As the geeks discuss Superman and his Krypton sweat, scientist David Underhill arrives and asks Leonard to be his lab partner. Leonard is more than enthused. Penny arrives to give Leonard and Sheldon gifts so Sheldon feels he has to reciprocate. Penny also takes a shine to David and vice versa. It doesn't turn out well for her...Hilarious from beginning to end, "The Big Bang Theory" is on fire this season both in terms of quality and audience ratings. And there's a very funny yet touching bit involving Sheldon, Penny, and a napkin of Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock himself, at the end (though, regretfully, he doesn't appear). Having missed much of this season's episodes because of Hurricane Gustav and the renovations that entailed, I felt I had to watch this one to find out how things were going. I'm very glad I did. So all I want to say at this point is Merry Christmas to the cast and crew of "The Big Bang Theory" and hope the new year brings even more fans to this wonderful sitcom courtesy of the 20th smartest person in television according to the magazine "Entertainment Weekly": Chuck Lorre.
8 Reviews
The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis is a most hilarious holiday episode of "The Big Bang Theory"
tavm22 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis (#2.11)
ComedyFan201018 July 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The story about presents was great. It was so fun to watch Sheldon calculate which present to give Penny and his plan was really genius. The reaction to the napkin was perfectly hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing about him saying that he can grow his own Leonard Nimoy!
The story about Leonard and Penny was also good. Can't blame Leonard for being upset! And they gave each other really fun presents.
Perfect Example of How BBT Took The Wrong Road
bcrd50025 December 2014
Warning: Spoilers
The episode is one the best because it uses the story line it should have kept instead of making a wrong turn and making Penny and Leonard a couple.
The show provides a lot of laughs when a good-looking scientist visits and swoops up Penny while leaving Leonard to fret about the guy doing what he would like to do with Penny.
When this episode is compared with the last couple of seasons, it is easy to see why the show is a shadow of itself. Making Leonard and Penny a couple eliminated story lines that could parade various boyfriends through Penny's apartment and banished some of the best secondary characters like Zack because they do not fit since there is no room for Penny having a boyfriend.
The show provides a lot of laughs when a good-looking scientist visits and swoops up Penny while leaving Leonard to fret about the guy doing what he would like to do with Penny.
When this episode is compared with the last couple of seasons, it is easy to see why the show is a shadow of itself. Making Leonard and Penny a couple eliminated story lines that could parade various boyfriends through Penny's apartment and banished some of the best secondary characters like Zack because they do not fit since there is no room for Penny having a boyfriend.
"I Possess The DNA Of Leonard Nimoy?"
JosephPezzuto31 March 2015
Warning: Spoilers
"The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis" was the eleventh episode of the second season of the American sitcom 'The Big Bang Theory', directed by Mark Cendrowski and written by Bill Prady and Richard Rosenstock. Airing on December 15, 2008, and viewed by 11.42 million people, it was Jim Parsons that submitted the episode for consideration due to his nomination for the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards. Strictly adhering to routine, along with his trademark irony and sarcasm, theoretical physicist Dr. Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) worries about the vastly approaching Christmas holidays, since he does not celebrate it. His indecision about what to give his blonde waitress and aspiring actress neighbor across the hall Penny (Kaley Cuoco) as a gift bothers him. Penny asks if he and the guys are putting up a Christmas tree in their apartment, to which Sheldon replies, "We do not celebrate the ancient pagan ritual of Saturnalia." Sheldon then explains, "In the pre-Christian era, as the winter solstice approached and the plants died, pagans brought evergreen boughs into their homes as an act of sympathetic magic to guard the plants and preserve their essences until spring. This custom was later appropriated by northern Europeans and eventually becomes the so-called Christmas tree." His friend Howard Wolowitz, a Jewish aerospace engineer that still lives with his mother, quips "And that, Charlie Brown, is what boredom is all about."
Seeing how Penny has already gotten him a gift, Sheldon, annoyed and upset instead of normally being accepting with the joys of the season, must return the favor posthaste, seeing her getting him a present in his mind equates an obligation. He must get her something of the same value based upon her present and perceived level of friendship. Sheldon ponders if obligations such as this are a contributing factor to the increased suicide rate during the holidays, as his friends, Dr. Rajesh "Raj" Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar), an Indian astrophysicist, and Howard end up taking him to the mall. Deciding on a basket of bath items at the fictional store Le Bain Quotidien ('The Daily Bath'), a pun on the phrase 'le pain quotidien' (daily bread), he discovers a wide selection available, in which Sheldon sees as a "cacophonous assault of eucalyptus, bayberry, cinnamon and vanilla." Still unsure about what Penny is going to get him and what he should get her in return, he buys a barrage of bath baskets to cover all contingencies.
Meanwhile, Dr. Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), Sheldon's roommate and experimental physicist, meets visiting researcher and fellow experiment physicist Dr. David Underhill (guest star Michael Trucco). Leonard envies David for being handsome, charming and cool. He is even a more successful physicist than Leonard is, though he still jumps at the offer to help David out with his research. However, Leonard's joy of hanging around David is inconveniently interrupted by envy when the latter encounters Penny. The twosome start dating, but they later separate when she discovers that he is married.
Penny's gift to Sheldon turns out to be a cloth napkin...having wiped his mouth and autographed by an off-screen Leonard Nimoy who just happened to be in the cafeteria downstairs! "To Sheldon: "Live Long and Prosper." Overwhelmed and speechless since the giddy geek Trekkie now possesses the televised Vulcan persona's DNA and can now grow his own Spock from just the help of a healthy ovum, Penny assures him that he's just getting the napkin. Sheldon, in turn, responds by giving Penny all of the gift baskets, followed by a rare, gingerly-given "Sheldon" hug, as Leonard claims it to be a "Saturnalia miracle" (i.e. Sheldon version of a Christmas miracle).
With holiday touches such as Wii Bowling Night and a hilarious explanation of how Superman cleans his uniform by flying into the Sun makes this Christmas episode about a handful of lone nerd geniuses set in Pasadena, California all the more festive. The TV Critic's Review says: "As a Christmas episode this definitely contains the feel good factor, but more than that it is the best episode this season. Combining character development and humor in a blend which this show can do really well." Chuck Lorre, the show's creator, was named in an article in the magazine Entertainment Weekly that year under "The 25 Smartest People In Television", ranking in at number twenty. A blurb from Lorre stated in the article says: "Now I'm just thinking out loud here, but if something were to happen to those nineteen people... if say, they were to, one by one, have horrible accidents, or mysteriously disappear, then that would make me, ipso facto, the number one smartest person in television." Seven years later, this episode still remains a modern Christmas comedy classic, though not completely clean for family viewings as many of the other episodes often employ sexual content or double entendres. And, in my personal opinion, the show is actually better than the full theme song sung by the Barenaked Ladies. Bazinga!
Seeing how Penny has already gotten him a gift, Sheldon, annoyed and upset instead of normally being accepting with the joys of the season, must return the favor posthaste, seeing her getting him a present in his mind equates an obligation. He must get her something of the same value based upon her present and perceived level of friendship. Sheldon ponders if obligations such as this are a contributing factor to the increased suicide rate during the holidays, as his friends, Dr. Rajesh "Raj" Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar), an Indian astrophysicist, and Howard end up taking him to the mall. Deciding on a basket of bath items at the fictional store Le Bain Quotidien ('The Daily Bath'), a pun on the phrase 'le pain quotidien' (daily bread), he discovers a wide selection available, in which Sheldon sees as a "cacophonous assault of eucalyptus, bayberry, cinnamon and vanilla." Still unsure about what Penny is going to get him and what he should get her in return, he buys a barrage of bath baskets to cover all contingencies.
Meanwhile, Dr. Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), Sheldon's roommate and experimental physicist, meets visiting researcher and fellow experiment physicist Dr. David Underhill (guest star Michael Trucco). Leonard envies David for being handsome, charming and cool. He is even a more successful physicist than Leonard is, though he still jumps at the offer to help David out with his research. However, Leonard's joy of hanging around David is inconveniently interrupted by envy when the latter encounters Penny. The twosome start dating, but they later separate when she discovers that he is married.
Penny's gift to Sheldon turns out to be a cloth napkin...having wiped his mouth and autographed by an off-screen Leonard Nimoy who just happened to be in the cafeteria downstairs! "To Sheldon: "Live Long and Prosper." Overwhelmed and speechless since the giddy geek Trekkie now possesses the televised Vulcan persona's DNA and can now grow his own Spock from just the help of a healthy ovum, Penny assures him that he's just getting the napkin. Sheldon, in turn, responds by giving Penny all of the gift baskets, followed by a rare, gingerly-given "Sheldon" hug, as Leonard claims it to be a "Saturnalia miracle" (i.e. Sheldon version of a Christmas miracle).
With holiday touches such as Wii Bowling Night and a hilarious explanation of how Superman cleans his uniform by flying into the Sun makes this Christmas episode about a handful of lone nerd geniuses set in Pasadena, California all the more festive. The TV Critic's Review says: "As a Christmas episode this definitely contains the feel good factor, but more than that it is the best episode this season. Combining character development and humor in a blend which this show can do really well." Chuck Lorre, the show's creator, was named in an article in the magazine Entertainment Weekly that year under "The 25 Smartest People In Television", ranking in at number twenty. A blurb from Lorre stated in the article says: "Now I'm just thinking out loud here, but if something were to happen to those nineteen people... if say, they were to, one by one, have horrible accidents, or mysteriously disappear, then that would make me, ipso facto, the number one smartest person in television." Seven years later, this episode still remains a modern Christmas comedy classic, though not completely clean for family viewings as many of the other episodes often employ sexual content or double entendres. And, in my personal opinion, the show is actually better than the full theme song sung by the Barenaked Ladies. Bazinga!
The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis
studioAT2 December 2021
The Joy of Gift Giving
Hitchcoc2 October 2021
First of all, Leonard becomes enamored with the success of a tall handsome researcher who has amazing credentials. Unfortunately, he is a womanizer and has designs on Penny. This leads to Leonard's ten thousandth bout with depression as he realizes he is complicit in it. Meanwhile, there is an episode involving gift giving (it's Christmas time), and Sheldon is faced with reciprocation. But Penny's gift really does a number on him.
Great Episode
Christmas-Reviewer24 June 2019
Review Date 6/24/2019
I have Reviewed OVER 500 "Christmas Films and Specials". Please BEWARE Of films and specials with just one review! For instance When "It's a POSITIVE" chances are that the reviewer was involved with the production. "If its Negative" then they may have a grudge against the film for whatever reason. I am fare about these films.
One of the best episodes of the entire shows history. In this episode Sheldon unexpectedly gets tje best "Christmas Present Ever" from Penny.
Very funny.
I have Reviewed OVER 500 "Christmas Films and Specials". Please BEWARE Of films and specials with just one review! For instance When "It's a POSITIVE" chances are that the reviewer was involved with the production. "If its Negative" then they may have a grudge against the film for whatever reason. I am fare about these films.
One of the best episodes of the entire shows history. In this episode Sheldon unexpectedly gets tje best "Christmas Present Ever" from Penny.
Very funny.
The Best episode so far!!!!
qxnwztyr10 April 2022
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