The Maternal Congruence - S3-E11
Corrected entry: Sheldon tells Leonard and Penny that he had inflatable lawn decorations as a child (in the late 80s/early 90s). Those weren't invented until 2001.
MovieFan612
18th Sep 2023
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
Correction: He says he had an inflatable Santa Claus, but nothing to suggest it was an "air blown" version that you seem to be talking about.
Inflatable means you blow air into it.
Yes, but it doesn't mean to blow air into constantly with a portable fan. That's why kids before 2001 had beach balls and other inflatable pool toys. What you seem to be describing or alluding to are called "Gemmy Airblown Inflatables," introduced in 2001.
Very true, Bishop. And even then... the technology Gemmy Airblown Inflatables use existed long before 2001. As I said in my response, it's the same basic tech used for things like inflatable planetariums. I'm confused as to what MovieFan612 is getting at. They seem to be indicating that inflatable decorations in general didn't exist before 2001... which is just factually wrong.
30th May 2023
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
The Big Bran Hypothesis - S1-E2
Character mistake: Sheldon does not do his 3x OCD knock on Penny's door.
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Suggested correction: That quirk wasn't brought into the series until halfway through the first season. The one-knock Sheldon happened a couple of times before it became the three knock habit.
16th Jan 2023
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
The Bakersfield Expedition - S6-E13
Corrected entry: Sheldon says he once borrowed his sister's makeup and ended up with pink eye but he was dressed as a zombie and he won second place. There is absolutely no way his hyper-religious mother would let him dress as a zombie.
Correction: This "mistake" relies on a single person acting in precisely the same way that someone else expects them to 100% of the time. People act inconsistently all the time, often totally at odds with their professed beliefs. This "mistake" is only valid if Sheldon's mother was seen forbidding him to dress as a zombie, and that did not happen.
Correction: How do you know she knew? She might have been out of town, busy that night, and so on and so on. Sheldon is hyperintelligent - he wouldn't put on his costume in front of her.
Sheldon is incapable of deception. And guessing where his mother was at the time is too much of a stretch.
What deception? He didn't tell his mother about a costume he wore, and she didn't find out independently. There is no mistake here.
7th Sep 2019
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
The Hamburger Postulate - S1-E5
Character mistake: When Sheldon knocks on Penny's door to seek advice about the tie on Leonard's doorknob, he does not use his typical triple knock. (00:07:43)
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First time he knocks 3 times is in Episode 2 of Season 1. First time knocking 3 times followed by saying the name is episode 10 of Season 1. The ritual of 3 knocks and 3 times saying the name and then stopping is Episode 5 of season 2.
Sheldon knocks three times because he once walked into his parents bedroom and saw his father with another woman. He's been doing the triple knock since he was a teenager.
Yet, he didn't in the show till Season 2. Funny ain't it?
Suggested correction: A one-time lapse in someone's usual behavior does not count as a "character mistake", even in the case of someone given to ritualistic behavior as Sheldon is.
Ah, but in an episode he explains he had developed this particular ritual at age 13 after walking into his parent's bedroom without knocking and seeing his father having sex with another woman. He says he started knocking 3 times since then and would never forget. So its not consistent and a mistake as this is not the only example one can name.
19th Jan 2022
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
The Einstein Approximation - S3-E14
Character mistake: Sheldon is an extreme germophobe to the extent he doesn't even shake hands. There is no way he would be climbing around in a ball pit.
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Suggested correction: If he was acting normally (for Sheldon), he wouldn't. However, Sheldon isn't acting as he normally would due to lack of sleep, and his obsession with solving a problem.
The severity of his phobia would not be minimized by lack of sleep.
Sheldon's mind is distracted by the problem he is trying to solve. He grabs other people's food, he allows Raj to touch his food, he handles dirty cutlery at the cheesecake factory, All characteristics that would be present if he was acting normally. The fact that he is in the ball pit is simply an extension.
Severe sleep deprivation could certainly affect how Sheldon reacts to phobias. The brain requires sleep to function and with a severe lack of sleep, the brain is no longer able to send the signals that alert Sheldon to his fear of germs.
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Correction: Sorry, but this is completely incorrect. I had inflatable decorations back in the 90s, and there were absolutely inflatable lawn decorations in the 80s. You can still buy some inflatable 80s decoration secondhand on sites like eBay. "Modern" inflatables like balloons date back 200 years, and the air-inflation process had been used prior to that even. I can only presume you're referring to the more current in-vogue inflatables that use fans... but even those existed before 2001, albeit they weren't as widely used. (Ex. The StarLab inflatable planetarium that many schoolchildren still experience to this day uses the same basic fan system and was invented in the 1970's.)
TedStixon
I researched my answer. Can you provide more info on yours?
MovieFan612
How could you have possibly done research on inflatables and come to the conclusion that inflatable decorations were invented in 2001? My info is that I literally owned some, and you can still find plenty second-hand online. Go to Etsy and search "vintage inflatable" and there are currently multiple inflatable decorations that date from the 80s and earlier that people are selling secondhand.
TedStixon