"Big Bang Theory": More Cooperisms from Season 5 Quiz

Answer: Fun With Flags

Sheldon retains the services of Amy to assist with the filming of his podcast series, which promises to "explore the dynamic world of vexillology", or the study of flags. "Fun and information are two sides to this video podcast, not unlike the only two-sided state flag - Oregon," Sheldon explains in the inaugural installment. "In future episodes, we'll answer some burning questions. What's the only non-rectangular flag? What animal appears most often on flags? What animal appears second most often on flags? And more." Later at work, Sheldon researches other interesting factoids about flags, and shares what he discovers with Raj. "The flags of Liechtenstein and Haiti were identical by coincidence, a fact that wasn't discovered until they competed against each other in the 1936 Olympics," Sheldon observes. "Thankfully their embarrassment was overshadowed by the rise of fascism." The episode ends with Sheldon dressed in Lederhosen and Amy dressed as a giant pretzel, filming what appears to be a Bavarian-themed episode of "Fun With Flags".

Answer: Emergency preparedness drill

Leonard is woken up in the middle of the night by Sheldon to participate in an emergency preparedness drill. "I think you'll like the drill tonight," Sheldon explains to a very unhappy Leonard. "Each of these cards contains a detailed scenario of a possible apocalyptic event - everything from wildfires to a surprise invasion by Canada. Pick a catastrophe, any catastrophe." Leonard selects a scenario involving an 8.2 magnitude earthquake, and is made to wear a hard hat and safety vest before being thrown around the apartment by Sheldon as part of a simulated "hypothetical aftershock".

The next morning, Leonard is tired and grouchy, and in no mood to drive Sheldon to his dentist appointment. The two of them get into an argument, which culminates in Leonard invoking Clause 209 to suspend their friendship, along with most of the provisions of the Roommate Agreement. Later, when Sheldon can't get anyone to fill in for Leonard and his numerous duties under the Roommate Agreement, he engineers a blackout in the apartment in an attempt to get Leonard to change his mind.

The pair decide to reinstate the Roommate Agreement with an addendum to establish "Leonard's Day", a day to celebrate all of Leonard's actual and imagined contributions to Sheldon's life. "Oh, no pressure," Sheldon explains to a confused Penny. "Just give him a crummy card and you're good."

Answer: Amy's laboratory

In "The Vacation Solution", the guys try to convince Sheldon to spend his vacation in Hawaii, but he has no interest in visiting "a former leper colony on top of an active volcano where the disappointing ending to 'Lost' was filmed". Sheldon also dismisses the idea of going to Florida to visit Walt Disney World and Epcot, because a seagull once stole a hotdog from him when he went to Florida as a child, and he "got the message". In the end, Sheldon takes inspiration from Richard Feynman, and decides to use his vacation to improve his mind by spending it in Amy's biology lab. "Boy, oh boy, this vacation is off to a wonderful start," Sheldon announces as he begins his holiday. "The smell of formaldehyde, the whir of the centrifuge, distant chatter of lab animals being dispatched for dissection. I can already feel my cares just melting away."

Sheldon's vacation isn't as thrilling as he hopes, as he runs into one problem after another with Amy. She sets him to washing some beakers, but keeps sending the beakers back because they have soap spots. Next, Sheldon is tasked with counting the bacteria spores in some petri dishes, but he gets distracted and loses count. When Sheldon complains that he isn't being challenged by these mundane tasks, Amy lets him dissect a brain, but he faints after accidentally cutting his thumb with a scalpel. When Penny makes fun of Sheldon for fainting, he removes his bandage to show her his "substantial wound", and promptly faints again.

Answer: A hole in the wall

When the guys visit Sheldon in his new office, he is desperately trying to seal the air-conditioning unit's vents with paper and some sticky tape. "Turns out the thermostat for my new office isn't in my new office," Sheldon explains. "No, it's next door, in Professor Davenport's office, who is currently enjoying the hot flashes associated with menopause." When Leonard enquires about the mysterious and prominent hole in the office wall, Sheldon offers his view. "I've narrowed it down to two possibilities," he says. "There was something in the wall that someone outside the wall wanted, or the more disturbing, there was something in the wall that wanted out." The window also holds no sway for Sheldon, who is annoyed by the sound of nearby wind chimes and a mockingbird singing completely out of tune with the wind chimes.

The office is also directly below the University's Geology lab, so Sheldon's office vibrates whenever they run their machinery. "My nervous system is being stretched out like the strings of a harp, and plucked by holes, and birds, and wind, and the low-hanging scrotum of the difficult-to-evict Professor Rothman," Sheldon complains. Later, Leonard discovers Sheldon with his head stuck in the hole in the wall, calling for help. "I was trying to see what was in here, and my head got stuck," Sheldon explains. "Why would you do that?" asks Leonard. "It's called scientific curiosity. Now go get butter," Sheldon replies.

The episode ends with Leonard taking a picture of Sheldon in his Pooh-like pose, then sitting down to tweet about it.

Answer: He's six days late for his monthly haircut.

Sheldon's well-planned life goes into a tailspin after his regular barber, Mr. D'Onofrio, is hospitalized. Sheldon won't let anyone else cut his hair, so he has no option but to let it grow out. By day six, Sheldon isn't quite himself anymore. When Sheldon doesn't seem to care that Penny is sitting in his spot on the couch, Penny asks if Sheldon is feeling all right. "No, I'm not all right," he says. "It's been six days since I was supposed to get a haircut. And nothing horrible has happened." Sheldon goes on to explain, "I have spent my whole life trying to bring order to the universe by carefully planning every moment of every day, but all my efforts - our dinner schedule, my pajama rotation, my bowel movement spreadsheet - it's clear now. I've been wasting my time." He decides to "embrace the chaos" by wearing his Tuesday pajamas out of rotation, and taking up bongo playing at three in the morning. Eventually, Penny convinces Sheldon to let her cut his hair, and ends up fairly pleased with the results. "Well, it's a little Hollywood," he says, "but I think I can pull it off. Well done, Penny." The episode ends with Penny cleaning up Sheldon's neck and tickling him with the clippers, leaving him with a noticeable bald spot on the back of his neck. "Yup, I'm gonna have to move," Penny says to herself after Sheldon leaves.

Answer: By presenting her with valuable Cooper Coupons

Raj wants to spend the weekend with the guys playing the new "Star Wars" online game, but Sheldon has already agreed to accompany Amy to her aunt's birthday party. When Amy won't release Sheldon from his commitment, he tries to convince Penny to intercede on his behalf in exchange for some valuable Cooper Coupons. "These are for various things I can do for you," he explains to an unimpressed Penny. "Oh, this one is for one free grammar check. You could use it for e-mails, letters, tattoos, what have you. Oh, this is a fun one.

This is an afternoon with me at the California Science Center, where I point out their mistakes." Sheldon ends up getting his way after he mistakes Amy's sarcasm for sincerity ("You know, if playing that game is more important to you than honoring your commitment to me, and you don't mind me showing up to a party all by myself after I already told everybody I would be bringing somebody, then fine. Go and play your game.") He is forced to deal with Amy when she returns from the party and makes a scene in front of everyone. "I think I understand," Sheldon says. "You're the one person who can say Sheldon Cooper is your boyfriend, but that rings hollow if you can't lord him over others in the flesh. I forget what I bring to the party, and what I take away when I leave. Please accept these valuable Cooper Coupons as restitution." Unlike Penny, Amy is actually thrilled with the coupons. "Science Center?" she says excitedly. "Redeeming, let's go."

Answer: His Mr. Spock action figure

In "The Transporter Malfunction", Leonard and Sheldon refuse to play with their "Star Trek" transporters with "real transporter action" because the toys are vintage, mint-in-box from 1975. That night, Sheldon dreams that he is sitting at his desk when a strangely familiar voice starts calling out to him. He looks down to see his vintage Mr. Spock action figure (Leonard Nimoy, in a guest voiceover appearance) talking to him. Toy Spock convinces Sheldon to play with the transporter toy by appealing to his Vulcan logic, but Sheldon ends up breaking his toy. He switches his toy for Leonard's, rationalizing that Leonard would never open the box and find out the truth. Things become complicated when Penny convinces Leonard to play with his toy, and they discover that the toy is broken. In order to stop them from confronting Stuart at the comic book store, Sheldon has to tell one lie after another to cover up his wrongdoing.

Sheldon: "Wait. It was me. I opened your toy, discovered it was broken and didn't tell you."
Leonard: "Why would you open mine?"
Sheldon: "I didn't. That was a lie. I opened my own toy and it was already broken, so I switched them."
Leonard: "You should talk to Stuart."
Sheldon: "I can't, because that was a lie. Yours was broken in an earthquake, and that was a lie."
Penny: "What is the truth?"
Sheldon: "My Mr. Spock doll came to me in a dream and forced me to open it, and when the toy broke, I switched it with yours. Later, when he encouraged me to do the right thing, I defied him. Then I was attacked by a Gorn."
Leonard: "Okay, that I believe."
Sheldon: "Leonard, Penny, I want you both to know that I regret my actions towards the two of you. That's a lie."
Leonard: "Is that one mine?"
Sheldon: "Yes."
Leonard: "Well, hand it over so I can open it."
Sheldon: "Okay. And Leonard, even though I don't have one anymore, I hope you have fun playing with it."
Leonard: "And that's a lie, right?"
Sheldon: "It's a big fat whopper. I hope it breaks."

Answer: Pay Howard a compliment

In "The Hawking Excitation", Howard refuses to introduce Sheldon to his idol to get back at him for constantly belittling him. When Sheldon is reduced to begging, Howard makes the most out of the situation. He makes Sheldon polish his huge collection of belt buckles ("By the way, the little marks that look like water spots? I tend to stand a little too close to the urinal, so what you are seeing is splash back."), forces him to dress up in a sexy French maid costumer ("What are you all staring at? Haven't you seen a man try to get a meeting with Stephen Hawking before?"), gets him to do his laundry ("Why are you washing Howard's man panties?") and has him take his mother dress shopping ("When I put by back in, my front pops out. When I put my front in, my back pops out.") After all this, Howard has one final thing to ask of Sheldon. "Give me a compliment," he says. "I want you to tell me I'm good at what I do." When Sheldon replies to say that he is obviously good at what he does, Howard asks why he is always giving him a hard time. "I understand the confusion," Sheldon explains. "I have never said that you are not good at what you do. It's just what you do is not worth doing." Leonard quickly points out, "It's nicer than anything he's ever said to me. I'd take it and run."

Sheldon gets to meet Stephen Hawking, and finds out what he thinks of his paper. The episode ends with Sheldon fainting in front of the brilliant physicist after Hawking points out the arithmetic mistake Sheldon made on page two.

Answer: She is trying to make Sheldon happy.

Amy is determined to advance her relationship with Sheldon, so she hatches a plan to take their relationship to the next level. "Human beings form emotional attachments as they grow up," she explains to Sheldon. "In your case, to your mother, superheroes, etc. I am going to attempt an experiment that will get you to transfer those feelings to me." She begins by playing the "'Super Mario Brothers' Theme" during dinner. "I see what you're doing," Sheldon says. "You're attempting to build on the work of Ebbinghaus by triggering an involuntary memory of me playing that game - admittedly the happiest 600 hours of my childhood. But it won't work." Amy ups the ante by serving Sheldon Strawberry Quik (his "favorite pink fluid") and spaghetti with little pieces of hot dog cut up in it (his favorite childhood meal). "Oh, yummy, yummy," Sheldon exclaims. "We should do this more often." He stops himself when he realizes that Amy's plan is working. "Oh-oh," he says.

Later, Sheldon opens up about his relationship problems with Leonard. "Believe it or not, Amy has embarked on a campaign to increase my feelings for her by making me happy," he says. "And it gets worse. Her efforts are causing me to have affectionate feelings for her at inappropriate times." He offers an example. "This morning I was calculating the random motion of virtual particles in a vacuum, when suddenly the particles morphed into an image of Amy's dandruff gently cascading down onto her pale, slightly hunched shoulders. Oh, what has that vixen done to me, Leonard? How do I make it stop?" Leonard doesn't know what to tell Sheldon, so he changes the subject by talking about his recent problems with Penny. "So that's how this works? I complain, and then you complain, and no one offers any solutions?" asks Sheldon. "Pretty much," replies Leonard. "Well," Sheldon says, "no wonder the women are winning."

Answer: Klingon

In "The Countdown Reflection", Howard and Bernadette have to pick one of their friends to officiate their wedding, and Sheldon volunteers on one condition. "I'll do it, provided I can perform the ceremony in Klingon," Sheldon says, prompting an icy stare from Bernadette, who declines the offer. "What do you see in her?" Sheldon asks Howard in frustration. In the end, Raj, Penny, Leonard, Amy and Sheldon all become ordained as ministers so that they can perform the ceremony together. When it comes to Sheldon's turn, he starts speaking in Klingon, but reluctantly relents after Bernadette objects. "Fine, I'll do it in English, but it loses something," he says. "The need to find another human being to share one's life with has always puzzled me, maybe because I'm so interesting all by myself. With that being said, may you find as much happiness with each other as I find on my own."

The gang reacts with puzzled looks at the typically Sheldon-esque speech. "The Klingon would have made you cry," Sheldon adds at the end.