Jiminy Conjecture

Jiminy Conjecture
Writers	Jim Reynolds
Director	Mark Cendrowski
Starring	Lewis Black as Professor Crawley
Air Date	28 September 2009
Vanity	Card #258
Guide	Episode #302
Quotes	Episode #302
Forums	Discuss Episode

Season 3, Episode 2 (0302)

Electric Can Opener Fluctuation << Jiminy Conjecture >> Gothowitz Deviation

Summary

Leonard and Penny struggle to recover from an awkward first hookup while Sheldon and Howard stake their best comic books on a bet to determine the species of a cricket.

Episode Outline

I. Comic book store

• Sheldon and Howard have a discussion about Wolverine. Leonard joins them and gets questioned about his first night with Penny.

Titles and opening theme

II. Living room

• Penny and the guys have Indian food for dinner.
• Penny leaves after Sheldon crossed a line and deeply embarrassed her.

III. Penny's apartment

• Penny and Leonard talk about the last night and start drinking.

IV. Living room

• Sheldon and Howard agree on a bet about the exact species of a cricket they heard in the apartment. They both place on of their most valued Comic books at stake.
• Sheldon, Raj and Howard try to catch the cricket.

V. Penny's apartment

• Penny and Leonard are drinking and kissing.

VI. Living room

• Sheldon, Raj and Howard are still trying to catch the cricket.

VII. hallway in front of apartments

• Sheldon gets into the shaft of the broken elevator to catch the cricket.

VIII. Penny's apartment

• Penny and Leonard are still drinking.

IX. hallway in front of apartments

• Sheldon is in the shaft of the broken elevator when the batteries of his torch run out. Howard and Raj are meanwhile chasing the cricket on the stairway.

X. bathroom in Penny's apartment

• Penny and Leonard are both throwing up.

XI. Cafeteria

• After Howard and Sheldon fail to determine the species of the caught cricket with the help of a book, they decide to consult entomology Professor Crawley for help.
• A sick-looking Leonard turns up and gets ignored by his friends.

XII. lab of Professor Crawley

• Howard, Raj and Sheldon meet Professor Crawley who is deeply upset about the end of his academic career.
• Professor Crawley identifies the cricket. Howard's guess was correct.

XIII. first floor of the building

• Sheldon and Penny talk about the reason they are both upset.

XIV. living room

• Sheldon tells Leonard about his lost bet and his talk to Penny.

XV. hallway in front of apartments

• Penny and Leonard talk and start kissing again.

Resources

List of entries from this episode

David Saltzberg's science blog for this episode

Notes, Commentary, and Trivia

"Professor Crawley is a Caltech entomologist whose life is in shambles. Worse -- for him, anyway -- it's a shambles through which Sheldon and Wolowitz are happy to rummage for the sake of settling a bet." (from The Ausiello Files, Entertainment Weekly online, 12 August 2009).

"Lewis Black will be playing the role of Professor Crawley, a university entomologist whose life is falling apart - his department's being shut down because of budget cutbacks; his wife left him for someone who studies birds; and he's moving in with his daughter in Oxnard... not Oxnard on the beach, Oxnard by the onion fields. But, none of that is as aggravating as Sheldon (Jim Parsons), who keeps pestering him to settle a bet with Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) about a cricket - hardly a worthy question for a man with a dung beetle named after him." (CBS Press Release)

About Kunal Nayyar's fear of insects:

The episode proved particularly uncomfortable for cast member Kunal Nayyar (Rajesh) who has an intense fear of bugs. “We had black widows, tarantulas, millipedes, moths and scorpions,” Kunal tells me. “The big joke on set was that I was afraid of bugs, so Johnny Galecki (Leonard) and Simon Helberg (Howard) were always running their fingers down my back like an insect to mess with me. And they kept putting this fake cockroach on me.”

Adds co-star Simon: “It was fun to watch the man squirm. He’s the biggest woos [sic] of all of us. He screamed like a girl when we put a fake bug on his bagel.” (source: SpoilerTV)

Timeline

The episode starts on a Wednesday evening, since it is New Comic Book Night. Leonard is referring to his first night with Penny as "last night", indicating that the last episode ended on a Tuesday. The episode ends on the evening of the next day, thus a Thursday.

Title

The title refers to the name that Sheldon considers appropriate for the cricket whose exact species Howard and Sheldon want to determine, which is of course the name of the cricket in the Disney film "Pinocchio". The "conjecture" refers to the guesses as to the species of the cricket.