# The Big Bang Theory, Season 8, Episode 8 (November 6, 2014) -- "The Prom Equivalency" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 6, 2014, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877 "2014-11-06T14:04:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**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 12, 2014, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/61 "2014-11-12T22:39:03Z")
> [@VunderBob](#): > > But I can envision Stuart as a squatter because he has nowhere else to go. Stupid “only in a sitcom” premise: Howard (and Bernadette) get the house. They move in (hey, a free house plus Howard always wanted to continue to live there). But there’s a proviso that Stuart has to be allowed to continue to live in the house. Hilarity ensues (in the minds of the writers). More plausible: Mrs. Wolowitz’s net wealth is tied up in Stuart’s comic book store. He and Howard are business partners. Maybe the death of his mom pushes Howard to get his PhD (which they’ve been hinting at). (Sorry for not making these one post.) ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/62 "2014-11-12T23:20:04Z")
Fix Stuart up in an apartment above the garage? ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2014, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/63 "2014-11-13T02:53:01Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > Fix Stuart up in an apartment above the garage? Making him this generation’s Fonz? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2014, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/64 "2014-11-13T05:50:50Z")
Aaaaye!! ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2014, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/65 "2014-11-13T06:21:48Z")
I find the Emily debate here very interesting. Me, I find her to be exactly the sort of person I would enjoy hanging out with - yeah, they’re trying to make her “TV creepy” but I agree that she delivers it in such a sly way that she comes off as into the joke. Yet the people who are supposed to be the core of the show would be horrible people in real life to hang out with (Sheldon, Howard, Bernadette to some extent). ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2014, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/66 "2014-11-13T08:46:46Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Dear _TBBT_ writers. Nerds don’t go to their proms\* because they _just don’t care_ about such things. They didn’t go because they couldn’t get dates or because the prom was only for “the cool kids” or anything. So the premise was flawed. The guys wouldn’t have gone along with it at all. Least of all Leonard since Penny clearly didn’t want to do it, so there wasn’t that pushing him into it. If you think that these guys rued missing their proms, then you don’t understand your characters at all. They didn’t think the guys rued missing their proms. The script has the _girls_ missing their prom. The whole re-prom thing was the girls’ idea; the guys just went along with it. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/67 "2014-11-13T20:53:18Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > A better-than-the-recent-average episode. Some fine humor … except the whole prom thing just sat there and dragged it down. > > Dear _TBBT_ writers. Nerds don’t go to their proms\* because they _just don’t care_ about such things. They didn’t go because they couldn’t get dates or because the prom was only for “the cool kids” or anything. So the premise was flawed. The guys wouldn’t have gone along with it at all. Least of all Leonard since Penny clearly didn’t want to do it, so there wasn’t that pushing him into it. If you think that these guys rued missing their proms, then you don’t understand your characters at all. > > - Howard is sort of an exception. He dreamed of such things via his “ladies man” distortion field. Care for… what things? I’m not buying this “nerds were above the fray” characterization. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/68 "2014-11-13T20:55:08Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > While singing “Soft Kitty”. > > That would break the Internet. How would Amy react? ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2014, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/69 "2014-11-13T22:23:32Z")
She’d be torn. Sheldon is her _man_ but Penny is her Bestie and Amy remembers all too well what it was like to be unpopular and lonely. And then there’s the underlying sexual draw she feels toward Penny… She might actually be weighing a threesome until Bernadette screeches, “What are you, nuts?” and talks Amy into letting one of her monkeys eat Penny’s face off IF Bernadette will be her BFF. To which Bernadette enigmatically replies, “What do you think?” da da da DUM ---
**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 14, 2014, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/70 "2014-11-14T22:47:20Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > Care for… what things? I’m not buying this “nerds were above the fray” characterization. A. They would not be above it. Nor below it. Or anything at all. B. There would be no fray. It just wouldn’t be part of their world. Many geeks wouldn’t even know there was a prom or when it happened. So why all of a sudden would they care now? ---
**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:** [November 14, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/71 "2014-11-14T23:02:36Z")
In high school? In America? They would know. You can’t miss it. In every class, all over the campus, in the announcements…even geeks in the Chess Club knew about prom. And unless they were so totally checked out of normal life as to be sociopathic, they cared a little. Their parents would at least be asking if they were planning on going. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/72 "2014-11-15T00:02:36Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Their parents would at least be asking if they were planning on going. Not necessarily. My mother never expressed any interest in whether I was going to my prom, and from what we’ve seen of Leonard’s mother I can see her doing the same. ---
**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:** [November 15, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/73 "2014-11-15T00:08:01Z")
But Sheldon and Howard would know. I can’t see Mary Cooper passing up an opportunity to get Sheldon doing social stuff. He wouldn’t go, but she’d ask him about it. Howard probably had a date and blew it. Or maybe he took his second cousin to prom! ---
**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 15, 2014, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/74 "2014-11-15T00:10:19Z")
What’s with all the drapey, droopy tops that Penny is wearing lately? Is the actress pregnant? ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/75 "2014-11-15T00:55:47Z")
Ah, sometime around the 2nd or 3rd season, Kaley insisted, or at least strongly requested, a less revealing wardrobe for Penny. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/76 "2014-11-15T09:43:16Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > A. They would not be above it. Nor below it. Or anything at all. > > B. There would be no fray. > > It just wouldn’t be part of their world. Many geeks wouldn’t even know there was a prom or when it happened. So why all of a sudden would they care now? This is silliness. For Sheldon, you’re right. Because Sheldon is a robotic approximation of a human. For the rest of the guys, you’re crazy. They’re actual people, and they like girls. There’s no way they had no opinion about prom. Hell, Howard took his cousin to prom. The reason they wouldn’t have gone to prom is because they were losers who couldn’t get dates. And then they would have said they didn’t go because they didn’t care about it as a self-defense mechanism. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/77 "2014-11-15T15:41:51Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > Ah, sometime around the 2nd or 3rd season, Kaley insisted, or at least strongly requested, a less revealing wardrobe for Penny. Which is why they showed her in a bikini top in Las Vegas? ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/78 "2014-11-15T17:45:57Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Which is why they showed her in a bikini top in Las Vegas? Which is why she started wearing more than spaghetti stringed tops at the guys’ apartment. ---
**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 16, 2014, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/79 "2014-11-16T06:49:25Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > The reason they wouldn’t have gone to prom is because they were losers who couldn’t get dates. And then they would have said they didn’t go because they didn’t care about it as a self-defense mechanism. It is possible to be a giant nerd and not care about the prom. It’s even possible to be a giant nerd and not care about prom while having a girlfriend. That’s because I went to her prom because she wanted to go, but I did not go to my prom because none of my friends were going and I wasn’t interested. Her prom turned out to be pretty boring too because very few of her friends attended. Thus, we also didn’t go to any of those fabled after-prom parties. ---
**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 16, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877/80 "2014-11-16T16:45:48Z")
I went to quite a few Proms in high school (four in my Junior year alone.) That’s because I always went with my nerd friends from church who didn’t have a date but wanted to go. I was happy to help, but never went to my own school’s prom, because I wasn’t interested. And while I was a closet nerd, my classmates would have told you I was a “cool kid.” (They didnt inform me until my 30’s. Too bad, I would have enjoyed knowing) :rolleyes: Penny keeps saying that she is putting off the wedding date in order to prove that she isn’t pregnant, which would seem to guarantee that she becomes so in the interim. And yeah, where is the triumphantly fraught return to the comic book shop? That oughta be a total cringefest. Could the whole “Debbie is never seen” meme been simply because they knew she might not make it to the end of the run? ::shudder:: That’s deep. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-8-episode-8-november-6-2014-the-prom-equivalency/703877.md?page=5)