1.07 The Dumpling Paradox

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Week 8 of the Rewind Imperative.

This weeks vintage Big Bang episode on Thursday April 30, 2015 is:

The Dumpling Paradox
Originally aired Monday, November 5, 2007
Written by Chuck Lorre & Bill Prady


"Penny's promiscuous friend comes to town and Wolowitz hooks up with her. This leaves the guys without their fourth wheel. Sheldon goes a little crazy because his world has been thrown off, and Penny has to stay with the guys in their apartment. With Wolowitz preoccupied, the guys discover they are without a fourth member of their group, and in desperation, they ask Penny to join their Halo team."

[Nutz]

This was a funny episode. We have a good "geek" opening between them mocking the new technology and Sheldon's rant on how the time they squandered would be made up.

Howard: Watch this, it’s really cool. Call Leonard Hofstadter.
Howard’s phone: Did you say, call Helen Boxleitner?
Howard: No. Call Leonard Hofstadter.
Howard’s phone: Did you say, call Temple Beth Sader.
Howard: No.
Leonard: Here, let me try. Call McFlono McFloonyloo. Heh-heh.
Howard’s phone: Calling Rajesh Koothrappali. (Raj’s phone rings).
Raj: Oh, that’s very impressive .... and a little racist.
Sheldon: If we’re all through playing mock the flawed technology, can we get on with Halo night, we were supposed to start at eight, it is now 8:06.
Leonard: So? We’ll start now.
Sheldon: Yes, first we have to decide if those lost six minutes will be coming out of game time, bathroom time or the pizza break.
Raj: We can split it two, two and two.
Howard: If we’re having anchovies on the pizza we can’t take it out of bathroom time.

---

We see Jr. Rodeo Penny showing that she knows her Halo (and video games) while acting the airhead.

Penny: Hey, if you guys need a fourth, I’ll play.
Leonard: Great idea.
Sheldon: Uh, no. The wheel was a great idea. Relativity was a great idea. This is a notion, and a rather sucky one at that.
Penny: Why?
Sheldon: Why? Oh, Penny, Penny, Penny.
Penny: Oh, what, what, what?
Sheldon: This is a complex battle simulation with a steep learning curve, there are myriad weapons, vehicles and strategies to master, not to mention an extremely intricate back-story.
Penny (picking up a controller, there is the sound of an explosion from the television): Oh cool, whose head did I just blow off?
Sheldon: Mine.
Penny: Okay, I got this, lock and load boys.
Leonard: It’s the only way we can play teams.
Sheldon: Yes, but whoever’s her partner will be hamstrung by her lack of experience and not to mention that fact that sh…. (another explosion)
Penny: Ha-ha, there goes your head again.
Sheldon: Okay, this isn’t at all good sportsmanship to shoot somebody who’s just re-spawned, you need to give them a chance to (explosion) now come on!

---

Some Sheldon and Leonard minutiae (although Sheldon's is funnier)

Sheldon: Your head goes on the other end.
Penny: Why?
Sheldon: It’s culturally universal, a bed, even a temporary bed, is always oriented with the headboard away from the door. It serves the ancient imperative of protecting oneself against marauders.

Leonard: Well, sleep tight.
Penny: Thanks.
Leonard: Funny expression, sleep tight. It refers to the early construction of beds which featured a mattress suspended on interlocking ropes which would occasionally… sleep tight.

---

A curly headed Howard scoring with the whore of Omaha and making Penny ill by using her personal things "to get busy"

Howard (entering): Ola, nerd-migos.
Penny: Why do you people hate sleep? Are you wearing my robe?
Howard: Oh, yeah, sorry, I’ll have it cleaned.
Penny: That’s okay, keep it. Where’s Christie.
Howard: In the shower. Oh, by the way, where did you get that loofah mitt, yours reaches places that mine just won’t.
Penny: Y-you used my loofah?
Howard: More precisely we used your loofah. I exfoliated her brains out!
Penny: You can keep that too.
Howard: Ah, well then we’ll probably need to talk about your stuffed bear collection.

---

And the first time Sheldon acknowledges he finds Penny attractive

Leonard: Penny, you are on fire.
Penny: Yeah, so is Sheldon.
Sheldon: Okay, that’s it, I don’t know how, but she is cheating. No-one can be that attractive and be this skilled at a video game.

---

Favorite Lines:
Penny: Anyway, she got here today, and she’s just been in my apartment, yakkety-yakking about every guy she’s slept with in Omaha, which is basically every guy in Omaha, and washing the sluttiest collection of underwear you have ever seen in my bathroom sink.
Howard: Well, is she doing it one thong at a time, or does she just throw it all in, like some sort of erotic bouillabaisse.

Sheldon: You know, I apologize for my earlier outburst, who needs Halo when we can be regaled with the delightfully folksy tale of the whore of Omaha?
Leonard: Oh, I don’t think she’s a whore.
Penny: No, yeah she’s definitely a whore. I mean, she has absolutely no standards, this one time, she was at… where’s Howard?

Sheldon: One on one? We don’t play one on one, we play teams, not one on one. One on one!
Leonard: Well the only way we can play teams at this point is if we cut Raj in half.
Raj: Oh, sure, cut the foreigner in half, there’s a billion more where he came from.

Penny: Wait, wait, Sheldon, come back, you forgot something.
Sheldon: What?
Penny: This plasma grenade. (Explosion.) Ha! Look, it’s raining you!
Sheldon: You laugh now, you just wait until you need tech support.

Leonard: What’s wrong?
Penny: Um, well, Howard and Christie are… kind of… hooking up in my bedroom.
Leonard: Are you sure?
Penny: Look, I grew up on a farm, okay, from what I heard they’re either having sex or Howard’s caught in a milking machine.

Sheldon: So, if there is an earthquake and the three of us are trapped here, we could be out of food by tomorrow afternoon.
Leonard: I’m sorry, are you suggesting that if we let Penny stay we might succumb to cannibalism?
Sheldon: No-one ever thinks it will happen until it does.
Leonard: Penny, if you promise not to chew the flesh off our bones while we sleep, you can stay.
Penny: Hu.. what?
Sheldon: He’s engaging in reductio-ad-absurdum. It’s the logical fallacy of extending someone’s argument to ridiculous proportions and then criticising the result, and I do not appreciate it.

Christie (entering): Mmmm, there’s my little engine that could.
Howard: chka-chka-chka-chka-chka-chka-chka (they kiss).
Sheldon: Well there’s one beloved children’s book I’ll never read again.

Sheldon: Well then, it’s all settled, Christie will stay with Howard, Penny can go back to her apartment, and I’ll watch the last 24 minutes of Doctor Who, although at this point it’s more like Doctor Why Bother.

Howard: So, what do you say, you wanna repair to Castle Wolowitz?
Christie: What is that, like a Mexican deli?
Howard: I’m sorry, I should have mentioned this earlier, my last name is Wolowitz.
Christie: Oh, that’s so cool. My first Jew!

Waiter: Hi fellas. Oh, where’s your annoying little friend who thinks he speaks Mandarin?
Sheldon: He’s putting his needs ahead of the collective good. (Pointing at waiter) Where he comes from, that’s punishable by death.
Waiter: I come from Sacramento.

Raj: Can we please make a decision, not only are there children starving in India, there’s an Indian starving right here.

Penny: Well, for Penny it’s dancing night.
Sheldon: You go dancing every Wednesday.
Penny: No.
Sheldon: Then it’s not dancing night.
Penny: Look, why don’t I play with you guys tomorrow?
Sheldon: Tonight is Halo night, it’s like talking to a wall.
Penny: Alright, now Sheldon, you and I are about to have a problem.
Leonard: Sheldon, remember, we role-played this. (I would have loved to see them film this)
Sheldon: Yes, but you didn’t portray her as completely irrational.

Leonard: Sheldon, think this through, you’re going to ask Howard to choose between sex and Halo.
Sheldon: No, I’m going to ask him to choose between sex and Halo 3. As far as I know, sex has not been upgraded to include high-def graphics and enhanced weapon systems.
Leonard: You’re right, all sex has is nudity, orgasms and human contact.
Sheldon: My point.

[devilbk]

Classic bits, each and every one.

[Gamma]

Sheldon, when he was focused on important things.

[Jenger]

I like this episode. I just rewatched, and I noticed Raj can speak in front of women whenever he either isn't paying attention to them or they aren't focusing on them.

I loved the dynamic of Penny and Sheldon in this episode. They are totally highlarious.
Loved Raj being ignored at the beginning in terms of Penny staying the night.

Loved Sheldon being Sheldon with his schedule, and not understanding why anyone would chose sex over anything else. He just doesn't get it. I miss that Sheldon. "Sheldon, you just can't dictate..." "No more talking, everybody go." Why yes he can tell everyone what to do.

Also, do they ever lock the door? This isn't the first time this has come up, but it is something that I question.
Also, I definitely missed when they were more interested in their games than sex as evidence by Penny and her friends showing up at the end and only Lenard had thought he heard something.