Taking Sheldon out of his comfort zone will always provide laughs on The Big Bang Theory, so when Sheldon wasn’t able to get his regular haircut on last night’s episode I knew we were in for some solid comedy. His barber – the one with all his :haircut records” that his mom sent from Texas! – was in a coma, and rather than go to someone strange and inexperienced, Sheldon let his hair grow.

It was a pretty simple concept, but one that delivered. Sheldon has displayed such strong signs of Autism Spectrum for a while now, so it was no surprise that one little wrench thrown into his regular routine caused a complete upheaval in his universe. He played bongos in the middle of the night and didn’t even flinch when he saw Penny sitting in his spot. He didn’t even care about the roommate agreement!

Eventually, the chaos was too much for his friends to handle and he agreed to let Penny cut his hair. She did fine…until she was cleaning up his neck and he giggled, flinching and caused her to shave a big patch on the back of his head. Let’s hope Sheldon’s regular routine doesn’t include checking out the back of his head!

Meanwhile, Howard left for astronaut training and was as terrible at it as you’d expect. This is pretty funny, and I like seeing Howard put in a position where he knows he sucks but wants to keep going anyway. It was really sweet when Bernadette showed up at the hotel to support him, and I kind of wish they hadn’t gone the easy joke route of having his mother in the adjoining room.

What did you guys think of “The Werewolf Transformation”? I didn’t think it was the funniest episode the show has ever delivered, but solidly average.

Funny lines and moments:

• Sheldon thinks nepotism is rampant in the barber industry.
• Leonard’s unwillingness to admit Penny beat him at chess was both funny and incredibly unappealing. Be a man and admit defeat, Leonard!
• Penny: “I used to cut my brother’s hair. I could do it for you.”
  Sheldon: “I know you mean well, offering the skills of the hill folk, but here in town we don’t churn our own butter, we don’t make dresses from gunny sacks, and sure-as-shootin don’t get our hair cut by bottle blon-”
  Leonard: “Sheldon be nice!”
• Penny: “OK, what just happened?”
  Leonard: “I don’t know. Between you playing chess like Bobby Fisher, and Sheldon being ok with you in his spot, I’m guessing someone went back in time, stepped on a bug and changed the course of human events.”
• “My pee is like toothpaste.” – Howard
• Penny: “Where are you going?”
  Sheldon: “Wherever the music takes me kitten.”