The Bear Theory That Changes Everything On New Girl

"New Girl" remains one of the most binge-able sitcoms in existence. The characters are ideally situated to lift each other up and annoy one another. It's a delight to watch, so it perhaps should come as no surprise that plenty of people binge-watched the series yet again over the last year and a half during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many even believe the show predicted the pandemic (via Yahoo), which would put the sitcom on a "Simpsons" level of foresight. 

But while it's unlikely that a team of mystics were on the "New Girl" writing staff, there were people who apparently enjoyed a good inside joke. After all, how else can you explain the presence or mention of a bear in every single episode? That's right; if you watch and listen closely enough, you can find references to bears everywhere. Sometimes a fake bear appears in a shot. In other instances, a character refers to bears or a type of bear, like Winnie the Pooh. Now that the inside joke is out in the open, a star from the show has chimed in to explain why it exists in the first place.

Bears come in many forms on "New Girl." Sometimes, you have Nick Miller (Jake Johnson) holding a giant Teddy bear. In other instances, it's more subtle, like Nick casually being a fan of the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago Bears. However, as evidenced by people's tireless searches on platforms like Reddit, bears do, indeed, crop up at least once per episode throughout the show's run. 

And just in case you thought you imagined things, Jake Johnson has confirmed that the writers definitely put bear references into every single episode. The moment came courtesy of a TikTok where Johnson is asked about all of the bears, and without missing a beat, he states, "Yeah, that was an inside joke with our writers' room." He goes on to mention, "The best is when you are there long enough that eventually, you start realizing that you're involved in somebody else's inside joke. And the bear was one of those where it would be like, 'What am I saying the word bear for in this scene?' And the writer would die laughing."

It remains to be seen just how bears became hilarious to the "New Girl" writers, but it's a fun little detail to keep an eye out for the next time you embark on a "New Girl" binge-watch.