Recap / The Big Bang Theory S 4 E 1 The Robotic Manipulation

"The Robotic Manipulation" is the first episode of the fourth season of The Big Bang Theory.

Sheldon is going out on his first date with Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik), whom he first met in "The Lunar Excitation", and as he's never been on a date before, he brings Penny along for help. Meanwhile, Howard is caught in a very compromising position while playing around with an experimental robotic arm.

Tropes

• Analogy Backfire: Raj compares Howard's predicament to when Winnie the Pooh got stuck in the honey tree, and how his friends all grabbed onto him and pulled him out. Leonard's response:
  Leonard: You do what you want. I'm not touching another man's "honey tree".
• Awesome, but Impractical: The experimental robot arm. Howard attempts to use it as a Mundane Utility for various things, but most of them don't work out that well. He uses it to unload food for everyone, but it takes 28 minutes because he needs to constantly write up the commands by hand for every single item the arm pulls out. He later uses it to give himself a massage, which actually seems to go rather well... until he gets the idea to attempt to use the arm to masturbate, resulting in it getting stuck with him unable to remove it without risk of causing serious harm to either it or himself.
• Blatant Lies: Howard claims he got stuck in the robot hand by slipping and falling into it... penis first. Leonard and Raj obviously don't believe him and spend awhile mocking him over his situation. He later makes the same claim to the nurse and her response ^note  Yeah, we get that a lot. makes it clear she doesn't buy it either.
• Breaking In Old Habits: Though it isn't filling in for his own missing limb like most examples, Howard still uses a robot arm to masturbate. The result is the trope's page image.
• Brick Joke: While Leonard and Raj were trying to help Howard, Howard's mother called out if they wanted Oreo cookies and Hawaiian Punch, with Howard yelling back they didn't, and Raj imputing why not. After Howard is freed of the robot, Raj asks "Now can we have cookies and Hawaiian Punch?".
• The Bus Came Back: Althea, the Sassy Black Woman nurse who appeared in the pilot and the Season One episode "The Peanut Reaction", reappears after three seasons.
• Characterization Marches On: Since this is Amy's first full appearance on the show, her personality is still a work in progress. At this point she's little more than a Distaff Counterpart to Sheldon, whereas in later seasons they're almost polar opposites; also she acts coolly towards Penny, whom she would later enthusiastically refer to as her "bestie".
• Code Emergency: Subverted.
  Althea (into PA system): I need an orderly with a wheelchair. I got a robot hand grasping a man's penis out here.
  Howard: Could you be a little more discreet?
  Althea: I'm sorry, we don't have a code for "robot hand grasping a man's penis".
• Continuity Nod: The "check engine" light in Penny's car is brought up yet again, this time by Amy.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Penny bitterly notes how she could have saved herself the entire embarrassing night with Sheldon and Amy if she had just threatened to tell on him to his mother in the first place to get him not to do his vitro fertilization plan with Amy.
• Cringe Comedy: Imagine having to go to the hospital with a robot hand grasping your penis.
• Deadpan Snarker: Althea, the nurse who attends Howard.
  Althea: What is this?
  Howard: It's a robot arm.
  Althea: Where's the rest of the robot?
  Howard: I just built the arm.
  Althea: Because that's all you needed, right?
• Death Glare: At the end of the episode when Sheldon tells Penny the night is still young and she can try to go out and find "Number 32", referencing how many men he thinks she has had sex with, Penny glares angrily at him, with him quickly wishing her good night and running into his apartment.
• Flipping the Bird: After a snide comment from Sheldon, Howard tries to have the robot arm flip him off, but it gives him the peace sign instead.
• Have You Tried Rebooting?: The nurse suggests turning the computer controlling the robot arm off and then on again to release Howard. Howard is just starting to voice his objections when the nurse does just that, and the arm lets go.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: Howard is stuck with the robotic arm grasping his penis, and if he starts it again, it might twist it off. Raj compares his situation to Winnie the Pooh getting stuck in the Honey Tree.^note He's actually describing Pooh getting stuck in Rabbit's front door, as seen in both the original book and the Disney shorts, but then, Leonard saying he's not touching another man's "rabbit hole" or "front door" wouldn't land quite as well.
• Here We Go Again!: The episode ends with Leonard and Raj once again getting a call from Howard, with him just saying "it happened again", implying that he used the robot to masturbate again.
• Insult Backfire: Sheldon insults Penny and her skills as a waitress by calling her an "unskilled food server" and that one day the technology that made the robot arm will make her obsolete. Penny just sarcastically asks that they're going to make a robot that spits in Sheldon's hamburger.
• I Want Grandkids: Deconstructed; Sheldon doesn't initially see Penny telling on him to his mother about his vitro fertilization plans as a threat since he says his mother has always wanted grandkids. Penny however breaks it down to him as "Your deeply religious born-again Christian mother wants a test-tube grandbaby born out of wedlock?" Realizing his plan is doomed to fail, all Sheldon can say is a bitter "Curses".
• Mistaken for Gay: Amy is not used to compliments, so when Penny says she has nice hair, she thinks it's a come-on.
  Amy: Are you a homosexual?
  Penny: Um, no. Just paying a compliment.
  Amy: I would have been more flattered if you were a homosexual.
• Mistaken for Masturbating: A Bait-and-Switch version. The camera starts with Howard off-frame while making rather sensual-sounding moans, until the camera pans over and reveals the arm massaging his shoulder. It's only after he comments it's "just like a real hand" that he gets the ill-advised idea to use the robot arm to pleasure himself.
• Mundane Utility: Howard brings an experimental robot arm he designed for the ISS. The episode opens with him using the arm to serve take out food to the group (although it takes him 28 minutes because he has to enter each command by hand). Later, he uses it to give himself a backrub... which gives him the idea to use it for a more sensual massage.
• Nice to the Waiter: Discussed briefly in the opening scene where Sheldon tells Penny that eventually the technology that went into creating the robot arm will eventually make "unskilled food servers" like her obsolete. Penny sarcastically asks how a robot will spit in Sheldon's hamburger like she does, angering Sheldon.
• Nobody Poops: Discussed when Raj asks how Aquaman goes to the bathroom.
• Really Gets Around: Sheldon states that from his observations over the last three years that Penny has dated 193 men throughout her entire life, and also calculates she has had sex with 31 of them. Penny insists that he is wrong but doesn't really provide any counterarguments.
• Spit Take: Penny does one once Sheldon mentions that he and Amy are thinking about a "having a child together".
• Threat Backfire: At first played straight then subverted. When Penny threatens to tattle on Sheldon to his mom if he proceeds with his fertilization plan to conceive a child, Sheldon isn't scared on the pretense that Mrs. Cooper wishes to have a grandkid, but changes his tune when Penny tells him that his fertilized kid will be born out of a wedlock and that his mother, who is a devout Christian, would not approve.