# The Big Bang Theory, Season 9, Episode 17 (February 25, 2016) -- "The Celebration Experimentation"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 26, 2016, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191 "2016-02-26T14:08:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2016, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/41 "2016-02-27T17:21:12Z")
Adam West was seated in every scene. Is his health still good?
---
### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2016, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/42 "2016-02-28T02:04:15Z")
He looks healthy in this less than a year ago:
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pUdR1GAyiw)
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### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2016, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/43 "2016-02-28T07:16:59Z")
Who did NOT laugh immediately after Amy said to Sheldon, “It’s the one day of the year that’s all about you”? (Aside from the audience, oddly.)
---
### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2016, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/44 "2016-02-28T15:35:37Z")
> [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](#):
>
> Sheldon’s indifference to Adam West last night is an example of the show being inconsistent. In an episode from several years ago, there was a bit of dialogue that went something like this …
>
> \*The four guys come back to S & L’s apartment after they’d been to a garage sale. They’re bearing a box of old toys and SF memorabilia that they’d just bought. One of the guys (I can’t remember who) pulls out a figurine/toy relating to the '60’s tv show _Batman_ and exclaims
>
> GUY: Look! It’s Adam West!
>
> PENNY: Who’s Adam West?
>
> SHELDON (scornfully): Who’s Adam West? Leonard, what do you two talk about after the coitus?
> \*
>
> This is taken from my un-Sheldonian, non-eidetic memory so it’s not guaranteed to be 100% accurate, but the gist of the dialogue is that Sheldon admires Mr. West and is contemptuous of anyone unfamiliar with the actor.
>
> You’d think, therefore, that he’d be feeling awe and delight at having West as a guest. The indifference that he displays in last night’s episode is out of keeping with what we know about Sheldon.
Not at all.
Sheldon hates Yorkshire pudding, but delights in exposing a waiter’s ignorance about the history of Yorkshire.
In similar fashion, his reaction to Penny is, “How can you not know who Adam West is?” as opposed to “How can you not know how wonderful Adam West is?”
(I agree there are other examples of BBT inconsistency. This, however, is not one).
---
### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2016, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/45 "2016-02-28T16:50:28Z")
> [@Bricker](#):
>
> Not at all.
>
> Sheldon hates Yorkshire pudding, but delights in exposing a waiter’s ignorance about the history of Yorkshire.
>
> In similar fashion, his reaction to Penny is, “How can you not know who Adam West is?” as opposed to “How can you not know how wonderful Adam West is?”
>
> (I agree there are other examples of BBT inconsistency. This, however, is not one).
Nonsense. Adam West has a special emotional meaning to Sheldon. We know that because it is the plot generator for _that very episode_. When the show brought in Adam West and then allowed Sheldon to ignore him, it violated consistency in _that very episode_. You need never have watched any previous episodes to get that. It violated the rules of sitcoms, of drama, of television, and common sense.
The writers of TBBT are not incompetent, so they must have thought that the other emotional reactions were more important and having Sheldon immediately acknowledge West would undermine them. Why they didn’t add it in later is harder to answer.
It was the wrong decision. When your audience comments on a glaring inconsistency in logic and emotion, the writers blew it. Putting it in the middle of a show that had no other purpose than to magnify Sheldon being Sheldon is stupefying.
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### Author:  [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2016, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/46 "2016-02-28T18:47:07Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Nonsense. Adam West has a special emotional meaning to Sheldon. We know that because it is the plot generator for _that very episode_. When the show brought in Adam West and then allowed Sheldon to ignore him, it violated consistency in _that very episode_. You need never have watched any previous episodes to get that. It violated the rules of sitcoms, of drama, of television, and common sense.
…this is nonsense actually. No where is it stated in the episode that Adam West has a special emotional meaning to Sheldon. From a very loose transcript:
“When I was six, they told me Batman was coming to my party.
I waited by the door for hours.
Closest thing to Batman I saw was when a robin flew into the window.”
> **[Big Bang Theory s09e17 Episode Script | SS](https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=big-bang-theory&episode=s09e17)**
>
> Big Bang Theory s09e17 Episode Script | SS
This doesn’t even suggest that Batman had a special emotional meaning, let alone Adam West. Its just a story.
“Hey, uh, you know, he told a sad story about how his sister tricked him into thinking Batman was coming to his party.
That’s funny.
Let’s do that.
Maybe we could get Batman to actually show up.
You mean, some guy in a lame suit? Or a real Batman.
Hey, Stuart? Didn’t you try to get Adam West to do a signing here once?”
Leonard and company assumed that Batman/Adam West had a special emotional meaning to Sheldon. They assumed wrong, as did you. Sheldon was just telling a story of his childhood. It didn’t have to have a bigger meaning than that.
That isn’t inconsistent writing. No rules of sitcoms, of drama, of television, and common sense were violated.
---
### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2016, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/47 "2016-02-28T18:59:09Z")
I do think Sheldon thought Batman was coming to his birthday party when he was 6, not Adam West or any other actor. Batman wasn’t at this party either, so he wouldn’t know why West was there. I think he would make a bigger deal about it not withstanding, but I’ll accept the anxiety explanation. None of that makes it a better episode though.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/48 "2016-02-28T20:45:44Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#):
>
> That isn’t inconsistent writing. No rules of sitcoms, of drama, of television, and common sense were violated.
[Chekhov’s Batman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov's_gun)
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/49 "2016-02-28T20:48:55Z")
Wasn’t Chechov’s gun a phaser?
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### Author:  [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/50 "2016-02-28T21:25:03Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> [Chekhov’s Batman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov's_gun)
…as I said: no rules of sitcoms, of drama, of television, and common sense were violated.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/51 "2016-02-28T21:54:51Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#):
>
> …as I said: no rules of sitcoms, of drama, of television, and common sense were violated.
It’s the Very Special 200th Episode. In the Very Special 200th Episode, an episode in which the ending will be even happier and more candy-colored than the bright FDA-rejected colors of a regular sitcom episode, friends learn the reason why the main character has refused birthday parties for all the years they’ve known him. Reason: he was promised Batman on his 6th birthday and he never came. Solution: said friends go to the ridiculous lengths that only friends on sitcoms go to and invite said Batman to said birthday party, knowing that said main character has continually demonstrated enormous enthusiasm for the actors playing the parts of his childhood heroes.
Do you see where this is going, audience? Have any of you ever watched a sitcom before? This payoff won’t violate no rules! Bet you can’t guess. No. Seriously. I bet you in the audience will never in a million years guess what the ending will be.
Here it is. Very Special 200th Episode Sitcom Ending: he doesn’t really care about Batman after all and he ignores the actor sitting in his living room.
Nuts. Double nuts. Stronger words that can’t be said on network sitcoms nuts.
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### Author:  [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waltzes_with_Cacti)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2016, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/52 "2016-02-28T23:37:19Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#):
>
> Adam West was seated in every scene. Is his health still good?
You know, speaking of Adam West being seated, was he sitting in Sheldon’s spot during the party? I remember him sitting on the sofa but I’m not completely sure if he was in the middle or if he was resting against the Sacred Striped Cushion in the right corner. Can someone who has the time (I haven’t) to re-watch the episode or whose memory of the scene is better than mine kindly clarify this point?
Because if Mr. West _was_ in Sheldon’s spot, or even if someone else was, Sheldon didn’t kick up a fuss about it. And what does that say about character consistency in this episode?
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### Author:  [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2016, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/53 "2016-02-28T23:43:43Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> It’s the Very Special 200th Episode. In the Very Special 200th Episode, an episode in which the ending will be even happier and more candy-colored than the bright FDA-rejected colors of a regular sitcom episode, friends learn the reason why the main character has refused birthday parties for all the years they’ve known him. Reason: he was promised Batman on his 6th birthday and he never came. Solution: said friends go to the ridiculous lengths that only friends on sitcoms go to and invite said Batman to said birthday party, knowing that said main character has continually demonstrated enormous enthusiasm for the actors playing the parts of his childhood heroes.
>
> Do you see where this is going, audience? Have any of you ever watched a sitcom before? This payoff won’t violate no rules! Bet you can’t guess. No. Seriously. I bet you in the audience will never in a million years guess what the ending will be.
>
> Here it is. Very Special 200th Episode Sitcom Ending: he doesn’t really care about Batman after all and he ignores the actor sitting in his living room.
>
> Nuts. Double nuts. Stronger words that can’t be said on network sitcoms nuts.
…no rules of sitcoms, of drama, of television, and common sense were violated.
Do you really think that Sheldon refused birthday parties for all the years was because he was promised Batman on his 6th birthday and he never came?
What TV show were you watching?
Because that wasn’t the reason at all. That was just an assumption Leonard made based on the most superficial of reasons, and it is the same assumption you have made, based on a whole set of “sitcom rules” which you think the episode should have obeyed.
But rather than follow the rather cliched and boring route that you would have prefered the episode have taken, the writers instead took a much more nuanced route. Sheldon is weird. And being weird in society is not easy. You get picked on and bullied by strangers, friends and in Sheldon’s case even family. And in order to be functional in society when you are “weird” you do all sorts of things that “non-weird” people consider strange and bizarre and even rude to avoid getting hurt. Refusing birthday parties is all about Sheldon not wanting to get hurt again and has nothing to do with Batman. This was spelled out explicitly during this episode, and has also been made clear in several other recent episodes that have been dealing with Sheldon’s character development.
Having been in Sheldon’s shoes in real life I rather appreciated the way the story played out.
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2016, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/54 "2016-02-28T23:55:04Z")
Yeah, no. It was badly written claptrap.
IIRC, West was seated at the far _left_ end of the sofa.
---
### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2016, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/55 "2016-02-28T23:55:41Z")
Any sitcom argument based on “but real people do it this way” has no value. Sitcom characters aren’t real people. Psst. Sheldon isn’t even a real physicist.
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### Author:  [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)
#### Post date: [February 29, 2016, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/56 "2016-02-29T00:11:00Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Any sitcom argument based on “but real people do it this way” has no value. Sitcom characters aren’t real people. Psst. Sheldon isn’t even a real physicist.
“Sitcoms aren’t real.”
…well duh.
I hope you’ve got all that out of your system now.
No rules of sitcoms, of drama, of television, and common sense were violated. The episode was both internally consistent and consistent with other episodes.
---
### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [February 29, 2016, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/57 "2016-02-29T00:28:26Z")
> [@Quimby](#):
>
> Seeing Wil Wheaten, Leonard’s Mom, and Leslie Winkle (she hasn’t been on the show since, what, season 2?) again made me figure this was some kind of milestone episode. Turns out it was their 200th.
Sara Gilbert has been pregnant.
> [@BobLibDem](#):
>
> Stuart is getting to be a tired running gag. Time for him to step in front of a bus or something.
I liked the slightly more confident and cosmopolitan Stuart who occasionally had drawings in gallery showings. He was always a little nebbishly, but lately they’ve made him fate’s punching bag, and it’s really not funny. I don’t even mean the comic book store burning down, I mean the scene where he didn’t understand why women wouldn’t come into the store, and Amy, Bernadette and Penny read Yelp comments about how creepy Stuart was. It’s like now that Howard isn’t creepy, Stuart is the new group pervert. No thanks.
> [@](#):
>
> The Penny and Sheldon in the bathroom scene was great. Their pairings are the best parts of the show.
I did like it when she said she would have been teasing him along with his sister, but now she was his friend. She never came out and said she was repentant, but it was there in the subtext.
> [@Reluctant\_A](#):
>
> She was at Missy’s party, obv.
Probably watching her grandchild while Missy had a good time.
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Kripke and Sheldon “bonded” over Sheldon realizing that Kripke is smarted than he is, and at the same time Kripke thinking that the reason Sheldon was doing inferior work was the fact that he was sexing up Amy’s lady parts so much it was taxing his brain.
Yeah; they are colleagues who have co-published.
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Worse, even. She’s [Leonard’s mother] a monster.
If she hadn’t had children, she wouldn’t be a monster, but as a mother, she definitely is.
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> I do think Sheldon thought Batman was coming to his birthday party when he was 6, not Adam West or any other actor. Batman wasn’t at this party either, so he wouldn’t know why West was there. I think he would make a bigger deal about it not withstanding, but I’ll accept the anxiety explanation. None of that makes it a better episode though.
I wonder if West refused to put on a Batman suit for the episode? At any rate, yes, we don’t even know whether six-year-old Sheldon had seen the TV show _Batman_ with Adam West.
---
### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [February 29, 2016, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/58 "2016-02-29T00:39:46Z")
Is Adam West allowed to wear a Batman suit? I remember that the actor who played The Lone Ranger used to make appearances in costume until the studio sued to prevent him from doing so.
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [February 29, 2016, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/59 "2016-02-29T01:40:58Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> Is Adam West allowed to wear a Batman suit? I remember that the actor who played The Lone Ranger used to make appearances in costume until the studio sued to prevent him from doing so.
He was doing it on his own, and keeping all the money himself. I imagine that CBS can afford to pay whatever royalty DC Comics wants, and the publicity might even be good for DC.
That Lone Ranger suit happened just before a new (forgettable) [Lone Ranger movie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082648/?ref_=fn_al_tt_8) was released. The TV actor, Clayton Moore, had been making appearances in costume for years, and no one said anything, because it kept up interest in the show, but then the company releasing the new movie wanted him to stop because they wanted their actor to be the “only” Lone Ranger.
---
### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [February 29, 2016, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bang-theory-season-9-episode-17-february-25-2016-the-celebration-experimentation/747191/60 "2016-02-29T02:09:57Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#):
>
> That Lone Ranger suit happened just before a new (forgettable) [Lone Ranger movie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082648/?ref_=fn_al_tt_8) was released. The TV actor, Clayton Moore, had been making appearances in costume for years, and no one said anything, because it kept up interest in the show, but then the company releasing the new movie wanted him to stop because they wanted their actor to be the “only” Lone Ranger.
But they couldn’t keep Moore from signing a contract to do commercials for Ray Ban wearing some shades and a sky blue shirt. 😃
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