Intrigue

Sheldon wreaks havoc when he is stumped by a difficult physics question.

Sheldon can't sleep since he is totally preoccupied with solving a physics graphine problem. By association, Leonard and Penny can't sleep since Sheldon is continually bothering them. But Sheldon's sleep deprivation is making him more unusual than ever. He thinks he finally has the answer, not to the problem, but how to solve the problem. Much like Einstein did much of his best thinking when he worked in a patent office doing menial work, Sheldon believes he needs to get a menial job. A genius getting hired for a menial job is no easy feat, so Sheldon insinuates himself into a work situation of his own choice, much to the chagrin of one of his friends. Meanwhile, Leonard and Penny and Howard and Bernadette go on a double date to a disco roller rink. Raj is feeling left out, especially as it was his idea. On the other hand, Penny and Bernadette wish they hadn't gone.—Huggo

Sheldon trying to engage his superior-Colliculus by quickly whipping his head back and forth at a whiteboard full of equations to create a fleeting peripheral image. Penny and Leonard walk out, and Sheldon reveals that he's been up all night working on his problem. Sheldon tries other methods of trying to understand, but eventually takes Leonard's advice of starting fresh by wastefully throwing the whiteboard out the window and consequently causing a car crash.

That day, at the cafeteria during lunch, Sheldon tries to build a physical diagram of his problem by using Raj's Lima-beans and Leonard's peas, but to no avail as Raj soon takes a large handful of his Lima beans back after Sheldon offends him. Raj tells Leonard and Howard about Disco Night at the Moonlight Roller Rink in Glendale and asks if they want to come. To Raj's disappointment, Leonard and Howard immediately decide to bring Bernadette and Penny to make it a double-date. Raj declines to come and makes a bitter remark to Leonard and Howard that he is a brown colored Yelp.com to them

When Leonard, Howard, Penny and Bernadette return to the apartment after roller skating, they find Sheldon sitting on a stool with hundreds of marbles all over the floor, still stuck in the problem. Both Leonard and Penny slip on the marbles falling on their butts. Bernadette realizes that Sheldon is overtired, and makes him go to bed by verbally intimidating him, and reminding him that a lack of REM sleep leads to impaired cognitive function.

In the middle of the night, Leonard and Penny are awakened to a phone call from a security guard at a local shopping mall. When Leonard arrives at the mall, he finds Sheldon in a ball pit building carbon atoms out of plastic balls. When Leonard tells Sheldon that they have to go home, Sheldon immediately hides under the balls, leading to Leonard chasing him through the ball pit with difficulty. Sheldon keeps popping up and shouting "Bazinga!", which only further frustrates and angers Leonard.

A few hours afterwards, Leonard and Penny are asleep again, but Sheldon wakes them up and tells them that his solution to his math problem is working in a menial job, much like how Albert Einstein did when he was working at the Patent Office in Switzerland and discovered special relativity.

The next day, Sheldon goes to a job center and tries to apply for several menial jobs, but quickly angers the clerk he talks to. Sheldon is eventually removed from the center by security, and decides to work as a busboy without pay with Penny and Bernadette at the Cheesecake Factory. Sheldon quickly realizes that being a waiter is more menial than being a busboy, and quickly trades positions, excelling at waiting. Although he is never hired, the restaurant appears happy to let him continue with his work (presumably as he is not asking for pay). Later on, after taking Leonard, Howard and Raj's orders, Sheldon accidentally drops a pile of plates, but realizes that he's been looking at his problem all wrong and that the electrons move through the Graphene in waves, and rushes off to solve his problem, leaving Penny to take care of his mess.

Eventually, Raj pressures Howard to go disco roller-skating with him, much to Raj's joy and Howard's annoyance.

Title reference: Sheldon's attempt at solving his problem by working in a menial job, comparing it to Albert Einstein's discoveries made while working in Switzerland in the Patent Office.