The Big Bang Theory may officially be over, but that doesn't mean fans are going to stop quoting the show's signature lines anytime soon. After all, it doesn't get told throwing in a "Bazinga" here or there or singing "Soft Kitty" on a sick day.
While some of the show's biggest catchphrases often come from Sheldon, Penny is another character with some of the most memorable lines. Her thinly veiled insults are often covered by calling that person "Sweetie." Sometimes she makes quips about the guys right to their faces because they genuinely have no idea what she's talking about since they are so swept up in their own worlds. Nevertheless, Penny's lines should not be forgotten.
Updated on September 19th, 2021, by Lynn Gibbs: Penny was just one part of the ensemble that made The Big Bang Theory the phenomenon that it was. The balance between science, friendship, and humor was beloved by fans — as were the quotes. Penny had some of the best lines in the series. From being sarcastic with Sheldon to showing her love for Leonard, Penny had a way with words that really hit it off with viewers. After all, Penny was, in a lot of ways, the audience and reacted to Sheldon, Howard, and Raj the way many audience members reacted.
"I Know There's A 'D' In There, But It Keeps Moving Every Time I Try And Write It."
In a flashback scene, Penny is drunk and making a video on the laptop that Leonard gave her. At the time in the series, Penny and Leonard were broken up and he had moved on with Priya. She was drunk, lonely, and realized that she should have never broken up with Leonard.
In the scene, Penny says out loud that she always has a hard time spelling Hofstadter because "there's a 'D' in there, but it keeps moving every time." It was hilariously relatable and adorable that Penny cared so much. Luckily, Leonard and Penny's relationship timeline picked up where it left off.
"What Up, Moonpie?"
When the men were on a train heading out of town, Sheldon realized that he left his flash drive at home and he desperately needed it for this conference. The only person that could help him was Penny because she had a key to their apartment.
While on the phone, Sheldon coached Penny through his room and where to find the flash drive. But along the way, Penny became distracted by a pile of letters from Sheldon's grandmother. She began reading them and found out that his grandmother called him "Moonpie." It was one of the things fans loved most about Sheldon. However, Sheldon loathed the fact that Penny was calling him a name that was strictly reserved for his grandmother. He eventually hung up on her out of anger but when he got back on the phone, Penny answered as, "What up, Moonpie?" Penny's chipper response of "Moonpie" made fans cackle because it was something only she could get away with.
"You, You Stupid Pop-Tart!"
Leonard and Penny had been through a lot in their relationship. They've both asked each other to marry the other but the timing was never right or the proposal felt forced. Eventually, Penny got to a point where the only thing that made her happy was Leonard. She compared him to a bran muffin, which upset Leonard. But she meant it in a way that he was reliable and stable. Leonard, however, wanted to be seen as more than a bran muffin — he wanted to be a strawberry Pop-Tart.
After a heated exchange of words, Penny finally got it through to Leonard that she was ready to marry him by saying she needed him, the "stupid Pop-Tart." Penny comparing Leonard to a stupid Pop-Tart made their upcoming engagement all the better.
"Mrs. Cooper? Hey! It's Penny. Yeah, I Think I Broke Your Son."
When Sheldon wanted to learn more about acting so that he could become a better professor, he went to Penny — a professional actress. The two tried to help each other with acting but there came a point where Sheldon was taking the screenplay they created too literally. The screenplay was a fictional take on his childhood, which made Sheldon emotional in the middle of their lesson. He began to cry so heavily while acting that Penny had no choice but to call his mother.
In the dryest voice possible, she told Mrs. Cooper that she "broke [her] son." The fact that Penny knew to call Mrs. Cooper proved how close Penny and Sheldon were, making it a memorable quote.
"Well, Your Ken Can Kiss My Barbie."
One of the best Sheldon and Penny moments was when they were fighting over the number of strikes Sheldon gave her for her wrongdoings. In 'The Panty Pinata Polarization,' Penny tried eating one of Sheldon's onion rings, which forced him to give her two out of three strikes. Annoyed, Penny got even with Sheldon by taking all of the washers and dryers on his beloved laundry night — ruining his schedule.
When Sheldon told her that she was "playing with forces beyond [her] ken," Penny dryly replied with "Well, your Ken can kiss my Barbie." This quote was hysterical because it's yet another moment where Penny didn't understand Sheldon and put her own spin on what she thought he was saying.
"I Love Him, But If He's Broken, Let's Not Get A New One."
Penny loves Sheldon deeply, but she also enjoys making jokes about him being an alien from another planet. It's part of Sheldon and Penny's friendly dynamic. In 'The Anxiety Optimization,' Sheldon is trying to maximize his work environment to increase his productivity, and he thinks that increasing his anxiety is the answer.
When Penny and Leonard arrive home from a date, Leonard startles Sheldon and he runs out of the room in fear. This is when Penny states that she doesn't want a "new" Sheldon if he's broken. It's humorous that Penny compares Sheldon to having a pet because, in a lot of ways, he's as high maintenance as one.
"Alright, Howard Wolowitz, Listen Up!"
In 'The Vacation Solution,' when Howard is reluctant to sign a prenup before marrying Bernadette, Penny reminded him how lucky he was to have a woman like Bernadette. "You sign anything she puts in front of you because you are the luckiest man alive," she said. She continued, "If you let her go, there is no way you can find anyone else. Speaking on behalf of all women, it is not going to happen. We had a meeting." Penny and Howard were friendly but were never considered best friends because she found him inapt at times.
Penny is frequently telling Howard about how creepy or weird he's being. He found it hard to get women to date him in the first place, so denying Bernadette would be an awful idea. It was amazing that she told him to smarten up and sign the prenup, because Howard took her seriously, saw the light, and signed it.
"It's A Rough Month When Halloween And PMS Hit At The Same Time."
That urge for Penny to chow down on chocolate in times of need is catered to during Halloween when there is a lot of extra candy laying around. This quote was relatable to any one who has had an emotional time during a holiday surrounded by candy.
In this scene, Penny bumps into Leonard who questions why she has even more Halloween candy when she just bought some. Her response is honest and is another great example of how relatable Leonard and Penny are when they're together.
"Oh, I Get It. Like C-3PO... What Happened To Me?"
In 'The Proton Transmogrification,' Penny realizes that she's absorbed more nerd talk than she realized. During this episode, the guys are preparing for an epic Star Wars Day celebration, and Penny is beginning to realize that she understands a lot of their Star Wars references. She keeps catching herself acknowledging certain elements of the story, such as knowing that Luke Skywalker blew up the Death Star after grieving Obi-Wan's death.
At one point, Raj has prepared some fun menu items for the movie marathon. One of these cleverly named menu items is Attack of the Scones, which Penny admits that she realizes is a reference to Attack of the Clones. While she keeps questioning why she knows all this, it's obvious that she's absorbed a lot more than she thinks and wondered "what happened to me?" Fans loved that Penny was slowly morphing into the guys with this quote.
"In The Olden Days, I Would Have Never Known He Was That Stupid."
Over the show's 12 seasons, Penny goes through a lot of character development. In season three's 'The Lunar Excitation,' Penny acknowledges that she's not the same dumb blonde she was when she first moved into the building. She was now smarter than the guys she dated.
In this episode, fans first meet Zack. He is a dim-witted, but good-hearted and well-meaning guy, who dates Penny on and off throughout the show. Despite his lack of intelligence, he actually loves science and always wants to "talk science with the science guys." Unfortunately, those science guys have warped Penny into realizing how dumb Zack really is. This was a great quote because Penny finally realized her worth while also acknowledging her past mistakes with men.
"Amy Is Right. I Do Want To Fling My Poop At Her."
When Leonard was dating Raj's sister, Priya, this caused a lot of problems for the group's dynamic. At one point, Penny becomes jealous that Priya was able to enjoy all of the things that she trained Leonard to do when they were dating.
Always with neuroscience on the brain, Amy suggests that a study done on Tanzanian chimpanzees found that primates are hard-wired to "fling their waste" at those in the group who need to be ostracized. She suggested that's what Penny instinctually wanted to do to Priya. Despite denying it, Penny finally admits to maybe having a bit of that urge when she has to endure an awkward conversation with Priya in the hall. The imagery of Penny doing something so vile that she learned from Amy proved that she was learning scientific studies from her friends while also mixing in her humor.
"They're Going To Get Beaten Up At Walgreens."
In 'The Gothowitz Deviation,' Raj and Howard's friendship comes together when they decide to dress up as goths in an attempt to pick up women. They reveal that they need to stop at Walgreens before they leave to buy more makeup. But considering how absurd they looked in their costumes, Leonard said, "They're going to get beaten up at that club," to which Penny responded, "They're going to get beaten up at Walgreens." The idea that Howard and Raj weren't even dressed appropriately for a pharmacy like Walgreen was pretty comical but Penny makes the scene all the better with her own distinctly dry sense of humor.
Fortunately for Raj and Howard, they end up surviving Walgreens. They do end up meeting Bethany and Sarah at the bar later that night, two goth girls known as the "Goth Chicks." However, things fall apart when the girls convince the guys to get tattoos and they chicken out, forcing them to reveal their deceptive plan.
"Holy Crap On A Cracker!"
This is one of Penny's go-to quotes that's rarely talked about. She says this whenever she's shocked about something. It's a line that could only work in TBBT if she said it. In one instance, she opens the guys' apartment door to give them a package that came for them and sees Sheldon on the couch with Ramona working on his feet.
When Leonard arrives and asks what's happening in there, she tells him the only way she can explain it is "in a therapist's office with dolls." The second time she says it is when Ramona confronts her, accusing her of being in love with Sheldon. Then, Ramona quickly shifts her tune and says, "Sisters?" with a pinkie promise to Penny.
"No One Ever Bought Me Drinks At A Bar Because My Brain Just Popped Out Of My Shirt."
One of the show's ongoing running gags is Penny's attractiveness, and her ability to get what she wants from men because of it. In season 9's 'The Mystery Date Observation,' Penny and Bernadette are helping Amy get back into the dating game. She's choosing what to wear when Bernadette and Penny talk about Amy's conservative wardrobe.
Amy tries to insist that the brain is actually the sexiest organ, to which Penny makes this comeback about her chest. In short, Penny's suggesting that her chest earns more free drinks than her brain and it's one of the most Penny things Penny could say because she knows the effect she has on men.
"There's No Reason Why I Shouldn't Be The Best Bisexual Go-Go Dancer Slowly Transforming Into A Killer Gorilla Anyone's Ever Seen."
In season 7's 'The Gorilla Dissolution,' Penny is cast in the sequel to an embarrassing killer gorilla movie, Serial Ape-ist. At this point, she's become very reluctant to do the movie and is in desperate need of some motivation to keep going. She's embarrassed to be in yet another project that's bound to go nowhere and she embarrasses herself.
However, she has no reason not to try her hardest to be the "best" go-go dancing killer gorilla in the world because it's a paid gig. This quote was humorous because Penny finally realized that if she wants to act she's going to have to take unlikable gigs if it means a paycheck but it also shows her inspiring determination and optimism.