After a tweet questioning the eligibility of New Girl character Nick Miller went viral on Twitter Tuesday, conversation about the grumpy loft-mate’s romantic past began to trend online. Nick’s on-again-off again romance with roommate Jess Day played a major role in Fox sitcom New Girl, however the character, played by Jake Johnson (Jurassic World, Safety Not Guaranteed), had an array of romantic interests played by the likes of Megan Fox (Transformers, Jennifer’s Body), Greta Lee (Russian Doll, Chance), Mary Elizabeth Ellis (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Santa Clarita Diet), Olivia Munn (The Newsroom, X-Men: Apocalypse) and Lizzy Caplan (Mean Girls, Master of Sex).
The viral tweet highlighted handful of Nick Miller’s romances on the show and doubted the credibility of the character being able to “pull” any of the women in question. When Twitter quickly came to the defense of “the internet’s boyfriend”, the account that posted the original tweet contextualized the intention of the post with a clip of Hasan Minhaj (Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, The Daily Show) explaining a double standard for white men in Hollywood, via The Mary Sue. In the clip, shared to Twitter, Minhaj describes a class of actors as “schlubby white dudes who went to high school with me,” a classification which the account extends to both Miller and Johnson.
Leaving Johnson as an actor out of it, the argument against mediocre white male protagonists as the center of unrealistic romantic plotlines has been very common in sitcom discourse through the ages. Characters such as Friends’ Ross Geller, Seinfeld’s Jerry Seinfeld and How I Met Your Mother’s Ted Mosby have been a focus of similar conversations among sitcom fans and media scholars for years, via Study Breaks.
However, New Girl’s characterizations of male characters evolved past the one dimensional and flawed “nice guy” trope prevalent in sitcoms that preceded it, via Her Campus. Many arguments in defense of Nick Miller on Twitter had far more to do with personality than appearance, particularly commenting on his character development throughout the series.
The Mary Sue argues that Miller is well-rounded character with flaws such as “mounting credit card debt and inability to do anything without making some kind of a mess” that would certainly make him a frustrating boyfriend. However, the publication also points out the qualities that make Nick loveable and the reasons that many on the internet came to his defense, via The Mary Sue.
Though the Twitter user that started the conversation received an influx of defensive responses from Nick Miller fans, others shared their agreement with the content of the original tweet. It seemed, that ultimately, the beauty of Nick Miller appears to be in the eye of the beholder. However, Netflix made their stance on the matter clear on Twitter, as all seasons of New Girl can currently be found on their streaming platform.