The Big Bang Theory: The Bachelor Party Corrosion (9x03)

Eh. It seems the early-season excitement is wearing off, and I'm remembering why this show pisses me off so much. Let's get started.

 

Cons:

 

Howard and Raj kidnap Leonard to take him to Mexico for a belated bachelor party, and they drag an unwilling Sheldon along. I was hoping for a lot of hilarity, but as often happens with this show, they wasted the opportunity. Instead of seeing a hilarious bachelor party, most of this plot thread was spent driving in a van, and then trying to take a flat tire off of the van, with no success. In the end, they end up setting fire to it, which is even a bigger deal than it seems, because this van belonged to Richard Feynman. While we could have been spending time seeing what these boys would do for Leonard for a bachelor party, we instead got a basic "stranded by the side of the road" plot thread.

 

On top of being lazy, Sheldon's racism was really grating. He's afraid of Mexico because of "banditos" and "scorpions" and worries that they'll be kidnapped and forced to work in a factory manufacturing items for Americans. In another show, I'd almost believe this was meant to be satirical, and if we could have seen the other guys react negatively to Sheldon's racism, then this could be played a little more complexly. But as it stands, it felt like a cheap way to get laughs, and I didn't appreciate it at all.
 

The other plot thread focused on Penny's late bachelorette party. It was a little more fun, but it still came across as fairly tame. It was just Penny, Amy, and Bernadette sitting around and talking, and making phone calls to their parents. Not exactly a bachelorette party! This show needs to suck it up and spend money on some more exciting setups.

 

Pros:

 

Despite a mostly lackluster setup, there were a few moments of humor. Amy reveals that she's never had her ears pierced, because her mother wouldn't allow it. She had to go into the "Sin Closet" if she misbehaved as a child, and having pierced ears is certainly a sin. Penny pierces her ears for her, but later when Amy is on the phone to tell her mother that she and Sheldon have broken up, Penny reveals that she's had her ears pierced, and that Amy made penis cookies for the bachelorette party. Amy's mother makes her sit in Penny's closet. This stuff was pretty funny.

 

I loved Penny's talk on the phone with her father. At first, it was sweet, when Penny tells her dad that she's gotten married, and her father asks her if she's happy. Penny says yes, that Leonard is great. But then, of course, Penny's father tells her that he accidentally killed her pet pig. He figured that if Penny could hold off on telling big news, so could he! Penny is upset that her pig is dead and buried. Bernadette suggests that maybe the pig's not buried - her family may have eaten it! That made me laugh.
 

Also funny were the numerous attempts to remove the wheel from Feynman's van. My favorite was when they used a stop sign as a lever, but even with Howard literally hanging from the top of the lever, it didn't work. That was pretty great. As was the realization that the lug nut had finally come off, even though the van was in flames.

 

I guess that's all I have. Despite a few funny moments, both plot threads this week were pretty much duds, and Sheldon's racism didn't help matters.

 

5/10