"The Luminous Fish Effect" is an episode of The Big Bang Theory that first aired on October 15, 2007. Directed by Mark Cendrowski. Teleplay by David Litt and Lee Aronsohn based on a story by the show's creators.
Sheldon dreads meeting Eric Gablehauser (Mark Harelik), the new department head at the university but not a real scientist, according to Sheldon. Howard shows up at Gablehauser's reception with Summer (Sierra Edwards), an escort he did not pay enough to touch.
It doesn't take Gablehauser long to fire Sheldon. Penny asks Sheldon if he needs anything from the supermarket, so he tags along to buy four dozen eggs. Instead of looking for a new job, Sheldon flits from one obsession to another: the perfect scrambled eggs, fish that glow in the dark, selling a year's supply of tampons in bulk, weaving, etc.
Three weeks later, Leonard calls Sheldon's mother, Mary (Laurie Metcalf), who comes over from Texas. After a couple of days, Mary convinces Sheldon to go apologize to Gablehauser. The department head is instantly taken with Mary and tells Sheldon to get back to work as if nothing had happened at all. Sheldon worries Gablehauser will be his "new daddy."
Tropes:
- Brick Joke: One of the projects Sheldon is working on while fired is luminescent goldfish that can work as a night light. The Stinger reveals that he succeeded.
- By "No", I Mean "Yes": When Sheldon tells Penny why he's not going to work.Sheldon: I'm taking a sabbatical, because I won't kowtow to mediocre minds.
Penny: So you got canned, huh?
Sheldon: Theoretical physicists do not get canned. But yeah. - Classical Hunter: Mary Cooper lays out the bait of Cobbler and Sheldon gingerly leaves his room to approach it. Leonard gets impatient and storms up to Sheldon, who disappears instantly back to his room.Mary: You don't hunt much, do you?
- Insistent Terminology: "This is not a serape, this is a poncho! A serape is open to the sides, a poncho is closed. This is a poncho!"
- Manchild: Sheldon is fired because he insulted his new superior to his face, and he is completely shocked by this. His childish antics are on display throughout the episode when he obsesses over something new each day without focus, refuses to simply apologize to get his job back, and locks himself in his room when his mother comes. Also, his mother has constantly been telling him since he was four years old "it's okay to be smarter than everybody but you can’t go around pointing it out," which he still doesn't understand the reason why not to this day.
- No Periods, Period: Averted when Sheldon argues that Penny should purchase tampons in bulk, and starts doing the math to figure out how many she would need in her lifetime.Sheldon: Now, if you assume fifteen tampons per cycle and a twenty-eight day cycle... are you fairly regular?
[Penny slams the door in his face] - Secret Ingredient:
- Suddenly Shouting: When Sheldon's mom finally puts her foot down with him.Mary: Now you listen here, I have been telling you since you were four years old, it’s okay to be smarter than everybody but you can’t go around pointing it out.
Sheldon: Why not?
Mary: Because people don’t like it! - With All Due Respect:Sheldon: I can't believe he fired me.
Leonard: Well, you did call him a glorified high-school science teacher whose last successful experiment was lighting his own farts.
Sheldon: In my defense, I prefaced that by saying, "with all due respect." - Writers Cannot Do Math: Sheldon claims that Penny's car's gross weight at 4000 lb plus Penny at 120 lb plus himself at 140 lb would come to a total weight of 4,400 lb. That's incorrect, it would be 4260 lb.
