New Girl: The 10 Best Running Jokes & Gags

While it’s already been over a year since New Girl ended, we still miss it. The friendships were incredible, the situations were problematic, and the jokes were crazily memorable — especially the ones that spanned multiple episodes and seasons.

From Jess’ constant singing to Schmidt’s extreme tidiness, there was always something worth laughing over again and again…and again.

We’re here to take a look back at New Girl‘s finest running gags that helped shape it into the special comedy it was. Who’s ready to laugh a little?

10 Douchebag Jar

First introduced in the pilot, the Douchebag Jar is the gang’s way of keeping Schmidt in check. A swear jar has one putting money into it every time they swear, but The Douchebag Jar has Schmidt putting money into every time he’s a…well, you get the point.

Usually, Schmidt was only required to put a dollar into the jar when he was acting like a douche, but his roommates had requested amounts of up to $50 when he was taking things really far.

The douche bag jar lived a nice, happy life until Schmidt finally smashed it in the Season 5 finale after marrying Cece, signifying the end of his old ways.

9 True American

The loft’s signature drinking game, True American, is played a lot. But does anyone know the rules? It’s hard to tell.

True American is first played in “Normal” (S1E20), and continues to show up throughout the series – but every time it appears, it seems someone is adding in a new set of patriotic rules.

The game also seems to always lead to romantic tension for Jess. In “Cooler” (S2E15) Jess and Nick have a difficult time kissing each other after being required to, in “Mars Landing” (S3E20), the couple gets into an argument about their future during a hangover, and in “Wedding Eve” (S5E21), Jess forces the loft into a game to avoid Sam’s looming proposal.

8 Nick’s Zombie Novel

Throughout the series, Nick plays the part of a struggling writer, constantly comparing himself to the likes of Ernest Hemingway. While early on the loft believes his dreams of publishing a novel is trash – particularly when his first novel, Z Is For Zombie, has the word “rhythm” spelled incorrectly 38 different times in it – Nick eventually makes a name for himself as the author of The Pepperwood Chronicles.

In “Glue” (S6E15), we even see Nick at his own book signing (ignore the part where he gets nervous and hides in the kids’ book house). Despite a few hiccups along the way, this early zombie novel joke comes full-circle by the end.

7 Lying Makes Nick Sweat

Whenever Nick finds himself in a situation that requires him to twist the truth, he gets incredibly uncomfortable and gives it away by sweating profusely.

This memorably happened in “Background Check” (S4E6), when Sergeant Tess was questioning Nick about the meth Jess supposedly possessed (for the record, the drugs were actually aquarium rocks).

The sergeant put it best when she said it looked like Nick’s body was crying.

Gross…but true.

6 Winston’s Ferguson Obsession

Winston stole his ex-girlfriend Daisy’s cat, Ferguson, after he found out she was cheating on him. He became obsessed with this cat and usually treated it more like a human than a pet.

Winston took weekly selfies with his cat, participated in a ton of witty one-sided banter with Ferguson, and even cared about his pet’s romantic life. This continued until Fergs eventually died of natural causes, which the loft commemorates in “Where The Road Goes” (S7E4) a year after his passing. Rest in peace, little kitty.

5 Schmidt Makes Up His Own Words

The loft’s most neurotic resident has a habit of pronouncing words wrongly and creating his own, speaking them as if they were commonplace. New Girl has Schmidt pronouncing chutney as chut-ta-knee, raccoon as ruh-coon, and youths as yooths.

Let’s not forget that bathtubs should always be referred to as “medieval filth cauldrons” and kimonos should be shortened to “monos.”

4 Jess’ Unusual Clumsiness

Jess is adorkable, and everyone knows it. She also happens to be incredibly clumsy.

In “Katie” (S2E2) she fell down while standing still and in “Models” (S2E5) she created a spectacle while attempting to show off a car in some heels and heavy makeup. This is why Cece cannot have a hangover.

While clumsiness isn’t great to have in real life, it somehow added to Jess’ charm and made New Girl a little more comical.

3 Outside Dave

Yes, an entire person is one of New Girl’s best running gags. Outside Dave, as he is known, is a homeless man who hangs around the loft. While he only shows up in 13 episodes, he is scattered throughout the series making an appearance in every season starting in Season 2.

He always gets tangled up in the gang’s lives in some unusual way, once even locking himself inside of their bathroom and declaring it “the laboratory.” Winston also enlists him to ruin Jess and Nick’s date in one episode, in exchange for a sandwich and 25 minutes of TV time.

2 Nick’s One-Sided Friendship

Ah, Tran. How many things we don’t know about you.

Nick first meets Tran at the park and forms a meaningful friendship with him. And by that, we mean Tran says absolutely nothing, yet Nick believes he’s accessing some of the greatest wisdom in all the universe. The only time Tran speaks is in the episode “Menzies” (S2E7), when Nick’s grandfather-figure calls him a huge baby.

Things get a little weird when Nick starts dating Tran’s granddaughter, Kai. She confirms that Tran might be Nick’s best friend, but Nick is not Tran’s.

1 Prank Sinatra

Winston is known to go too big or too small when it comes to pranks. Nevertheless, he believes he’s a master of them, dubbing himself Prank Sinatra.

One time he pranked Schmidt by putting a blueberry in his oatmeal that he definitely didn’t see coming. On the opposite extreme, in the series finale, he leads the loft to believe that they’re being evicted from their apartment. They pack up the entire place and ultimately — despite it turning out to be a prank by Winston — decide it’s time to move on.

Oh, New Girl. How we miss you.

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