The Big Bang Theory: The Tenure Turbulence (6x20)

This week's episode had a rather boring premise with a downright insulting element to it, but it was peppered with a lot of funny one-liners. As such, it is the typical mixed-bag of an episode. This show has done amazing with the number of viewers it has managed to rope in and maintain. I suspect that this has more to do with the simple premises and crude jokes than anything else. Sometimes people are fans of mindless entertainment.

Alright - let's look at the premise for a second. Raj, Leonard, Sheldon, and Barry Kripke are all after a new tenured position that has just opened up after the death of a professor at the university. A humorous enough idea, especially when you take into account all the great joke potential that comes from each of these characters trying to shmooz their way into the position. I guess one of my major problems with this episode was that it seemed to miss out on a lot of great opportunities. For example, part way through the episode Leonard goes to the gym to try and get some face-time with Mrs. Davis (a woman who is on the committee that will choose the new tenured position). Then, Barry shows up, and it turns out that Mrs. Davis and Barry are friends. This could have been hilarious, but the entire setup instead focused on some rather weak physical humor with the obvious punchline that Leonard is out of shape. I wanted more.

Another problem: RACISM IS NOT FUNNY. I don't think I'm overreacting when I point out that this episode had a lot of racially insensitive and NOT FUNNY moments in it. When Raj makes jokes about being from India, it's funny. He is Indian, and thus he's allowed to comment on his own culture. There was actually a really funny moment when Raj tried to avoid being called a hypocrite by remarking: "I have a thick accent, you don't know what I said!"  There was also a moment when Raj sent a video to Mrs. Davis to explain why he deserved the position. He placed emphasis on his "humble beginnings" in India, which plays to one of the recurring jokes on this show, about how Raj is from a very wealthy family in India.

So. There were examples of race-based humor in this episode that worked alright. But, there were others that did not. I was appalled by this show's decision to bring back the elements from a few weeks back, where Sheldon's racial insensitivity gets him in trouble at work. Did they think that was funny the first time? Sheldon buys Mrs. Davis a copy of Roots, which he describes as "The tragic history of slavery in America. Fun for the whole family!" No. Just... no. He then says he plans to give the complete works of Jackie Chan to Professor Wu. At the end of the episode, he tries to give Mrs. Davis a "black" handshake, which included a fist bump. How is this funny? It just made me uncomfortable.

I also did not appreciate what a back-seat role the female characters took this week. Amy basically spends the whole time telling Sheldon how great he is. If that wasn't bad enough, Sheldon actually comments on it, saying that while he has his reservations about this whole girlfriend thing, "those moments when you worship me really keeps you in the running." Uh... wow, Sheldon. Then there was the always delightful Penny. A lot of her jokes were really funny this week, but she was relegated to the role of eye-candy to help Leonard with his career. I really wish that the female characters could have more of a chance to shine on this show.

So, after all that negative stuff, what did I like about this week's episode? Well... the jokes. Not the overall humor, necessarily, but a lot of the one-liners and individual scenes had some laugh-out-loud moments. Here are a few of my favorites:

After Leonard's dramatic experience at the gym, his friends ask him if he's alright, and one of them asks: "Asthma attack?" Leonard responds: "Asthma, heart, some kind of attack. I'm fine though."

Howard, egging on his friends about the open tenure position, points out that there will be several board members at Professor Tupperman's funeral. As they all perk up, Howard says: "Oh, yeah, that's what I was hoping for. Mere cats!"

Penny leans over seductively in front of Leonard to demonstrate how she might be a help with the old, stuffy men at the funeral. Leonard says "you realize you might kill some of them." Penny responds: "Then you all might get tenure!"

Amy calls Sheldon out on a lame excuse: "Trimming Q-tips to fit your ears right is obvious nonsense!"

Leonard says: "I don't want to lose my friends over tenure! Friends are forever!" Howard coughs as he walks by: "So is tenure!"

There were a few others I liked, but that's the gist of the funny moments in this episode. So... what did I think of it overall? It wasn't very good. The premise had promise but they didn't do enough with it. The jokes were split between funny and downright insulting. Not a strong week for this show. I'm hoping we get a genuinely good episode in the near future!

4/10