No, Penny from “The Big Bang Theory” does not have a Penn & Teller pun for a last name. The popular CBS sitcom ended five years ago, but some fans of the series are apparently still trying to figure out Kaley Cuoco’s character’s maiden name. In 2022, a fan theory went viral claiming that Penny’s last name was Teller, (per TVLine) based on a season 2 episode in which a prop delivery box included that last name in super-small, meant-to-be-unreadable font. Unfortunately, the show’s former executive producer and prop master were quick to put the kibosh on that notion, with several people involved in the series admitting that Penny doesn’t have a last name by design.
“Her last name being Teller is absolutely not canon,” series EP Steve Molaro told TVLine at the time, explaining that the name was only used for prop reasons and that the writers’ room and producers for the show “didn’t sanction it, we didn’t write it, and we didn’t intentionally put it there.”
Scott London, who handled props for the show, says that series co-creator Bill Prady gave him the name, but it wasn’t meant to be canonical or even seen on camera. “I had assurances it wasn’t going to be seen, that Scott just needed it for the visual shape of the block of type,” Prady told the outlet. “But, emphatically, Penny’s last name is not Teller. I don’t know how that image of the shipping label exists and fans were able to see it and make it out.”
“The Big Bang Theory” initially (conceptualized Penny as a girl robot) rather than a human woman, and its early seasons frequently made use of the objectifying, misogynistic tropes of ’80s movies about nerds and hot girls. The show also utilized the insufferable character type that (Pop Culture Detective) dubbed the “Adorkable Misogynist.” As that site puts it, “Adorkable Misogynists are male characters whose geeky version of masculinity is framed as comically pathetic yet still endearing. Their status as nerdy ‘nice guys’ then lets them off the hook for a wide range of (creepy, entitled, and sexist behaviors.)”
For her part, Cuoco has mostly been positive about the show’s decision not to give Penny a last name.”It’s kind of a personal thing,” she (told CBS News) in 2017. “It feels like a jinx. We haven’t said it for so long. I feel like if we said it, the world will explode.” She said something similar at the show’s 2019 wrap party, (telling TVLine), “I kind of love it. So many things are revealed in the last few episodes; you get a lot of satisfying moments. But I kind of love that [we’ll never know her last name].” In a different interview a year earlier, Cuoco told The Talk (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.eonline.com/news/970609/kaley-cuoco-shares-her-one-wish-for-the-big-bang-theory-s-
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