New Girl S1 E21 – Kids

Last updated on February 12, 2021

This podcast covers New Girl Season 1, Episode 21, Kids, which originally aired on April 17, 2012 and was directed by Tristram Shapeero and written by Donick Cary and Lesley Wake.

Episode Recap

In this episode, Cece realizes she might be pregnant and both she and Schmidt are freaking out while Jess tries to babysit Russell’s daughter Sarah who falls in “love” with Nick. Meanwhile, Winston is trying to get his boss to his TV interview.

Episode Notes

On this episode’s Pop Culture section we focused on:

• Gossip Girl – In this episode Sarah compares Jess’s life to a poorer version of the TV and book series Gossip Girl.
• Bridge to Terabithia – Jess compares Nick making Sarah cry to the book Bridge to Terabithia which has a sad storyline and often causes children to cry.

Additional Pop Culture References such as:

• Russian Nesting Doll – Schmidt talks about wanting to be sure not to impregnate the baby that Cece might be carrying when they have sex and create a “Russian Nesting Doll Situation”. Russian dolls (also known as Matryoshka dolls) are a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside another. They are also associated with family and fertility.
• Michael Strahan – Winston is supposed to be driving Joe to an interview with Michael Strahan. While his talk show is not real, Michael Strahan is an American TV personality, former football player, and journalist who has been a co-host on ABC’s Good Morning America since 2014.
• Berlusconi – Jess calls Nick Berlusconi while telling him not to bring college girls home. Silvio Berlusconi was the Italian Prime Minister during four governments and a media tycoon. He had many legal troubles including one for soliciting minors for sex. While he was found guilty, his conviction has since been overturned.
• While Nick is defending how mature Chloe is, he mentions that she knows the following artists: 
  • Banksy – Banksy is an England-based street artist, political activist, and film director, active since the 1990s. He’s known for his satirical street art that combines dark humor with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique.
  • “The guy who did the Obama poster” (Shepard Fairey) – Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary street artist, graphic designer, activist, illustrator, and founder of OBEY Clothing. He became widely known during the 2008 U.S. presidential election for his Barack Obama “Hope” poster. 
  • “Chalk Outline Guy” (Keith Haring) – Keith Allen Haring was a 1980s American pop art and graffiti-like artist. Haring’s work grew to popularity from his spontaneous drawings in New York City subways—chalk outlines of figures, dogs, and other stylized images on blank black advertising-space backgrounds.
• Drea de Matteo – Schmidt mentioned that Drea de Matteo was scheduled to appear as a guest at the Italy on Ice event. Drea de Matteo is an American actress of Italian descent from Queens, New York known for shows like The Sopranos and Sons of Anarchy.
• The Golden Girls – Jess is explaining to Sarah that she thought Gossip Girl was similar to the show The Golden Girls, where Jess thought she was Betty White and Schmidt was Rue McClanahan; both were actresses on the show. The Golden Girls is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from 1985 to 1992, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning seven seasons. The show stars Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty as four older women who share friendship and a home in Miami, Florida.
• Super Bowl – Napoli mentions that Michael Strahan won the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL). Since 2004, the game has been played on the first Sunday in February. 
• Nick and Schmidt were talking about Chloe’s age and mentioned references she wouldn’t know: 
  • Netscape – Schmidt mentions that Chloe doesn’t even know what Netscape is. Netscape Communications Corporation was an independent American computer services company known for its web browser from the early 1990s. Netscape is also known for creating the JavaScript programming language and developing SSL. In 1999, the company was acquired by AOL, but before that Netscape released the source code for its browser and created the Mozilla Organization to coordinate future development of its product.
  • Ice Cube – Schmidt is referring to how Chloe thinks of Ice Cube as mainly an actor since she’s so young. While Ice Cube started acting in 1991, he started his musical career in 1986 as a rapper and was part of the rap group N.W.A.
• Indian In the Cupboard – Jess says that she might as well call Schmidt Indian in the Cupboard and stops herself from continuing this reference. Indian in the Cupboard is both a book and a movie where a kid finds a magic cupboard that brings his toys to life.

We also cover the “Schmidtism” where Schmidt calls Nick to ask him out and gave an honorary Schmidtism to Schmidt’s pronunciation of “poppacorno.” For “Not in 2020” we discuss how Schmidt talks about Cece finally becoming a girl and his continued fetishazation of Cece’s skin color. We also give a brief look into Chloe Bridges and Annalise Basso, the Guest Stars we feature in this episode.

This episode got a 7.5/10 Rating from Kritika whose favorite character was Schmidt and Kelly rated this episode an 8.5/10 and her favorite character was Sarah!

Thanks for listening and stay tuned for Episode 22!

Music: “Hotshot” by scottholmesmusic.com