In an episode, it's shown in one of the janitorial closets a poster size picture of JD with "HIM!" scrawled on it. I believe it was the one where the Janitor is running for shop steward or something, and loses to the little person janitor. Cracks me up every time.

I love Janitor so much, I bought "Mean Girls" on DVD just to support Neil Flynn's career. (I hope it worked!)

I know the goings-on at Sacred Heart are surreal at times, but almost everybody in the cast is fairly grounded in the real world. J.D., Turk, Carla, Elliot, Cox, Kelso, and the rest all went to med school or nursing school, survived their internship, struggle with their love lives or impending parenthood, and generally live their lives the way us normal folk do.

The Janitor is different. First of all, he has no name. He has no past. Everything we've learned about him previously is (to put it mildly) in dispute. He's iconic. He embodies the slightly weird environment of Sacred Heart and Scrubs. For the most part, Bill Lawrence and the writers have handled him perfectly: he's not so much a character in the sitcom, but a meta-character, able to slip in and out of the plotline and comment on the characters without revealing anything about himself.

(Somebody on the old Scrubs thread once said that the Janitor was an unemployed actor named Neil Flynn impersonating a hospital janitor, and his employment at Sacred Heart was a gigantic acting exercise. I love that idea.)

Exploring the Janitor's sense of inadequacy doesn't feel right to me because I think--as a "meta-character"--he has more power than anybody at the Hospital could possibly suspect. When the touching finale played out and the Janitor was walking down the hall, I expected him to turn around, face the camera, and sneer: "You BOUGHT all that?"

And then he'd smile, secure in his secret knowledge, and continue sweeping.

In some ways, I agree with this. But this show is not one to shun experiments, and they've already had episodes where other main characters get passed the voiceover baton. Exploring the perspective of a meta-character is rather interesting. And, frankly, I think (much like the squirrel army) this look into the janitor raises more questions than it answers. Interesting also to note that as much as he wanted to make a difference in the hospital, that's not why he was talking to the paralyzed patient. That was out of boredom and loneliness.

I hadn't considered the idea of Janitor as meta-character before, but I like it. I like the idea of him as a kind of Greek chorus, with mop. It makes sense of the idea that not only does JD not know his name beyond "Janitor", but no one else does either, because his identity is generic, rather than specific. (What do we do, then, with his tendency to consider others in much the same iconic way - as Blond Doctor, Scary Nurse Wife, etc.?)

but the idea of the Janitor nursing a longstanding feeling of inadequacy just didn't ring true.

it must suck going to Harvard and then ending up a janitor

Sign for the Janitor

I saw this and wondered if the Janitor has this in his house somewhere. :)

The only mystery that it can’t solve is how The Todd swings.

My back is killing me but I nailed it.