Scrubs' Revival Must Bring Back A Hilarious Janitor Running Gag That Started To Disappear In Season 8

Neil Flynn's Scrubs character could quite often be found getting up to some pretty irreverent antics, but one of his odd pastimes sadly started to become less of a focus as the sitcom drew to a close. Thankfully, with the Scrubs revival now confirmed, the Janitor can revisit one of his old passions. Of course, it depends if Flynn opts to come back for the reunion, but the Janitor is surely one of the Scrubs characters who must return for season 10. If not, the revival will be missing a key figure who helped the original run so great.

The Janitor appears in all nine seasons of Scrubs, although his role in the show's divisive Med School run was reduced to a tiny cameo to explain the character's departure. The Janitor's real name in Scrubs was at one point a huge mystery, but showrunner Bill Lawrence has confirmed Flynn's character was telling Zach Braff's JD the truth when he introduced himself as "Glenn Matthews" at the end of the "My Finale" two-parter. So, although this particular twist would be difficult to undo, Scrubs season 10 can still make the Janitor seem like his old self.

The Janitor's Useless Inventions Were An Underrated Part Of His Character

Neil Flynn's Scrubs character certainly had ambition

It's often implied that the Janitor is the leader of Sacred Heart's custodial staff. However, he's very rarely seen actually cleaning the hospital or offering any helpful contributions. This is a running gag for his character and a big part of why he's so funny. So, if he isn't doing what he's being paid to do, then it begs the question of what he's up to when he isn't just torturing JD and his colleagues. Scrubs drops several clues to answer this, and one of them is the Janitor's impressive array of useless inventions.

Although the Janitor is most known for telling obvious lies and fabricating tall tales, he also quite often has evidence of just how much he has been neglecting his duties. Sporadically, he will proudly present something he's been working hard on, and it either has little to no use, or an application so specific that something else would be better to use in its place. For example, his "Knife-Wrench" in Scrubs season 5, episode 21, "My Fallen Idol" is exactly the combination of tools that it sounds like, and it's also very unsafe.

Scrubs Started To Introduce The Janitor's Inventions Less & Less

The Scrubs revival can bring back this brilliant running gag

The Janitor didn't always show his inventive side. Instead, there's a golden era for his questionable breakthroughs that starts about halfway through the show's run. This period is dense with Janitor inventions, but the show then gradually starts to fade them out by the time of his true exit at the end of Scrubs season 8. They didn't completely disappear, but they featured far less frequently, were a little less bizarre, and sometimes even on the cusp of being useful.

Part of the reason for this could be the fact that Neil Flynn's Scrubs character started to become a little more humanized by the writers in his final season. His behavior started to level out, and his marriage to Kit Pongetti's Ladinia "Lady" Williams was probably a factor in his personality adjustment. Hopefully, Scrubs season 10 finds a way to restore the Janitor to his former glory by adding to his collection of wild inventions.