The Big Bang Theory: The Cooper Extraction (7x11)

The premise of this episode is that Sheldon leaves to go witness the birth of his nephew, and the rest of the group, a la It's a Wonderful Life, talks about what would have happened to them if Sheldon didn't exist. So, okay, that sounds like it's a decent setup for some funny jokes. However, I found it to be severely lacking in the funny department. Let's take a look.

The whole gang is over at the apartment decorating the tree. Even Stewart has come to join in on the fun. Throughout the episode, Sheldon video calls with everyone throughout the episode, reporting on the state of his sister and her birth. Amy speculates that if Sheldon hadn't been born, most of them would never have met each other. Here's how things would be, according to the friends' imaginations:

- Leonard never would have asked Penny out because he'd be too scared.

- Bernadette would never have gone out with Howard, because she would have seen the way he and Raj acted together and assumed they were dating.

- Amy would have been completely lonely with no friends.

- Raj and Leonard would live together and get fat because of Raj's enabling cooking and their crippling loneliness.

- Penny would have been with Zack, and the two of them would have lived stupidly-ever-after.

- Howard would still be caring for his mother, even after her death.

Throughout all of these scenes, Stuart keeps interjecting with his own versions of the stories, desperately trying to work his way in to all of their lives. Sheldon, meanwhile, keeps calling to check in, very selfishly focusing only on himself instead of on his sister, who is undergoing a home birth. After the birth, Amy tells Sheldon to spend time with his nephew and be the intelligent role model for him that he always wanted for himself. This causes the friends to remark that while Sheldon impacted all of their lives a lot, Amy has had a significant effect on Sheldon as well. To prove this to her, Leonard even shows Amy that she's a picture on Sheldon's screensaver.

So, I'm going to be brief.

The imaginary scenarios were, in general, not at all funny. The fat jokes, the gay jokes, the peeing your pants jokes... it was all too juvenile, even for this show. The moment with Howard's dead mother was just morbid, and virtually none of this stuff even got a chuckle out of me. The only slightly funny part was Stuart's constant interjections. They did a good job playing up how pathetic he is, and how much he just wanted to fit in.

In terms of Sheldon's story, I thought it did an okay job. Again, the humor wasn't really there. We get it, Sheldon's selfishly focused on himself instead of on his sister. That's not exactly new, and it didn't really offer any creative possibilities. The one slightly amusing moment is when he talks about how his sister told him to breathe and his mom fed him ice chips. Besides the comedy, though, there was an unexpected sweetness to this plot line. Amy tells Sheldon to be a role model, and he actually listens to her. I thought that was a delightful moment. Their relationship is very sweet.

There you have it. I know that was very short, but this episode was one of those that I basically just rolled my eyes at. It wasn't an offense to nature or anything, but it probably isn't worth remembering or talking about anymore.

4.5/10