History Headscratchers / TheBigBangTheory

* Why did no one in the group think Priya was out of bounds by making Leonard stay away from Penny? Firstly, they've been friends with Penny for four or so years before. Secondly, its not like he was driving across town to see her, he lives next door. Thirdly, Penny and her have no discussion about this in "The Engagement Reaction" and act like nothing happened. What is up with this? What's wrong with character study and interaction? Do they think we forgot? Also one about the fourth season finale; Why did Raj not stay in the bedroom and instead follow Penny to the door? [[WhatAnIdiot Did he think no one would question him walking to the door in nothing but a blanket with a half dressed Penny?]]

** Actually, I always thought it would be easier to continue to use Alcohol as a placebo, rather than taking the time to visit the therapist regularly (and the cost of a therapist) .Keeping in mind, he isn't 'perpetually drinking', in fact he doesn't neseccarily have to consume alcohol at all ( Rumcake and non- alcoholic beer have both worked.) He just has to believe he's had even a tiny bit of alcohol. As in the case with the Rumcake, he only needed a bite, and was able to talk instantly (not waiting around for the 'alcohol' to be absorbed.) So in any case, a tiny amount of alcohol would be safer than the side-effect inducing medication. I thought one of those alcoholic chocolate truffles would work well, without getting him drunk to the point of being obnoxious. A little alcohol candy piece would be very quick to use in emergency situations when confronted, and would be easy enough to eat without too much attention.

* So the guys have a game night, in their apartment, and the best game they can find is Pictionary? After which they are so hard pressed to find another game that they spin around on light sabers or wrestle? No Catan? No Ascension? They don't own a single geeky board game? (Or for that matter any other game at all?) Not to mention that Sheldon with his eidetic memory should have memorized all of the Pictionary cards and known not to guess all of the stuff he did.

** It's been a while since I've seen the episode, but I seem to recall that one of the rules for the game night was that they would only play "normal" games, since the guys would have the upper hand in any "geeky" games they played. So they probably do have all those geeky board games, it's just that the girls wouldn't play them so they settled for Pictionary and pie-eating.

** Because nobody from ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' would let River Tam go anywhere on her own. Now, if Summer had been accompanied by one of her co-stars, they might have made that joke. Although I shudder to imagine how Howard would have acted if Creator/JewelStaite or Creator/MorenaBaccarin had been there, too...
** I'm going to go with "four minutes of total paralysis, followed by a cut-scene in which a judge is imposing a restraining order." Thanks for the mental image.

** Well, if he was wearing a fez.....
** The Fourth Doctor is fairly well-known, at least to Gen X-ers and older. THE SCARF!

* not really a Headscratcher... but. A question from Britain. The UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents page says there is such a thing as a distinct Pasadena accent. does that come out anywhere on this show? Thanks!

* This is a series about geeks and despite its reputation in the West as a somewhat geeky niche interest, none of the characters are interested in manga and/or anime? Not to mention that most of the comics the guys ''are'' interested in are the typical Marvel/DC superhero variety, when other (albeit perhaps less popular) publishers and genres exist. Is anime and manga so niche that it would be too obscure for a general audience, or would such an audience perhaps be [[AllAnimeIsNaughtyTentacles wierded out by it]] or something?
** The Big Bang Theory is about what the LowestCommonDenominator in the 1980s ''THINKS'' a "nerd" or a "Geek" is - not what a "nerd" or a "Geek" actually ''is''. Even referencing something like Sailor Moon or Pokémon would risk stepping out of their SmallReferencePools. (I bet you ''ANYTHING'' they'd never reference Guardians of the Galaxy had [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy a movie not made millions at the box office.]]) And when you step outside of the SmallReferencePools of what the public ''thinks'' is geeky then they won't laugh and be confused. Why do you think they never mention Image or Mirage, and why any Star Trek references are Kirk or Picard and never Janeway? Given that they can't even [[FacePalm conduct all the research about what "Geeky" things they're supposed to be doing]], they obviously can't be trusted to research any anime or manga without half-assing it. (Sword of Azeroth.)

[[folder:Where is Sheldon's railway set?]]
* One issue that bugs me. Sheldon is depicted as a train buff who visits model railway stores. I don't think I've seen every episode yet - scheduling in Britain is erratic and definitely not in sequence. But it's axiomatic that model railway buffs have layouts which are as big and sophisticated as time and space allow. I've met railway buffs, I've seen their layouts, I've heard them described, very pointedly, as "permanent way" - emphasis on the word "permanent". One railway addict I know, told a baby was on the way (and where did he find the time to conceive? Or even marry??) elected to move to a bigger house - rather than surrender the spare bedroom where he'd installed his permanent way to the needs of a child. I'm pretty sure if his wife gets pregnant again he'll insist they move to a house with another spare room. Somebody as ubernerd as Sheldon ''must'' have a permanent layout somewhere that he is continually adding to, refining, and updating. It would be out of character for him ''not'' to. So - where is it?
** It's axiomatic that anything described as axiomatic is not axiomatic and very much a case by case (Irony!). Sheldon is not the people you've met. Never has been, never will be. So no, it's not out of character for him to not have a permanent setup. :)
** Interesting point. Thinking about it, model railway fans, whilst not being complete obsessives, allow it to take over all aspects of their life to the point where devoting attention to anything else is done reluctantly and resentfully. If Sheldon had a dedicated railway room (and here I wonder - why waste a spare bedroom on a pesky Room Mate?) he'd be in there 'all the time'' and nothing else would get done, not even the physics... which screws the show. I've also caught up with an orphaned episode where he buys a disappointingly minimalist train set that just chugs around in a circle on a table-top. I gather before this, he was hooked on what we in Europe would call 0-gauge, which is big-scale: this is where you start thinking about having permanent way outdoors in a garden, or a small field. It's at the big end of indoor. In this episode, Sheldon is persuaded to step down to the smaller 00-gauge (about 1:87). He then steps beyond this to N-gauge (1:144) in a passion of miniaturization.
*** I'm sorry, what? "allow it to take over all aspects of their life to the point where devoting attention to anything else is done reluctantly and resentfully"? As a model railroader myself, and someone who knows quite a few others, I must ask where you got this information? Because it's completely inaccurate and insulting. Model railroading is a hobby, nothing more, just like golf or fishing.
*** Just a couple of corrections. American models are made to HO scale (1:87). 00 Scale is 1:76, using the same gauge of track as HO, and is only used for British models. In the same vein, 1:144 is British N scale only, with N scale models in other countries built to a scale of 1:160. Again, both scales use the same track gauge. This is due to the fact that real-life British engines are built to a smaller loading gauge than those in other countries. As such, they originally had to be built to a slightly larger scale to accommodate the large, crude electric motors of the 1950s/1960s. TechnologyMarchesOn, however, and now British modelers are stuck with these different scales.
** But I do question whether a train buff would take a delicate and expensive N-gauge loco and ''put it in his mouth'' just to prove a point...
*** It would depend on the brand. Some trains (especially those in starter sets) are more toy-like than models, with molded-on details that aren't that breakable. Then again, there's a question of grease...
** Maybe he uses a spare room at the university, like the one he was using for Hacky Sacking. Or rents a storage unit or something. Frankly I'm surprised that they didn't do a "Penny accidentally steps on/insults Sheldon's train set, he gets mad and reveals that trains have some psychological childhood nostalgia for him, and she has to find a way to make it up to him" episode.
** Sheldon has no room in his apartment for any kind of serious layout with O guage he insists on. Later he discvers that smaller gauges are even more fun an sets up an HO layout in his room. He invites his former mortal enemy Wil Wheaton in to watch him play and even lets him blow the train whistle

[[/folder]]

** However, in Season One's "The Grasshopper Experiment", Leonard wonders aloud in regard to Sheldon, "I wonder who's going to tell his parents that their not going to have grandchildren". (possibly not verbatim). If Sheldon's father has been dead that long, surely Leonard would have said, "his mother".

** It has been said throughout the series that the building's landlord is kinda cheap; so it is possible that, instead of reporting anything to anyone, they just slapped an "out of order" sign on the elevator and called it a day. Maybe said that it was damaged in an Earthquake to any tenants that complained. No investigation, no worries.

** There wasnt just one match, a line near the start from Gablehouser says its a "preliminary match". To win the trophy they had to go on and win more unseen matches. They celebrated like the did after that match because they had beaten Sheldon.

** Most likely, when he heard the Szechuan Palace was closing, he panicked and bought as many containers as he could, hoping to kick the problem down the line, without a clear plan for what to do. He could gently break it to Sheldon, assuming that Sheldon hasn't gone off that food by then, or that Sheldon is no longer living with him, or that some other Szechuan Palace opens up somewhere (we don't know if, in the BBT universe, it's a single restaurant or a chain)...

** There's also the fact that Howard and Raj, at least, put a lot of effort into staying in shape, so they most likely have healthier stuff offscreen as well, plus they likely work out at least a little in order to be more attractive.

[[folder: How do the writer's justify Howard's wardrobe]]

** My suspicion is that she (deliberately) has a lot on common with Lilith Crane in ''Series/{{Frasier}}''. Beverley Hofstadter is Lilith taken UpToEleven - cold, unfeeling, robotic, over-analytical. Lilith, though, is relatively sucessful as a mother in that Frederick is not a complete basket case - although with parents like that, you do wonder if Frederick Crane is another Leonard in the making...

*** There is a difference though. While those guys accidentally proved Super Asymmetry, they at least did it via an experiment they set up and ran independently. Look at it this way, if Sheldon and Amy had set up that experiment and then said to those guys "press the experiment start button" because they'd randomly turned up and expressed interest in what the experiment was for, would those two have been included in the Super Asymmetry Nobel? Almost certainly not. It's the same with what Leonard said, someone independently discovering something, even by accident, is one thing, only doing it because you pressed a button on something already setup by someone else, at the invitation of that other person and not of your own initiative, does not deserve any credit.

Certainly the fact that Sheldon and Georgie made up was heartwarming. However, I do have one minor question. Why didn't Mary contact Meemaw to settle the dispute? As seen, Meemaw is still a formidable women even in her nineties. Presumably she still has persuasive powers over Georgie.

The second half of the episode is a series of people arguing, one of them leaving the room to bunk with someone else, and getting into another argument until the actual conference where everyone's tensions boil over. Specifically: Howard argues with Bernadette; Bernadette leaves Howard alone and asks to stay in Amy and Penny's room; Penny goes to stay in Leonard and Sheldon's room because she can't share a bed with Amy; Sheldon tries to stay in Raj's room because he can't stand the possibility of coitus; Raj gets kicked out of his own room, decides to bunk with Leonard and Penny, and ruins their mood. Everybody got that? Now then, here's the headscratcher: if Raj originally had a room to himself and usually gets along well with Howard, then why didn't Bernadette kick Howard out of their room and have them bunk together, instead of deciding to leave Howard in a room by himself and split two beds between the three girls in the group? Furthermore, why didn't Raj try to bunk with Howard when kicked out of his room, and instead tried to bunk with Leonard and Penny after Sheldon had already informed Raj of the potential coitus?

The second half of the episode is a series of people arguing, one of them leaving the room to bunk with someone else, and getting into another argument until the actual conference where everyone's tensions boil over. Specifically: Howard argues with Bernadette; Bernadette leaves Howard alone and asks to stay in Amy and Penny's room; Penny goes to stay in Leonard and Sheldon's room because she can't share a bed with Amy; Sheldon tries to stay in Raj's room because he can't stand the possibilty of coitus; Raj gets kicked out of his own room, decides to bunk with Leonard and Penny, and ruins their mood. Everybody got that? Now then, here's the headscratcher: if Raj originally had a room to himself and usually gets along well with Howard, then why didn't Bernadette kick Howard out of their room and have them bunk together, instead of deciding to leave Howard in a room by himself and split two beds between the three girls in the group?

** (Speaking as a non-faculty academic with two masters) Wolowitz is likely making far less than a standard engineer's salary, precisely because he's working on cool stuff. A place like CalTech will be a place where people take a hit to work at. I'd bet that somebody like him would be pulling down $60K or so (USD). And he's paying off an MIT master's degree on that. If he was willing to work on cars rather than Space Stuff, he'd probably add $40-30K.

I made a headscratchers page for "The Love Car Displacement" episode, but I'll reiterate here: What would the fallout from everyone's behavior be? I mean, everyone but Sheldon basically acted like children and pretty much embarrassed CalTech and the company Bernadette works for.

I acknowledge it's mainly rule of funny, but Sheldon presented three legal arguments for why he shouldnt be fined and the judge then just goes "guilty" and when challenged says he's following the law and ignoring Sheldon. What legal reasoning was there to dismiss Sheldon's arguments?

*** ok. Didnt Sheldon only have the US equivalent of a learners permit at the time though? He didnt pass his test until much later in the series (he admitted he learnt to drive in a series 11 episode and the episode he took penny was in early season 3) so him following the directions of the person who can drive is not surprising.

** I think ultimately whether or not those guys understood super asymmetry or not didnt matter, they'd performed the experiment which proved it and that was what was putting them in the running for the Nobel, so there's nothing for Amy and Sheldon to follow up because any follow up wont affect that.

** Nothing explicit was said that you missed. But it needs to be considered that this show spanned around 12 years of the characters lives (a series eleven episode has Penny saying she'd known them for eleven years) and in that time they spent relatively little time with their familes (apart from Howard). Their friends are a much more immediate and intimate part of their world, so them getting invited instead of family makes more sense in that regard. Given that meemaw probably would have not been able to make the trip that leaves five family members (Amy's mum and dad, Sheldon's mum and brother and sister) which is covered by the five tickets penny, leonard, raj howard and bernadette took. To get everyone would have needed ten tickets which is probably more than they could have had anyway.

She didn't move or refocus the telescope, she didnt even look through it or take the photo off her own initiative. She just pressed a button based on Raj's instructions with how Raj had set it up. Nothing about that is Penny discovering anything.
* Because ''she saw it first.'' It doesn't matter who takes the photo or who pointed what where. If the astronemer doesn't recognize there is a comet in either their telescope or satellite imagery, then it doesn't mean they found it. The one who identifies the moving object gets the credit. According to this article from the early 2000s, [[https://www.wired.com/2002/05/now-anyone-can-discover-a-comet/ here]], hundreds of comets were discovered from people scouring public images from a satelite looking near the sun. It wasn't the scientists who built the machine or the ones who catalogued the photos, but the people who looked over the photos and noticed something in them that got the discovery. So, yes, Penny discovered it first. Raj verified it, likely checking it out the next night to confirm it was a moving object and not some other celestial body, but Penny is the first to ''see'' it.
*** That might work if Penny independantly set up a way for her to "see it first". But she didn't, she looked through the telescope, set up by Raj, at Raj's invitation, didnt change anything, and only took the photo on Raj's instruction, she didnt even take the photo on her own initiative. She didnt do anything. Your examples dont work because a) someone else independantly set up the machines that someone else built and used them under their own power to find something and b) Penny's entire contribution to "seeing it" was to be told "look through this aperature" and then "take the picture". She had no independant contribution to it. If someone had dropped a sandwich on to the take photo button they would have got the same outcome, as Raj had already set it all up to do that.
*** While Penny only happened to look in at the right moment, at the right time, it is shown in the show that is all that is needed for the person to rceive scientific acclaim. Look at the final season arc for Sheldon and Amy's Nobel. They are like Raj. They set things up, they conceived the theory, but it was the two who proved the theory that were in hot contention for the Nobel over Amy and Sheldon. Likewise Leonard mentions it was the ones who discovered evidence of the Big Bang over the theorists in getting the Nobel. Penny is the practical part here. She saw it first. She took the photo. Raj was the backseat driving. Sharing credit for the discovery is the right thing to do in this case.

Certainly the fact that Sheldon and Georgie made up was heartwarming. However, I do have one minor question. Why didn't Mary contact MeeMaw to settle the dispute? As seen, MeeMaw is still a formidable women even in her nineties. Presumably she still has persuasive powers over Georgie.