"Okay, Babydoll Pink, let's see if you can cover up the fact that I got my dad's feet." "It's just two degrees, Sheldon." "I just want to turn up the thermostat two degrees!" "Let me point out that two degrees can be the difference between water and steam." "Yes, if we lived in a teakettle." "This is the temperature you agreed to in the roommate agreement." "Aw, screw the roommate agreement!" "No, you don't screw the roommate agreement." "The roommate agreement screws you." "You know what, go to Hell and set their thermostat." "I don't have to go to Hell." "At 73 degrees, I'm there already!" "Who is it?" "Leonard." "Hang on." "Can I sleep on your couch tonight?" "Uh, well, you can try, but the people across the hall are being very noisy." "You heard that, huh?" "Apparently, the one fella tried to adjust the thermostat, then the other fella went bat-crap crazy." "So you agree, he's nuts." "Well, not as nuts as the guy who chooses to live with him." "Believe it or not, he was worse when I met him." "Oh, I do not believe that." "You are so naive." "Just like I was seven years ago." "I'd just started at the university." "Excuse me, I'm looking for Sheldon Cooper's apartment." "Oh, I bet you're here to check out the room for rent." "Yeah." "Run away, dude." "What?" "!" "Run fast, run far." "That should have been my first clue." "♪ Our whole universe was in a hot, dense state ♪" "♪ Then nearly 14 billion years ago expansion started..." "Wait!" "♪" "♪ The Earth began to cool ♪" "♪ The autotrophs began to drool, Neanderthals developed tools ♪" "♪ We built the Wall ♪ ♪ We built the pyramids ♪" "♪ Math, Science, History, unraveling the mystery ♪" "♪ That all started with a big bang ♪" "♪ Bang!" "♪" "The Big Bang Theory 3x22 The Staircase Implementation Original Air Date on May 17, 2010" "So Sheldon's last roommate tried to warn you off?" "For all I knew, he was the crazy one." "He had this really deranged look." "Well, yeah, he'd been living with Sheldon." "Sure, it makes sense now." "Anyway, I went upstairs and knocked on the door." "Yeah?" "Dr. Cooper?" "No, you want the crazy guy across the hall." "In retrospect, that was clue number two." "Yes?" "I'm Leonard Hofstadter." "I called you about the apartment." "You said..." "I know what I said." "I know what you said." "I know what my mother said on March 5, 1992." "What is the sixth noble gas?" "What?" "You said you're a scientist." "What is the sixth noble gas?" "Uh, radon?" "Are you asking me or telling me?" "Telling you?" "Telling you." "All right, next question." "Kirk or Picard?" "Oh, uh, well, that's tricky." "Um, Original Series over Next Generation, but Picard over Kirk." "Correct." "You've passed the first barrier to roommate-hood." "You may enter." "Oh, this is pretty nice." "Uh, the bedrooms are back there?" "That depends." "I don't understand-- their existence is conditional?" "No, but your ability to perceive their existence is conditional on you passing the second and third barriers." "There's three?" "Each more daunting than the last." "Have a seat." "Okay." "No!" "That's where I sit!" "What's the difference?" "This seat is ideally located both in relation to the heat source in the winter and a cross breeze in the summer." "It also faces the television at a direct angle-- allowing me to immerse myself in entertainment or game play without being subjected to conversation." "As a result, I've placed it in a state of eternal dibs." "Can you do that?" "Cathedra mea, regulae meae." "That's Latin for "my chair, my rules."" "Now, you said on the phone that your area of study is physics." "Uh, yeah, experimental physics." "Hmm..." "What is that?" "Doesn't concern you." "You'll be going to the university every day?" "Yes." "And you have a vehicle?" "A car, yeah." "And you'll be willing to drive me?" "Can't you drive?" "I can." "I choose not to." "Okay, I suppose I could drive you." "That's a point in my favor, right?" "Why don't you let me do this." "Come on, I just asked." "Last question." "In a post-apocalyptic world, which task would you assign the highest priority?" "Locating a sustainable food source, reestablishing a functioning government, procreating, or preserving the knowledge of mankind?" "Uh, I'm gonna go with..." "preserving the knowledge." "That's correct." "FYI, I would have accepted any answer other than procreating." "Come, I'll show you the rest of the apartment." "Oh, good." "I passed the barriers." "The second barrier." "Don't get cocky." "This is the bathroom." "Are you fairly regular?" "Uh, I guess." "This isn't going to work if you're guessing." "When do you evacuate your bowels?" "When I have to." "When you have to?" "I'm sorry, I don't rent to hippies." "I-I'm sorry, uh, in the morning." "Around 8:00." "I can't give you 8:00." "I can give you 7:30." "Fine." "I'll take it." "Third barrier passed." "You have won the right to see your room." "Huzzah." "Is this it?" "No, this is my room." "People don't go in my room." "So where do you sleep?" "I don't understand." "If people don't go in there, and you're people, and..." "You are people, aren't you?" "Making a joke." "Do you do this often?" "On occasion." "Your room." "You may want to repaint." "And after all that, you just moved in?" "I didn't just move in." "First we had to iron out a few details." ""Roommates agree that Friday nights shall be reserved" ""for watching Joss Whedon's brilliant new series Firefly."" "Does that really need to be in the agreement?" "We might as well settle it now;" "it's going to be on for years." "Initial here." "All right, that's television and movies." "Section nine: miscellany." "The apartment's flag is a gold lion rampant on a field of azure." "We have a flag?" "Never fly it upside down." "Unless the apartment's in distress." "And next." ""If either of us ever invents time travel," ""we agree our first stop will be this meeting today in precisely five seconds."" "Okay." "That's disappointing." "Why on earth did you agree to all that?" "It was the best apartment I'd seen, the rent was very reasonable and after you've passed the first three barriers you kind of want to take it all the way." "Well, I'm sorry, Leonard, it's very hard to feel sympathy for you." "Okay, how about this?" "Let me tell you about the first time" "I brought a girl over." "Leonard?" "Shh." "Just pretend we're not here." "Leonard?" "I'm sure he'll go away." "I'm just going to keep knocking till you answer." "Leonard?" "Leonard?" "Leonard?" "What do you want?" "!" "I didn't say come in!" "You asked what I wanted." "I wanted to come in." "I'm here because you violated our roommate agreement." "Specifically, section eight-- visitors, subsection C;" "females, paragraph four-- coitus." ""Roommates shall give each other 12 hours notice of impending coitus."" "I didn't even know her 12 hours ago." "That's it!" "I'm out of here!" "But, Joyce, come on." "12 hours?" "Oh, my God." "Do I get some sympathy now?" "A little bit." "Okay." "Let me get this straight." "You move in with this guy, he makes you sign a ridiculous roommate agreement, then he walks into your bedroom while you're doing this Joyce Kim, and you still stay?" "Actually, I couldn't get too mad at him about Joyce Kim." "Why not?" "Well, I was doing some government research at the time, you know, military, rocket fuel." "It's kind of secret." "What does that have to do with Joyce Kim?" "As it turns out, she was a North Korean spy." "Luckily, Sheldon drove her out before I revealed anything important." "Which I-I'm not saying I would have." "So, what, that's it?" "You've stayed with Sheldon all this time because he kept you from going to federal prison?" "That was part of it." "The other part is what happened with the elevator." "Oh, yeah, I'm wondering about that." "You said it was working when you moved in." "It was, but one night, Sheldon came home from work..." "What is going on here?" "Hey, Sheldon." "This is Howard and Raj." "They work at the university, too." "Hey." "Hey." "I'll get to you later." "What are you sitting on?" "I can't speak for these guys, but I'm sitting on my tushie." "It's a joke." "Not a good idea." ""Tushie" is buttocks, right?" "Right." "Hilarious." "Explain the couch." "Oh, well, there were some people on the first floor moving out, and they sold it to me for $100." "Howard and Raj helped me bring it up." "But what's wrong with the furniture we have?" "They're lawn chairs." "And there was no place for company." "Did it occur to you that was by design?" "According to the roommate agreement," "I'm entitled to allocate 50% of the cubic footage of the common areas." "But you didn't notify me by e-mail, so this is still a breach." "I did notify you." "Oh, you did, did you?" "Oh, drat!" "Hoisted by my own spam filter." "What am I doing in your spam folder?" "I put you there after you forwarded me a picture of a cat playing the piano, entitled "This is funny."" "Oh, yeah, I saw that." "That was hilarious." "Okay, what does all this have to do with the elevator?" "I'm getting to it." "I assure you, you'll be sorry you wasted your money on an iPod when Microsoft comes out with theirs." "Okay, do you have an opinion about everything?" "Yes." "And you just assume you're always right?" "It's not an assumption." "Change seats with me." "Why?" "I don't like this spot." "I have to keep turning my head." "Fine." "Ooh, it's time for Babylon 5!" "We don't watch Babylon 5 in this apartment." "Why not?" "Because no one likes Babylon 5." "I like it." "Me, too." "So do I." "There you go-- three against one." "They don't get a vote." "It's one against one." "And according to the roommate agreement, all ties will be settled by me." "But I said no to that." "And I said yes." "And I settle all ties." "Change seats with me." "Why?" "There's a draft on my neck over here." "So, I get the draft?" "You're protected by your turtleneck." "Fine." "And it's a dickey." "Hmm..." "I'm still not comfortable." "Of course." "There's too many people here." "We can fix that." "Let's leave." "Yeah, we can go over to my place." "Wait." "Let me get my jacket." "You're not going with us." "Why not?" "You're the guy we're trying to get away from." "Oh." "Well, in that case, I don't need my jacket." "And for the record, the correct syntax is:" "I'm the guy from whom you're trying to get away." "Oh, yes." "This is definitely going to be my spot." "Okay." "How do you know he said that?" "You left the room." "Hey, do you want me to finish working on your man feet or not?" "Fine." "Go ahead." "MRS. WOLOWITZ Howard, are you having a playdate?" "I don't have playdates!" "I have colleagues!" "Do their parents know they're here?" "No, but if you keep screaming, maybe they'll hear you!" "That your dad?" "She grows any more hair on her face, yes." "Oh, man." "Is that a two-stage rocket?" "Three." "I designed the engine myself." "Cool." "Can it break Mach 1?" "Oh, probably, if I could get my hands on that new fuel the government's been working on." "Oh, this just might be your lucky day." "MRS. WOLOWITZ:" "Howard, what happened to the Oreos" "I left on the counter?" "!" "I haven't seen your Oreos!" "Just take your bath without them!" "So, why was it his lucky day?" "Well, it turns out I had a little rocket fuel in the apartment." "What were you doing with rocket fuel in your apartment?" "Mm, Joyce Kim was kind of curious about what I did for a living, and I was going to kind of show it to her." "It's not important." "The point is, the guys and I went back to the apartment." "Are we ever going to get to the elevator?" "Yeah, we're really close." "Uh, uh, we're at the apartment." "The trick is to mix it into Tovex in order to create a combustible gel that will generate over 8, 000 kilonewtons of thrust." "Cool." "Nice." "Won't work." "Excuse me, but I've been working on this a long time." "Trust me-- it'll work." "You don't see your mistake, do you?" "There's no mistake." "This is for a full-scale rocket, not a model." "Well, I've adjusted the formula." "Not correctly." "Okay, I've had it with you." "You might be an expert on theoretical physics and science-fiction programs and where to sit on a freaking couch, but this is applied physics." "And when it comes to applied physic... uh-oh." "What's happening?" "A bad thing." "A very bad thing." "Get the door." "Get the door!" "Get the door!" "Get the door!" "Get the door!" "You're waiting for the elevator?" "!" "Oh." "Right." "Wait." "It's here." "Give me that." "What'd you do that for?" "I had plenty of time..." "You're welcome." "Not only did Sheldon save my life, he didn't rat me out to the landlord." "Or the police." "Or Homeland Security." "Okay, so, basically, you're the reason" "I have to walk up and down three flights of stairs every day?" "So I did something stupid." "I'm sure you did stupid things when you were younger." "What were you doing seven years ago?" "Excuse me, I was in high school." "Studying, keeping my nose clean, doing volunteer work for the community." "Not pregnant." "Yes!" "Oh, Ubuntu, you are my favorite Linux-based operating system." "Hey." "Hello." "Why do I smell methacrylate?" "Oh, uh, clear nail polish." "I had a mani-pedi." "Men can get those." "Anyway, I may owe you an apology." "There's doubt?" "I did agree to the thermostat setting, and I shouldn't have tried to change it." "That's not an apology." "Simply an acknowledgement that I was right." "Okay, I'm sorry." "There you go." "So, we're good?" "Good what?" "Never mind." "Okay if I watch some TV?" "Go ahead." "Up next Babylon 5." "You're not even watching!" "I can hear it!" "Oh, so the dialogue offends you?" "I would hardly call that dialogue!" "You're insane, you know that?" "!" "Don't make me turn that flag upside down, 'cause you know I'll do it!"