I think that’s just an overlap from taking three pictures and knitting them together into a panorama. Someone from the right side of frame 1 and the left side of frame 2 looks like they’re sitting next to themselves.
I forgot the show was on last night and only caught the last few minutes. Anyplace online with the full episode?
I move we declare a moratorium on debating about TBBT’s laugh track/live audience - it’s been done to death by now, and as gary says, I’m too busy laughing to worry about it.
I thought they addressed that last night - Leonard said, “These are two guys I work with,” when introducing them to Sheldon.
It was funny how they kept going back to Leonard’s rocket fuel, and it seemed by the end of the episode that he probably would have given her anything she asked him. 
My wife and I attended a taping last year. They went to great trouble to ensure live audience laughter. Of course, sometimes we saw the same joke in three or four takes, and it was tough to laugh naturally the third time we’d heard the joke, but still. They could, of course, have used the laughs from the first take (more spontaneous).
Anyhow, I thought this was an outstanding episode, but alas, would be incomprehensible to somoene who didn’t know the characters and situation (i.e., this one was for the fans, not the new vierwers)
Um, I’m not sure if this is a woosh or not, but it’s just several overlapping photos so that you can see the whole audience. You can orient the way the space is laid out by the guy sitting in the upper doorway.
I’ve never heard it discussed whether or not BBT has a laugh track. But I reviewed the episode and definately this episode the laughter was really out of place compared to the previous two episodes when I compared them.
If they did use sweetener whoever was at the switch overdid it.
FYI: Here’s the original vanity card for this episode and it’s clear why it was censored.
A so-so episode. The friendship between Leonard and Penny seems too close for this stage of their breakup. I don’t buy Leonard deciding to take the room given the circumstances. A more important reason should have been used. E.g., a really hot neighbor in Penny’s apartment (and certainly not a transvestite).
The laugh track is an issue. It’s just plain bad regardless of origin. And you can’t really expect people in the target demo of this particular show to let it go. WWSD?
The laughter at the Firefly was intermingled with groans and hisses. That tells me it’s real.
Minor continuity issue: Last season, they needed to bring the time machine up the stairs, and Howard asked why the elevator was broken, and even took a crack at fixing it. Seems unlikely if he was there when it was blowed up reel good.
I didn’t like this episode at all.
I realize that a lot of the show is Sheldon being obnoxious/obsessive and…Sheldon-y…but in this episode he was so over the top it just wasn’t funny.
It made Leonard look like an idiot for rooming with him because no one would. Period. We all have that friend that we have known forever, been friends with, is quirky but what can ya do? You’re friends and that’s that. This wasn’t. There is not a person on earth, and I mean NO ONE who would room with Sheldon after that first meeting, and meeting him the first time. I realize it’s a tv show, but it still really annoyed me to the point of making the episode painfully unfunny. Oh well…ya win some you lose some.
The beginning of the episode was particularly funny for me, because it echoes my own experience when I first got my dorm room at college. My wife and daughgter know the story well, too, since they’ve asked me to retell it. The relevant part here is that I didn’t even get a room at first, and was unsure when I was going to put myself for the first semester – they’d parcelled out all the rooms and I ended up with the short stick in the lottery, kinda like playing “musical chairs” with dorm rooms. But the next day I learned that a room had opened up – the guy who lived there had withdrawn his request and was going to live elsewhere. As I walked to my room, I passed another room where the freshman was furiously packing up his stuff. He looked over and saw me walking by with my suitcase.
“Are you the new Limbo Frosh?” he asked. That’s what we unassigned freshmen were – “limbo frosh”
“Yeah.”
“Take my advice and put your name back in the pool. This place is nothing but jocks.”
But I was too delighted to have an actual room. I continued on, and put the key into my door. Or tried to. It would fit, and I had a hard time wiggling it around and jamming it in with the heel of my hand before I could get the key fully inserted. The room inside was worth the effort – spacious and well-lit, with freshly-painted walls and a nice view. I came back out and found the other student gone. I was alone.
Then another student came by and asked if I could help him move a desk. As we moved it, he told me he’d lived in that room the previous year. I remarked about the difficulty getting the key in.
“Oh, yeah. It’ll do that. It’s full of toothpaste.”
So, no transvestite neighbor, but I did get the warning and the weirdness. And the warning turned out not to be completely true. And I did turn out to have a weird roomie – but not a Sheldon, thank Og.
I didn’t find it hard to believe that Leonard would want to share with Sheldon. He said, it became a bit of a challange to get past the “tests” given him
You have to remember this isn’t the way it happened, it’s the way Leonard remembers it, and the two aren’t always the same.
As Penny pointed out, “How could you know that, when you left the room.”
Which was a great line
The time-travel pause bit really emphasizes one of the best aspects of the show: awkward physical comedy. The timing was just right, enough to make it a little uncomfortable, and it works because Jim Parsons is so totally devoted to the character. Reminded me of the ball-pit “Bazinga” scene from earlier in the season, which should have by all rights been terrible, but turned out hilarious.
And I agree with CK Dexter, this episode was fan service, a way to poke fun at themselves. And literal fan service as well…any time Leonard’s Korean girlfriend wants to come back, preferably wearing the underwear she had on, is fine with me. For a show about theoretically unattractive people, these guys get some hot nerd chicks: Danica McKellar, Katee Sackhoff, Judy Greer, and of course Kaley Cuoco. If they could get Kari Byron and Felicia Day on I might die a happy man.
On a somewhat related point, I think at some point we need to meet Howard’s mom in person, and it needs to be someone older (semi-realistic for being a 20-something’s mom) but very attractive. I’m thinking Marisa Tomei or Julia Louis Dreyfus. Especially if they can dub in the voice when she talks.
I think if Howard’s mother was hot he would have already mentioned it in an extremely awkward and off-putting manner.
Hmmm… How is Fran Drescher looking nowadays?
It was! And then Leonard said something like “I’m not finished with the story yet”, which left me thinking he’d explain how he knew what Sheldon said. Did he ever explain it?
And you know if/when they do that there will be someone in the crew that dates and/or has sex with her.
Raj.
I dunno, when I think of Howard’s mom, I picture Estelle Costanza on Seinfeld (George’s mother.) Only fatter and brunette.
This was a great episode from start to finish. I agree it’s a bit far-fetched that Leonard would be willing to be Sheldon’s roomate, but the apartment is cheap and clean, and remember Leonard’s mother is a lot like Sheldon.
But I wonder if Leonard, having gone to physics grad school after all, has had more exposure to the Sheldon type? Plus, he said that he’d looked at several apartments already (right? or did I dream that) so was kind of desperate. He walked into the apartment and was impressed. Maybe he thought he would get a great living space and could deal with Sheldon’s quirks.
You know, you’re right; a brunette version of Estelle Costanza would be a more appropriate visual choice for Howard’s mom! I’m not so sure about “fatter”, though, given Howard’s (lack of) physique. Of course, they could always say that he inherited the “skinny” gene from his dad!
(Now I gotta get that image of Fran Drescher as Howard’s mom out of my head…)
Howard’s mom IS Estelle Costanza for me, exactly as she was on “Seinfeld.” Perfect.
I was actually surprised to discover that she wasn’t played by the same actress.