'New Girl' stars Zooey Deschanel and Jake Johnson still text each other inside jokes from 10 years ago

• On the "New Girl" podcast, Zooey Deschanel and Jake Johnson said they still text inside jokes.
• They shared old bits they started over 10 years ago in season one, like pretending to be managers.

After working together for seven years, the "New Girl" stars developed plenty of inside jokes and bits behind the scenes. And some of them are still going today.

On Monday's episode of iHeartRadio's "New Girl" rewatch podcast, "Welcome to Our Show," Zooey Deschanel (Jess), Hannah Simone (Cece), and Lamorne Morris (Winston) interviewed Jake Johnson about his experience on the show and his inside jokes with Deschanel.

Deschanel and Johnson said they still text about bits they started on season one

On the podcast, Deschanel shared that, as an actor, Johnson was completely committed to long-term bits, and he said he felt the same about her.

But the actors were just as comedic off-screen, and some of their inside jokes have continued for over a decade.

"We're still, over text, doing bits that we started on the first season of 'New Girl,'" Deschanel said.

Johnson said one of his favorite long-running bits with Deschanel was pretending to be fake managers, which started when the two were "competing" to sign director Max Winkler's dog.

"That was one of my favorite bits, and it's still going on today," Deschanel said. "Ten years and going."

Deschanel said that she tried to "make those bits happen with other people," but no one else ever found them as funny.

Johnson shared that bonding with his costars was his favorite part of the show

On the podcast, Johnson said he didn't remember a lot of the episodes or storylines from "New Girl," but he remembered the "joy," "laughs," and "genuine fun" he and his costars shared.

"I don't think any of us are like our characters, but our joy was real, and our bits were real, and I think people can feel that," he said.

Morris also said that "some of the best days but also the worst" were when he knew he would be filming with Johnson.

"Going into a scene with Jake Johnson, I would go, 'I know I'm going to do a bit, and I know I'm going to laugh, and I know he's going to kill me,'" he said.