The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory

Episode 21: The Hawking Excitation

By: Carlos Uribe

The Big Bang Theory is about a group of nerds and the girl next door.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Stephen Hawking is giving some guest lectures at the university and his wheelchair apparently needs an actual engineer to constantly check to make sure it works. The engineer the university picks is Howard, because who else would they pick? Howard is very excited that he gets to meet and even talk with Stephen Hawking. He plans to introduce all of his friends to the great mind, and he knows that Sheldon is going to go bananas at the chance to meet this genius. Hawking has always been an idol for him and that means that Sheldon would do anything to meet him. When Sheldon is mean to Howard, as always, Howard decides to take advantage of the situation and to deny Sheldon the chance of meeting Hawking. I'm not entirely sure why Sheldon didn't just go to one of the lectures and walk up to him afterwards, but apparently Howard has full control over who Hawking can and can't meet. Sheldon isn't happy with Howard's refusal to let him meet Stephen Hawking.

He may not be happy, but he doesn't quit. He keeps begging Howard to let him meet his idol, even telling a story about how he dressed up as Stephen Hawking for Halloween. Howard eventually decides to give a paper that Sheldon wrote to Hawking, which would in theory lead Hawking to want to meet with Sheldon. Howard doesn't just want to give the paper to Hawking for free, as he decides to make Sheldon pay for it. Howard reveals just how immature he is as he tries to get back at Sheldon for the years that Sheldon has made fun of him. He makes Sheldon clean his belt buckles, wear a french maid outfit, and do his laundry. This was all really juvenile and while it did have some funny jokes, it really wasn't hilarious. This is classic sit-com territory and the show doesn't seem to add anything new to the plot.

It's sort of sad how no-one really stands up for Sheldon for long. Amy is missing this episode, since she would definably have stood up for Sheldon and then made him apologize to Howard. Raj doesn't want Howard to be too mean to Sheldon until Sheldon makes the mistake of insulting Raj. Raj then asks Howard to bring Sheldon to his bony knees. Penny slightly gets involved, but she's more interested in not being in the storyline and just tells Sheldon what he wants to hear. It's Bernadette who stands up to Howard and tells him to stop being so mean to Sheldon. She doesn't think that Howard's revenge is justified since Sheldon doesn't have any empathy. Sheldon doesn't think he's mean because his brain doesn't work that way. She does slightly back down by making Sheldon go dress shopping with Howard's mother, so even she's willing to take advantage of Sheldon. She's less interested in revenge and more in using the situation to her advantage. Sheldon does get to meet Hawking, but the episode continues to be mean to him by having him make a minor error that proves his paper wrong and then proceeding to faint.

This was an episode that did make me laugh, but a lot of the jokes didn't land. It also felt that the episode was more mean to the characters than usual. It definably felt like Sheldon was getting unfairly attacked by all fronts this week. It's true that he can be a rude and condescending jerk but he doesn't realize he's being a jerk. This episode felt more juvenile than the other episodes which also brought down the quality. The streak of excellent Big Bang Theory episodes sadly comes to an end with the guest appearance of Stephen Hawking.