Review: The Big Bang Theory Season 3 Episode 8 The Adhesive Duck Deficiency

(S03E08) I’m going to just say it right up front: This was the best episode of the season so far, and is neck and neck with the Leonard Nimoy Christmas episode for title of “best episode ever.” Though there were two very distinct stories going on here, they were both hilarious. Too often, when the group is separated, the B plot flounders. However, this week, while Raj, Leonard and Wolowitz in the desert wasn’t quite as jaw-dropping as Sheldon grabbing Penny’s boob(!), it was pretty damn hilarious.

So, about the desert: Pot cookies. It’s amazing to me that something so cliched could end up being so unbelievably funny. While all three of the guys made me laugh, Raj was the real scene-stealer. From his threat to eat all of the lettuce in the world and make his rabbit subjects watch, to the American accent he uses to mock Wolowitz and Leonard, everything that came out of his mouth was pure comic gold.

While the desert scenes were just joke after joke at an impressively rapid-fire pace, it was of course, the Sheldon/Penny scenes that really made the episode for me. I like Leonard and Penny together, and I do think that the idea of Sheldon and Penny having a relationship is a little too far-fetched to actually work, but they do have better chemistry than anyone else on the show.

Any time Sheldon and Penny have scenes together, they are invariably the funniest parts of the episode. The writers know this, so we’ve been getting more and more of them. What’s kind of weird about it is that it’s created a situation in which we’ve seen Penny get closer to Sheldon than we’ve ever seen her get to Leonard. Penny and Sheldon have this weird relationship going on that only they really know about.

What was different about this episode was the amount of sexual tension that was heaped onto the situation. While I never thought anything was going to actually happen between the two of them, we definitely veered into a weird place more than once. First Sheldon grabs Penny’s boob, then he peeks at her butt, and then they even end up in bed together!

Granted, they always end up in bed together, because that’s where you sing “Soft Kitty,” and we couldn’t have a Sheldon and Penny storyline without a rendition of the classic song. Watching a loopy Penny trying to make Sheldon sing it in the round with her was priceless.

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