He asks her out on an in-game date and she agrees. It cuts to her in her apartment, she gets a scared look on her face and throws the laptop away onto the couch. The implication being she just realized she hit rock bottom.
ETA: oh no! Ninja’d! Twice even!
Baderdash. It’s called disposable income–the money people spend on things they don’t need. Maybe you’d be happier if they spent it on blow and hookers?
She’s only “stupid” (I agree that the more accurate description is ignorant, not stupid) by comparison with the other main characters when it comes to science and geek pop culture.
garygnu is absolutely correct; Penny is extremely intelligent in the area of social interactions and human behavior and she can learn new things quickly.
Honestly, attitudes like this are extremely common in people who are like the BBT guys, IME, and part of why the show and adherents like them bug the crap out of me. **Intelligence comes in many forms and many subject areas. Science, math, computers and whatnot are not the only “valuable” or worthwhile areas of knowledge. **
If Penny is stupid for not being well-versed in the above things, Sheldon is also stupid for not being well-versed in … anything not the above things.
My beef with the series and Penny in general is that no effort is made to show the value of their work as scientists, how the work they do benefits humanity. Take the episode where Sheldon tries to teach Penny physics and she asks what are sub atomic particles, that could have been a golden opportunity to really teach a little science. Penny probably had an MRI when she dislocated her shoulder MRI’s work because of scientists understanding particle physics and quantum mechanics. This fact could have been a little plot element to show the value of the science Leonard and the boys do. I understand the show is a comedy but it seem like science is cast as a joke that only geeks can be interested in with no practical value.
My understanding is it’s long been a running joke in the series that the only two people who actually do anything practical in the series are Penny (Waitress, feeds people, and is by far the most socially functional and clued in of the main characters because she actually has a life so to speak) and Howard (Engineer, builds stuff that’s been used in space is now an Astronaut).
This is despite the fact Penny may not have even finished High School and Howard “only” has an MA, while the other main cast all have Doctorates.
Of the nine types of intelligence,
I’d say that Penny is best at Bodily-Kinesthetic, with Interpersonal next.
Sheldon is best at Logical-Mathematical, with strong skills in Linguistic and some in Spacial, as far as it concerns him, and, I would guess, musical, though that isn’t mentioned in the show, as far as I know. Except that he sings well.
they are all pretty lacking in naturalist, existential, and intrapersonal intelligences, which makes perfect sense for a sit-com.
Thinking within the parameters of the show, I suppose they all interact because they complement one another, fulfill each other’s lacks. Thinking as a viewer, they interact because the misunderstandings of “odd couple” situations are funny.
I have a physicist relative, who is a very normal, well-rounded person, loves music, sports, nature, is married, has a good circle of friends, etc. I, a literature type who can’t understand even the first sentence of his latest publication, am much nerdier.
But he does watch the show, and it does make him laugh.
I think Penny IS shown as intelligent, just not in an academic way. She has fixed as many social-context problems as she’s been stumped by science and math issues. I know people all look at the show differently, but I feel it does show that book smart isn’t always real-life smart and/or better. But at the same time, it doesn’t (always) denigrate the nerdiness. It struggles sometimes to find a balance, but overall I think it’s achieved.
When I said that Penny was “stupid” by comparison with the other characters, I meant, to put it in D&D terms, that she has a lower Int score. She certainly has a higher Wis and Cha than the rest of them, though, which could reasonably be lumped in under the general category of “smarts”.
What I think we’re trying to get to is that Penny is less intellectual than the others.
Penny went to community college for a while, so she either has a high school diploma or a GED.
Depends on the CC, the program, etc. A lot of places allow any resident to take many classes without enrolling in the college, you just sign up for the class. And since they generally have GED courses at CCs, that’s how you get a GED while a student at a CC. Otherwise those would be very empty classes.
I read this a few years ago: “Tact Filters”, and found it enlightening.
He’s an annoying sod who survives a beating only because of his frailty. Funny fkr though!
Iv’e read the “adult”. Peni and Sheldin short story in "A threesome of erotic fiction book 3, and although it’s not them it’s fkn good…
He’s funny and, once you know how not to annoy him - which is easy, since he writes it all down for you - you could mostly avoid annoying him, and the worst that would happen from annoying him is a scathing put-down. He’s interested in the same things the other guys in the show are interested in. He’s generous in a way - lends money without a qualm, has people to stay in his own room without questioning it. And loyalty goes a long way, both his to his friends and his friends’ to him.
Agree with the rest, but whaaaaa?!? He doesn’t even like people entering his room!
The character of Sheldon has been shown numerous times to be totally wrapped up in the basics of the universe and have no real interest in the real world application of physics. Given his utter lack of respect for the work of Howard, and for that matter, Raj and Leonard, why would he condescend to tell Penny that physics has real-life applications?
As for the others, they’re desperate to connect with Penny on her level, not raise her to theirs.
You may think that’s a flaw in the show, but it’s no more a flaw than, for example, the portrayal of Dr. Gregory House, who sees his patients only in terms of their diagnosis. And if I want real science, I’ll watch PBS rather than hoping to get an offhand mention in a situation comedy.
He let Dr. Judy Greer (I don’t remember the character’s name) sleep in his room when she was giving a talk at USC. But then Dr. Judy Greer snuck into Leonard’s room and give him a revealing look at how she wrote her book.
She was Sheldon’s friend, and Leonard “played with her”. 