How This 1-Minute Scrubs Scene Influenced One Of The Biggest Video Games In The World

How This 1-Minute Scrubs Scene Influenced One Of The Biggest Video Games In The World


Scrubs was influential in many ways, and one of the properties it inspired shows just how much impact the medical sitcom had on popular culture at large, rather than just the TV industry. Every doctor in Scrubs brought something new to the table, and one in particular had a moment so cool that it was copied and pasted into a video game that took the world by storm in 2017 and is still massive today.




All nine seasons of Scrubs aired between 2001 and 2010, but the show was canceled after major changes made in the final run were not received well by the sitcom’s devoted audience. With a Scrubs revival now confirmed to be on the way, showrunner Bill Lawrence has the opportunity to fix the mistakes with Scrubs season 9 and allow the cult classic to bow out on a much better note. Despite Scrubs‘ dormancy for the last 15 years, it has still quietly been acknowledged in a very significant and surprising way.


Donald Faison’s Dance As Turk In “My Half-Acre” Was Used As Fortnite’s Default Dance Emote

Turk’s audition for the Janitor’s band came 11 years before Fortnite’s launch


In Scrubs season 5, episode 9, “My Half-Acre,” the B story revolves around Neil Flynn’s Janitor taking the concept of the air guitar several steps further by assembling an entire air band. While auditioning for an air frontman, Donald Faison’s Dr. Christopher “Chris” Turk performs an impressive dance routine to “Poison” by Bell Biv Devoe. The dance was adopted by Epic Games’ Fortnite in 2017 when the game launched. It was one of the default emotes, so it was immediately available to all players. However, the emote is far shorter than Turk’s actual dance.


Fortnite is primarily a battle royale game, and it had and still has a pretty broad appeal. However, it’s more common among younger age groups. So, when the game was released in 2017, it’s unlikely that many of the players would have been aware of the dance’s origin and the character their avatar was imitating when the emote was used. Scrubs had been off the air for seven years at the time. So, while die-hard fans of the show may have spotted Turk’s moves in Fortnite, swathes of other players will have been blissfully unaware of the tribute.

The Controversy Surrounding Fortnite’s Donald Faison Dance Explained

Faison wasn’t paid or credited by Epic Games

The Janitor and his air band in Scrubs

As a co-host on Fake Doctors, Real Friends – the official Scrubs rewatch podcast, Faison has discussed how the dance in “My Half-Acre” came about. In short, he made it up on the spot, so the performance is of his own creation. It is possible to copyright a dance under certain circumstances, but Faison seemingly never saw the need to look into that. So, although Vulture reports that Fortnite did reach out to ask permission from the show to use Turk’s dance in the game, Faison didn’t receive a single penny in royalties, nor was he created as the dance’s creator.


Zach Braff eating an ice cream as JD in Scrubs with Donald Faison's Turk putting his arm around him

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When speaking at a Scrubs cast reunion in 2018, the year after Fortnite‘s release, Faison was asked by a fan to perform the dance live on stage. Ultimately, he refused the request and simply replied, “If you want to see it, you can play Fortnite, because they jacked that sh*t!” Unfortunately, Epic Games went through all the proper channels to check on the legality of using the Scrubs dance, so there is very little Faison can do.

Source: Vulture


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