The Social Bunny is an NPC in The Sims 2 that visits teen and older Sims when their socialneed is too low. If a child or younger Sim's social need gets too low, they will not receive a social bunny but may be taken by the social worker. Like the Therapist, social bunnies will only be visible while the Sim who is hallucinating them is selected.
Just having the social bunny around raises the social need, but the lonely Sim can perform social interactions with them as well, ranging from friendly kisses to outright fighting. The social bunny leaves when the bar is back up to the halfway point. Although the social bunny automatically raises the social need, players should be aware that if a Sim is with the social bunny and they're not doing anything together, the Sim's comfort will drop quickly.
If multiple Sims are in social failure, the other bunnies will be seen when a lonely Sim is active, although they will be invisible and cannot be interacted with. The bunnies may interact with each other, however. Social bunnies come in blue, yellow, and pink. Generally, social bunnies of a different color will be friendly with each other, with blue and pink ones often going romantic. Bunnies of the same color will usually be hostile towards and even start fights with each other.
Friend bug[]
There has also been a bug where the Social Bunny can actually become a friend, and can be called over the phone and invited over. Occasionally, there is also a bug where Sims will bring the social bunny home as a friend from work, although the social bunny will not appear in this circumstance.
The Social Bunny vs. The Tragic Clown[]
The social bunny's predecessor is the Tragic Clown, introduced in The Sims: Livin' Large. The tragic clown came whenever a Sim's overall mood was poor and the family had a painting of him somewhere on the lot. Like the social bunny, the Tragic Clown will attempt to make Sims happier by entertaining them, but will always fail and worsen the situation. The social bunny will appear only when the social motive was critically low and always succeeds in raising it.
References in other games[]
Although social bunnies do not appear in The Sims 3, there are number of Easter eggs dedicated to them. For example, "Social Bunnies United" is the name of a charity Good Sims can donate to.[TS3] There are several objects containing references to the social bunny, including a poster, a music box from Ambitions, a bookshelf from Generations with a stuffed social bunny doll, and a prop statue of it in Showtime. Sims may also paint a brilliant medium painting of the social bunny or see one on the KidZ Zone station on the television (one may also be seen on the Kidztube station in The Sims 2).
A pink social bunny costume is unlockable in MySims Agents.
Also with the new Highschool Years expansion pack, on the phone's updated UI lies an app called the Social Bunny, an interactive platform for Sims very similar to Simstagram and real-life app Snapchat. By the time of Lovestruck, the app has been bought by a Wealthy Weirdo, and has taken a turn for the worse, in a reference to Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter. [TS4:HSY]
Trivia[]
A Sim having a conversation with his Social Bunny
Sims can unlock the social bunny outfits in CAS with Debug Mode on.
Social Bunny gossiping with Therapist
If a social bunny and the Therapist are on the same lot at the same time, the Therapist will gossip with the social bunny about a random Sim before leaving.
For Sims with the Popularity Aspiration, being visited by the social bunny is a fear. It takes away 3,500 aspiration points.
All social bunnies have the same personality: 5 points in neat, outgoing, active, and nice, and 10 points in playful.
All social bunnies from Desiderata Valley resemble normal Sims in their default headshots. This oddity will change if the Desiderata Valley social bunnies are spawned in-game.
Social Bunnies in Desiderata Valley
However all Desiderata Valley social bunnies must be manually moved to the NPC Sim Bin using SimPE in order for them to show up in-game, since none of them are placed in the NPC Sim Bin at the start of the game.
Unlike other neighborhoods that consist of 2 male social bunnies and 1 female one, Belladonna Cove has 3 male social bunnies. This can be proven through SimPE.
All Belladonna Cove social bunnies must be manually moved to the NPC Sim Bin using SimPE in order for them to show up in-game, since none of them are placed in the NPC Sim Bin at the start of the game.
The social bunny is likely a reference to the 1950 film Harvey, in which a man befriends an invisible rabbit called Harvey. The social bunny may also be inspired by Frank in the 2001 film Donnie Darko, a man in a rabbit costume who supernaturally communicates with the protagonist Donnie, a troubled teenager.
If the Sim is near the bottom of a staircase, it is possible for the social bunny to spawn in the 4x1 area under it.
Oddly, there are images of a male Sim from the Sims 1 hidden in the character files of all social bunnies. It is unknown why these images are there, but they may have been placeholders from a very early development stage of the game.
Adult
Social Bunny
Thin
