All the Hidden Jokes In 'The Good Place' Finale

By Dan Hamamura | TV | January 31, 2020 |

By Dan Hamamura | TV | January 31, 2020 |

Hi everyone.

I think I might need a moment to process my feelings, so while you wait on me, please enjoy, for the last time, as many hidden jokes and callbacks and visual gags as I could find:

The Purple Train to Groovy City

The song Michael was writing comes back one last time, and it’s still… a work in progress.

Professors!

The show’s philosophical advisors, Todd May and Pamela Hieronymi, show up in Chidi’s class, although Eleanor was not impressed.

Stupid Nick’s Menu

Of course, now that we finally get to see inside the Stupid Nick’s, we get snippets of some of the… menu options:

Sauce types (under the “Sauce Your Bucket” cards):
World’s Biggest Idiot
Medically Induced Coma
Cauliflower Ear
Brain Burn
Jack Del Rio Aioli
Diabetes Sauce
“Not” Gasoline
Fire Squirts
Gator Piss
CTE Sauce
Bad Ketchup
“Contains Mercury”
Chili and Peeps
Prop. 65 Warning
Chocolate Starfish
Fruit Fly Infested Soy Sauce
Mystery Ranch
Kool Aid Powder & Glue
Lard
Diet Lard
A-Hole-Y

Other options include: “The Boomer”, where you can “Add a lit M80 to your bucket for some explosive fun and flavor”, and the drinks are Paunchburger-esque, with a small being 64 ounces, and “Child Size” topping out at 512 ounces of soda.

Finally, I can’t be 100% sure of this one, but I believe the orange drink machine actually says “Orange Drank”, which makes total sense.

Jason’s Perfect Game

A couple of random highlights from Jason’s perfect game of Madden: he threw for 12358 passing yards, which is the same number as the neighborhood, and he caused 69 turnovers, which is nice.

The Real Doug Forcett

When we first met Doug Forcett, he was played by Michael McKean, but in the good place, he’s reverted back to the age he was in the painting, and played by TV writer Noah Garfinkel.

NICK OFFERMAN ALERT!

While we’ve seen evidence of the Schurniverse before, according to the credits, this is Nick Offerman teaching Tahani about woodworking, not Ron Swanson, who he just so happens to resemble.

Tahani’s List

Tahani, naturally, keeping busy as she works to accomplish, well, everything, on her way to eventually finding her new challenge.

Magic (?) Panda

I’m not sure if this is the same panda that we’ve seen flying around at various points during the series, but this one is definitely more helpful.

(Still) Freefallin’

Did you see Trevor? He’s still falling, apparently. Good for him!

Still Trying… And Failing

Oh Brent. Still trying to learn. Maybe someday he’ll get there. (He seems to be on attempt 15,000-something.)

But wait, did you notice who else was going through debriefing? Just before we got to Brent’s screen…

…that’s the real architect himself, Michael Schur, probably explaining why he took the show away from us so soon or something.

Chidi’s Gift

When Chidi heads for the final door, he leaves Eleanor with one last gift… a custom calendar that I would guess the art department made a few, um, extra copies of. You know, in case they got damaged or lost or something.

And later, when we get to see the calendar in use, most of it’s pretty tough to make out, but in the bottom left, it definitely says YOGA WITH THE ROCK. So that’s cool.

The Judge’s Fandom

Even though Gen the judge got to meet the a Timothy Olyphant some number of bearimys ago, she’s still a Coach Taylor fan, obviously.

Maximum Derek

I have no words but simply bow down to the glory of the martini genie Derek.

Complicated Coffee

The coffee shop is (likely) named after writers Matt Murray and Joe Mande, whose pourover coffee habit has (I believe) been discussed on The Good Place: The Podcast.

Michael’s Apartment

Michael’s street address on Earth has a familiar ring to it, right? And on top of that, Blatta is a genus of cockroaches, so appropriate for him (but a TERRIBLE building name).

Michael’s “Real” Name…

Here we get to see the name Michael is going by on Earth… Michael Realman, which is very convincing.

And with one last art department joke, we can see that Coyote Joe’s is VERY up front about their targeted ads in a disturbing way.

——-

Okay, I promised you some final thoughts, and it appears we’ve made it to that part of the post.

Much like a last day of school, the finale to The Good Place was nearly without conflict: the tests are all turned in, and pretty much all that’s left is to see your friends one last time and say goodbye before the bell rings. It occasionally meandered without feeling slow, and gave everyone their own moment to shine, which was important, because this finale was, more than anything, a celebration. Of the past four years of the show. Of these characters and the world that the cast and crew built. And of course, it was a celebration of life, and the fact that there’s no such thing as true perfection, which is great, because the point isn’t to be perfect, but to keep trying to put good out into the world.

And that’s what everyone on The Good Place did. They put a little good out into the world. I’m grateful we got to be along for the ride.

Well. We’ve reached the end of our time here together with The Good Place. I hope you’ve enjoyed these little not-a-recaps as much as I’ve enjoyed bringing them to you, which was quite a bit.

So. Whenever you’re ready, just walk through.