Because "META" is just an anagram of "TEAM." And also "MEAT."
Welcome to Team Penny Blossom's meta post! The Blossoms have been hard at work these last few days on fun and interesting discussion for this challenge, so we hope you enjoy what we have to offer.
The show has shown us over the span of three years that Sheldon Cooper does not make new friends easily. Even in the flashback episode (The Staircase Implentation) we see how unwilling he was seven years ago to socialize with Howard and Raj. But he has somehow made a place in his limited social circle for Penny, a woman who is very different from the rest of his friends. It is not just a friendship of convenience or proximity anymore either. In episodes like "The Bozeman Reaction" in which he calls her one of his closet friends and "The Spaghetti Catalyst" in which he emphatically states that he does not want to lose her friendship, we see that Sheldon sees Penny as a permanent fixture in his life.
Penny: Okay, look, if Leonard finds out that I lied, I will absolutely die of embarrassment.
Sheldon: Physiologically impossible.
Penny: Oh Sheldon, please, look, I’m asking you as a friend.
Sheldon: So you’re saying that friendship contains within it an inherent obligation to maintain confidences?
Penny: Well, yeah.
Sheldon: Interesting. See, one more question, and perhaps I should have led with this, when did we become friends?
-2.01 "The Bad Fish Paradigm"
Most people will ask this question in either sarcasm or just, but as Sheldon posed this query to Penny, he was completely serious. At the end of Season 1, Penny has sought out Sheldon for advice on whether she should pursue a relationship with Leonard. Sheldon gives his surprisingly take on the matter, comparing her potential relationship with Leonard to Schroedinger's cat.
For Penny, Sheldon has often displayed a willingness to step out of his comfort zone and embrace the non-optional social convention by throwing a surprise birthday party, keeping a secret, shopping for a Saturnalia gift...driving. With the introduction of Amy's character, it will be interesting to see how Sheldon will accommodate this female counterpart into his life and how this will effect his relationship with Penny.
Potential reasons for the friendship:
Sheldon keeps Penny around out of sheer convenience or the need for social reciprocity. She lives across the hall and she possesses a vehicle, so when Leonard is unable to take him to work, Penny is the obvious backup. Leonard, Raj, and Howard all display varying levels of social ineptitude, but it's Penny that really knows how to navigate that realm and provide proper guidance as to the appropriate social protocol in unfamiliar situations.
Penny: Hi, hey. I’m running out to the market, do you guys need anything?
Sheldon: Oh, well this would be one of those circumstances that people unfamiliar with the law of large numbers would call a coincidence.
Penny: I’m sorry?
Sheldon: I need eggs. Four dozen should suffice.
-1.04 "The Luminous Fish Effect"
Sheldon is friends with Penny because Penny says so. It was Penny who first pointed out to Sheldon that she considered them to be friends. However, after this he went through great and extreme lengths to maintain her confidence, even moving out of his apartment. We've seen that Sheldon will not choose to maintain relationships if they feel they have no benefit to him. For example, in "The Psychic Vortex" Sheldon argues that he has no interest in going out with Abby and Martha again because he already had a great time and therefore had no desire to repeat the experience. Also, Sheldon is not going to made to be do something he does not want to do, at least, not without blackmail. Or a good chastising from his mother.
Penny: Okay, here’s the deal, you either help me throw Leonard a birthday party or, so help me God, I will go into your bedroom and I will unbag all of your most valuable mint condition comic books. And on one of them, you won’t know which, I’ll draw a tiny happy face in ink.
Sheldon: You can’t do that, if you make a mark on a mint comic book it’s no longer mint.
Penny: Sheldon, do you understand the concept of blackmail?
Sheldon: Well of course I… oh! Yeah, I have an idea, let’s throw Leonard a kick ass birthday party.
-1.16 "The Peanut Reaction"
Sheldon feels he can improve Penny's life by including her in his inner circle. Early on, Sheldon tried to at least improve Penny's living conditions by breaking into her apartment one night and cleaning while she slept. He lent her a substantial amount of money without thought so that she wouldn't be evicted from her apartment. He helped Penny with her Penny blossom business, losing sleep and ingesting what he considered to be an illicit substance (coffee) in order to help her succeed. He taught her physics so she could impress her then boyfriend, Leonard.
Ramona Nowitzki: Dr. Cooper, I have to tell you, your friends are holding you back.
Sheldon: I prefer to think of it as I’m pulling them forward.
-2.06 "The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem"
Sheldon is friends with Penny because she fills a void in his life. Out of all the guys, Sheldon seems to maintain the healthiest relationships with women. We have no idea what Penny put for her answers to Sheldon's friendship algorithm. Whatever it was, however, he felt that it warranted him choosing to keep her over Raj, even though he has been friends with the man for a number of years.
Sheldon: I need your opinion on a matter of semiotics.
Penny: I’m sorry?
Sheldon: Semiotics. The study of signs and symbols, it’s a branch of philosophy related to linguistics.
Penny: Okay, sweetie, I know you think you’re explaining yourself, but you’re really not.
Sheldon: Just come with me.
-1.05 "The Hamburger Postulate"
Questions for discussion:
1) Penny is clearly dissimilar to Sheldon's other friends. She is not a scientist, nor is she in to things like comic books or science fiction. Sheldon is undoubtedly very different from friends Penny has had in the past or has outside of the show's main characters. How do you reconcile the creation of a very solid friendship despite these huge disparities?
2) All discussion of what may be happening in Season 4 with Sheldon and Amy is purely hypothetical at this point. However, if Sheldon does pursue a relationship with Amy (whether aromantic or romantic), how does Penny fit in to this? Will she feel less important now that she isn't the only non-related female in his life? Will Sheldon inevitably compare Amy to Penny?
The Girl from Omaha
Once upon a time, there was a girl from Omaha, Nebraska. The girl was called Penny, and she competed in junior rodeo, and she rebuilt a tractor engine when she was twelve. She had an older sister and a brother and a father who wanted a second son, but got Penny instead. She was a cheerleader, but she wanted to be an actress. Barely a high school graduate, she packed the few things in the world that belonged to her and moved to 1,300 miles to Pasadena, California. She wasted four years with a man named Kurt, working as a waitress, going to auditions, and writing a screenplay.
The Girl from Pasadena
One day, she finished wasting her time with Kurt and found herself living across the hall from two strange men-who introduced her to two more strange men-and enjoying it (well, mostly). She even dated one of them! She kept working as a waitress and going to auditions. She stopped mentioning her screenplay. She was a friend, or an ideal, or an antagonist.
Behind-the Scenes
And that was Penny, morsels of background and detail here and there. She was the most underdeveloped main character in a cast of characters. She was Penny, whose last name was less consequential than the occasional guest star's, whose family inexplicably had no desire to visit, and whose minimum-wage job was used less to develop her character and more to develop plots.
The question remains that remains then is why. Why develop a character so little? While The Big Bang Theory is a comedy, it's also a comedy that's very much developed its other leads. Is Penny more plot than character, something that happens to Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, and Raj rather than someone who interacts with them? If so, why is her role so insubstantial while she shares the lead with the other four? Why not have a recurring guest star?
Thoughts for Discussion
Regardless of the show runners' intent, this much is clear:
(1) Their loss is fandom's gain. The gaps in the character's history allow for so much imagination, so much room in fan fiction. How did the Nebraskan farm girl survive in the Los Angeles area? What was the transition like? What is that girl's last name?
(2) The show could benefit well from developing Penny. Let an audition go well or perhaps bring back the screenplay! Delve more into Penny's interests for Penny's sake and not for the guys'. Introduce her family. Rather than cycling through Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, and Raj, the show would do well to focus on Penny from time to time. Doing so would prevent stagnation, as well as enrich the characters' interactions. If Penny were a more complete character, perhaps the guys might connect with her more-and perhaps the viewers would be able to as well.
Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper, PhD is a theoretical physicist who works primarily on String Theory, potentially a “Theory of Everything” which would unite all human knowledge about the universe into a single equation: it would explain any physical phenomena you could observe in the universe and not contradict any other explanation for any other phenomena. Currently, there is no working “Theory of Everything” that fits this description.
The same Sheldon Cooper was raised in an evangelical Protestant household in Galveston, Texas. His mother, Mary Cooper, with whom he is very close and highly influenced by (his “Kryptonite”), is devoutly religious and raised Sheldon to be the same. The Christian religious faith, while it has evolved over the centuries, still holds many of the same central tenants it has for millennia and presents itself (in some forms) as a complete answer to all the questions humanity has to ask. There are no “theories” in Mary Cooper’s religion that require testing. As we know, Sheldon does not espouse her belief system. He shows this divergence in multiple ways.
By pointing out the logical fallacy inherent in an answered prayer:
Sheldon: No, mother, I could not feel your church group praying for my safety. The fact that I’m home safe is not proof that it worked, that logic is Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc. No, I’m not sassing you in Eskimo talk.
By objecting to participating in religious observance after they jointly pray over dinner>
Mrs Cooper: Amen. Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?
Sheldon: My objection was based on considerations other than difficulty.
Mrs Cooper: Whatever. Jesus still loves you.
By enumerating the historical errors contained within widely held religious belief (with an aside regarding Christmas Eve vigils thrown in for good measure):
Sheldon: December 25, 1642, Julian calendar, Sir Isaac Newton is born. Jesus, on the other hand, was actually born in the summer. His birthday was moved to coincide with a traditional pagan holiday that celebrated the winter solstice with lit fires and slaughtered goats. Which, frankly, sounds like more fun than 12 hours of church with my mother followed by a fruitcake.
A proposal for discussion:
Is Sheldon’s search for the ultimate explanation on the functions of the universe in any way related to his religious upbringing?
Yes. As long as there is phenomena that can’t be explained scientifically, the answer (or at least the witty rejoinder) could always be “God is the answer.” Sheldon explores String Theory with the intent of disproving God.
No. Sheldon was born with an extremely high IQ. It is only natural that he would go into one of the most difficult fields of science, requiring highly analytical thinking and an incredible level of mathematics. The parallels drawn between String Theory (probably chose randomly by Lorre/Prady, et al) and religion (coming from Texas, his mother had to be religious, didn’t she?) is just coincidence.
Maybe so. As a young, impressionable (though highly intelligent) child, we can assume that Sheldon was introduced to the evangelical religious ideal of an all-consuming relationship with Jesus as a personal friend and God as the wise and all-powerful entity who holds all the answers to all of the questions in the universe. While Sheldon explicitly rebelled from these concepts and rejected religion, on a sub-conscious level, perhaps, a need to believe, to have faith, was planted within him. Sheldon has come full circle, and while he rejects the overt spirituality of his mother’s faith, he finds the same emotional/spiritual/mental (call it what you will) benefits of religion in his science and the search for the Theory of Everything.
Leonard’s and Sheldon’s friendship seemed fairly solid during Season 1, but Leonard’s behavior towards Sheldon during Season 3 was distinctly unfriendly. It can be seen that the roots in this behavior began during Season 2 and is largely motivated by Leonard’s jealousy of Sheldon.
Leonard’s mother, Beverly, is first introduced in The Maternal Capacitance. She is portrayed as clinical and highly logical, valuing material accomplishments over emotional achievements.
Their relationship is difficult as Leonard frequently seeks more from his mother than she is willing or able to give. He was deprived of affection as a child, going so far as to build a hugging machine. Birthdays were not celebrated as his mother didn’t see being born as a suitable accomplishment (The Peanut Reaction). She also compares Leonard to his siblings and he does not measure up favorably.
However, Beverly and Sheldon develop an instant rapport and we are invited to draw a comparison between them. They are both disinclined to express emotions and shy away from physical expressions. They continue to keep in touch after she leaves and Beverly shares personal details with Sheldon that she does not share with her own son (The Maternal Congruence). During her last appearance (The Maternal Congruence), Leonard is forcibly confronted with the fact that Sheldon is the type of son his mother would have preferred to have.
In addition, Penny, a woman Leonard is attracted to from the day they meet, has a solid relationship with Sheldon. Despite Sheldon's initial disdain for her, he chooses to keep her in his circle of friends (the Friendship Algorithm) and there are multiple examples of their rapport throughout the second season (The Bad Fish Paradigm, The Barbarian Sublimation, The Panty Polarization).
Leonard does exhibit concern about this relationship on several different occasions (The Barbarian Sublimation, The Work Song Nanocluster, The Vegas Renormalization). He already knows from the events that occurred during The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem that Sheldon has little trouble attracting women. Penny goes to lengths to accommodate Sheldon's needs and even Leonard's old girlfriend, Dr. Stephanie Barnett, makes adjustments for Sheldon (The Vartabedian Conundrum).
While Leonard has better social relationship with his colleagues at CalSci, Sheldon is better known in the field and publishes frequently. We've seen that Leonard's experiments are rarely successful. In addition, Sheldon himself frequently makes snide comments and puts down Leonard's field of research.
Finally, Sheldon is almost Leonard's exact opposite. While the two share common interests, their differences are numerous. Sheldon is smarter, taller, confident to the point of arrogance, healthy (despite his hypochondria), and he cares little for the opinions of others. Leonard is lactose intolerance, short, and has low self-esteem and a desperate need to be liked.
Leonard is almost certainly jealous of Sheldon for the reasons described above. He is constantly comparing himself to Sheldon and finds himself lacking. With ample time and the confined space during the sabbatical in the Arctic, it is likely that Leonard allowed his jealousy to taint his view of Sheldon, therefore leading to his negative behavior during Season 3.
Information was also provided by stephaniejane2, Big Bang Theory Transcripts, and Wikipedia.org. Many thanks.
Howard Wolowitz. Funny, intelligent, over-confident in social situations. His lascivious attitude towards women can be incredibly off-putting, but what are the factors that made him this way?
Mrs. Wolowitz: A Boy & His Mother
While we have never seen Howard Wolowitz’s mother on-screen, we already know plenty about her through her interactions with Howard as well as what he has said about her. It’s clear that they do not get along. She is a constant presence in Howard’s life, mothering him as if he were still nine years old. He has no privacy in his current living situation and is often forced to cancel social obligations due to his mother.
However, Howard is a grown man with a Master’s degree and a steady job at a prestigious university. His actual income is likely not huge, but it is certainly enough for him to be able to afford to live on his own or have a roommate just like his friends do. We also know that he left California to attend MIT, but returned to live with his mother afterwards.
Mr. Wolowitz: The Missing Father Figure
For a long time the show did not mention what happened to Mr. Wolowitz, if he had passed away or left. In the Season 3 episode “The Precious Fragmentation” we find out that Howard’s father left the family either when Howard was 11 or some time prior to that. It’s also heavily hinted at that they have no idea where he is and have not heard from him since.
While many children grow up to be just fine in households that do not have a mother-father parenting team, perhaps the combination of an overbearing mother and an absent father created the Howard that we know today. He shows a clear lack of respect towards his mother, and with no positive male influence in his life, no one ever taught him to treat women with respect.
Questions for Discussion
(1) Howard is financially able to live on his own and once attempted to move out in “The Dead Hooker Juxtaposition”. However, he continues to stay despite the volatile relationship with his mother. Is this out of convenience for him? Or does he feel a displaced sense of guilt because his father abandoned them and he doesn’t want to abandon his mother as well? Is this why Howard returned to California after finishing his degree?
(2) Howard and Bernadette initially bonded over the fact that both of them have overbearing mothers. His relationship with Bernadette was, as far as we know, his most stable and normal relationship with a female. Do you feel that this is because of that shared experience? We never saw their break-up on screen nor do we know the reasons for it. Was Howard afraid of commitment? Did the mothers they bonded over interfere somehow? Speculate away!
(3) People often say that men are attracted to women that remind them of their mothers. Have we seen this at all in Howard’s character? Or does he go the opposite way and go after women who are complete opposites of his mother?
(4) What, if anything, will finally be Howard’s breaking point that gets him out of his mother’s house?
Specifically in Season 3, Raj has been presented to the audience as a male who often exhibits stereotypically feminine traits. He watches shows with primarily female audiences like Sex and the City, Grey’s Anatomy and The Good Wife. He has admitted to wearing women’s underwear. In his relationship with Howard, he takes on a stereotypically feminine role when they argue as well as on their roller skating “date”. He also treated his trip to Switzerland with Leonard as something romantic and memorable. While the other men on the show aren’t overly masculine in traditional ways, none of the others exhibit traits that would classify as feminine.
The writers aren’t writing Raj this way by accident, but it is yet unclear as to why they have chosen to make this a part of his character arc. There are a few distinct possibilities to discuss here.
Raj is a heterosexual male who defies stereotypes.
Perhaps the writers are trying to make a point about stereotypes by creating a heterosexual character who is not typically masculine. Since most sensible people realize that not all women love Sex and the City and not all men love football, if Raj was heterosexual (as has been indicated in canon) but loved things that were considered feminine by the mainstream, it would show that stereotypes are undoubtedly not always true.
Raj is either homosexual or bisexual.
While his “erstwhile homosexual” relationship with Howard has been bandied about for quite a while now, there has been no canonical evidence that Raj is romantically interested in men. That does not mean he isn’t secretly struggling with those feelings and we just not have seen it yet. Perhaps the writers are giving Raj these feminine traits as a hint that he may not be strictly heterosexual. Writing a male character as effeminate and homosexual and bisexual is typical in mainstream entertainment, though not entirely reflective of how people behave in the real world. The writers of The Big Bang Theory are hardly known for treating issues sensitively, so this may be a case where they take the low road and identify Raj’s sexuality through jokes and stereotypes.
Raj’s sexuality doesn’t matter. They’re just playing it for laughs.
Perhaps it is a side effect of Penny being the only full-time feminine influence on the show that they have made Raj a more feminine male. Or perhaps they just think it’s funny. Simple as that. Hollywood has a long history of “playing gay for laughs” and this show tends to go for the laugh over story arc or character development most of the time.
A Few Questions for Discussion
(1) Is Raj’s inability to speak to women related to his sexuality being in question?
(2) Of the major non-cable networks, CBS has the worst record in the past few years when it comes to featuring LGBT characters as series regulars. If Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady wanted Raj to come out as bisexual or gay, how would this fit in with the least gay-friendly network?
(3) Discussion on the Howard/Raj relationship has been bandied about in fandom from early on. Is it a romance or a bromance? Does Howard have the same feelings towards Raj as Raj may have towards him?
(4) What’s with the rabbits? It was also indicated in Season 3 that Raj has a fear of rabbits and also wants to be their King so he can steal all of their lettuce. Rabbits are a symbol of fertility, but also as a symbol of playful sexuality because of their enthusiastic breeding habits. (Even Hugh Hefner used the rabbit for his Playboy bunnies.) Is Raj’s fear of rabbits somehow symbolically connected to his sexuality?
One of the show's most developed minor characters is Mary Cooper. Despite having only appeared on the show twice in three seasons, we feel as if we know her as well as some of the more frequently recurring characters. She has been shown to have both positive and negative characteristics, but first and foremost, she is a strong and resourceful woman.
Mary Cooper, mother and wife
Sheldon must have been a force to be reckoned with as a child. He entered college at eleven, tried to build a CAT scanner at twelve, tried to build a nuclear reactor at thirteen. Most mothers would have gone grey or crazy (or both) trying to raise him, but it would seem that Mary Cooper took it with great stride. What's more, Mary knows how to handle Sheldon in ways that his friends do not. We've learned a lot of things we know about Mary through Sheldon's point-of-view and it is clear that he both loves and respects her even when he disagrees with her. She is also Sheldon's "kryptonite" and as we learned in "The Panty Pinata Polarization", the one person who can always make Sheldon back down from a fight.
Mary's relationship with her husband George is also interesting with a lot of unexplored background and history. According to Sheldon, his parents often fought, yet they were married until George's death. Mary speaks of her late husband favorably at times, but more often than not speaks more of his lesser qualities. It seems likely that their relationship was once quite happy, but underwent times of great stress over the years.
Mary Cooper, woman of faith
Despite having a son who so staunchly places his entire faith in science, Mary has a strong faith in God. Throughout Sheldon's life, she has no doubt been exposed to many beliefs and theologies, but she seems to have stuck by one through it all. Perhaps her son even tried to convince her that some of the things she believes in do not hold up to scientific examination. Despite this, Mary has stuck to her faith and continues to try and instill a strong belief in God on to her children even though they are now adults.
Questions for Discussion
(1) We've seen Mary's relationship with Sheldon, but we haven't seen her relationship with Missy or with the unnamed older son. Does she have as strong a relationship with Sheldon's less than extraordinary twin as she does with him? Does the fact that Sheldon's brother has never been named or seen reflect on his relationship with his mother? With his brother and sister? Or would Mary Cooper really let one of her children stay from her radar?
(2) What things were true of Mary's relationship with her husband?
(3) Has Mary ever experienced a crisis of faith? If so, what could have triggered such a thing?
(4) For a minor character, it's true that Mary is quite well-developed, but there's still so much more we could know. What are her interests? What does she do now that her children are grown and her husband is gone? What effects did having a child like Sheldon have on her life? What sacrifices did she have to make?