The guys try to get Sheldon in the Christmas spirit with a round of Dungeons & Dragons with a holiday twist; meanwhile, the girls decide to go clubbing instead, with a lonely Raj tagging along.
- Bad Santa: In The Stinger, Sheldon dreams that Santa shoots him with a cannon for leaving him to die in a dungeon.Santa: Ho, ho, ho, you big dork! [BLAM!]
- Catapult Nightmare: In The Stinger, after Santa blows up Sheldon with a cannon for leaving him to be eaten by orcs, Sheldon quickly wakes up.
- Christmas Episode:
- Commonality Connection: Raj and Amy make a platonic connection during girls night at the bar. After Raj realizes that he unknowingly insulted Amy by saying he only had a crush on Penny Bernadette, he tells her that he knows how it feels to be lonely and rejected, and tells the story of how a girl threatened to hurt him while playing Spin the Bottle. Amy retorts that when she went to a frat party in college she passed out and was wearing more clothes when she woke up. Finally, both Raj and Amy reveal that they will cut the circulation in one of their hands just long enough to make it go numb, so that when they hold it with the other, it will feel like they're holding hands with another person.
- Continuity Nod: Leonard mentions leaving research papers for Santa instead of milk and cookies. The Hofstadters having to make research papers as kids was first brought up in "The Maternal Congruence".
- Freudian Excuse: We learn the roots of Sheldon's hatred of Christmas. As a kid he asked a Mall Santa to bring back his recently deceased grandfather (the only one in his family to encourage his interest in science). He got Lincoln Logs instead, and has held a grudge against Santa ever since.
- The Grinch: Sheldon, hater of all things Christmas, takes it to a new level this episode. Instead of rescuing Santa from orcs in the game, he lets him rot in his prison and kicks him in the belly for good measure.
- Innocent Innuendo: Raj while playing D&D, which Stuart makes a note of.Raj: Oh, man! The first monster I see, I'm gonna sneak up behind him, whip out my wand, and shoot my magic all over his ass!
Stuart: Do you hear yourself when you say these things?
[Later, when Raj's character is killed]
Raj: Doesn't any one have a Rod of Resurrection? Because if you've got one, I need it bad! Get in here with your Rod and give it to me!
Stuart: Okay, you need to say these things in your head before you say them out loud. - RPG Episode: The boys play a Christmas-themed game of Dungeons & Dragons.
- Spin the Bottle: Raj mentions that when he was seven years old, he was playing this game with some neighborhood kids, and when the bottle pointed to Lakshmi Choudry, "she threatened to break the bottle and cut me."
