Hofstadter

Family Members & Episodes
Hofstadter may refer to: You may also be looking for:
 * Characters:
 * Hofstadter, Leonard, Dr., main character
 * Hofstadter, Penny, main character, Leonard's wife
 * Hofstadter, Michael, Leonard's brother
 * Hofstadter, Alfred, Dr., Leonard and Michael's father
 * Hofstadter, Beverly, Dr., Leonard and Michael's mother
 * née Hofstadter, Dr. ?, Leonard and Michael's sister, Alfred and Beverly's daughter
 * Unnamed man, Leonard and Michael's sister's husband/Leonard and Michael's brother-in-law, Alfred and Beverly's son-in-law.
 * Unnamed woman, Michael's wife/Leonard and Penny's sister-in-law, works as New Jersey Judge.
 * Edna, Leonard and Michael's aunt
 * Floyd, Leonard and Michael's uncle
 * Nancy, Leonard and Michael's aunt who had lots of cats who ate her after she died.
 * Cousins, Leonard and Michael's cousins
 * Grandmother, Leonard and Michael's grandmother
 * Grandfather, Leonard and Michael's grandfather
 * Leonard and Michael's aunt, the sweater in "The Itchy Brain Simulation" is from her.
 * Hofstadter, Boots, Dr., family cat
 * Mitzy, family dog


 * Episodes:
 * "The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization"
 * "The Hofstadter Isotope"
 * "The Hofstadter Insufficiency"

Overview
The Hofstadter family is an academic high-achieving family from New Jersey.

Like the Cooper family, the Hofstadter family is dysfunctional. The protagonist of the family, Leonard, had a hellish childhood. He despised his mother Beverly who was responsible for all of his childhood troubles and he also despised all of the family traditions.

The family values were focused on achievements. When the children achieved something was the only time they would celebrate as a family. This limited some of the more common celebrations in the household such as holidays and birthdays and thus, Leonard had never had a birthday party even as an adult, at least until one time when his future wife Penny threw one for him when she found out.

The notable traditions included having no birthday or Christmas celebrations due to Leonard's parents wish to "study the holidays for their "anthropological and sociological implications on society. The family also focussed on personal achievements. like for example, on the children's birthdays: Leonard, Michael, as well as their sister were to send their mother cards with some money in them because their births were her achievements and not theirs and in Christmas didn't have Christmas trees and wrote research papers, broke into groups and critiqued each other and each paper was graded and returned to its writer with their stocking.