Penny stealing Sheldon's onion ring.
The Panty Piñata Polarization is the 7th episode of the 2nd season of The Big Bang Theory.Penny interrupts the guys' game of Klingon Boggle, so she can watch America's Next Top Model — she neglected to pay her cable billnote . Sheldon of course wants to continue the game of Klingon Boggle, but Howard, Leonard and Raj are too entranced by the models on TV.
The next time the show comes on, Penny again watches it at Apartment 4A as the guys eat fast food takeout, and gets ensnared in a conflict with Sheldon.
- Penny was feeling hungry so she grabbed one onion ring from Sheldon's food. This compromises the integrity of the other onion rings, which Sheldon throws in the trash.
- Penny then sits in Sheldon's spot. Then she refuses to budge.
- Sheldon bans Penny from Apartment 4A.
- Penny tries refusing service to Sheldon at Cheesecake Factory, then brings him a cheeseburger that she dares him to eat.
- Sheldon cuts off Penny's access to the Wi-Fi, leaving her a video message calling her "hamburger toucher." Howard tries to restore Penny's access, which trips up another video message from Sheldon: he foresaw Howard, Leonard or Raj would try to go around his Wi-Fi blockade.
- Penny takes up all the laundry machines to spite Sheldon and insult him some more.
- While Penny leaves her laundry unattended, despite the sign against that, Sheldon hangs all of Penny's clothes on the telephone wire. At this point, Penny begs they end the war and she promises to stop bothering him if he gets her clothes back, but he refuses.
- This is when Leonard steps in: he gives Penny the phone number for Sheldon's mother, Mary, to convince her son to end the prank war.
Meanwhile, Howard and Raj try to find the house where the contestants for America's Next Top Model are staying. Raj narrows it down "to three square miles in the Hollywood Hills." Howard delays a military spy drone from a reconnaissance mission in Siberia to help pinpoint the location of the Top Model house.
Howard and Raj arrive at the house dressed as cable repairmen. Lio Tipton as herselfnote tells them "I think we have satellite." Undeterred, Howard says that's what he meant, even though his uniform clearly says "cable."
Tropes
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Penny declares "No shoes, no shirt, no Sheldon".
- Anything but That!: When Sheldon hangs Penny's underwear on a telephone wire, she tells Leonard that her war with Sheldon is not just "on", but "junior rodeo on", to which Leonard groans, "Oh, not junior rodeo."
- This is ultimately what drives Leonard to end the feud between Sheldon and Penny once and for all.
- At Least I Admit It: Penny tries to admit she's done some stupid things to spite Sheldon so that she can end the childish prank war between her and Sheldon. However, Penny doesn't admit she started the war by touching his onion ring, and so Sheldon refuses to end the prank war. Not to mention it's too late for her to admit that by now, and it's so blatantly obvious how stupid her actions were: trying to poison Sheldon's cheeseburger, stealing his onion ring, taking up all the laundry machines, being verbally abrasive to him.
- Boring, but Practical: One of Penny's pranks for revenge on Sheldon is simply using all the washing machines at once so he can't do his laundry on laundry night. While this would be just a simple inconvenience for anyone else, Penny knows how obsessed Sheldon is with his habits and even a small thing like this makes him extremely uncomfortable.
- Borrowed Catchphrase:Penny: (knock knock) SHELDON! (knock knock) SHELDON! (knock knock) SHELDON!
- Both Sides Have a Point: It's not unreasonable for Sheldon to be annoyed at Penny coming into his apartment to take food, as this basically makes her a Pretty Freeloader. However, Penny is also correct that everyone needing to follow the (often ridiculous and self-serving) rules Sheldon sets for them is completely ridiculous and unfair.
- Crazy-Prepared: Sheldon knew the guys would try to restore Penny's wi-fi after he sanctioned it, apparently since he can visibly tell both Leonard and Howard are deeply in love with her.Sheldon: HELLO PUNY INSECTS! As a consequence of your efforts to circumvent my will, everyone is awarded one additional strike!
- Death Glare: Sheldon gives one to Penny when she takes up all the washing machines so he can't do his laundry at the usual time.Sheldon: Woman, you are playing with forces beyond your ken.
Penny: Yeah, well, your "ken" can kiss my Barbie. - Distracted by the Sexy: When Penny comes in and watches America's Next Top Model, the guys all stare at the television except for Sheldon, who's still focused on playing Klingon Boggle. When time runs out, Sheldon is the only person who has anything written down.
- Escalating War: Between Sheldon and Penny, although Sheldon's tactics are far stronger than Penny's.Penny: (to Leonard) Oh, no no no no, it is on! I'm going to introduce your friend to a world of hurt!
- Everyone Has Standards: Though Penny says she will make Sheldon pay, even she is hesitant to resort to telling his mother on him when Leonard says she is his "Kryptonite", only doing so when Leonard says it will end the war and "save millions of lives".
- Evil Genius: Trying to dissuade Penny from escalating things with Sheldon further, Leonard says that Sheldon "is one lab accident away from being a supervillain."
- Evil Laugh: Sheldon says "Mwa-ha-ha".
- For Want Of A Nail: The onion ring touching causes the Escalating War between Sheldon and Penny.
- Freak Lab Accident: Sarcastically invoked by Leonard.Leonard: Penny, you don't want to get into it with Sheldon. The guy is one lab accident away from becoming a supervillain.
- Godzilla Threshold: To stop the prank war once and for all, Leonard clues Penny to "Sheldon's Kryptonite" - telling on him to his mother.Penny: Look, I said I wanted to hurt him, but... this?
Leonard: It'll shorten the war by five years and save millions of lives. - Hypocrite: Penny for claiming Sheldon is being rude to her. Yet she's the jerk who stole his onion ring in the first place and then belittled him by sitting in his couch spot (which is Sheldon's own couch in his own room that he's paying rent for, Penny's not even paying rent for her own room).
- Idiot Ball: Penny for leaving her laundry unattended right after taking up all the laundry machines to spite Sheldon. This allows Sheldon to take all of her clothes out of the machines and hang them on a telephone wire.
- Innocent Bystander: Leonard becomes this in Sheldon and Penny's war.
- The Internet Is for Cats: Penny once sent Sheldon a picture of a cat who wants to "haz cheezburger". He did not care for it. Matter of fact, he despised it.Penny: Oh, come on, everyone loves LOLCats. They're cute, and they can't spell, 'cause they're cats.
- It Has Only Just Begun: When Leonard sees Penny assembling a very long pole to get her laundry off the telephone lines, there's this:Leonard: Look, this has to stop.
Penny: Oh, no, no, no. It is just beginning. - It's All About Me: Both Sheldon and Penny are at their absolute worst in this episode. They get into a prank war with each other due to petty slights against each other and rope the others into it by essentially forcing them to take sides and lashing out at them if they help the "enemy".
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Sheldon complains Penny's really done some stupid things.
- His actions, until the underwear incident, were also within his rights as all he did was rescind Penny's access to his apartment and then his Wi-Fi, neither of which she actually has any legal rights to. They were at the most only privileges that the true residents (Leonard and Sheldon) granted her. Penny acts like she is entitled to those privileges and has the nerve to lash out at Sheldon for taking away both those privileges ("I'm BANISHED?! What the hell kind of crap is that?!"). Aside from the Wi-Fi piggybacking, Penny also comes into their apartment to watch their TV (she didn't pay her own cable bill), and take some free food.
- Momma's Boy:
- Sheldon wouldn't suffer any serious consequences just for disobeying his mother now that he's a grown independent man though he's psychologically wired to still listen to her.
- Invoked when Howard talks about the America's Top Model contestants being "the future Mrs. Wolowitz", which inevitably leads to a joke about his mother being "the current Mrs. Wolowitz."
- Nerds Speak Klingon: The episode opens with the guys playing "Klingon Boggle".
- Never My Fault: Both Sheldon and Penny spend most of the episode refusing to take any responsibility for their actions. While Penny does half-heartedly admit her wrongdoing after Sheldon took her clothes, Sheldon takes no responsibility whatsoever for egging her on and then hanging her laundry on a telephone wire.
- Nice to the Waitress: Penny tries to make Sheldon regret being aggressive towards her by being a really malicious waitress (or slightly more malicious than she usually is) when Sheldon comes to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. When she is forced to give him his order anyways, she dares him to eat his food, implying she did something to it (or just to psych him out with paranoia, which produces the same result).
- Oblivious to Their Own Description: When Howard and Raj find the address to the top model house that they have been searching for all episode, Leonard calls it creepy. Howard gives a detailed description of what they are doing, just to say how he thinks it isn't creepy.Leonard: Okay, for the record what you’re doing is really creepy.
Howard: You know what? If it’s creepy to use the Internet, military satellites, and robot aircraft to find a house full of gorgeous young models so that I can drop in on them unexpectedly, (mockingly) then fine, I’m creepy. - Only Sane Man: Leonard, as usual when he is caught in the middle of the war between Penny and Sheldon.
- Ordered Apology: Sheldon has to give one to Penny because of his mother Mary.
- Pretty Freeloaders: Penny knows that the onion rings are Sheldon's, and yet she tried to eat one without even asking for permission. That's a very selfish thing to do. Not to mention she uses their Wi-Fi and was watching TV on their cable because hers was cut off.
- Revenge Is a Dish Best Served:
- We don't know what Penny did to Sheldon's barbecue bacon cheeseburger (or if she even did anything), but it's enough to make Sheldon freak out just long enough until Sheldon cuts her Wi-Fi off.
- Sheldon also considers Penny touching his onion ring horribly unsanitary.
- Shout-Out: Howard references the 1932 movie Freaks when chanting "One of us, one of us!" after Leonard says, "You're officially one of us" to Penny.
- Statuesque Stunner: Howard says of a woman at the America's Next Top Model house that "she's taller than all of the women in my family combined."
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Penny, who after trying to eat Sheldon's onion ring becomes retaliatory when Sheldon prevents her from mooching off of his couch and food any longer.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Sheldon proves that he can be far more annoying and heinous than he usually is when you make him angry.
