The Big Bang Theory (TV Series)

The Focus Attenuation (2014)

Johnny Galecki: Leonard Hofstadter

Photos 

Quotes 

• Leonard Hofstadter : [Looking at their invention journal]  Boy, I haven't looked at these in years. Let's see... robot girlfriend...

  Howard Wolowitz : That was mine.

  Leonard Hofstadter : Robot prostitute...

  Howard Wolowitz : Also mine.

  Sheldon Cooper : I'm confused. Why would you have both a robot girlfriend and a robot prostitute?

  Howard Wolowitz : There are some things you don't do with your robot girlfriend.

  Raj Koothrappali : Boy, when Howard married Bernadette, the field of robotics really took a hit.

• Howard Wolowitz : Can't argue with him, it's right there on the screen. Austria really does look like a wiener.

  Raj Koothrappali : Forget that, check out how hung Florida is.

  Leonard Hofstadter : I'm sure Mrs. Florida walks funny. Can we get back to work?

• Raj Koothrappali : Hey, I read that someone invented a way to convert your footsteps into electromagnetic energy so you can charge your cell phone while walking.

  Leonard Hofstadter : We had that idea years ago. How come we never did anything with it?

  Howard Wolowitz : Probably because we left the diagram of it in the restaurant, and none of us wanted to walk back.

  Sheldon Cooper : I know the real reason you never made progress with that idea. You thought of it September 22, 2007. Two days later, Penny moved in, and so much blood rushed to your genitals, your brain became a ghost town.

• Leonard Hofstadter : Negative reinforcement isn't working.

  Sheldon Cooper : I think you mean positive punishment. Negative reinforcement is the removal of a positive stimulus. It's a common mistake.

  Howard Wolowitz : Negative reinforcement is really wrong?

  Sheldon Cooper : Oh, it's used incorrectly all the time. Even Bill Murray makes that mistake in the first scene of Ghostbusters.

  Raj Koothrappali : No way. Not Bill Murray!

• Howard Wolowitz : My cousin has a cabin out in the woods.

  Sheldon Cooper : I'm not going to a cabin in the woods. Did you see the movie Cabin in the Woods?

  Leonard Hofstadter : Then we'll go to a hotel.

  Sheldon Cooper : A hotel? Did you see The Shining?

  Raj Koothrappali : We could go up to Big Bear and get a house on the lake.

  Sheldon Cooper : Did you see The Lake House?

  Raj Koothrappali : Nothing bad happens in The Lake House.

  Sheldon Cooper : Yeah, well, no, not to them. To me. Time traveling mailbox. The only time that traveled was an hour and half of my life down the toilet!

• Leonard Hofstadter : Okay, so, it wasn't until his 21st birthday that Biff had will have placed his first bet and made his millions. That's when he altered the timeline.

  Sheldon Cooper : Yeah, but he had will haven't placed it!

  Howard Wolowitz : What?

  Sheldon Cooper : Unlike Hot Tub Time Machine, this couldn't be more simple. When Biff gets the almanac in 1955, the alternate future he creates isn't the one in which Marty and Doc Brown ever use the time machine to travel to 2015. Therefore, in the new timeline, Marty and Doc never brought the time machine...

  Leonard Hofstadter : Wait. Is "brought" right?

  Sheldon Cooper : [thinking]  Marty and Doc never... had have had brought?

  Leonard Hofstadter : ...I don't know. You did it to me.

  Sheldon Cooper : Oh, I'm going with it. Marty and Doc never had have had brought the time machine to 2015. That means 2015 Biff could also not had have had brought the almanac to 1955 Biff. Therefore, the timeline in which 1955 Biff gets the almanac is also the timeline in which 1955 Biff never gets the almanac. And not just never gets. Never have, never hasn't, never had have hasn't.

• Howard Wolowitz : Hold on. Pause. Something doesn't make sense.

  [drawing on the whiteboard] 

  Howard Wolowitz : Look, in 2015, Biff steals the sports almanac and takes the time machine back to 1955, to give it to his younger self. But as soon as he does that, he changes the future, so the 2015 he returns to would be a different 2015, not the 2015 that Marty and Doc were in.

  Leonard Hofstadter : This is Hot Tub Time Machine all over again. If future Biff goes back to 2015 right after he gives young Biff the almanac, he could get back to the 2015 with Marty and Doc in it. Because it wasn't until his 21st birthday that 1955 Biff placed his first bet.

  Sheldon Cooper : Wait. Whoa, whoa. Is "placed" right?

  Leonard Hofstadter : What do you mean?

  Sheldon Cooper : Is "placed" the right tense for something that would have happened in the future of a past that was affected by something from the future?

  Leonard Hofstadter : [thinking]  Had will have placed?

  Sheldon Cooper : That's my boy.