It’s no secret that Penny is the odd one out on our favorite sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. However, we all love her fire, sarcasm, and independence.
Penny is an incredibly dynamic character that the gang often jabs at for being the beautiful blonde without a university degree. And sometimes, her friends weren’t exactly the best at being friends. Here are the 10 worst things the gang ever did to our favorite television waitress/actress/pharmaceutical rep.
When They Sneak Into Her Apartment to Clean
In the second episode of the entire series (yeah, like literally right after they meet her), Sheldon sneaks into Penny’s apartment at night to clean up the mess and Leonard begrudgingly helps, too.
Sure, cleaning isn’t exactly malicious, but they did sneak into the apartment of a sleeping young woman without her permission (and they BARELY knew each other). Penny was pretty mad, and we’re not exactly blaming her.
When Howard Takes Over Her Friend (& Her Apartment)
In “The Dumpling Paradox” in the first season, Penny’s annoying acquaintance, Christy, visits from Omaha. Not only does Penny not really like her, but Howard totally swoops in and sleeps with her.
This is gross and kind of crosses a line in itself, but then Howard takes over Penny’s room, her robe, shower, and even her Care Bears. We’re not condoning Howard’s behavior, and Penny’s disgust with the whole thing is totally in line with our own. Gross.
When They Elaborately Lie to Avoid Seeing Penny in a Musical
In Season 1, in “The Loobenfeld Decay”, Penny finally gets a part as an actress in the musical Rent. However, Leonard and Sheldon decide they can’t go after hearing her sing.
Rather than just sucking it up and being supportive, they create an INCREDIBLY intricate lie. We’re talking about a drug-addicted cousin, an intervention, and an actual actor to play the role. This is pretty shady, guys. Not cool.
When Sheldon Tries to “Condition” Her
In “The Gothowitz Deviation” (Season 3), Sheldon attempts to condition out Penny’s bad habits. He feeds her chocolate for good behavior and continues to attempt to change her actions until she gives an appropriate one.
Sure, this is a pretty shady best-friend thing to do, and what did Leonard do about it? Nothing, really, except getting kind of mad at Sheldon before he let him continue. At least he didn’t let him spray her with water, right?
When The Boys Mock Her For Community College
This is a theme throughout the series, but it mainly appears in season 1 and then again in season 6 in “The Extract Obliteration”. Penny confesses she feels self-conscious about not having a degree, to which the boys kind of mock.
In the first season, they urge her to go to school, claiming that she’d “only” be smart if she did so. In Season 6, Penny eventually rejoins community college. However, Leonard takes over and rewrites her paper because he thinks hers was bad. This whole “dumb” theme is pretty rude, and we all know that Penny is intelligent in a whole plethora of ways.
When Amy Experiments on Penny and Compares the Results to Chimps
In “The Comic Book Store Regeneration”, Sheldon reveals that Amy has been performing secret experiments on Penny, and comparing her results to those of chimpanzees she is studying. Naturally, Penny is furious.
Come on, it’s pretty clear Penny is self-conscious about her intelligence, and you’re comparing her to a monkey? We expected better from you, Amy.
When No One Wants to Be Her Partner for Raj’s Murder Mystery Party
In the seventh season, “The Scavenger Vortex”, Raj creates a scavenger hunt for the gang to participate in. When choosing partners, it becomes pretty clear that no one wants to be partnered with Penny. Even throughout the hunt, everyone continues to underestimate Penny’s intelligence and ability to do well.
She shocks everyone though and actually solves the puzzles better than Sheldon does. Again, she isn’t dumb, and it’s rude for these scientists to think so.
When the Boys Almost Implode Penny’s Job
In “The Gates Excitation”, when the guys find out that Bill Gates is visiting Penny’s pharmaceutical company, they go all sorts of crazy to figure out where he is staying and do actually end up meeting him in the lobby of his hotel.
However, when Penny finally actually lets Leonard meet him, Gates recognizes him from the day before. Clearly, Penny is pretty mad that the boys jeopardized her reputation AND went behind her back. But, it’s Bill Gates, right?
When the Guys Ditch Her With a Sick Sheldon
Throwing it back to the first season, in “The Pancake Batter Anomaly”, the boys flee the scene at the first clue that Sheldon might be sick. Penny, new to the group, falls victim to being his care-provider.
She tries to call Leonard and the guys for help, but they blow her off and let her deal with it on her own. When Penny discovers this, she’s pretty mad, and Leonard ends up having to take care of Sheldon all by himself. This is where it all began for poor Penny.
When Sheldon Totally Ignores Her Pregnancy
In the finale of this hit series, it is finally revealed to the gang that Penny is pregnant. However, this only really happens because Sheldon is afraid that Penny is sick and will infect them all.
In telling him the truth, he is only selfishly relieved that she isn’t contagious, and says nothing about her pregnancy. This is pretty selfish, and Penny is a little offended, that after all she’s done for Sheldon, that he can’t even care about her new baby. However, this all blows over, and Sheldon gives the most heartfelt thanks to his friends just before our favorite sitcom comes to an end. It was all worth it Penny, right?
