The Big Bang Theory: Was Amy Always 'Gay For Penny?' An Explanation

Amy Farrah Fowler — played by "Blossom" veteran Mayim Bialik — didn't join the hit sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" until its third season, but pretty quickly, she establishes herself as love interest to Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons). She also develops a very intense connection to Penny (Kaley Cuoco). So what's that second part about?

In a Q&A (via TheThings, which you can also see on TikTok), a fan asks the cast and crew if it was always the intention for Amy to be, as she puts it, "gay for Penny," which makes everyone onstage laugh. 

@bigbangtheory.universe Big Bang Theory Fan asked if Amy's character was gay for Penny 😂😍 #Bigbangtheory #viral #reels #sitcom #comedy #funny #thebigbangtheory #sheldoncooper #bigbangtheory #penny #tbbt #fypシ゚ #fypシ゚viralシ ♬ original sound – bigbangtheory.universe

"That's something Mayim brought to the role." Parsons quipped in response while Bialik and Cuoco laughed. Steve Molaro, who served as a producer and writer on the series, chimed in at that point: "I had gotten it in my head that Amy would want Penny to be her best friend. That's when it started spiraling rapidly out of control." That's definitely true; Amy is constantly calling Penny her "bestie" — especially long before Penny might reciprocate that feeling — and then there's the episode where Amy has an absolutely absurd portrait painted of the two of them. So what do other fans think?

Over on Reddit, a thread simply titled "Was Amy in love with [Penny?]" by a now-deleted user got people talking — and most of them said that, no, Amy was not "gay for Penny." As u/cmraindrop succinctly put it, "She had a major girl-crush on her but was neither gay nor in love with her. Like Leonard's [Johnny Galecki] man-crush on the physicist dude with the bike." 

u/No_Career5209 expanded upon that, writing, "No, she was excited and probably slightly in awe of this 'cool popular girl'. Before Penny she had no friends and had been bullied at school so she was desperate to be friends with Penny. Penny appears uncomfortable in earlier episodes and the occasional later ones because Amy comes on pretty strong but bare in mind Amy didn't really know how to act as she had never had friends/girl friends before." When another Redditor pointed out, in response, that Amy claims the original portrait she had painted of herself and Penny was "nude," u/No_Career5209 continued, "I still disagree. She's a little odd and ott but I think she thought it was arty or showed how close they were."

Another user, u/BackItUpWithLinks, explained it all pretty perfectly by invoking Amy's overall lack of emotional development: "No. She didn't have friends. She didn't know how to be with others. Over the course of a few shows you're watching her progress through normal childhood stuff, including what's appropriate to say to others." No matter what Amy's intentions are towards Penny, there's no question that adding more female characters to the show made it better — including Amy and another important addition.

Ultimately, Penny needed friends — besides her on-again, off-again boyfriend Leonard Hofstadter and his pals Sheldon Cooper, Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg), and Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar) — and thankfully, Amy Farrah Fowler and Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz (Melissa Rauch) arrive to give the show a much-needed shot of feminine energy. Once the other two girls join the series, Penny gets to go on adventures without the boys for once, which yields some pretty delightful results (any time the three get drunk is a total highlight, as is the time they play hooky at Disneyland dressed as princesses).

Some people might not quite notice that the men on "The Big Bang Theory" aren't particularly nice to their partners. When it comes to Amy, Penny, and Bernadette, Sheldon, Leonard, and Howard can be dismissive at best and cruel at worst, so it's nice to see the three women band together, even if Amy can be a bit much when it comes to Penny. (It's worth noting that she doesn't have the same fierce obsession regarding Bernadette, so anyone shipping Amy and Penny can hold out hope.) "The Big Bang Theory," including all of Amy and Penny's very best moments, is streaming on Max now.