# The Big Bang Theory, Season 8, Episode 7 (October 30, 2014) -- "The Misinterpretation Agitation" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 30, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017 "2014-10-30T15:42:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/21 "2014-10-31T18:14:04Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > A funny episode, due in large part to Billy Bob’s performance. > > I wonder if all those movie props in his basement were the real items, assembled for TBBT? The show is filmed on the Warner Brothers lot, and there are many, many movie props on display elsewhere on the lot (as seen when you take a tram tour of Warner Brothers Studios), so I wouldn’t be surprised if they gathered all those geeky goodies from nearby. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/22 "2014-10-31T19:06:06Z")
I wonder if any of the actors on that show are nerdy enough (in real life) to be excited about those props and costumes. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/23 "2014-10-31T19:18:41Z")
> [@magnusblitz](#): > > I found this episode a lot more enjoyable than the previous ones, simply because, for the most part, everyone was nice with each other. It was good to have an episode that didn’t center around the main characters acting like terrible people (aside from the beginning). Bernadette was pretty awful to Amy at one point. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/24 "2014-10-31T19:43:10Z")
Amt deserved it. She cost the world the chance to see Bernadette as a sexy scientist. (Yes, I know Melissa posed for Maxim. But that wasn’t in character!) (Hot though.) ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/25 "2014-10-31T19:57:44Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > Bernadette was pretty awful to Amy at one point. The way she said it, yes, but there was an element of truth to it. Personally, I saw it as somewhat insulting and hypocritical. I don’t think she’d have had a problem with her self-proclaimed BFF doing such an article when she was an actress; is Penny so dumb it’s okay to degrade her? ---
**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/26 "2014-11-01T04:44:47Z")
> [@Labtrash](#): > > My DVR killed the last minute or so - can anyone recap the last bit for me? And the vanity card was a callback to Neil deGrasse Tyson posing over a Porsche. Referenced by (Bernadette?) earlier in the same show. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/27 "2014-11-01T07:12:27Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > I don’t think she’d have had a problem with her self-proclaimed BFF doing such an article when she was an actress; is Penny so dumb it’s okay to degrade her? Setting aside the question of whether it’s legitimate to ascribe an unexpressed opinion to someone (especially a fictional character) - what an actor or actress looks like is relevant to the job. What a scientist looks like isn’t. I thought what Bernadette said to Amy was incredibly nasty and outside the normal tone of the show. Yes, a lot of the show’s humor is based on the characters being mean to each other, but this wasn’t funny. It was just mean. Basically, Bernadette told Amy she was too ugly to be in a sexy photo shoot. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/28 "2014-11-01T12:32:59Z")
Billy Bob was a lot of fun. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/29 "2014-11-01T12:35:11Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > … Basically, Bernadette told Amy she was too ugly to be in a sexy photo shoot. I heard it as worse than that - it was a very personal jab at the fact that her now long term relationship partner has no interest in her physicially. Even more below the belt. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/30 "2014-11-01T12:37:17Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > I heard it as worse than that - it was a very personal jab at the fact that her now long term relationship partner has no interest in her physicially. Even more below the belt. Yeah, that’s how I took it. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/31 "2014-11-01T13:32:44Z")
Bernadette is getting more and more mean spirited. The farther they take this line, the less funny the character is. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/32 "2014-11-01T13:50:32Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Billy Bob is hilarious. I did not know till now that’s who the Dr. was and I knew he looked familiar!:o ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/33 "2014-11-01T14:28:35Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > The way she said it, yes, but there was an element of truth to it. Personally, I saw it as somewhat insulting and hypocritical. I don’t think she’d have had a problem with her self-proclaimed BFF doing such an article when she was an actress; is Penny so dumb it’s okay to degrade her? It’s not the same thing. Posing in sexy photo shoots is something that actors do either because they were/are models or to promote themselves or their latest project. Amy’s objections to an article highlighting the sexy women of science in a magazine whose readers are primarily people interested in science were reasonable. The proposed article was sexist, in poor taste, and there was nothing wrong with her contacting the editors to say so. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/34 "2014-11-01T16:46:42Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > … The proposed article was sexist, in poor taste, and there was nothing wrong with her contacting the editors to say so. And of course the editors would not have realized that beforehand and a single e-mail would have been enough to cancel the concept. My guess is that the character Bernadette is right … as written AFF would not have sent an e-mail if the female scientist was someone she did not know on the priciple that the spread is counterproductive to female scientists being taken seriously … she did it out of jealousy even if she believes the argument and is correct that it is. Which does not change the nature of the Bernadette response. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/35 "2014-11-01T17:41:09Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > I heard it as worse than that - it was a very personal jab at the fact that her now long term relationship partner has no interest in her physicially. Even more below the belt. Which, to be fair, is her go-to nasty remark to Amy when they argue. (She said something similar in the parking spot ep.) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/36 "2014-11-01T22:12:26Z")
On rewatch, I noticed one of the props featured a [plasma globe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_globe). Which movie or show was that from? (Actually, I assume someone somewhere has identified every prop in that scene.) ---
**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 2, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/37 "2014-11-02T02:11:55Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > I did not know till now that’s who the Dr. was and I knew he looked familiar!:o Me neither . . . and for a while I thought he was horribly miscast. And I was surprised AFF stuck around, after what Bernadette said. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2014, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/38 "2014-11-02T12:49:59Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I wonder if any of the actors on that show are nerdy enough (in real life) to be excited about those props and costumes. I’ve seen interviews with Mayim Bialik where she says she’s the only genuine nerd of the group and the only one to really enjoy some of the geeky guests they get or situations the characters end up in. On the other hand, Jim Parsons comes across as a MASSIVE DORK in interviews (like seriously, A HUGE, GIGANTIC DORK), but he’s not interested in comic books or video games. ---
**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 6, 2014, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017/39 "2014-11-06T22:54:10Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > On the other hand, Jim Parsons comes across as a MASSIVE DORK in interviews (like seriously, A HUGE, GIGANTIC DORK), but he’s not interested in comic books or video games. Jim Parsons voice and mannerisms IRL are _exactly_ the same as Sheldon’s standard stuff. What makes him a good actor is the extra weird facial expressions and such (that I hope he doesn’t normally use). But most of the time he is playing himself and just stating lines. He and Cuoco are the two most acting as themselves. A real blyeah episode. Pretty much everything but BBT was just boring filler. And BBT (not to be confused to _TBBT_) was underutilized. He is so good at stuff it’s a shame that didn’t let him go full Billy Bob. Cf. the recent _Fargo_ series. (And that makes two actors from that guesting this season. And a third if you go back to season 4.) It’s almost like that got a chance to have BBT guest star and just jinned up an episode to use him without much forethought. At least a new vanity card this week, although no Lorre musings. (Unless he is actually fantasizing about NDT with an open shirt …) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-7-october-30-2014-the-misinterpretation-agitation/703017.md?page=1)