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The Big Bang Theory – Just a gigolo

I think I might have to see how many weeks I can go with a smooch photo accompanying the review. Who will smooch next week? Maybe, if we're lucky, Howard and Raj!

- Season 4, Episode 15 - "The Benefactor Factor"

Leonard gets a surprise

Oh, this is just great. After watching tonight’s The Big Bang Theory episode, I not only have David Lee Roth’s version of “Just a Gigolo” stuck in my mind, but the video of it as well. If I must suffer, so will you. I can see myself having nightmares of Johnny Galecki dancing and singing the tune surrounded by the show’s cast dressed in strange costumes. Eek!

I think I expected more from tonight’s show than was delivered. I figured, with guest star Jessica Walter (Arrested Development) as a wealthy cougar, she’d get a bit more screen time. I should know from past star appearances, Stan Lee for example, that the appearances are generally little more than cameos.

The premise for the episode was a bit trite — cougar wants sex from young stud and will give a large donation to the university if it comes to fruition. There really was no second story interwoven as there usually is. I’m not sure what’s up with that. Thinking back, I don’t really recall any episodes with a single story line.

Although it doesn’t count as a second story, the video dates with Sheldon and Amy Farrah Fowler are definitely perfect for their relationship. So, Amy got funding for her cause by becoming engaged to a wealthy Arab dude, eh? While she might be able to get Sheldon to mingle in public, coitus just isn’t in his future.

But then there’s Leonard. The boy has scruples! Sure, he bedded Penny (I still have the occasional nightmare about them as a couple in bed), but a stranger? And, for money! Never! But he did. No, he didn’t do it for the money for that science related doodad funding. He did it because she was so good at it. Yep, the boy has scruples.

While the episode wasn’t my favorite of the season, there were funny bits and some good lines:

  • Sheldon: “No, I’m not crazy. My mother had me tested.”
  • Amy Farrah Fowler telling Sheldon that if he didn’t try to shmooze for funding, the geology department (the dirt people!) might get it or, even worse … those poets and artists in Liberal Arts. Horrors!
  • Penny’s line to Howard: “You’re really a broken toy, aren’t you?”
  • Sheldon being sure that his stature intimidated Barbara Latham (aforementioned cougar) and that she was using Leonard to get to him.
  • Yet, she just wanted Hunka Hunka Leonard’s big bad bod.
  • Yikes.

What did you think? Am I off base and having a bad day thus not appreciating the incredible wit exhibited on tonight’s episode? Or, was it a bit flat for you, too?

Photo Credit: CBS

2 Responses to “The Big Bang Theory – Just a gigolo”

February 11, 2011 at 4:06 PM

As a writer with an English degree, I tipped my hat to Sheldon and Amy’s Liberal Arts burn.

And while her role was short, I adore Jessica Walter, especially when she is playing haughty and bitchy.

Case in point:

“Buster got a medal, what for?”
“Oh who knows what they were saying? It’s probably because a seal ate his hand. Apparently, the army is giving out medals for being food now.”

February 11, 2011 at 4:13 PM

For the record, though, if a female scientist was propositioned by an older male donor, would people be cheering at the end of the episode? No, they’d be calling her a slut and not in the cheerful way Penny called Leonard.

I just don’t like double standards.

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