When Penny asks Leonard to sign for a piece of furniture, he readily agrees, having no idea that when the delivery comes, he and Sheldon will be forced to make an incline plane and push the furniture up the four flights of stairs to Penny’s apartment. But, fear not, these are the descendants of Archimedes! “Give me a fulcrum and a lever and I can move the world,” says Leonard. But, that’s before he knows just how heavy IKEA furniture can be…
When they finally get the piece of furniture into Penny’s apartment, Sheldon is tormented by how messy the place is. Hours later, Leonard is awakened from a sound sleep and goes out into the hall to find Sheldon cleaning Penny’s apartment as she sleeps. At first Leonard protests, but eventually he is sucked into the cleaning cycle as well. When Penny gets up in the morning, she’s furious and Leonard has to (once again) explain to Sheldon the meaning of sarcasm when Penny makes a remark about sticking a shoe somewhere it shouldn’t be. At this point, Sheldon’s morning routine has been so adversely affected that he is forced to switch from Honey Puffs (the low fiber end of the shelf) all the way to Big Bran.
Ultimately, Penny calms down, Sheldon and Leonard apologize, and the matter is settled. The boys then turn their attention to creating a more efficient set-up for the piece of IKEA furniture that Penny has purchased. As they diagram and debate about all the possibilities, Penny puts her Nebraska farm-girl instincts to work and starts assembling. Looking out over the apartment as she continues to build, she concedes that the cleaned and organized apartment does look pretty good after all.
Dialogue and Setting of The Big Bang Theory
One of the most interesting elements about this series is that, while quite a bit of it is grounded in science and scientific theory, it actually has a fairly simple and inexpensive setting. For the most part, the characters are in their apartment and the dialogue takes place largely in the building. This is greatly facilitated by the fact that the elevator appears to be permanently out of commission. By establishing the expectation that the elevator will be perpetually broken, the series’ writers have not only created a genius opportunity for extended dialogue during the stair climb, they have also made for some pretty interesting physics experiments in the stairwell.
Memorable Quotes from The Big Bran Hypothesis
Sheldon: “Superman swoops down to save her by reaching out two arms of steel. Miss Lane, who is now travelling at approximately 125 mph, hits them and is immediately sliced into three equal pieces…Frankly, if he really loved her, he’d let her hit the pavement. It would be a more merciful death.”
Sheldon: “Ah, gravity. Thou art a heartless bitch.”
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