This podcast covers New Girl Season 2, Episode 5, Models, which originally aired on October 23, 2012 and was written by Josh Malmuth and directed by Eric Appel.
Here’s a quick recap of the episode:
It’s Cece’s birthday and Jess comes to celebrate but clashes with her model friends. They get in a fight that leaves their boobs sore and also leads to Cece getting drunk and almost missing her modeling gig. Being the amazing friend she is, Jess fills in… This is also the episode where Schmidt buys Nick a cookie.
We discuss Pop Culture References such as:
- Clueless - Jess and Cece have a tradition to watch Clueless for Cece’s birthday every year.
- Jay Cutler - Nick tells Schmidt the only time a man is allowed to think about another man is when that man is Jay Cutler.
Additional Pop Culture References such as:
- YOLO - Nadia yells “YOLO” when Jess agrees to go out with Cece and her friends for her birthday. YOLO stands for You Only Live Once and along the same lines as the Latin phrase “carpe diem,” it is a call to live life to its fullest extent, even embracing behavior which carries some risk.
- Serena Williams - Nick calls Schmidt Serena Williams because he thought Schmidt was grunting at him. Serena Williams is an American professional tennis player. She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the second-most of all time. Tennis players often grunt when hitting the ball.
- Wilmer Valderrama - After going out for Cece’s birthday, Nadia thought she hooked up with Wilmer Valderrama. Wilmer Eduardo Valderrama is an American actor, producer, singer, and television personality. He is known for his role as Fez in That ’70s Show and as Carlos Madrigal in From Dusk till Dawn: The Series.
- “You Make My Dreams” - When Jess tries to model at the Ford car event, the song “You Make My Dreams” by Hall & Oates plays. "You Make My Dreams", sometimes incorrectly referred to as "You Make My Dreams Come True" is from the band’s ninth studio album, Voices. The song reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1981.
- Brian Austin Green - In the flashback scene, Schmidt mentions that Brian Austin Green is his favorite rapper. Brian Austin Green is an American actor, rapper, and producer, best known for his portrayal of David Silver on the original television series Beverly Hills, 90210. He is not typically known for his rapping and this was more of a joke for New Girl to make.
- "shake what yo mamma gave ya" - When Nadia was trying to convince Cece to go out instead of doing her usual birthday tradition, she said “I shake this thing that my mama gave me”. This phrase means to shake your butt and came from the song “Shake Whatcha Mamma Gave Ye” by Poison Clan released in 1992.
We also cover when Schmidt gave Nick a cookie at the beginning of the episode as the “Schmidtism” this episode. We talk about how the show portrays the models and Jess speaking about all models being “dumb” as our “not in the 2020s” and how Nick was making fun of Schmidt in the flashbacks. Our “yes in the 2020s” was about all the love in this episode with how Winston and Schmidt loved Nick and how Nick reciprocated by the end of the episode with his cookie shaped like a Jewish star. We also give a brief look into Lauren Dair Owens (young Jess) and Ariela Barer (young Cece), the Guest Stars we feature in this episode. Lauren’s youtube page can be found here.
Also in this episode were the following guest stars who we do not discuss in the podcast: Stone Eisenmann (Young Nick), Jordan Fuller (Young Winston), Jason Antoon (the Clipboard Guy), James M. Connor (Gary), Rob Reinis (the account executive), Agnes Albright (Olga), Britni Stanwood (a foreign model), Greice Santo (Maria), Jesus Solorio (the fake Wilmer Valderrama), and Johanna Parker (the model scout).
In the podcast, we also discussed Zooey’s recent instagram post about having a forehead and the song “You Make My Dreams'' by Hall and Oates and its significance to 500 Days of Summer. Additionally, we noticed Schmidt continuing to look at his actuarial chart from Episode 4 and anniversary themes by years.
While not discussed in the podcast, we noted other references in this episode including:
- VHS - When Jess shows up at Cece’s house to celebrate her birthday, she talks about watching Clueless on VHS. VHS stands for Video Home System and was a standard for analog video recording on tape cassettes. Production of the magnetic tape video recording began in the 1950s and it was the primary home video format through the 1980s. In 1996, the DVD format was introduced and VHS production began to decline and by July of 2016, all VHS equipment manufacturing had stopped.
- Turtles - Throughout this episode Nick is looking at getting a turtle and he mentions the following types of turtles:
- Galapagos Tortoise - This is the largest living species group of 15 very large tortoises. Their lifespans in the wild can be over 100 years old and there has been one tortoise who, in captivity, lived to be at least 175 years old.
- Eastern Box Turtle - This is a subspecies of the hinge-shelled turtles and is a land turtle native to the eastern parts of the US. In captivity, their life span can be as short as 3 days.
- Spur Thighed Tortoise - This species of tortoise, also known as the Greek tortoise, is one of 5 species of Mediterranean tortoises. Their lifespan is older than 125 years and while not confirmed, there are reports of some living to be 200 years old.
- Nearsighted Loner Turtle - While there isn’t a turtle specifically called a “nearsighted loner,” the mata mata freshwater turtle species is a natural loner and has good nearsighted vision. It’s primarily found in South America and in captivity, there have been reports of turtles living 30-35 years but there is not a lot of information about the mata mata’s lifespan in the wild.
- Jewish Star - When Nick brings Schmidt a cookie, he says that he couldn’t find one in the shape of a Jewish star and so he broke it into the pieces. This is a reference to the Star of David which is a modern symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism and is a star made up of two equilateral triangles.
- Joie de vivre - Schmidt said that Jess has too much “joie de vivre” when Jess is getting ready to go out with Cece and her model friends. This is a French phrase that means to enjoy life. Casual uses of the phrase can be dated back to the late 17th century although it was brought to prominence in the 19th century.
- Mama-bird - When Nick says he would be happy if he could throw up the cookie that Schmidt gave him and then feed it to Schmidt, Schmidt asks if Nick was trying to mama-bird him the cookie. This is a reference to how mother birds first digest their food and then feed it to their babies.
This episode got a 7.5/10 rating from Kritika and an 8/10 from Kelly and both had the same favorite character: Nick!
Thanks for listening and stay tuned for Episode 6!
Music: "Hotshot” by scottholmesmusic.com
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram or email us at whosthatgirlpod@gmail.com!
Website: https://smallscreenchatter.com/
