# Big Bang Theory 11/7/13 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2013, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-theory-11-7-13/673384 "2013-11-08T04:27:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-theory-11-7-13/673384/21 "2013-11-09T17:07:40Z")
Yeah, pretty bad. Watching Newhart act is interesting. He seems really tired and slow. Like he’s barely able to perform. Fortunately, his naturally slow verbal pacing fits in with this. I was wondering how slow he was in real life and then there was the bit where he walks quickly across the room to get to Penny. So, maybe the tiredness is an act. The best lines were Amy’s. She’s had some good ones lately. That’s not good. The main characters should have better lines. In previous threads about “What’s the deal with Raj?” I’ve suggested that Raj is a lesbian woman trapped in a man’s body. Hence his highly developed feminine side plus an interest in women. The part with Sheldon accosting Newhart at the pharmacy line was painful. In real life, any one of those people would have told Sheldon that Newhart’s Rx is a private matter and asking about it is just not done, hence laws like HIPAA. Sheldon does follow social conventions and rules, you only need to make him aware of them. There was just way too much of this crap in this episode. Sheldon is funniest when he flips around on something stupid and does it overboard, but naively, the other way. Doubling down on the stupid doesn’t go anywhere. As to the light-saber belt buckles. Saw it coming, knew it was going to be bad, and it was. Seeing something that bad coming always makes it doubly worse. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-theory-11-7-13/673384/22 "2013-11-09T17:08:53Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > I didn’t like Newhart’s character last season and I didn’t like him tonight. Making him a pathetic and cynical old man is a waste of his talent IMO. You must have missed the pathetic and cynical young and middle aged Bob Newhart. That is his schtick. His material was just not as good here as the writers were not writing only for the purpose of setting him up, which on his own show they did. I’ll agree, he was under-used here, but he did very well with what they gave him. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-theory-11-7-13/673384/23 "2013-11-09T17:17:02Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > Did anybody catch the Two and a Half Men that followed it? Priceless silliness. More than amply made up for a mediocre BBT. Yeah. Alan is becoming less and less human over time. I want Kandi. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-theory-11-7-13/673384/24 "2013-11-09T17:43:05Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Watching Newhart act is interesting. He seems really tired and slow. Like he’s barely able to perform. Fortunately, his naturally slow verbal pacing fits in with this. I was wondering how slow he was in real life and then there was the bit where he walks quickly across the room to get to Penny. So, maybe the tiredness is an act. Acting. [Here’s an interview](http://youtu.be/8UU5KBrIBZs) with him from earlier this year. Seems pretty sharp to me. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-theory-11-7-13/673384/25 "2013-11-09T17:54:08Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > Not only would it be insulting, but it just doesn’t make sense. Raj was really tore up after losing “Hyper-anxiety” girl. If he were really gay, I don’t think he would be quite that heartbroken. To a guy who is conflicted about his sexual orientation, losing a girlfriend just confirms the idea that he’s incapable of having a straight relationship . . . which is something he’s still clinging to. He’d be VERY heartbroken. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-theory-11-7-13/673384/26 "2013-11-09T19:23:25Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > You must have missed the pathetic and cynical young and middle aged Bob Newhart. That is his schtick. So is his stammer. Listen to any of his early recordings where he introduces a routine and there’s no sign of it, but he uses it in every one. His BBT character is \*supposed \*to be old and tired. Maybe Bob is too now, but maybe not. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-theory-11-7-13/673384/27 "2013-11-11T02:05:14Z")
Just got to watch this tonight. I was disappointed. Sheldon is annoying. Yes. But him repeating it over and over again is more annoying. And I know that was the point of it, but it doesn’t work for me. And Newhart is a genius, but I don’t find “old and slow” to be funny. Overall, I could have skipped the whole episode. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-theory-11-7-13/673384/28 "2013-11-11T18:58:41Z")
Before Sheldon got more annoying by repeating the “annoying” phrase over and over again, I liked that he showed that he was baffled and hurt that people thought that. “I’ve been hearing it my whole life - I’m annoying!” seemed like he was cracking a bit while talking about it with Amy. ---
**Author:** ![TheFaerie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@TheFaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFaerie)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-theory-11-7-13/673384/29 "2013-11-11T21:18:54Z")
I didn’t care for it either. It was also the first episode where I found the canned laughter to be distracting and annoying. Meh. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-theory-11-7-13/673384/30 "2013-11-11T22:12:34Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > I thought it was Real Men, but apparently it was Skin Deep. You can watch the scene here: > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNTg2Uz7-pM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNTg2Uz7-pM) …I remember not laughing at this at all 20 years ago. Now: this scene cracks me up. I have no idea if my sense of humour has improved or degraded over the years. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-theory-11-7-13/673384/31 "2013-11-12T00:12:39Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I replayed that line several times. > But if you need a “pathetic and cynical old man,” who could do it better? Tim Conway [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player\_detailpage&v=i\_AwOIs2buE#t=126](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=i_AwOIs2buE#t=126) > [@Polerius](#): > > . . . > > Regarding Raj, if they are planning on having him come out as gay, . . … I think we definitively destroyed the “Raj might be gay” meme way back in the Burnadette/Bollywood episode. Raj has his own brand of awkward - each of them has one. > [@ftg](#): > > . . . > In previous threads about “What’s the deal with Raj?” I’ve suggested that Raj is a lesbian woman trapped in a man’s body. > . . . You’re thinking of Eddie Izzard. 😉 I found this episode profoundly unsatisfying. It feels like everyone from the writers to the actors is trying to wean us off of the series so they can go on to other projects. ---
**Author:** ![SuperNelson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@SuperNelson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperNelson)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-theory-11-7-13/673384/32 "2013-11-13T13:08:30Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > …I remember not laughing at this at all 20 years ago. Now: this scene cracks me up. I have no idea if my sense of humour has improved or degraded over the years. ☹ What made it work this time was Howard’s reaction to Raj’s cluelessness. Somewhere between disappointment and resignation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-theory-11-7-13/673384.md?page=1)