Grasshopper Experiment

Grasshopper Experiment
Grasshopper Experiment
Writers	Dave Goetsch (Story), Steven Molaro (Story), Lee Aronsohn (Teleplay), Robert Cohen (Teleplay)
Director	Tedd Wass
Starring	Sarayu Rao as Lalita Gupta, Brian George as Dr. V.M. Koothrappali, Alice Amter as Mrs. Koothrappli
Air Date	12 November 2007
Vanity	Card #195
Guide	Episode #108
Quotes	Episode #108
Forums	Discuss Episode

Season 1, Episode 8 (0108)

Dumpling Paradox . . . << Grasshopper Experiment >> . . . Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization

Summary

(edited from Wikipedia)

Koothrappali is overwhelmed after his parents arrange a blind date with a girl from his childhood, as he can not talk to attractive members of the opposite sex. Penny takes up bartending for some extra shifts at work & extra money. As she practices mixing drinks with the guys, they discover that after a few drinks, Raj can actually talk to women. However, on his date at Penny's restaurant (with all the guys watching from the bar), he becomes obnoxious, and the girl ends up leaving with Sheldon, after he accidentally compliments her by comparing her to a beautiful Indian fairytale princess. Raj and Leonard return to Leonard's apartment, where Raj tries to explain to his parents what happened. Even though he is already upset, things become worse when his parents find out he was drinking, and he gets lectured and has to leave the apartment. Sheldon returns and Leonard asks him what happened after the pair had left the bar. Sheldon seems to not have thought of it as a date, implying he will not see her again (making Leonard wonder out loud, "I wonder who will tell his parents they're not getting grandchildren").

Episode Outline

I. Living room

• Howard and Rajesh enter with Rajesh's parents talking live from India on the screen of his laptop. They tell Rajesh that they arranged a date for him.

Titles and opening theme

II. Living room

• Rajesh got a message from Lalita Gupta, his arranged date. He is too shy to call her back, so Howard calls and arranges a date for them on Friday.
• Penny enters and tells the guys she needs to practice mixing drinks and asks if they would like to serve as "guinea pigs".

III. Penny's apartment

• Penny mixes drinks for the guys to try and they discover that Rajesh can talk after having alcohol.

IV. Cheesecake Factory, Friday evening

• Rajesh is talking to his date, Lalita and is rather obnoxious.
• Sheldon turns up and describes Lalita as the embodiment of his beloved child book character "Princess Panchali".
• When Sheldon tells Lalita about the resemblance in a rather charming way, she's totally smitten by him and leaves Rajesh to have dinner with Sheldon.

V. Living room

• Rajesh tries to explain to his parents why his date went wrong. Sheldon enters and does not understand how he ruined Rajesh's date.

VI. Cheesecake Factory

• Sheldon is singing and playing the piano after Penny mixed him a "slutty" Virgin Cuba Libre. Leonard sits at the bar, astonished at Penny, who tells him, "Hey, you do your little experiments, I do mine."

Resources

List of entries from this episode

Wikipedia episode guide

IMDb page for this episode

Timeline

This episode takes place on four days and it is not entirely clear whether the first two and the last two days are consecutive days. Rajesh's date is on Friday.

Connecting these events with the last episode, we can place them in the week November 11 to 18, 2007.

Title

The title refers to the cocktail that Raj drinks throughout the episode, the Grasshopper.