New Girl is a show that has relatively light-hearted humor that really registers with the target audience.
The writers of New Girl don’t like to take anything too seriously. This is obvious when Nick has a cancer scare and everyone acts in a humorous way, and Schmidt even uses this as an opportunity to hit on Cece. The show writers are very aware of the fact that this show is a comedy, not a sob story or a philosophy 101 class. The writers make the audience have laughs by creating characters that are ridiculous and eccentric yet oddly relatable and loveable. The characters have a lot of flaws, all of which surprisingly make them more likable not less.
Elizabeth Meriwether and Berkley Johnson are both credited for writing episodes of New Girl. Both people also wrote for other comedy works including Conan and No String Attached.
The references the writers make are also funny because of how out there they are. Like for example “‘Cece: I really felt that Gavin was different. Didn’t you feel like Gavin was different?
Jess: Yeah, I mean he seemed like a really nice…European DJ with a face tattoo.'”
But I have also noticed the writers also assign certain types of jokes to certain characters. For example, Schmidt mostly gets jokes making fun of how he’s into some really exotic or peculiar things like when he told his roommate ” Can someone please get my towel? It’s in my room next to my Irish walking cape.” Jess also says the more nerdy, awkward or naive jokes, like the line in the screenshot below.
Screen-shot of the types of jokes Jess usually makes
Another thing that I have noticed is that the writers base almost all the plots in season one about relationships. I think what happens with the couples is a great way to create more drama and keep viewers around for the next episode. Almost all new characters introduced end up becoming someone’s love interest.
The final and most important aspect of the writing in New Girl to me is the sense of camaraderie. The writers create a real sense of community between Jess and her roommates. You know that no matter what they have each other’s back- and you root for all of them to be happy- which is what makes the show so enjoyable. This was shown in the episode titled “Injured”, where everyone helps Nick pay for his treatment. The characters are written out to be both emotional support and reason for emotional insanity for each other.
