It's officially a bromance

[Louise]

Here's another Sheldon Vs Howard gem. It's hard to explain how two sit com characters ended up getting naked. It's like Sheldon looses all reason when in battle; from hanging Penny's pants on telephone wires, to naked revenge. He loves it!

I'm gonna go ahead and say that I like Nekkid Howard on the Couch™, but maybe not the rest of the episode. I'm not a Sheldon expert, but would a germophobe (and someone who values his privacy, as seen by the fact that he won't let anyone into his room), be nude in public, let alone nude in someone else's car? Remember how he used a Kleenex or a handkerchief when touching the other guys' hands? I dunno, maybe someone else can chime in, here. I think you might be right, Ricardo, that Sheldon can set some of his usual squeamishness aside when honor/victory/success is at stake. But again, I'm not well-versed enough in his character to make that call.

Also, I don't think the Sheldon-Howard conflict needs to be quite so overt, or needs to be the focus of an entire episode. That's kind of a pattern in the later seasons: they take something that was just a recurring gag or a tossed-off line and they belabor it. I think this scene is hilarious if you view it as just sort of a wacky non-sequitur. Like I've said before; I think a lot of later-season scenes are like that; they're better when viewed out of context, because the "explanation" leading-up to the situation is just dumb and unconvincing.

I think Howard is a bit of an exhibitionist. There's one instance of Raj saying that H. doesn't want to change in the locker rooms and let other guys see him naked, but there are more instances of him needing very little excuse to just whip off his clothes, any time, any place. And there's one ep. where he supposedly sends out a photo of himself "wearing nothing but a tan-line."

Simon is just as cute as can be, in this scene. Couldn't be cuter. If you think about it, there's a *lot* of male nudity and fanservice-y stuff on this show. It wouldn't surprise me if the writers don't think of male nudity as sexual or titillating in any way, just humorous, because they have the "male gaze" in mind. Penny in lingerie is supposed to be sexy; the guys getting naked is just supposed to be humorous and wacky. Then again, I dunno. Do the writers intend these scenes to be appealing to the female viewer, or is it supposed to be sort of grotesque because the guys aren't conventionally good-looking?

I've always found it slightly OOC that H's clothes are just tossed over the back of the couch, like that. He obviously takes pride in all his colorful outfits and they always look crisp and neat. I would've thought he would've folded them or at least put them in a pile. Wouldn't want one of those precious belt buckles to get lost under the couch, would we?