The Extract Obliteration

"The Extract Obliteration" is the sixth episode of the sixth season of the  The Big Bang Theory. This episode first aired on November 1, 2012.

Summary
Penny is reluctant to tell Leonard that she is taking a history class at the local community college. After he finds out, Leonard reads and then completely rewrites her paper on slavery. Sheldon is playing Words with Friends with Stephen Hawking on line.

Extended plot
Howard and Raj are dancing to Star Wars characters using the Galactic Dance Off video game. They think they look cool, but Leonard tells them that they look the same way at their dance clubs. Sheldon announces that he has begun playing ] with Professor Stephen Hawking making them friends. Now all he needs is a bed with a slide and he’ll have everything he's wanted since he was six years old. Leonard is very happy for him. And according to Sheldon that the other guys should be happy because they are a friend with an official friend of Stephen Hawking and that they have may have now “peaked”. Howard notes that he did work with him. After Professor Hawking makes his first move, Sheldon feels that now they’ll start making up fun nicknames for each other. He’ll be “Coop” and the Professor will be “Wheels”.

Penny, Amy, and Bernadette are hanging out at Penny’s apartment where Bernadette tells them that she found herself drying her body off with Howard’s mother’s underwear. She immediately took another shower that wasn't enough. Amy got a thrill when she got a look in Sheldon’s underwear drawer. Bernadette finds Penny’s history textbook for a class that Penny was taking at Pasadena City College. She was just trying to go back to college. Amy also mentioned that her acting career was going south like  and that she could read about it in her book. She hasn't told Leonard because he’ll get all excited about it, be so proud of her and try to help her which makes her gag. Amy tells her that they are the weirdest couple she knows. Penny asks her if she can’t think of anyone else weirder, to which Amy whispers that she could, but she was sitting there, referring to Bernadette.

While Sheldon is playing Words with Friends, Amy is happy that her boyfriend is friends with Stephen Hawking and her new dandruff shampoo doesn't smell like tar so everything is coming up “Amy”. Sheldon tells Amy that he is badly beating Professor Hawking, to which Amy comments that when one man dominates another, it can raise their  level. Sheldon doesn't get the point. Amy thinks it’s exciting that Sheldon might even be getting a testosterone level. He is now calling the Professor "Stephen" because he did not like “Wheels”. Amy suggests “extract” as Sheldon’s next word, though he objects because it would be cheating if he didn't think of it. He decides to use the unrelated word “extract” (different pronunciation).

Penny and Leonard are eating at Penny’s apartment that is a bit crunchy since she didn't boil the water enough. Penny tells him about her history class which Leonard tells her is great, but she doesn't want him to make a big deal out of. Leonard goes on about full time college and transferring to a four year school and Penny cools him down with “you’re making it a big deal”. She thinks the class is going real well and that she has to turn in her first paper on the origins of. Leonard suggests several prospectives (sociological, economic, political, etc.) and Penny feels her prospective is that slavery is bad especially since she has a black instructor. Penny won’t let him see her paper, though later he does have a chance to sleep with a college girl. Leonard replies that that is great since it never happened to him when he was in school.

During dinner in Sheldon’s apartment, Raj tells them that he wants to develop an when the calls an n  since he feels his own voice sounds like he is making fun of them. Howard feels that his new accent sounds like he taking with dentures. Sheldon is lamenting that fact that Professor Hawking hasn't made a move for three days in a game that Sheldon was humiliating in. Howard remarked that the Professor is a big baby and doesn't like to lose. After Howard had corrected him about not being in the  movie, Howard didn't get invited to his staff pizza party.

That night, Leonard slips out of bed with Penny and reads her paper on her laptop. After a couple of ‘a hems’ she says that she writes like she cooks. Leonard goes back to his apartment and finds Sheldon using the to get Professor Hawking to play. Leonard tells him that he did a bad thing by reading it behind her back. Sheldon tells him about Hawking not playing. Since they are talking about different subjects at the same time, Leonard pulls out the chess timer and that they will take turns discussing their problems. Leonard tells Sheldon to give the Professor some time and Sheldon doesn't care about his problem with Penny. Sheldon’s only advice is: Women. Huh! Leonard leaves in frustration to which Sheldon tries to get him back with the Jedi mind trick. It seems to work when Leonard hears his name mentioned, though Sheldon figures it’s because it only works on the weak-minded.

In the morning at 8 AM, too early for Penny, Leonard shows up with breakfast in bed and a folder on the tray. Leonard gives her the story of the "" and leads into giving her a new history paper. Penny replies that it’s too early for The Lord of the Rings. Leonard’s point was that the shoemaker was not mad at the elves for making all these wonderful shoes. Penny says that he assumed that the paper would be bad and then wrote her a new one. Leonard replied that he assumed that it would be good and then read it. She found that he had changed every word and then Leonard pointed out the years listed, the word slavery and her name hadn't changed. Penny calls him an ass and that that was why she didn't want to tell him in the first place. Leonard explained that he just didn't want her to get a bad grade, get discouraged and quit school. Penny turned it around that her being in school was so important to him and that he didn't want to date a girl that was just a waitress. She has to do it herself whether she passes or fails. Finally she tells him that this is not the Shoemaker and the Elves story, it is the one where you give a man a fish and he eats it or you teach him and then she gets the analogy confused.

At the Caltech cafeteria, Raj and Howard commiserate with Sheldon over not playing with Professor Hawking. Sheldon comments that the man is a genius with the voice of a robot and who could be a better friend than that. Raj comments that if he is a sore loser, then maybe he isn't that good of a friend. Sheldon agrees and says that he’ll just have to make lemonade out of the two of them as friends implying that they are lemons. Finally Professor Hawking takes his turn. Sheldon is excited to be playing again with “Rolling Thunder” which is an acceptable nickname. Sheldon debates whether to throw the game with a little word to remain his friend or do the correct thing and win. Finally he decides to let Professor Hawking win.

Penny shows up at Leonard’s door after they had not seen each other for a couple of days. Leonard wonders if she was still mad at him. Penny says that there was no reason for her to “B” mad at him. Minus. She presents a “B-“on her paper. She says that it was on her paper and not his “you punk ass elf” and that she may be taking that class, but he learned the lesson that she was smarter than he thought. She leaves and then returns to Amy and Bernadette in her apartment. She says that she doesn't think that Leonard will be making that mistake again. She also tells the girls that if they ever tell Leonard that they helped her with the paper, that she will beat each of them with a bag of oranges. They both agree. Penny then explains that next time maybe they can put their heads together and get an A. Bernadette explained that her “B-“ was on purpose to make it believable. Penny snapped back that they didn't think that she was smart enough? “No, no”, the two girls replied in unison after Penny’s bag of oranges comment. “Good” she finished. The girls felt like they were back in doing the ’s homework so that she would like them. Amy finished with that it was finally working.

Finally Sheldon gets a phone call from Stephen Hawking. He thanks him for the game and calls him Dr. Cooper or Dr. Loser. Sheldon congratulates him on winning. Professor Hawking asks him if he likes brain teasers. What do Sheldon Cooper and a have in common? They both suck. Neener, neener.

Critics
"Both stories demonstrated the show’s weaknesses. Ask yourself what story was being told with Penny and Leonard? Was it about her quest to improve herself? Kind of. Was is about their relationship? Kind of. Was it about him as a boyfriend? Kind of...The Sheldon story was just more stasis. The writers are so un-ambitious that they use the idea of Stephen Hawking (and his voice software) to tell the most basic and predictable of stories...Yeah I know, why am I reviewing a show that is committed to maintaining the status quo no matter what? I ask myself every other week." The TV Critic's Review

Trivia

 * In the beginning of the episode, Raj and Howard engage in a Galactic Dance Off with Boba Fett and stormtroopers in Kinect Star Wars.
 * Stephen Hawking speaks in this episode, thus, he is a cast member once again, following "The Hawking Excitation".
 * In the end, though trying to genuinely help regarding his game with Hawking, Raj and Howard support everything Sheldon decides, just like Leonard does in "The Monopolar Expedition".
 * Amy states to Sheldon, "You know, when one male dominates another, his testosterone level rises. It’s exciting to think you might be getting a testosterone level." She is clearly amazed by Stephen Hawking and is more attracted to Sheldon as he dominates him. Her reasoning is somewhat similar to that heard by Penny in "The Higgs Boson Observation". As an expert in neurobiology familiar with primate psychology, she frequently provides such analyses in numerous episodes, but this propensity does not phase Sheldon much, such as also seen in "The Rhinitis Revelation". On the other hand, Sheldon resorts to more abstract philosophical thought, e.g. in the pilot ("proximal and distal causation") and "The Good Guy Fluctuation" ("moral philosophy)", yet unlike "The Maternal Congruence".
 * Leonard is revealed to have attended college for four years and graduate school for five years, like David Saltzberg. This is a normative time for completion of the respective programs, but it was probably intended in the production that Leonard was twenty-seven years old when he received his, with the writers forgetting what had been cited in "The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization". Since Leonard earned his doctorate at twenty-four years old and was not a prodigy entering college at fifteen years old, the posited scenario necessary to avoid an inconsistency is that he earned an additional graduate degree after his doctoral degree. In "The Bad Fish Paradigm", Penny even stated, "Well, he was going on and on about this college and that grad school and I didn't want him to think I was some stupid loser." Notably, by the timeline set in the pilot, Leonard would have already completed the supposed degree. Refer to "The Staircase Implementation" and "Leonard Hofstadter Trivia" sections for more information on Leonard's prior education.

Quotes
Stephen Hawking: ''What does Sheldon Cooper and a black hole have in common? They both suck. Neener neener.''

Leonard: ''Oh, hey. Haven’t heard from you in a couple days. You still mad at me?''

Penny: ''Nope. I have no reason to… “B” mad at you. Minus.''

Penny: ''Yeah, well, next time don’t. Oh, and since you like stories so much, this is not The Shoemaker and the Elves, okay? This is, give a man a fish, he eats it. Teach a man to fish, he, sells it or something. Whatever, I don’t know, it’s just a lot better than what you did, you big jerk!''