The Big Bang Theory: Penny’s 10 Dumbest Decisions, According To Reddit

After 12 successful seasons of playing Penny on The Big Bang Theory, Kaley Cuoco jumped right into other products when the show ended in 2019. From an appearance in The Man From Toronto to award-winning moments with The Flight Attendant, Cuoco has been busy. Even more recently, it’s been announced that she has a new thriller called Based On a True Story.

Cuoco’s acting ability has led her to nail different characters quickly. Penny, for example, wasn’t the smartest character on TBBT, but she had intelligent moments that outshone her brilliant friends. As one of the younger, inexperienced characters, Penny made some dumb or naive decisions that didn’t sit well with the Reddit community. Whether it was how she treated Leonard or her manipulation of the group, Penny made some silly resolutions.

10 Penny’s Behavior On Valentine’s Day Was Horrible

Penny and Leonard had moments of being couple goals but they had so many small issues in their relationship that the good parts were outshone by their differences. On Valentine’s Day, Leonard and Howard took Penny and Bernadette out on a romantic date, but that dinner was squandered when Penny saw an ex-boyfriend get engaged in front of her.

RELATED: 10 Times Penny & Leonard Proved They Were Couple Goals

Achiavellii told Reddit how much Penny’s character bothered them. “Penny really just holds the fact that she is good-looking over Leonard’s head.” But her dumbest decision was her behavior at dinner. Instead of focusing on the new relationship she was in, she was bothered that her ex proposed to someone that wasn’t her.

9 She Manipulated The Guys Into Getting What She Wanted (Leading Them On Along The Way)

While some saw Penny’s manipulative tactics as smart and crafty, a majority of Reddit found it unsettling. Penny made a lot of changes from seasons 1 through 12, and her treatment of Sheldon and Leonard, thankfully, was one of them.

Vietnamesebbg hated the “mind games” Penny played with the men in the early seasons. An example the Redditor gave was the favor Penny asked in the pilot. They wrote, “From the beginning, she asks Leonard and Sheldon, two people SHE JUST MET, to do her a huge favor and retrieve her TV from her ex-boyfriend. WHO DOES THAT?”

8 Penny Spent Money On Frivolous Things

Penny wasn’t always a mischievous person, but some of her storylines didn’t always make sense. For starters, she wasn’t the wealthiest member of the group by a long shot, but she lived alone in a spacious Pasadena apartment — one that was easily affordable by two scientists who worked at Caltech.

Penny complained of money often but always found enough to go shopping or to grab drinks with Amy and Bernadette. PaladinWolf777 found her spending dimwitted. “She made some poor financial choices such as buying fancy shoes that drained her bank account and keeping her place stocked with wine that she would drink too much of because she was always guaranteed a free dinner with the guys,” the Redditor wrote.

7 She Never Should Have Spent The Night With Raj

Penny and Leonard were lucky to have each other in the end, but they hit quite a few speed bumps before settling down. When Leonard dated Priya, Penny realized she never should have broken up with him and spent a wild drunken night with Raj.

It was later revealed that Penny and Raj never slept together, but Penny couldn’t remember much about the night. Some Redditors supported Penny’s right to sleep with whomever she wanted as a single woman. Others thought it was a dumb decision that she almost slept with Leonard’s best friend. “Although it was obviously a wrong and s*itty move on her side, she didn’t owe anyone an explanation — certainly not Leonard and certainly not Priya,” were Green_Lantern_94’s thoughts.

6 Penny Never Should Have Ignored Her ‘Check Engine’ Light

PaladinWolf777 was not a fan of Penny’s character on TBBT for a multitude of reasons. One of the decisions that Penny continuously made that bothered them was how often she ignored the ‘check engine’ light on her car.

RELATED: 13 Ways Sheldon & Penny’s Friendship Was The Best

“She constantly ignored the ‘check engine’ light on her car for like a decade and cried when her car died like it should’ve lasted another decade,” the Redditor wrote. What made Sheldon and Penny’s friendship one of the best was that Sheldon warned Penny of the dangers of not having her car checked, but she ignored those warnings until there was no saving it, which was a bland decision on her part.

5 She Shouldn’t Have Had Kids

Penny would have been a fun and loving mom if she ever wanted to go down that path, but long before season 12 Penny mentioned that she wasn’t sure if she wanted kids. She loved the life she had with Leonard and didn’t want to complicate it.

It’s rare to find a woman on TV who didn’t have children, let alone didn’t want to have children. Because of this, a majority of Reddit applauded the writer’s decision in making Penny child-free. But as viewers know, Penny accidentally became pregnant in the series finale. In this case, it wasn’t Penny’s dumb decision, it was the writers’. “Penny’s change of mind” made Objective-Mention126 feel “irritated.” They felt “validated” when Penny made the choice to live child-free, but that quickly changed all for the sake of a happy ending for the show.

4 Should Penny Have Stayed In College?

Penny made some dumb decisions but she was one of the smartest characters on the show. Unlike Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, and Raj, Penny had street smarts and social awareness. Despite these traits, Penny never graduated from college.

After high school, Penny dove headfirst into acting. It wasn’t until she started dating Leonard that she took some classes at the local community college. However, nothing ever came from it. One Redditor wrote, “I think it would’ve been phenomenal if she decided to go back to college, with the gang helping her along the way and she miraculously discovers that she is IN FACT smart in something.”

3 Penny Shouldn’t Have Gotten In Between Leonard, Sheldon, And The Roommate Agreement

There were plenty of memes created in honor of Sheldon’s unique personality quirks. Although he wasn’t a trusting person, he learned to trust and respect Penny. This gave penny the courage to get in between Sheldon and Leonard’s arguments from time to time.

RELATED: 10 Memes That Perfectly Sum Up Sheldon As A Character

Some Redditors, however, felt that getting in between Sheldon and Leonard was a dumb decision. One fan wrote that Penny contradicted herself between the friends. In season 7, “Penny helps Leonard to stand up for himself” when the group shopped for a dining table, despite Sheldon hating the idea. But in season 9, “Penny takes Sheldon’s side and states that she doesn’t understand why Leonard is refusing” Sheldon’s rules. The imbalance between stances was questionable decision-making.

2 She Never Should Have Given Up Acting

The only reason Penny moved to Los Angeles was to become an actress. However, she was repeatedly denied acting gigs. She eventually realized she had to move on with life and get a job in sales.

According to Justice_Prince, this was a dumb decision on her part. Instead of giving up fully, Penny should have tried becoming a “voice actress.” The Redditor wrote, “As a voice actress she can become successful in her chosen profession, but in a way is adjacently nerdy to the rest of the cast.” This way, Penny could have made money from living her dream.

1 Penny Unknowingly Married Zack

One of Penny’s more questionable dating choices was when she dated Zack. She admitted that he wasn’t smart enough for her, but she was attracted to him. Years after breaking up, she found out she was legally married to Zack after getting married in Las Vegas.

Penny always assumed those weddings were fake, which was one of her dumbest decisions since she had no intention of ever marrying him. RedKitten1998 didn’t believe that Penny had no idea she was married and chalked it up to a silly decision on her end. “I’m pretty sure Penny never would have thought the wedding was fake if they had actually gotten legally married due to all the logistics,” they wrote.

NEXT: 9 Of The Most Questionable Dating Choices