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The Big Bang Theory Season 6 Episode 11

The Santa Simulation

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AIRED: Dec 13, 2012

8.6

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Episode Summary

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Guys plan to play Dungeons and Dragons, but girls are not invited, which causes arguments among them and the girls. After playing for some time at the apartment, the girls show up dressed sexily for a girls' night out and Raj goes with them to the nightclub. After striking out with a woman at the bar, Amy and Raj get to know each other better.moreless

TV.com Episode Review

The Big Bang Theory "The Santa Simulation" Review: Does This Episode Deserve Cookies or Coal?

While this episode managed to avoid the worst of the Christmas cliches with its hypothetical elf slaughter and Santa's cannon-wielding cameo in Sheldon’s nightmares, it instead fell into a pile of its own series staples, for better or worse.

By MaryAnn Sleasman, Dec 14, 2012

Fan Episode Reviews (7)

Good, but not great...

7.0

By JTProductionsTV, Feb 14, 2013

Definitely some witty humor in this one, and overall an enjoyable episode, however a negative recurring factor is the re-use of several previous jokes to the point of annoyance, including (but not limited to) Sheldon's resentment of Christmas, (Season 2, Episode 11: "The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis") Leonard's family's unusual Christmas traditions, (same episode) and Stuart's health/depression issues, (various episodes) just to name a FEW. Needless to say, as has been evident for several episodes, not nearly enough effort was put into this season as was in previous ones. The Big Bang Theory will forever remain one of my absolute favorite sitcoms of all time, regardless of how the writing quality decreases. Ultimately, the characters are still the same ones we fell in love with at the start of the series, if a bit more matured, and always will be, so long as the writers are careful and respectful enough to write intelligently and attentively for them. I personally believe that they were a little TOO careful this season, and that's why the series has minimally suffered. Nevertheless, I will always be a loyal viewer. Or maybe not. BAZINGA!moreless
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Poor episode

1.0

By chipee, Dec 25, 2012

Believe it or not, I am a big, enthusiastic fan of the series. I started watching a month or so ago, and have seen all but five episodes on four TV channels in the NY area. This has to be one of the worst, most depressing episodes of the entire series! I just watched the episode a second time, and I see more clearly why the episode so alienated me: it is perhaps the only episode where there is no interaction or struggle against a force OUTSIDE of their little group. The humor of the show is derived from the smart nerds rubbing against normal society. None of that in this episode. The boys are playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons amongst themselves, and Sheldon is complaining about how, when he was a child, he fruitlessly implored Santa Claus to restore to life his dead grandfather, thus leading to an animus towards Santa Claus. The girls go off bar hopping, and they take Raj along. There is an awful scene where Raj and Amy compare notes on how they were rejected throughout their lives. It was impossible for me to enjoy all this negativity. Raj's sexual innuendoes were particularly blatant and disgusting to me , as was Sheldon's attacks on Santa. I'm not religious and I despise the Amy character, yet I still find the episode offensive. Two pluses: Sheldon's singing and the bell-ringing.moreless
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Hilarious

9.0

By Varunn16, Dec 20, 2012

I loved this episode very much. Jim Parsons was great in it. The santa theme was great. I loved Raj's scenes with the girls. I wish they have more Girls' Nights with him. The jokes were great, story was great. Loved it!
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Best episode of the series so far

8.0

By stevex, Dec 17, 2012

Still not laugh out loud, but had a delightfully geeky D&D game, a Sheldon dream, some extremely well-modelled dresses, glimpses of the old-school Howard and some pretty decent dialogue including finally someone commenting on Raj's camp phraseology. The girls night out part was a bit flat, but this was the first episode for 2 or 3 years which wouldn't have been outclassed amongst the first 2 series. More like this!
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Having a real girfriend who has sex with you is interfering with your board games? A liitle bit!

7.0

By mnementh01, Dec 15, 2012

Not so hilarious!

I suppose, after a few stellar episodes, like Howard we have to come back to Earth with a bump.

This was probably better than I thought but after the last couple of great eps. but it really disappointed me, with Raj being the biggest failure.

I'm really getting fed up with the whole "can't speak to women, Gay thing"!

Even Stuart is commenting on it and I'm sorry, but someone who's meant to have an enormous IQ like Raj, couldn't fail to understand some of the Double Entendre's he's spouting.

He's so dense in the bar that he didn't see the "death glares" Penny and Bernadette were shooting him.

Penny and Bernadette were both seriously hot in their sprayed on dresses but I was a bit sad that they didn't try to glam Amy up a bit to see if Sheldon might take some notice.

Overall, a decent episode but not laugh out loud funny like the earlier ones.

I'll give a huge thumbs up, however, for the bells scene. Really well done. I wonder how many takes it took?

With a bit of luck, they might have saved the best for the rest of the season.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Johnny Galecki	Leonard Hofstadter
Jim Parsons	Sheldon Cooper
Kaley Cuoco	Penny
Simon Helberg	Howard Wolowitz
Kunal Nayyar	Rajesh Koothrappali
Melissa Rauch	Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Dakin Matthews	Santa	Guest Star
Kevin Sussman	Stuart Bloom	Recurring Role

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Episode Photos

Jim Parsons on The Big Bang Theory from ...

© 2012 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
Kevin Sussman, Kunal Nayyar, and Jim Par...

© 2012 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
Kaley Cuoco on The Big Bang Theory from ...

© 2012 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
Simon Helberg, Kevin Sussman, and Jim Pa...

© 2012 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (1)
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- GOOF: When the girls and Rajesh in the bar are talking about Rajesh's problem with finding the right woman. Amy seems to be totally surprised when Rajesh talks about his crush on Penny and Bernadette, also the fact Rajesh was in the bed with "naked" Penny!
  Penny's story shouldn't have been a surprise to Amy, because in Season 5 episode 1 "The Skank Reflex Analysis" Amy found out that Penny and Rajesh had "sleeped" together, she was even trying to comforted Penny in her own special way.
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NOTES (1)
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- Original International Air Dates:
  Canada: December 13, 2012 on CTV
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