Puck (Glee)

Noah "Puck" Puckerman is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character was portrayed by Mark Salling, and appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009, to the series finale, broadcast on March 20, 2015. Puck was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. He is Finn Hudson's best friend and football teammate, who initially disapproves of Finn joining the New Directions glee club at the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio, where the show is set, but he eventually joins it himself. In 2010, Salling was nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Choice TV: Breakout Star Male for his work as Puck, and in 2011 for the Choice TV: Scene Stealer Male category.

Puck was played by Mark Salling. He was also portrayed as a preschooler by Matthew Lepper in the episode "The Substitute". Salling had sent 100 packets to agents and managers, and "one called me and submitted me for Glee that day in her office." He had five auditions for Glee before being cast as Puck.

Salling found it challenging to make the character "more than two-dimensional so he can be likable at the same time", which necessitated "find[ing] the balance between arrogance and cocky and sensible and likable". He recalled that "in the breakdown for the show, when they were describing his character in the very beginning, it's like Puck: a man-child." Salling explained that Puck has "stars in his eyes, he's hoping to get out of this small town." Salling gained 20 pounds (9.1 kg) before filming the pilot episode in order to better embody his football playing character. He then lost 30 pounds (14 kg) for a scene in the third episode that required him to be toned, which he described as "an extreme experience".

Puck's main basis for relationships at the beginning is sexual rather than romantic. He has sexual encounters with his female pool-cleaning clients and fellow students, including a recurrent relationship with cheerleader Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) that seems to be casual, though Santana confronts both Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley) and Lauren Zizes (Ashley Fink) when Puck starts pursuing them in the first and second seasons respectively. Puck also claimed to have slept with Brittany Pierce (Heather Morris). He falls in love with Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron) after he takes her virginity and impregnates her despite the fact that she's dating his best friend Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) at the time, but he can't give up flirting with and seducing others even when Quinn contemplates raising the baby-to-be with him as he wants rather than giving it up for adoption, since she refuses to have sex with him again. The brief pairing of Puck with Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) in the episode "Mash-Up", spurred by his mother urging him to find a Jewish girlfriend, dissolves because he wants Quinn and she wants Finn. Series creator Ryan Murphy was surprised by the positive fan response to their pairing, which he described as "strange and bizarre", explaining that he had believed fans would prefer Rachel to be with Finn. As a result of the response, Murphy planned to revisit their romance later in the season, though nothing much came of it.

In the second season, Puck recruits Lauren to join the glee club when the club needs a twelfth member in order to participate in the Sectionals competition. Within a couple of months, he has fallen in love with her, but she doesn't succumb to his blandishments, and he's forced to woo her over a long period of time, starting as friends. He supports her in her first solo for glee club and runs her campaign for prom queen. They are still a couple at the end of the school year. In the fourth episode of the third season, Puck and the adoptive mother of his child Shelby Corcoran kiss. He ends the series dating Quinn.

Puck is introduced as a football player and bully at William McKinley High School; he is frequently seen throwing fellow students into dumpsters, or tossing slushies in their faces. It is later revealed that he is Jewish. He is the best friend of Finn, the quarterback, and has a summer pool-cleaning business that leads to sexual encounters with his adult female clients. Despite that, he has sex with fellow students, including in an on-again, off-again relationship with Santana Lopez, a cheerleader, which does not completely end forever until the middle of the second season. Puck initially acts homophobic and mocks Finn for joining the school glee club, New Directions, but later becomes a part of glee club director Will Schuester's (Matthew Morrison) all-male a cappella group, the Acafellas, hoping to impress the mothers at a performance for the school's PTA meeting. He subsequently joins New Directions along with two other members of the football team. When Finn's girlfriend Quinn is impregnated and tells Finn the baby is his, Puck realizes that he is the actual father, and offers to support Quinn. She rejects his proposal, calling him a "Lima loser". Puck begins dating Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), the glee club lead vocalist, after his mother urges him to find a Jewish girlfriend; Rachel is initially resistant, but agrees after Puck sings "Sweet Caroline" for her in front of the glee club. However, Rachel later breaks up with him after a brief romance.

When the glee club holds a bake sale to pay for a wheelchair-accessible bus so Artie (Kevin McHale) can ride with the club to Sectionals competition, it only succeeds because Puck makes a special, popular cupcake recipe—he secretly adds pot, making the students come back for more. He offers financials to Quinn to show he will be a good father and provider; she figures out that it's the money from the bake sale, and refuses to accept it, though she expresses her gratitude and apologizes for her previous insult. Quinn reconsiders her plan to have the baby adopted and gives Puck a chance to prove himself by helping her to babysit Terri Schuester's (Jessalyn Gilsig) three nephews. Puck impresses her, but Quinn later learns to her dismay that he was sexting Santana. Puck claims he will be help her to parent their child, but he cannot remain in a committed relationship with Quinn if she refuses to have sex with him; Quinn returns to her original plan of giving the baby to Terri, who is faking a pregnancy to hold on to Will. Rachel begins to suspect that Puck is the father of Quinn's baby and tells Finn. Finn attacks Puck and confronts Quinn, who admits the truth. Puck again offers to be with Quinn, but she declines and tells him she wants to be alone, though she moves in with Puck's family since her parents had kicked her out and she can no longer stay at Finn's house.

In the episode "Laryngitis", when Puck's mohawk is shaved off by his doctor, he finds the other McKinley students no longer respect him as a badass. He romances fellow glee club member Mercedes, once a popular cheerleader, to restore his status. His plan is successful, but he and Mercedes ultimately have nothing in common, and split when she quits cheerleading and he returns to his bullying ways. In the first-season finale, "Journey to Regionals", Quinn goes into labour immediately after the club performs at the Regionals competition, and Puck is present at the birth of their daughter, who Puck names Beth. When Puck and Quinn visit Beth in the hospital nursery, Puck tells Quinn that he loves her. Beth is adopted by Rachel's birth mother Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel), the coach of Vocal Adrenaline, the show choir that defeated New Directions at Regionals.