The Robotic Manipulation (2010)

As the five main characters eat dinner, Howard demonstrates the capabilities of a robotic arm that he "borrowed" from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory by showing off how the arm can unpack dinner. He later uses it to give himself a massage at home. Since the arm feels so real, it gives him the idea to use the robotic arm to Masturbate. However, due to executing the wrong program from the computer controlling it, he gets his genitals stuck in the arm and has to call Leonard for help. When Leonard and Raj show up in his bedroom, Howard tells them that he accidentally slipped over the arm. Leonard and Raj do not believe him, and start to mock him. They then take Howard to the emergency room with his genitals still attached to the robotic arm. Going against Howard's fears that turning off the computer controlling the arm would make his situation worse, the attending nurse turns it off, and Howard is freed only to be "stuck again" at the end of the episode, implying he tried to use the robot to masturbate again.

Meanwhile, Penny comes to know of Sheldon's new friend, Amy Farrah Fowler , when Sheldon reads out loud a text message that he received from Amy. To everyone's surprise, Sheldon announces his plans to conceive a progeny with Amy via in vitro fertilization with Penny being the surrogate mother. Penny suggests that before going through such a plan, he should first go out with Amy on a date. Since Sheldon cannot drive, and because the date was Penny's idea, she is forced into giving Sheldon a ride to his date. During the drive, Penny finds out that it is Sheldon's first date, so she offers suggestions which Sheldon rebuffs. In a later scene, Amy joins them in the car, and Penny's attempts at conversation fail. Later, at the restaurant, Sheldon calculates the number of dates that Penny might have had in her life by extrapolating the data he collected over the past three years, coming up with 193 for an answer. He then proceeds to calculate the number of cases that might have resulted in sexual encounters and gets the number 30.96, which he rounds up to 31. To Penny's vexation, Amy asks her whether she ever felt like a "slut". After the date, Penny threatens to tell Sheldon's religious mother about his plans, causing him to drop them

Recurring characters: Mayim Bialik as Amy Farrah Fowler

Note: This was the most watched episode of season 4, with 14.04 million viewers.

Title reference: Howard's use of a robotic arm for masturbation.