets are maintained with almost as much care as the Big Bang articles.

Lastly, a very minor nit: Raj and Sheldon agree to call the asteroid "Amy," after Sheldon's girlfriend Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik). Seems kind of short to be the name of an object there are thousands of in our solar system. Though I don't know how long it would take for the International Astronomical Union to sign off on "00327 Amy" or whatever the final name wound up being.

the scientific jokes rely on the audience’s lack of understanding of the principles behind them

Read More: http://www.looper.com/4809/dumbest-things-big-bang-theory-one-talks/

the scientific jokes rely on the audience’s lack of understanding of the principles behind them.

Read More: http://www.looper.com/4809/dumbest-things-big-bang-theory-one-talks/

More women have kissed Sheldon than you think

It's tough writing a character like Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory. The annoying know-it-all even has an "eidetic memory" (or "photographic memory" for those of us who are not smart enough to know that term). But of course this challenges the writers to carefully keep track of what Sheldon has said and done in the past, and they trip up every so often.

Case in point is yesterday's new episode of The Big Bang Theory, "The Agreement Dissection." After Priya (Aarti Mann) rips Sheldon and Leonard's roommate agreement to shreds, Sheldon joins Penny, Amy, and Bernadette at a nightclub, and the question comes up: which women have kissed Sheldon? Apparently none, if you don't count Sheldon's female relatives or the nun to whom Sheldon once gave CPR to. The guy is hardly a Casanova, so this sounds plausible, right?

The writers forgot that Leonard's mom, Beverly (Christine Baransky) actually kissed Sheldon! See "The Maternal Congruence" from last season. Beverly kisses Sheldon, then declares she'd "rather have the busboy." Sheldon seems a little puzzled by what just happened, but you would think he would at least remember this and mention it when this topic of kissing comes up with Penny's girlfriends. Of course "You kissed Leonard's mom?" would have taken the conversation in a different direction that Sheldon would rather it didn't, but don't you think Sheldon would fail to foresee that?

By the way, besides series creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, writers Steven Molaro and Dave Goetsch also worked on both episodes.

Just saying

It would just be Sheldon's luck that the one time he drives an actual car, he incurs a traffic violation. In last night's new Big Bang Theory episode, "The Excelsior Acquisition," Sheldon (Jim Parsons) is summoned to court on account of having crossed a red light in the earlier episode "The Adhesive Duck Defficiency" (in which Penny's emergency in the shower forced him to drive her to the Hospital, and it had been well established that Sheldon can't learn how to drive from the even earlier episode "The Euclid Alternative").

I can completely believe that Sheldon, despite his knowledge of the law and his being a stickler to its letter, would still lack enough sense to insult the very judge who has the power to decide his case. Just as Howard predicted, Sheldon is thrown in jail. However, I have a hard time believing that Sheldon would be so stupid as to claim a spot on a jail cell bench. Just saying.

Jumping Jiminy

The show: The Big Bang Theory
The episode: "The Jiminy Conjecture," first aired September of last year and reran this past Monday.
What happened: While eating dinner in Sheldon's apartment, Sheldon, Howard and Raj hear a chirping cricket, which Sheldon immediately identifies as a snowy tree cricket. Howard is convinced that it's a common field cricket that they're hearing. Sheldon and Howard wager special items in their respective comic book collections and proceed to trap the cricket. However, visual inspection of the specimen fails to resolve the issue. They take the cricket to Prof. Crawley (Lewis Black), the university's appropriately named bug expert. Unbeknownst to the three friends, the university funding to Crawley's lab has been cut and now the old professor is more interested in venting about his personal and professional frustrations than in identifying the cricket that has been brought in. Crawley snaps that the specimen is just a common field cricket. Dejected, Sheldon goes to the bank to retrieve the comic book he put up for the wager from his safe deposit box.
Meanwhile, Leonard and Penny deal with their lackluster sexual encounter. Penny actually takes Sheldon's advice in the matter.
What doesn't quite make sense: Given how obnoxious Sheldon is about always being right (amply demonstrated in the episode's first scene, in which Sheldon proves Wolverine once had retractable bone claws), I think he gives up rather easily at Crawley's identification. For one thing, the cricket did not chirp at all while in Crawley's lab, and an earlier scene suggests that visual inspection is insufficient to distinguish the snowy tree cricket from the common field cricket (whether or not that's the case in real life I don't care to find out). Sheldon doesn't bring this up. Nor does he protest that Crawley is way too emotionally distraught to be able to render his expertise with the necessary due consideration.
Granted that there's little time left in the half hour episode to allow Sheldon to fully cross-examine Crawley, much less find another bug expert to bug about the cricket, but the nit could have been avoided altogether by just putting in some chirps into that scene and having Crawley say something to the effect of "Those chirps don't fit Dauber's correlation." (Sheldon mentioned Dauber's correlation earlier in the episode, so no time would be needed to explain it again, and if time is short, Raj's unfunny parting remark to Crawley could have been deleted with no problem whatsoever).

Our valued friendship

The show: The Big Bang Theory
The episode: "The Bozeman Reaction," first aired on CBS a couple of days ago.
What happened: I can pretty much repeat what Bill said in a post yesterday: "Thieves break into the apartment where Sheldon and Leonard live and steal computers, external hard drives, some video game consoles and several video games. Predictably, Sheldon and Leonard get a ridiculously elaborate security system installed in their apartment." After "getting trapped and electrocuted by the security system he had [Howard] Wolowitz install," Sheldon gets the "idea to move to Bozeman, Montana," where his bags are stolen immediately upon arrival, quickly convincing him to return to Pasadena.
What has me wondering: After deciding on Bozeman, Montana as his new home, Sheldon records a farewell video message for his four friends, or, to be exact, three friends and one acquaintance. Upon returning, his friends are actually happy to see him, and all jokes about wanting Sheldon gone or killed are duly forgotten. Howard is the first to greet Sheldon, prompting Sheldon to tactlessly remark that "the acquaintance" was the first to greet him.
This made me laugh, as that line sounds like vintage Sheldon. But now it gets me to wondering if Sheldon forgot how differently he valued his friends in the episode "The Friendship Algorithm." In that episode, eager to have Barry Kripke as a friend so he can have more time on a supercomputer, Sheldon decided that having five friends would be too much for him, so he decided to 'defriend' Raj. He carefully explained his decision, and even though Howard does not have a PhD, his "cologne is an assault on the senses," and he's "not available for video games during the Jewish high holidays," Sheldon decides to keep Howard as a friend.
At some point between "The Friendship Algorithm" and this episode, Howard was demoted from "friend" to "acquaintance" while Raj was promoted from expendable friend to valued friend. Apparently Penny was also promoted in Sheldon's estimation. I do remember I spent a whole blog post on Monday reminding nitpickers that humans often behave illogically. But that caveat almost seems to not apply to Sheldon. Could Sheldon's friendship revaluation have taken place as he lay twitching on the floor on account of Howard's security system?

They had to do the episode in which they get robbed

With last night's episode titled "The Bozeman Reaction," the shark gets ever closer to The Big Bang Theory. Thieves break into the apartment where Sheldon and Leonard live and steal computers, external hard drives, some video game consoles and several video games. Predictably, Sheldon and Leonard get a ridiculously elaborate security system installed in their apartment. When I read the episode description on TV Guide, I immediately thought, "Oh, they're doing one of those."

In theory, there is a small, finite amount of basic plots writers can draw upon for their stories. This means that the best that writers can hope for is that they've put enough ornaments on the basic plot so that the story's familiarity does not bother readers too much. But when a sitcom starts falling back on overused plots like the overreaction to a home robbery, it is a clear sign of trouble for the show's quality.

To be fair, Sheldon's idea to move to Bozeman, Montana, is a fresh idea, at least compared to his getting trapped and electrocuted by the security system he had Wolowitz install. After the interview with the policeman, Leonard seems somewhat nonchalant about the fact that his apartment was just broken into. Though I suppose that getting regular sex with an attractive blonde is for a guy like Leonard a much greater priority than worrying that the thieves might return for a second helping. And of course, as a character, Leonard has to act as a balance to Sheldon and his hysteria.

Something Sheldon should know

The show: The Big Bang Theory
The episode: "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary," first aired on CBS last night.
What happened: Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Raj (Kunal Nayyar) sign up as a team for a card game tournament. I don't remember what Raj's reason was for joining the tournament, but Sheldon's was the opportunity to defeat Wil Wheaton (Wil Wheaton) in revenge for failing to show up at a Star Trek convention in 1995. Sheldon and Raj easily make it to the finals, facing off against Wil Wheaton and Stuart (Kevin Sussman). Sheldon is close to defeating Wil when he discloses the reason for his animosity. In response, Wil says he failed to show up to the convention because his grandmother died. Sheldon immediately changes his tone and throws the game. Wil makes the winning move and then claims his grandmother did not really die, and gives a frivolous reason for not showing up at the convention.
Why it doesn't quite make sense: While it's true that there are gaps in Sheldon's knowledge (he doesn't know about Radiohead, for example), I find it quite surprising that he knows Wil's nickname for his grandmother, yet doesn't know whether or not she's still alive. The real life status of Wil Wheaton's grandmother is irrelevant for this nit (though I must admit I'm curious). Whatever it is in the semi-fictional world of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon should know. If in 1995 Sheldon was really so distraught over Wil's no-show, wouldn't he have endeavored to find out what happened? In the process, wouldn't he have learned something about the Wheaton family? Even if he didn't, the episode establishes that Sheldon has a photographic memory. (Eidetic memory, whatever). Doesn't Sheldon subscribe to at least one Star Trek fan publication? Surely one of them would have explained why Wil failed to show up at the 1995 convention.
Lastly, I find Sheldon's decision to throw the game somewhat out of character. Sheldon is not generally known to agree to conciliatory gestures suggested by others, much less come up with a conciliatory gesture on his own. Wouldn't Sheldon instead have won the game anyway, if not for revenge then at least to show his superiority?