Handlung

To improve his skills as an instructor, Sheldon asks Penny to give him acting lessons. Meanwhile, Raj begins having impure fantasies about Bernadette.

Raj laments the fact of his single status. An admission by Bernadette totally preoccupies Raj's thoughts in his fragile state. Meanwhile, Sheldon has just conducted a guest lecture to the university's brightest doctoral candidates. He believes the lecture was an overwhelming success, but messages posted on various social networking sites show that Sheldon's perception and reality are polar opposites. A less than happy Sheldon decides to take some advice from Amy. As teaching is a performance art, she suggests that he take acting lessons. Despite or in part because he thinks she an acting failure, Sheldon asks Penny to be his teacher, his thoughts along the lines of the old adage, "those who can't do, teach". As Penny and Sheldon go through their antagonistic teacher/student relationship, Penny manages to get through to Sheldon in a way she couldn't have even imagined.—Huggo

Sheldon gives a lecture to class of prospective doctoral students making his usual condescending comments. Meanwhile, the gang is enjoying the tweets of the people that attended Sheldon's lecture; all negative towards him from Twitter. At one point, the entire class flipped the finger to him collectively when he turned his back to them. When he arrives home, he expects the reaction to his lecture to be monumentally positive, but his friends proceed to read out some of the tweets and this disturbs Sheldon

Later, at the Cheesecake Factory, Raj mentions how it's sad to "accidentally walk into a gay bar and have no one hit on you." This statement makes Leonard and Howard think Raj's deprivation of female company has caused some issues. Bernadette comforts and reassures Raj that he is a kind and attractive man and will meet someone in time.

Amy tries to cheer Sheldon up, but on failing that she proposes he take acting lessons as it is the responsibility of the teacher to "communicate as well as entertain and engage." Sheldon goes to Penny to ask for acting lessons; she agrees after he offers to pay her $40 per class (he wants 2 classes as he wants to master the art). Sheldon's first acting class in improvisation ends up stressing Penny (Sheldon believes Penny is not prepared as she is improvising her entire curriculum), and in the second, they act out a script that Sheldon wrote based upon a fan fiction story when he was ten years old; "Where No Sheldon Has Gone Before." Penny takes the role of Mr. Spock, saying Sheldon needs to be out of his comfort zone so Sheldon plays his mother who is sending him off to the 23rd century at the request of Mr. Spock, who says that he is the best hope to bring peace to a vast and troubled galaxy.

Eventually the script brings out very emotional feelings from Sheldon. He cries because in the play he doesn't want to get taken away by Spock and away from his mother. Penny calls his mother to help him settle down: "Hi, Mrs Cooper. It's Penny. Yeah, I think I broke your son". Then she has Sheldon talk to his mother, who begs her not to let Spock take him to the future.

Raj has a daydream in which Howard has been offered a fellowship in Israel, but he has to leave the country for 2 yrs and while he is away requests that Raj satisfies Bernadette's sexual needs; Raj willingly agrees to it. Later he daydreams that Howard is hit by a truck and is not going to make it, but is able to convey his last wish, which is for Raj to take care of Bernadette sexually; again he agrees. The final dream sees Bernadette approaches him infuriated, but the scene quickly changes into a Bollywood-style dance routine proclaiming their love to each other. Snapping out of each of these, Raj eventually comes to the conclusion that he is definitely not gay.

Title reference: Sheldon getting Penny to give him acting lessons so he can become a better teacher.