Ship Zone Leonard And Penny Shippers Thread (Possible Spoilers)

[vasu]

I don't think the point of the episode was Penny's feelings of insecurity and wanting to be able to talk to Leonard about his work.  I think that it was just the excuse for the real focus of the episode, which was the "Gorilla Experiment" itself--the scene between Penny and Sheldon.

 

In the other part of the episode, the interactions between Leonard, Howard and Bernie, the focus was on H&B and Howard learning a bit more about how to deal with Bernie and his insecurity about her interest in Leonard's work, but the stuff between Sheldon and Penny was its own point--showing how completely far apart these two characters are in regard to learning/teaching and comprehending/understanding.

 

Sheldon thinks he's helping Penny and can't understand that he's confusing her and giving her too much information, because, to him, physics is everything.  As he said, there's no such thing as "a little physics", so he has to go all the way back to ancient Greece and makes her take notes about the agora, etc., and plans to give her tests, etc.

Penny's desire to know just enough to be able to talk to Leonard about his work means she doesn't want the big lesson, she just wants a simple explanation, which Sheldon, of course, is incapable of providing.

 

THAT's the point of that part of the episode.  That's why the tag at the end of the episode is Penny just spouting some memorized lines Sheldon taught her by rote.  The point wasn't how sweet it was of Penny to want to talk about Leonard's work.  If it had been, then we would have seen some sweet moment between them (more along the lines of the S6 episode where she goes to his lab.)

 

The point was the funny scene between Sheldon and Penny, the juxtaposition of their two differing ways of thinking.  It was never intended to be an episode about the L/P relationship.

 

If so then what is the need for everyone to be in the tag scene?? did we not know by the end of teaching scene how completely different they are...

 

Any way this is just ridiculous ....If you still can't understand , I can't do anything..... and there is a even a similar parallel story being told and you are saying they are completely different....come on

Edited July 1, 2013 by vasu

[I.Am.Molly]

If so then what is the need for everyone to be in the tag scene?? did we not know by the end of teaching scene how completely different they are...

 

Any way this is just ridiculous ....If you still can't understand , I can't do anything..... and there is a even a similar parallel story being told and you are saying they are completely different....come on

 

To be fair, i think it is you that is refusing to understand. You seem to be the only one here who feels so let down by that episode, the majority of the rest of us understand that that episode was about Sheldon and Penny, not Penny and Leonard. Phanta got it spot on when she said that their relationship was only used as the catalyst to get into the Sheldon and Penny stuff. Of course it showed a nice thing in Penny that she wanted to be able to talk to Leonard about his work, but the main focus of the episode was Sheldon teaching Penny physics. The tag scene showed the audience how he had failed, for whatever reason and simply gave her a speech to recite instead. It was funny because the rest of the group were looking on completley clueless as to what had happened, that was why everyone was there.

Edited July 1, 2013 by I.Am.Molly

[phantagrae]

If so then what is the need for everyone to be in the tag scene?? did we not know by the end of teaching scene how completely different they are...

 

Any way this is just ridiculous ....If you still can't understand , I can't do anything..... and there is a even a similar parallel story being told and you are saying they are completely different....come on

 

The point of everyone being in the tag scene is that it's a parallel to the opening scene where Bernie shows her interest and knowledge of Leonard's experiment.  The tag is a bookend to that scene and Penny is given an opening to recite her newly acquired knowledge of physics--and Fig Newtons.

 

I think I understand the episode and the point of what is being said better than you.  By parallel story, do you mean the one between Howard/Bernie/Leonard?  It's not a direct parallel at all.  That story is indeed about Howard and Bernie--that's why there's a reconciliation scene between them.

But it has nothing directly to do with Penny and Leonard's relationship.  There's no jealousy, no need for reconciliation, etc.

 

It's just a set-up for Penny's ill-fated attempt to understand physics so that we can see how funny it would be if Sheldon were to try to teach Penny a "little physics".  It was never supposed to be about Penny showing Leonard how much she cared about his work, even though that was the reason Penny went to Sheldon in the first place.

This was not a Lenny-shipping episode.

[vasu]

To be fair, i think it is you that is refusing to understand. You seem to be the only one here who feels so let down by that episode, the majority of the rest of us understand that that episode was about Sheldon and Penny, not Penny and Leonard. Phanta got it spot on when she said that their relationship was only used as the catalyst to get into the Sheldon and Penny stuff. Of course it showed a nice thing in Penny that she wanted to be able to talk to Leonard about his work, but the main focus of the episode was Sheldon teaching Penny physics. The tag scene showed the audience how he had failed, for whatever reason and simply gave her a speech to recite instead. It was funny because the rest of the group were looking on completley clueless as to what had happened, that was why everyone was there.

 

 

The point of everyone being in the tag scene is that it's a parallel to the opening scene where Bernie shows her interest and knowledge of Leonard's experiment.  The tag is a bookend to that scene and Penny is given an opening to recite her newly acquired knowledge of physics--and Fig Newtons.

 

I think I understand the episode and the point of what is being said better than you.  By parallel story, do you mean the one between Howard/Bernie/Leonard?  It's not a direct parallel at all.  That story is indeed about Howard and Bernie--that's why there's a reconciliation scene between them.

But it has nothing directly to do with Penny and Leonard's relationship.  There's no jealousy, no need for reconciliation, etc.

 

It's just a set-up for Penny's ill-fated attempt to understand physics so that we can see how funny it would be if Sheldon were to try to teach Penny a "little physics".  It was never supposed to be about Penny showing Leonard how much she cared about his work, even though that was the reason Penny went to Sheldon in the first place.

This was not a Lenny-shipping episode.

 

 

See Leonard's birthday episode ...

 

There was a Sheldon-Penny plot and Leonard-Howard plot... how Sheldon Penny plot arised.. Penny wanted to do something nice for Leonard , so she had to take help of the Sheldon and the guys , and she also took Sheldon shopping to buy some gift for Leonard....

 

In the end Penny gives him a kiss as a present...

 

The humor comes entirely from the Sheldon - Penny plot , but it was a simple story of Penny's affection towards Leonard.......which the ending scene potrayed it beautifully..and this did not make it a Lenny "shipping" episode or anything

 

Now see the entire formula is same for the gorilla episode.....the difference was that the writers became obsessed with Sheldon's character at that time.....and basically ignored the aspect of Leonard-Penny relationship .....that's it...that's all it....

but the intented story was the same.....if such simple concept escapes you ....then as I said before I can't do anything....

 

And Molly , I am not let by that episode... I just felt it could have been better....that's it...

Edited July 1, 2013 by vasu

[I.Am.Molly]

See Leonard's birthday episode ...

 

There was a Sheldon-Penny plot and Leonard-Howard plot... how Sheldon Penny plot arised.. Penny wanted to do something nice for Leonard , so she had to take help of the Sheldon and the guys , and she also took Sheldon shopping to buy some gift for Leonard....

 

In the end Penny gives him a kiss as a present...

 

The humor comes entirely from the Sheldon - Penny plot , but it was simple story of Penny's affection towards Leonard.......which the ending scene potrayed it beautifully..and this did not make it a Lenny "shipping" episode or anything

 

Now see the entire formula is same for the gorilla episode.....the difference was that the writers became obsessed with Sheldon's character at that time.....that's it...

but the intented story was the same.....if such simple concept escapes you ....then as I said before I can't do anything....

 

And Molly , I am not let by that episode... I just felt it could have been better....that's it...

 

It was Penny's idea for the party, but really it was the whole group that was involved in throwing it for him. That epsiode focused around everyone doing their part to throw Leonard his party and the humour didn't just come from Sheldon, it came from how each part of their plan pretty much got messed up and he missed it. I don;t think there is as much of a similarity as you like to say there is. but i doubt whatever i say will change your mind on the subject so in an effort to move this thread along, how about we just agree to disagree.

Edited July 1, 2013 by I.Am.Molly

[Chrismo]

I think part of the problem at times is that the Sheldon ,Leonard and Penny are the three major characters. Leonard/Penny are a couple and Sheldon is the funny guy. I think the Gorilla episode in a way is similar to the season 6 finale. The finale had Sheldon in the back seat of the car when L/P said good bye. I think some people (including myself) were bothered by his presence. Others were not. The same goes here. Some may have been looking for a touching L/P moment and others were looking for laughs between Sheldon and Penny. I imagine (i'm not a writer) it can be hard to get the right amount of touching moments and laughs to please everyone.

[Kasey]

I think it is really hard for a comedy to do somewhat dramatic scenes because they HAVE to insert some comedy in there.  Many people watch comedy for strictly the laughs and they don't like it to be too intense.  The writers might have felt that the goodbye scene would have been just that - too intense.

 

Or it could just be that we have to include Sheldon in all things because that's the way it is. 

 

I'm torn between the two theories...

[phantagrae]

See Leonard's birthday episode ...

 

There was a Sheldon-Penny plot and Leonard-Howard plot... how Sheldon Penny plot arised.. Penny wanted to do something nice for Leonard , so she had to take help of the Sheldon and the guys , and she also took Sheldon shopping to buy some gift for Leonard....

 

In the end Penny gives him a kiss as a present...

 

The humor comes entirely from the Sheldon - Penny plot , but it was a simple story of Penny's affection towards Leonard.......which the ending scene potrayed it beautifully..and this did not make it a Lenny "shipping" episode or anything

 

Now see the entire formula is same for the gorilla episode.....the difference was that the writers became obsessed with Sheldon's character at that time.....and basically ignored the aspect of Leonard-Penny relationship .....that's it...that's all it....

but the intented story was the same.....if such simple concept escapes you ....then as I said before I can't do anything....

 

And Molly , I am not let by that episode... I just felt it could have been better....that's it...

 

The birthday episode is not a parallel to the Gorilla Experiment.

 

In the birthday ep, as Molly pointed out, the focus is on how and why the surprise party plans went awry--Penny couldn't get Sheldon to focus on getting a gift and getting out of the store, and Howard couldn't get Leonard out of the apartment and keep him out (because of the delay with P/S) without resorting to eating the peanut granola bar, which then delayed them even longer so that Leonard ended up missing his own party.

 

Penny's efforts in that episode were different and the results were different.  Different point, different ending.  In this case, the point was trying to put on the party and though everything went awry, she still tried to show him the video of the party.  Hence the sweet scene at the end and the birthday kiss.

 

But ni the Gorilla episode, the point was not to actually show her having some kind of sweet moment with Leonard, but showing how her efforts to learn were skewed by Sheldon's teaching--hence the tag with her spouting Sheldon's opinion of Leonard's work.

 

Two completely different stories, different points, thus different outcomes.  The stories are not parallels.

[phantagrae]

I think part of the problem at times is that the Sheldon ,Leonard and Penny are the three major characters. Leonard/Penny are a couple and Sheldon is the funny guy. I think the Gorilla episode in a way is similar to the season 6 finale. The finale had Sheldon in the back seat of the car when L/P said good bye. I think some people (including myself) were bothered by his presence. Others were not. The same goes here. Some may have been looking for a touching L/P moment and others were looking for laughs between Sheldon and Penny. I imagine (i'm not a writer) it can be hard to get the right amount of touching moments and laughs to please everyone.

 

I think the difference lies in the intent of the story--if the episode is not intended to be a sweet story, then it's more likely to have a funny twist--and even if it is intended to be a sweet moment, it's probalby going to have a funny punchline, one way or another.

 

Even the S5 finale, that had that sweet scene of each of the couples holding hands as they anticipated Howard's rocket launch, ultimately had the punchline of Howard's "Oy vey!" at the end.

 

And the sweet scene at the end of the birthday episode had the punchline of Leonard following after Penny, asking her when her birthday is.

 

But some episodes are intended to have sweet, romantic moments and others are intended simply to be funny.  In the case of what vasu is talking about, the birthday ep was supposed to have that sweet moment in the tag, but Gorilla was never intended to be about a sweet L/P moment.  It was intended simply to be funny--hence no sweet Lenny scene.

[Guitars1964]

I think it is really hard for a comedy to do somewhat dramatic scenes because they HAVE to insert some comedy in there.  Many people watch comedy for strictly the laughs and they don't like it to be too intense.  The writers might have felt that the goodbye scene would have been just that - too intense.

 

Or it could just be that we have to include Sheldon in all things because that's the way it is. 

 

I'm torn between the two theories...

 

 

I think you pretty much nail it here.  Some of us here are romantics and that's why the romantic Fan Fiction stuff tends to be popular, I think.  But this show is a comedy and that has to win out every time over more serious or dramatic aspects.

[Nogravitasatall]

Hence my topic on the front page. And if anyone has a belly laugh ff to point me at please do. I want Bill Bryson type funny. "Ask me my star sign", from " A WALK IN THE WOODS". for instance. In context that made me laugh so much on my commute people moved away. Well, further away.

oh, and go team l/p. Yay.

ETA. I heard a brain scientist say that the heartache from lost love lights up the same part of the brain as does actual pain. So taking paracetamol (Tylenol) may actually help relieve a broken heart

Sciency and romantic. Lol. Lets hear that from Leonard to Sheldon in the cafeteria.

Edited July 2, 2013 by Nogravitasatall

[eirwinrommel]

Hence my topic on the front page. And if anyone has a belly laugh ff to point me at please do. I want Bill Bryson type funny. "Ask me my star sign", from " A WALK IN THE WOODS". for instance. In context that made me laugh so much on my commute people moved away. Well, further away.

oh, and go team l/p. Yay.

ETA. I heard a brain scientist say that the heartache from lost love lights up the same part of the brain as does actual pain. So taking paracetamol (Tylenol) may actually help relieve a broken heart

Sciency and romantic. Lol. Lets hear that from Leonard to Sheldon in the cafeteria.

The only problem with that is if you take enough Tylenol to mend your heart you end up with a broken liver.

[Nogravitasatall]

With s4 Penny it may have been a race. But if she took Panadol she might not have needed the chardonnay.

[SRAM]

I tend to agree that the gorilla experiment was about Sheldon, and L/P were just used as straight men for Sheldon humor. It was about Sheldon being an incompenant teacher again, then a self centered ass again as he taught his 'Best Friend's' girlfriend stuff to insult and belittle him. I didn't think that the end of that episode was funny at all.

[phantagrae]

I tend to agree that the gorilla experiment was about Sheldon, and L/P were just used as straight men for Sheldon humor. It was about Sheldon being an incompenant teacher again, then a self centered ass again as he taught his 'Best Friend's' girlfriend stuff to insult and belittle him. I didn't think that the end of that episode was funny at all.

 

Really?  You can't just enjoy the humor?  It wasn't as if Leonard ran off to his bedroom to cry his eyes out or anything.

It wasn't just about Sheldon--it was about the juxtaposition of what Penny wanted and how it turned out.  Sheldon wasn't so much an incompetent teacher, but thinking and working on a different plane because he and Penny are on different planets in that regard.

Yeah, he taught Penny his opinion on Leonard's work, but in the end it's just humor, not a death sentence.

I thought it was hysterical.

[ArmyGirl]

I tend to agree that the gorilla experiment was about Sheldon, and L/P were just used as straight men for Sheldon humor. It was about Sheldon being an incompenant teacher again, then a self centered ass again as he taught his 'Best Friend's' girlfriend stuff to insult and belittle him. I didn't think that the end of that episode was funny at all.

 

I didn't find the tag to be funny either.  I don't get joy out of belittling people or their work.  I know we all were suppose to rolling on the floor because once again Sheldon put down Leonard, only it was through is girlfriend and it was suppose to show how funny Sheldon is.  It just left me cold and sad.

Edited July 2, 2013 by ArmyGirl

[Chrismo]

Really?  You can't just enjoy the humor?  It wasn't as if Leonard ran off to his bedroom to cry his eyes out or anything.

It wasn't just about Sheldon--it was about the juxtaposition of what Penny wanted and how it turned out.  Sheldon wasn't so much an incompetent teacher, but thinking and working on a different plane because he and Penny are on different planets in that regard.

Yeah, he taught Penny his opinion on Leonard's work, but in the end it's just humor, not a death sentence.

I thought it was hysterical.

 

I didn't find the tag to be funny either.  I don't get joy out of belittling people or their work.  I know we all were suppose to rolling on the floor because once again Sheldon put down Leonard, only it was through is girlfriend and it was suppose to show how funny Sheldon is.  It just left me cold and sad.

I'm somewhat in the middle. I wouldn't call it hysterical nor would I call it cold and sad. I will say though if you're a Sheldon fan you probably found more humor in it than you would of as a Leonard/Penny fan. Granted if this was in reverse and Sheldon work was picked on and a comment like @phantagrae was made on the Shamy thread what kind of reaction would the Shamy's make?

[phantagrae]

I'm somewhat in the middle. I wouldn't call it hysterical nor would I call it cold and sad. I will say though if you're a Sheldon fan you probably found more humor in it than you would of as a Leonard/Penny fan. Granted if this was in reverse and Sheldon work was picked on and a comment like @phantagrae was made on the Shamy thread what kind of reaction would the Shamy's make?

 

I love Leonard and Penny, too.  And I also find it funny when the other characters pick on Sheldon or make fun of him or whatever.  I find it all pretty funny and I don't cry over any of the characters getting picked on by the others.

[SRAM]

Sheldon's character stated what he thought of all his friends, in the episode where they talk to the high school girls, they are tools to support people like him. The writers have supported that concept throughout the show. I think the few times we have seen him being nice were put in so we don't completely hate him. Even the last episode, he brought up leaving Penny, while they were doing so good, to Leonard, to get his way and have him not go. What friend does that, only Sheldon, because Sheldon is a self centered ass. The scene at the airport was too much and not funny at all.

[eirwinrommel]

I just had an Idea for a story. Sheldon is in an accident, and put into a coma for a couple of months. Since Sheldon made Amy his emergency contact She's able to put electrodes on him and run an experiment on the effects of the coma. While he's in the coma, the gang meets every couple of days around his bed and talk about what's been happening in their lives. As time passes, they realize just how much better things are without Sheldon running their lives.

What they don't know is that by this time Sheldon has healed enough to understand them, and decides to be less of a pain in the ass when he recovers.

I admit I'm on shaky ground in a couple of things.

1.Sheldon' not being a pain in the ass on purpose.

2.He cares what the others think.

Edited July 2, 2013 by eirwinrommel

[I.Am.Molly]

Sheldon get's picked on a lot haha I think there are a lot of you in this thread that are just quite protective over Leonard and don;t like to see him either picked on or made out to be a 'wimp' as some of you put it. The thing is he isn't made fun of any more than the rest of them are. Although i still dont think he was being mocked in that episode and i still fail to see how anyone could have found it sad, but then maybe that is just a case of different people having different sense of humours.

 

I also think a few people have a real problem with Sheldon over here, because they saw this 'Sheldon Show' during season 3 when i guess you were looking for it to all be about Leonard and Penny since they had just gotten together. To be honest, i never saw him as being given any more attention than Leonard and Penny.Someone mentioned earlier (sorry i cant remember who it was and im too lazy to go looking!) that the problem is that Leonard, Penny and Sheldon are the three main characters, and whatever happens between Leonard and Penny, is going to have an effect on Sheldon and he is always going to be around and freaking out over whatever is happening. So yeah, whether you like it or not, he is always going to be involved somehow. Whether you find what happens in those situations funny or not, is all relative because like i said before, different people have different sense of humours. I like Sheldon and find him pretty hilarious most of the time, so that is probably why i dont see what some of you guys see. I enjoy the show in it's entirety and dont think it would be the same if we took Sheldon out of certain moments, even the ones that some think should have been used as key L/P moments, such as that gorilla episode. 

[eirwinrommel]

Well, I didn't care about the Gorilla episode so much, the one that I found really annoying, was at the airport at the end of the season. There was NO reason for Sheldon to be there!!! He wasn't funny he just detracted from the moment.

There are times that you don't need every character in a scene. That should have been a L/P scene, none of the other characters were needed.

Edited July 2, 2013 by eirwinrommel

[SRAM]

I like the show, so I like all the characters, however when I rank how I like the characters, Leonard is first and Sheldon is last. I just get tired of everything revolving around Sheldon. Season 6 really gave us some of the Lenny instead of all Sheldon, which is great, but as a needy greedy baby, I am going to always want more, because more is better, right.

[ArmyGirl]

Well, I didn't care about the Gorilla episode so much, the one that I found really annoying, was at the airport at the end of the season. There was NO reason for Sheldon to be there!!! He wasn't funny he just detracted from the moment.

 

I feel the same way and posted about it when the promo first came out.  All Sheldon all the time doesn't equal funny, imo.

Edited July 2, 2013 by ArmyGirl

[I.Am.Molly]

I like the show, so I like all the characters, however when I rank how I like the characters, Leonard is first and Sheldon is last. I just get tired of everything revolving around Sheldon. Season 6 really gave us some of the Lenny instead of all Sheldon, which is great, but as a needy greedy baby, I am going to always want more, because more is better, right.

Haha more is better yeah, but only to us. You have to sort of see it from other people's point of view, like those who aren't too bothered by Leonard and Penny. (And by you I don't mean just you SRAM I mean it as in everybody haha) if the writers gave L/P any more screen time, then those who ship S/A wouldn't be happy, and rightly so. I think the writers get the balance pretty well. They always include all characters so that, in general, everyone has something to be happy about in the episode. I guess I'm sort of spoiled because even though Leonard and Penny are the ones I enjoy the most, I really do like all the characters and so I've never had that feeling of being let down by an episode.