Scrubs: J.D.’s 5 Best Pieces Of Advice (& His 5 Worst)

J.D. was the main character of Scrubs and the series followed him and his internal monologue throughout eight seasons of him going from intern and successfully climbing the doctoral hierarchy at Sacred Heart. He had countless friends and was never afraid to give them advice or tell them what he thought, even if they didn’t want to hear it. He would also make observations and give advice to the audience directly in his monologue voiceovers.

Most of the time, J.D. tried his best to give his friends the best advice he could, but sometimes he would interfere in their lives when they didn’t want him to, like his mentor Dr. Cox, or he would intentionally give bad advice, like when he would try to ruin Elliot’s relationships.

10 Best: Embrace Change But Stay Yourself

The characters on Scrubs went through countless changes over the years, and while the characters themselves did change and grow up throughout the series, most did stay true to themselves. J.D. says that everyone should embrace change, but try to stay true to themselves, and it’s good advice.

Change is going to happen in life, but sometimes it’s difficult to stay yourself given a new and different situation, but it’s essential and helps when going through inevitable change.

9 Worst: Telling Elliot To Leave Her Boyfriend To Be With Him

This is an example of J.D. selfishly giving his friends advice that might not be in their best interest, but are more in his. Elliot listens to his advice and breaks off her relationship with her boyfriend to try to be with J.D. again and the two have a few days of bliss before everything goes wrong.

Even worse, J.D. realizes that he didn’t actually want to be with Elliot and he was just jealous of her successful relationship. J.D. breaks up with Elliot and it took a long time for them to reconnect as friends again.

8 Best: Make A Choice That Makes You Happy And Everything Will Work Out

J.D. and Elliot were on again off again throughout the entire series of Scrubs and the two were constantly worried about what other people would think about their relationship. Dr. Kelso tells them that it shouldn’t matter and it’s nice to see the two are dating again, even though they weren’t officially dating.

They have a conversation about where they want their relationship to go in the future, and J.D. says they should just do what makes them happy instead of trying to plan out everything because if you do what makes you happy things tend to work out well.

7 Worst: Steal A Woman’s Purse As An Icebreaker

J.D. lists multiple things he’s done after a breakup when he and Danni are wondering if they should try to start a relationship with each other. He mentions a specific “move” he tried in which he stole a woman’s purse, hoping that she would be so happy that she would buy him a drink and maybe even have sex with him.

He says that it actually worked, which means that he would probably try it again if he needed to, or tell his friends that it actually did work so that others might try the same terrible act.

6 Best: Don’t Take Your Supportive Partners For Granted

In this episode, J.D. is fed up with all of his friends, who are in relationships but are complaining about their partners in one way or another. J.D. says that they should all feel lucky to be in loving relationships instead of just being frustrated with the problems in their relationship.

J.D. says that he would be happy to be in a loving relationship and that they should all be happy to have someone for support and someone to talk to, which is good advice that makes all of them think and cherish their relationships.

5 Worst: Sacrifice Your Own Happiness For Your Friends

This advice comes from a good place, but it’s still not the best advice to follow for the long-term. It’s a good sentiment – sometimes people should sacrifice their own wants to help out a friend, but if J.D., or anyone else, always followed this advice, it would most likely lead to an unhappy person who resents their friends.

Every relationship and every friendship is a balance and full of compromise where there should be an even give and take, and no one person should be constantly sacrificing their wants for the other.

4 Best: It’s Not Always About Being The Best

The field of medicine and surgery seemed to be always competitive on the show, as doctors and surgeons were always trying to be at the top amongst their peers. J.D. realized early on that it wasn’t worth fighting his peers over trying to be the best and he was, mostly, able to focus on being a good doctor without always comparing himself to his peers.

It’s good advice, even if he’s not able to follow his advice every moment when he feels jealous about doctors who are better than him. But overall, J.D. was one of the least competitive doctors on the show, in regards to his job.

3 Worst: Don’t Believe In Fate

In the “My Butterfly” season 3 episode of Scrubs J.D. says that he doesn’t believe in fate because he thinks he has more control over what happens and that every action has a reaction. Each doctor obviously has to be careful with how they approach each case and the patient’s care is their responsibility, but the series has also shown the devastation when a character fully blames themselves for a patient’s death.

It’s good to take responsibility for patients and try to figure out what went wrong, but sometimes people can’t be saved and sometimes a doctor does everything right and still can’t help. Maybe believing in fate a little would help the characters move on and stop blaming themselves for things that truly aren’t their fault.

2 Best: Telling Dr. Cox To Become Invested In His Students

In the last season, J.D. tells Dr. Cox that he should focus on his students more and try to build them up instead of always just tearing them down, like when he was teaching and mentoring J.D. It’s good advice, even though it backfires on him.

Dr. Cox takes interest in his new med student, Drew, and gives him the positive affirmation that J.D. was always looking for in their relationship. Even though J.D. is jealous of the new development, it was good advice nonetheless and made Dr. Cox just a little more approachable.

1 Worst: Don’t Act Like Yourself At The Beginning Of A Relationship

J.D. says that dating is acting like someone else until the person likes you enough that you can reveal who you truly are. This is terrible dating advice.

It makes sense not to reveal everything about yourself at the beginning of a relationship, but it doesn’t make any sense to act like someone else just to have your partner like you, and then reveal everything. Most likely they’ll be upset that you lied so much in the beginning and probably break up with you anyway.

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