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"The Corn-husker Vortex" is the sixth episode of the third season of the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory. This episode first aired on November 2, 2009.

Summary

Leonard feels left out when Penny has her friends over to watch the University of Nebraska football game. Penny tells him to come the next week and Sheldon teaches him the basics of the game.

Extended Plot

Neb3

Kites HO!

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Football at Penny's.

Sheldon, who grew up in Texas where it was popular, teaches Leonard how to understand football so that he can try to fit in with Penny's friends. During the game Leonard attempts to demonstrate what he has learned, but his explanations are too clinical, and he fails to fit in. By halftime, Leonard leaves to fly kites with Sheldon. Meanwhile, Raj loses his kite to Sheldon in a kite fighting contest because Howard abandons him at a critical moment to chase a girl. Raj became angry at Howard, until Howard makes it up to him by spending a Saturday afternoon with Raj at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.

Critics

"This is certainly not the only show that is misunderstanding, fundamentally, what makes a sit com work. But in some ways it is the most frustrating because they are the closest to being a traditional sit com." - The TV Critic's Review

Notes

  • Title Reference: The Football Team (Nebraska Cornhuskers) Penny and her friends watch and root for and the fact that Leonard gets caught up in trying to understand the sport of football to fit in with Penny's friends.
  • Chuck Lorre's vanity card [1]
  • This episode was watched by 12.73 million people with a rating of 4.7 (adults 18-49).
  • This episode aired in Canada on November 2, 2009.

Trivia

  • Sheldon says, "Cats, however, refuse to wear sporting apparel. My sister found that out the hard way." In "The Griffin Equivalency", he said of his cat, "Anyway, when I was eight, a Montgomery-Ward delivery van ran over our cat, Lucky."
  • Sheldon makes "cylon" toast, using a Battlestar Galactica themed toaster.
  • Sheldon instructs Penny, "You shouldn't keep your bread in the refrigerator. Staleness is caused by crystallization of the starch molecules, which occurs faster at cool temperatures." In "The Luminous Fish Effect", he similarly states, "Uh, yes, but anyone who knows anything about the dynamics of bacterial growth knows to pick up their refrigerated foods on the way out of the supermarket."

Quotes

Sheldon: 'Alright, Poindexter, sit down, shut up, and listen!'
Leonard: I'm sorry?
Sheldon: Oh, that's how my father always began our football conversations - and, if you'd like, after the game, I'll take you outside and teach you to shoot close enough to a raccoon that it craps itself.
Howard: Sheldon knows football ...?
Leonard: Apparently.
Howard: I mean, Quidditch, sure, but football ...?

Sheldon: I grew up in Texas. Football is ubiquitous in Texas. Pro football, college football, high school football, peewee football, in fact, every form of football except the original, European football, which most Texans believe to be a Commie plot.

Leonard: Go! Go! Go! Go-Go-Go-Go! Yes! Are you people watching this? Is this amazing or what?
Penny: Sweetie, that’s a highlight from the ’98 championship game.

Gallery

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