"The Extract Obliteration" is an episode of The Big Bang Theory that first aired on November 1, 2012. Directed by Mark Cendrowski. Teleplay by Steven Molaro, Jim Reynolds and Eric Kaplan, based on a story by Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady and Steve Holland.
Penny is reluctant to tell Leonard that she is taking a history class at Pasadena community college. After he finds out, Leonard reads and then completely rewrites her paper on slavery. Sheldon is playing the on-line game Words with Friends with Professor Stephen Hawking.
Tropes
- Believing Their Own Lies: Even though Penny solicited help from Bern and Amy for her history report, she feels insulted when Bernadette said she deliberately wrote the paper of a quality deserving only a B minus grade to make it believable and fool Penny's professor that she didn't cheat. Penny feels insulted by this and delivers them a Death Glare bringing back her threat of beating them with a bag of oranges.
- The Bully: Penny acts this way towards Leonard and then Bernadette and Amy at the end. She tries hurting Leonard's self-esteem as much as possible by flaunting a B minus saying she did it all by herself, then threatens to beat up Amy and Bernadette with a bag of oranges if they either tell Leonard they're the ones who actually wrote the paper or even slightly offend her about the fact they only wrote a B minus deserving paper to make sure the professor wouldn't suspect Penny cheated.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: At the beginning, Penny made spaghetti for dinner for Leonard. She asks how is it, and Leonard comments it's crunchy, as she didn't boil the noodles to an edible level. Penny then blames her poor cooking on the water.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Sheldon interrupts the guys' dancing game to announce that Stephen Hawking is playing Words With Friends with him.Sheldon: The game is not called Words With Strangers, or Words with Acquaintances. It's called Words With...
Raj: I'm not finishing your sentence! You pulled the plug on my funk! - Hypocrite: Penny is this in two ways:
- Penny feels offended that Leonard thinks she's stupid by trying to rewrite her history paper. But then it turns out she made Amy and Bernadette write the paper for her behind Leonard's back. She even directly tells Leonard, "I have to do this on my own: If I pass, I pass! If I fail, I Fail! Do you get it?" when really she does care about passing, she just cares more about looking academically self-sufficient in front of Leonard.
- Penny is also worried that Leonard would mock her for her lack of academic credentials. It's actually Penny who tries mocking Leonard at the end and even calling him stupid with the pathetic accomplishment of getting a B minus on her history paper which it turns out she didn't even write and only made Amy and Bernadette do so.
- Insane Troll Logic: Penny throughout the whole episode believes that Leonard being a CalTech physicist would mock her for not having the same amount of education. She took Leonard correcting her history paper as insulting her intelligence and pressuring her to ace the class and she claims Leonard is sick of dating someone who's just a Cheesecake Factory waitress. Leonard vehemently denies her wildly false claims but Penny has none of it.
- Jerkass Ball: Penny treats her own boyfriend Leonard like a nuisance for simply cheering her on to ace her community college class and then lashes out at him aggressively for trying to help her pass. She could've avoided Leonard's Unwanted Assistance had she simply not even bothered to tell Leonard about her going back to college but then accuses Leonard of putting pressure on her to do well there.
- Karma Houdini: All in all Penny never faces any comeuppance for her abrasive behavior especially towards Leonard.
- Lack of Empathy: Lampshaded by Leonard that Sheldon won't give him any empathy on his issue with Penny and her history paper.Leonard: You need to give me some advice.
Sheldon: Uh, fine. Women, huh?
Leonard: Specific to my situation!
Sheldon: Blonde women, huh?! - Loophole Abuse: Amy gives Sheldon the word "extract" to use in the Words with Friends game. But now if Sheldon uses that word it would be cheating. But then it occurs to Sheldon that "extract" pronounced \ ik-ˈstrakt \ is completely different from "extract" pronounced \ ˈek-ˌstrakt \, so it's not cheating for him to use it after all.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Paraphrased by Sheldon when he gloats about beating Stephen Hawking only to find out that (according to Howard) Hawking is an extremely poor loser, which would explain why he has not responded in three days.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Bernadette nagged Penny into telling Leonard about her going to community college which kickstarts Penny's bullying rampage against Leonard as Penny already believed Leonard would take this opportunity to insult her for not having the same academic credentials that he does.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations:
- Lampshaded. Leonard wants to talk about him cheating on Penny's homework, Sheldon wants to talk about how Stephen Hawking hates him now. Leonard thinks they're having two different conversations. Sheldon denies any knowledge of that, as he's not listening to him.
- Leonard tries to fix it with a chess clock, but Sheldon sabotages that as well.
- Selective Obliviousness: Played for Laughs. Sheldon says straight-up that he is not listening to Leonard's complaints about looking at Penny's paper about slavery, being too obsessed with his game with Steven Hawking.
- Unsportsmanlike Gloating: After beating him at Words With Friends, Hawking calls him to rub his victory in Sheldon's face.Stephen Hawking: What do Sheldon Cooper and a black hole have in common? They both suck. Neener, Neener.
- Unwanted Assistance: Leonard keeps offering help on Penny's history paper on slavery, but Penny is having none of it. She decides she only wants Leonard to know she's taking a college class at night but not do anything to support her.
