The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory (2007)

21 corrected entries in season 3

(13 votes)

Correction: The signed napkin (from s02e11 "The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis") was from Leonard Nimoy (who played Spock) whom Penny met at the Cheesecake Factory, not Stan Lee.

Bishop73

The Large Hadron Collision - S3-E15

Corrected entry: The "Hollermus" that Sheldon allegedly makes is not actually a Swiss breakfast dish. It is in fact simply a kind of jam made from elderberries which is quite common in most German-speaking countries. Also, judging by the ingredients on the table (eggs, milk, butter) and the food on the plate, the dish prepared by Sheldon seems most likely to be an omelette with a Vienna sausage, which is in no way traditionally Swiss.

Tanngrisnir

Correction: He actually says Cholermus which is a swish breakfast dish similar to a pancake, I had to find a script online when I first heard it to figure out what it was.

The Jiminy Conjecture - S3-E2

Corrected entry: Professor Crawley states he discovered a new species of dung beetle (named after him) in a rain forest in Borneo. That is impossible - dung beetles do not live in damp climates as the fecal matter upon which they live degrades too quickly when moist. You can find dung beetles in Savannah grassland, semi-arid desert, some lightly wooded areas, but a rain forest? Never.

Correction: Never is a big word. Deltochilum valgum and Oxysternon pteroderum are two examples of dung beetles that live in rainforests.

Guy

I'm from Borneo and yes we do have dung beetles here. My family is in the adventure business and we take coleopterists to do research on the dung beetles species found here.

The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation - S3-E1

Corrected entry: At the end of the episode, Sheldon runs off to Texas. That would be impossible in the short time frame the episode was set in. Especially since they live in Pasadena, California. California is 18 hours away by car from Texas. It has also been stated previously that Sheldon dislikes cars and airplanes a lot.

Correction: Just because he dislikes planes, doesn't mean that he will never go on one, as proven by him traveling by plane to Texas with Howard.

Greg Dwyer

Yes! Also on Young Sheldon, when he goes to Pasadena with his dad to visit CalTech, when he visits Amy in New Jersey, and when he goes with Howard to the Space Station in Houston. And lastly, Sweden.

The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary - S3-E5

Corrected entry: Wil Wheaton tells Sheldon that he missed the convention because his grandmother died. When Wheaton later refers to a living grandmother, Sheldon realizes he has been tricked. He shouldn't - presumably Wheaton, like everyone else, has two grandmothers (mother's and father's side) and thus Wheaton announcing he has a living grandmother in no way contradicts what he said before. This alone shouldn't tip Sheldon off that Wheaton was lying.

Moose

Correction: In context of how the scenes played out, it is directly implied (and very obvious) that Wheaton is talking about the same grandmother.

XIII

The Excelsior Acquisition - S3-E16

Corrected entry: Penny got a red light camera ticket while Sheldon was driving her car. She says she gave up Sheldon as the driver to the court because she didn't want to get any more points on her license. You don't get points on your license for a camera issued violation. The registered owner just gets a straight fine. A police officer has to issue a ticket at the scene to get license points.

terry s

Correction: Penny is not a legal expert. She might not be aware of this technicality and is still afraid of gaining points.

Captain Defenestrator

Correction: The chain isn't what's important. It's the ring. The chain is not part of the prop.

Knever

Correction: Howard tells Sheldon to have a nice walk and Sheldon replies "I shall", not "Bye Shel".

THGhost

Correction: Sheldon's 'Vulcan hearing' is an important plot device, used in a number of episodes for comic effect. This is one of them. In another episode, Leonard says he can hear her toilet flush, so the apartments clearly aren't very soundproof.

The Staircase Implementation - S3-E22

Corrected entry: When Sheldon tells Leonard about the time travel clause, he states "in precisely five seconds." Anybody who knows anything about time travel know that you need a definitive point in time, so without having that exact date and time written down somewhere, there's no way a future version of them could arrive at that unspecified time. Sheldon's too anal to ignore something like that.

Knever

Correction: The precise time would be slightly before the signing of the Roommate Agreement, which is about to happen, so it's a markable point in their histories/future histories.

Captain Defenestrator

The Vengeance Formulation - S3-E9

Corrected entry: The foam Sheldon used on Kripke consists of mixing ordinary dish soap, hydrogen peroxide, and saturated potassium iodide. That kind of exothermic reaction is dangerously flammable, so it should have severely burned Kripke and the members of the university board when it fell on them.

Correction: Correct, but I think you're confusing 'flammable' with hot. Without a source of ignition, the flammable foam would not ignite and generate heat from combustion. However, this reaction is sufficiently exothermic that the falling goop would not have had time to cool, and would likely have burned the individuals underneath. You can see this during the test in the apartment when the reaction generates copious clouds of steam.

The Vengeance Formulation - S3-E9

Corrected entry: Sheldon caused thousands of dollars of damage to university property when he exacted his revenge against Barry Kripke in an act of blatant vandalism. Not only does he get Barry, but also the university president and other dignitaries. Sheldon would have certainly faced a disciplinary hearing, along with paying for the damages he admitted to causing. But nothing of the event is mentioned after that.

Mike Lynch

Correction: Nothing about it is mentioned in the show. Doesn't mean that he wasn't punished. He's lucky he held his job, probably. That's all we know.

lionhead

The Bozeman Reaction - S3-E13

Corrected entry: In the scene where Sheldon lists the things that were stolen from the apartment, he mentions several gaming platforms including PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. Other than that he lists games including Final Fantasy 1 to 9. You can't play those Final Fantasy games on any of the gaming platforms he lists though (Only some HD remakes are available for the PlayStation 3, but only as downloads, so you won't be able to steal the discs because they don't exist). (00:02:45 - 00:05:15)

Sabine J. Kwak

Correction: He lists the items that were stolen. Just because he lists games for consoles that weren't taken doesn't mean they weren't stolen. He either has the games but the console was not in the apartment, or he has the games and the consoles were not taken.

Correction: Just because he's lactose intolerant doesn't mean he can't have dairy (as opposed to Howard's peanut allergy where he can't have any peanut product). In fact, in several episodes others have made fun of Leonard's flatulent as a result of him having dairy, evidence that he's had dairy products before.

Bishop73

Correction: It's not the same work shift. Note that Howard isn't wearing the same clothes.

Super Grover

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

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.

Bishop73

Inflatable means you blow air into it.

MovieFan612

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.

Bishop73

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.

TedStixon

The Adhesive Duck Deficiency - S3-E8

Corrected entry: When Penny and Sheldon get into the car to drive to the hospital, she makes the remark, "You do have a learner's permit, right?" He answers yes and explains he has logged several simulation hours which ended badly. She already knows he has a learner's permit and about the simulations, since in season 2, "The Euclid Alternative," she was with him at the DMV when he got the permit and stood beside him during the simulation, actually hitting him in the face with a pillow to mimic an airbag when he crashed.

lizbeth1fl

Correction: Actually, after Sheldon said that it was the first time driving an actual vehicle, she said "you do have 'your' learners permit, right?" It was an indirect reference to the fact that (approx) a year had passed (a season for us viewers) and he had not stepped into an actual vehicle. Penny has been known to be sarcastic from time to time.

XIII

The Jiminy Conjecture - S3-E2

Corrected entry: In the discussion between Raj and Howard about "shiksa goddess" plus Sheldon's later mispronunciation of the word and Howard's correction, it is never clarified that the term applies only to a Gentile girlfriend of a Jewish man. No other relationship qualifies.

MFWills

Correction: This is incorrect as it also applies to a Gentile woman who is the object of desire by a Jewish man. However, like many words, the appropriation of the word by English speakers has transformed it into any Gentile woman (although usually an attractive woman) and is as such, commonly used as a term of endearment rather than an insult.

Bishop73

The Pants Alternative - S3-E18

Corrected entry: Sheldon refers to the "Hillbilly Peace Prize" in connection with Penny. Sheldon would have corrected anyone else who said such a thing. He would point out that that word "hillbilly" refers to people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas in the US primarily in Appalachia, the Ozarks, and other less well-known mountain chains. Nebraska, where Penny is from, is rural, but being a Great Plains state, has no connection at all to the term, not to mention a lack of mountains.

MFWills

Correction: Hillbilly is also an insult to those who live in farming and rural areas, which Penny's story certainly invoked.

Greg Dwyer

The Vengeance Formulation - S3-E9

Corrected entry: Kripke pumps helium into Sheldon's office to make his voice squeaky while conducting a phone interview. However, the helium is pumped in via a tube that is above the height of Sheldon's head, and helium floats in air; therefore, the helium would have accumulated near the ceiling and would not have affected Sheldon within a couple of minutes as shown.

DavidK93

Correction: Kripky opens 2 massive canisters of helium - enough to accumulate low enough to affect Sheldon's voice.

Ssiscool

The Excelsior Acquisition - S3-E16

Plot hole: In Series 1, Episode 7, "The Dumpling Paradox, " Sheldon makes an oblique reference to his financial status: "Frankly, if I could afford the rent, I'd ask you [Leonard] to leave, " meaning he cannot pay the rent on his two bedroom apartment by himself - not that he doesn't want to, he can't. However, in "The Execlsior Acquisition, " we find that he does not even cash his pay cheques. He doesn't even deposit them into a bank account - he leaves them in a drawer in his desk. In Series 2 Episode 14 "The Financial Permeability", he lends Penny a large amount of money from a huge bankroll he just happens to have lying about - again, without cashing his pay cheques! He is obviously independently wealthy. Either he doesn't have enough money to afford the rent or he has enough to work without being paid while practically giving large amounts of cash away. Can't be both.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Not being able to afford doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't have the money, especially a man like Sheldon. He works with a budget and he sticks to it. In his budget he has a certain amount set aside for rent, anything more than that and he can't afford it alone.

Nonsense. If he was sticking to a "rigid budget" he wouldn't have even thought of lending a hopeless credit risk like Penny a single cent. Instead he throws a huge bankroll at her without even discussing a repayment plan.

Rubbish, I stick to a strict budget but still have the money to lend to close friends. Like Penny is to him.

He might have different budgets for different things. People could get a higher margin because they could be of more use to the scientific mind of Sheldon.

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The Holographic Excitation - S6-E5

Trivia: In this episode, Sheldon and Amy are trying to decide on couples' themed Halloween costumes. Sheldon is standing in front of the dry erase board. There are 2 columns written on the board. One named "Couples I Like" and the other "Couples You Like." Under the "Couples You Like" column, one of the couples is Blossom and Joey. Blossom is the name of the television character played by Mayim Bialik in the 90s and Joey was one of her brothers.

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The Euclid Alternative - S2-E5

Question: Though it comes up in other episodes as well, this one is focused on Sheldon needing a ride everywhere he goes because he can't drive, not to mention his not being welcome on the bus. Of course, this story element would be nonexistent if there was a simple answer, but it does beg the question: Does Pasadena not have taxicabs?

MFWills

Chosen answer: It does. The variable cleanliness of the cab and the habit of taxi drivers to engage customers in small talk would be too much for Sheldon to handle, and not an option for him.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Sheldon DID finally use a taxi when going to the airport to see and propose to Amy in New Jersey.

More questions & answers from The Big Bang Theory

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