The Killer Robot Instability
- Episode aired Jan 12, 2009
- TV-PG
- 21m
Howard becomes depressed after Penny makes a cruel statement about his love life, while the rest of the guys prepare for a grudge killer robot duel against an obnoxious colleague at the univ... Read allHoward becomes depressed after Penny makes a cruel statement about his love life, while the rest of the guys prepare for a grudge killer robot duel against an obnoxious colleague at the university.Howard becomes depressed after Penny makes a cruel statement about his love life, while the rest of the guys prepare for a grudge killer robot duel against an obnoxious colleague at the university.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFirst appearance of Barry Kripke.
- GoofsWhen trash talking, and Kripke suggests a private battle, his reasoning is that "there's no guarantee we'll face each other in the round robin." "Round Robin" is a tournament structure which results in all competitors facing each other throughout the rounds, so they should in theory be guaranteed to face each other. But there might be the chance that one of their robots is destroyed in a fight before facing the other one.
- Quotes
[Kripke challenges the guys to a robot duel]
Leonard Hofstadter: Barry, we can't fight you tomorrow. Our engineer is incapacitated.
Barry Kripke: What's wwong with him?
Rajesh Koothrappali: He's depressed because he's pathetic and creepy, and can't get girls.
Barry Kripke: We're ALL pathetic and cweepy, and can't get girws. That's why we fight wobots. If you'we not thewe, you'ww be exposed to widicuwe.
Rajesh Koothrappali: I'm curious, what part of America is that accent from?
- Crazy creditsCHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #235 FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION (spoiler alert) It's that time of the year when movie studios seeking Oscar nominations for their films start asking for my consideration. Every trade ad and mailing begins with the words, "For your consideration." It's kind of a Hollywood tradition. Anyway, this is what I've considered so far: Milk (a well-meaning gay guy is shot to death by a homophobe), Doubt (A really mean nun accuses a really terrific priest of being a pedophile), Revolutionary Road (a married couple fight a lot, cheat on each other, then the wife bleeds to death following a botched abortion), Slumdog Millionaire (incredibly poor kids subjected to unthinkable evil, but with a happy ending), Defiance (starving Jews fight Nazis in the woods), The Wrestler (a broken-down, over-the-hill wrestler on steroids has a tough life), Changeling (a woman's son is abducted and the police put her in an insane asylum), Gran Torino (a dying widower commits suicide to help his neighbor), Benjamin Button (a guy grows old in reverse and then dies), Rachel Getting Married (a drug addict kills her baby brother and then pisses off her family during a wedding), and The Reader (Nazi atrocities, under-age sex and illiteracy prove to be a lethal combo). So, what am I considering? Well, for a moment or two I actually considered hanging myself. But then I thought, if I do that, the movies win.
- ConnectionsFeatured in MsMojo: Top 10 Times Penny Was a Savage on The Big Bang Theory (2022)
- SoundtracksHistory of Everything
(uncredited)
Written by Barenaked Ladies
Performed by Barenaked Ladies
[Series theme song played during the opening titles]
The Beauty Insensitivity goes something like this: Beautiful and popular girls often don't even realize they are hurting someone's feelings when they reject, or worse, say something hurtful to a person who to them is "just some weird geek". To them, the concept of living in a world where you are over the years subjected to ridicule time after time is so alien it is practically unfathomable. One girl, who was 20 at the time, told me that she had been picked upon only *once* during her *twelve years* of school. I haven't asked for an update of her years in an University, but it's a pretty good guess she hasn't been picked on while studying there.
Being on the receiving end of The Beauty Insensitivity is painful and can, when being subjected to often enough, lead to complete incapability to what we call "normal" social relationships. It is a very serious problem in our current beauty-obsessed world and there exists a similar phenomenon hurtful for girls that we could call The Wallpaper Imperceptibility - the one you see often discussed about on TV, while the harmful obsession with beauty is ironically created by all media.
It would be commendable to pay as much attention to The Beauty Insensitivity as is paid to The Wallpaper Imperceptibility, but neither should be made fun of. And that's exactly what this episode does. On top of that, there is a certain scene that only reinforces the pain caused by The Beauty Insensitivity, leading us to the conclusion that girls apologizing for their Beauty Insensitivity still will always look down upon "geeks". And while that is probably largely true in the real world, it offends me that it is used to "comedic" effect here. I was not laughing and I bet there were a lot of "geek" viewers of this show that weren't laughing either. This episode is an unwelcoming stain in an otherwise excellent series. I'm hoping this was just an Inevitable Continuum Anomaly.
- ttapola
- Dec 28, 2009
Details
- Runtime21 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 16 : 9