The question was not if they were going to go all After School Special, but were they writing her as an alcoholic or not? Yes they were going for funny alcoholic and again, I think they peaked that characterization with her alcohol induced memory blackout of whether or not she even had sex with Raj followed up with her drinking alone from a measuring cup (because she could not immediately find anything else) the next ?morning? with Amy then confronting/comforting her about it, as Penny regrets the harm she is causing to others’ lives (“What’s wrong with me?! I feel like two totally different people. Dr. Jeckyl and Mrs. Whore!”)
So yes, they were going for funny alcoholic and realized that that path led to another “Mom” character or an After School Special and backed away. Which again IMHO was a good choice.
Charlie Wayne … the answer to your question is likely related to the cultural reasons that “funny alcoholic” is an acceptable and well established trope, but you less commonly see shows with funny meth-head or a funny heroin OD … even though alcohol abuse likely contributes to more health and social harms within our society. (Please note: I am not a teetotaller and am very aware that moderate alcohol intake is associated with better health outcomes than is none.)
The defining symptom of alcoholism is this: if you quit drinking cold turkey, do you start to shake, throw up, hallucinate, and possibly have seizures if you don’t get treatment.
Alcoholics wake up in the morning, and need a drink right away before the shakes set in. Penny, as it appears, doesn’t drink first think in the morning, and in fact, seems to drink mostly at appropriate times of day. Also, because alcoholics are always drunk, they don’t act like a normally sober person who happens to get drunk. When Penny gets drunk, she is clearly drunk. She when she doesn’t appear drunk, she actually is sober, and she can drink without getting drunk.
Some people drink a lot, but are not alcoholics. My husband’s brother drinks a lot, in that when he’s at a wedding where the booze is free, he can down six beers in a couple of hours, and when he goes out he’ll get three of four drinks. Any time there’s a gathering of friends, and there’s beer, he drinks it. He invents drinking games a lot, and loves to play them. But he also doesn’t drink every day. He doesn’t drink alone very often, and I’ve only seen him drunk (buzzed, not ready-to-pass-out) once in the 15 years I’ve known him. He plays guitar and plays in bars a lot. He NEVER drinks before he plays, even when the booze for the band is free. I don’t think an alcoholic could do that. He’s in his forties. According to DH, he drank a lot more in his 20s, and has slowed down as he’s gotten older.
I perceived that more of a joke about how messy Penny is-- you know, she hasn’t done the dishes in so long, the only thing clean is a measuring cup-- which is also a joke about her cooking. The measuring cup is clean, because she never cooks from scratch.