Running gags can begin with an instance of unintentional humor that is repeated in variations as the joke grows familiar and audiences anticipate reappearances of the gag. The humor in a running gag may derive entirely from how often it is repeated, the (in)appropriateness of the situation in which the gag occurs, or setting up the audience to expect an occurrence of the joke and then substituting something else (bait and switch). Running gags are found mostly in sitcoms, but also appear in other places, such as video games, films, books, and comic strips.
This is exactly what I thought. Sheldon would never date anyone even kind of like him, he’d be too upset over slight differences of opinion on astrophysicists and such. Sheldon and Penny are from different worlds, and two characters totally different but eventually falling in love is a time honored sitcom strategy.
I mean, You had the entire “Sea Shanty” bit the episode before with the penny blossoms.
If you ask me, spending time like that, doing something similar to that… it is a hop skip and a jump.
Especially, if the “Hooker” is going to stay for a few episodes. Moderate, thoughtful movement of what a character will and will not do, is acceptable. Moving the “properties” a character has around incredibly fast, durring a season break no less is not.
Do you hear that, Heroes? You are DEAD to me!"
But then again, the other female Dr. Dr. has left the show, right?
Howard was arguing with his mom that he was all grown and he should be able to go. Mom said, essentially, fine, you’re over 30, you shouldn’t be here. Howard says Fine, I’ll just stay then. Joke is that his mom is fine with him leaving, he’s not, but pins it on his mom. Yes, Sheldon commented that since they wouldn’t be moving Howard’s stuff he wouldn’t be needing the back support.
They’re talking about how new girl is dating a producer from CSI. Then the stereo kicks in with a lot of bass. Sheldon makes a comment about how Leonard must have set it on DTS. Leonard says it’s not his fault since she said he was cute (or something). Then we here some boxsprings squeaking. Sheldon says “Oh great, now she’s jumping on the bed”. Penny just looks at Leonard and mouths “Oh my god!” in reference to how totally clueless Sheldon is about things mundane.
I didn’t think it was one of the better episodes, but an okay BIG BANG is better than a good episode of most shows. I liked the “Girlfight!” when Wollowitz grabbed Leonard.
“What are you holding me for?”
“Because I know you’d try and stop them!”
I also love any scene with Wollowitz’s heard-but-not-seen mom. (Her best line of all time: “Are you having sex with some girl in there?” ‘Yes mom’. “Is she Jewish?” Yes mom. “Have a good time. Use protection!”)
Is there anybody else who thinks Jim “Sheldon” Parsons is strangely adorable? (I’m so irked he hasn’t won any major awards yet.)
Jim Parsons is one of the best physical comedians to hit TV in a long while. Matt Roash of TV Guide magazine is a huge fan of his work, stating “there is comedy gold in The Big Bang Theory, thanks to Jim Paron’s portrayal of Dr. Sheldon Cooper,” and siting the “Nobel Prize Chemistry” he has with both Penny & Leonard.
I also appreciate that they’re finding new ways for Penny and Sheldon to play off each other instead of harping on the things that they’ve tried before. I loved it when Sheldon was just staying at home, doing his usual thing, (Discovery channel!) when the other guys had all gone upstairs to hang around new-girl. He doesn’t really care about Penny’s troubles, but by tolerating her, he essentially consents to serve as her confidante.
oh I love this show.
Have to disagree with you guys about Penny and Sheldon getting together. I recall the scene of Penny & Leonard having tequila shots together and they wound up in bed. I still think they make a cute romantic couple, but I like seeing Penny & Sheldon becoming friends.
There were a couple weird audio problems in last night’s episode. First, when the guys were at Howard’s door, all I could hear after they heard his mother yelling was generic outdoor nature sounds, it’s like I was only getting one channel of 5.1 sound or something, even though I have things set to plain old Stereo.
Then at the end of the episode where they were talking in the apartment, there was no sound at all for 30 seconds or so, I missed all the ending dialog.
I really don’t even know what that is. I was watching on TivoHD with ATSC antenna as the source. I assume it was just a problem with my local CBS station, but IIRC I’ve heard others complain of audio problems on this show.
I always turn on the closed captioning for this show. Audio problems are a constant.
The best moment for me was the looks after Sheldon’s “jumping on the bed” comment. Especially Leonard - it was a perfect mix of “OMG” and “Yep, that’s our Sheldon”.
I actually tried closed captioning, but when I hit the CC button on my TV remote it says something like “Not available in this mode.” It seems like the CC gets lost somewhere in the antenna->Tivo->HDMI Port->TV chain.
Edit: Actually I guess the CC needs to be done on the Tivo, I need to figure out how to enable it.
