So, throughout all the seasons of Big Bang Theory, they’ve never said what Penny’s last name is. The producers have indicated they may never reveal it, as it’d be tough to have a payoff to the buildup. And it’d be hard to explain that whatever it is (Penny Schmenny, Penny Nickel, Penny Pennybobenny, etc.), no one has mentioned it in the last 8 years or whatever.
It did make for some awkward writing around the episode where her dad came to visit.
Anyway, which main characters on the show CLEARLY must know what it is, and who might not?
Leonard was stealing her mail for a while at the beginning, so he would know it.
Sheldon could, conceivably, not know because he just doesn’t care.
Amy Farrah-Fowler would, I think, have to know because of the borderline obsession / not-especially-latent latent lesbian tendencies thing.
Bernadette would know because she was instrumental in Penny getting hired.
I would assume they all know. Even Sheldon. He knows Howard’s last name, and he holds Howard in far more contempt than he does Penny.
It probably isn’t anything unusual, or that makes any kind of pun–if it were, somebody would have commented on it by now. In another thread about this, I remember somebody suggesting that it’s most likely something like “Anderson”–perfectly typical, unremarkable, and very middle-American. I would agree.
I’ve seen the cast joking/teasing about Penny’s last name, but I’m pretty sure they were bloopers or interviews; they never did it in character. So, I’m fairly certain that in universe, they all know her last name. IRL, I don’t think even Chuck Lorre or Bill Prady know her last name. That way, there’s no way it could leak out.
Though, considering the last episode of Season 8, it’s possible that in Season 9, we’ll find she’s taken the last name “Hofstadter”. But then again, maybe not. They might be saving that wedding for Season 10.
Only the audience doesn’t know. Everyone that knows she starred in “Serial Apist” and the sequel has to know from the credits, in addition to all the normal ways the other characters would know.
To be fair, we don’t really know if that’s her real father.
In the episode when he came to visit they called him Wyatt, but in an earlier episode she called him Bob or something like that. IIRC, it was one of the episodes where Leonard’s mother came to visit.
I’m glad they’ve never made an issue of this. Pretty much the lamest thing Seinfeld ever did was reveal Kramer’s first name. Comic “mysteries” are almost never funny anyway (cf. who shot Mr. Burns, the identity of Cartman’s father, etc.) and the payoff never lives up to the buildup.
) and kill a few episodes with the last name stunt.