(Fox)
After New Girl's penultimate episode aired Tuesday night, one thing continues to be pretty obvious — Winston still gets the short end of the stick. Heck, the poor guy can’t even eat some of his own birthday cake without getting some slack ("You sure you wanna be eating so much cake, with a body like that?" Rob Reiner tells him in "Winston's Birthday"). But let's get one thing straight. Winston Bishop, as deep as he is in the shadows of Cece/Schmidt and Jess/Nick, remains to be the show’s most underrated character, and Lamorne Morris, a very under-appreciated talent.
Sure, Winston doesn't have an alter ego like Fat Schmidt to fall back on. Morris isn't a
meme-making machine like
Jake Johnson, and he certainly doesn't have
Zooey Deschanel's sheer star power. But, throughout the season it's been clear that the writers might not always know what to do with Morris' character (See: Winston's sudden and very random outbursts in "Bachelorette Party"). However, we love them for it. Why? Because Morris has managed to turn all of Winston's mishaps and blunders and randomness into moments of pure comedic genius. 
To illustrate, I first turn to all the "negative" aspects of Winston's character: He's a terrible drinker, he botches sexual encounters (remember the great condom search?), he panics easily, and will get upset if you fail to say "goodnight" to him. He also can't discern a prostitute from a non-prostitute, keep himself from the grips of a woman's PMS, or play a good practical joke (no, hitting someone with a ski doesn't count). But all those faults are what make him funny.
Like here:
And here:
More important, in "Winston's Birthday" his simple longing to have his friends wish him a happy birthday (and his many pitiful attempts at guessing when his surprise may happen) is what actually keeps the episode's side stories connected. The show needs a character like Winston.
Winston's lack of any real plot line also means he can pop in and out of his house mate's lives, and really be there for them in their time of need.
When Schmidt becomes obsessed with wanting to catch his very own lionfish (translation: Schmidt's metaphore to holding on to lost loves), who waded in the cool California waters with him?
I pay mad respects to Morris, who has embraced Winston's quirk and been flexible enough as an actor to be able to convey a wide range (and I mean very wide range) of emotions, from overly panicked (oh, those darn "willies") to sexually insecure (you really don't need Titanic to up your mojo, Winston). It must be hard to get into a groove when there's really no groove to get into.
Morris has also proven that he has comedic chops independent of his
New Girl role. Take his well-produced video spoof of rapper
Trinidad James' "No Gold Anything" for example:
Or his fairytale version of "Black Repunzel":
Is Winston Bishop forever doomed to be the show's sideline character? Perhaps. I don't see him rising the ranks to lead character anytime soon like Jake Johnson has impressively done this season. But frankly, we don't care. Just so long as this keeps happening on the show, we're all good:
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