Community, the tv show

Imagine tuning in halfway through the episode, thinking you'll just try to get up to speed?

I hope Jim Rash gets nominated for an Emmy, he was just killing me

also the more I think about this episode, the more I like it

Totally loved this. But I did think that if this was anyone's first Community episode, they'd be hella confused.

i liked this more than last week. as everyone has already said, jim rash was amazing - his self-realization about how over-the-top he was being made me laugh harder than anything else in the show.

A year ago I thought the Dean was the least funny main character but he absolutely kills it in every scene he's in now.

he's had so many hilarious deliveries this season; I still crack up when I think about his delighted "That's me!" when he saw the cartoon of him during Shirley's/Pierce's presentation

who cares about these non-existing new fans. this was terrific.

My comment was just referring to times that I've come into an episode late and had no clue what was happening. This one would have been no hope.

I still crack up when I think about his delighted "That's me!"

Yes! The image itself and his reaction is a personal favorite.

Dan Harmon ‏ @danharmon

Wow. You guys really liked that episode. Agreed, not one for newbies. Good news: our ratings will STILL be a random number between 0 and 3!

I haven't seen it yet, but I love this.

The Dean is like the Jenna Maroney of this show, started out really kind of blandly annoying but now one of the best parts

Huh, what's up with the Citytv video player?

This was a bit like the Claymation episode for me - I was sitting there so impressed with what they were doing that I didn't much care that I wasn't laughing that much. That said, Alison Brie absolutely killed it in this one.

I feel a bit sad we didn't see much of Troy and Britta's date though.

THIS-> I still crack up when I think about his delighted "That's me!"

I keep expecting an "evil holodeck creations run amok" episode involving evil Troy and evil Abed. Maybe that's too predictable.

guys, please stop trying to make cross-dimensional Community happen

Brilliant.

i hate the 'Abed makes high pitched noise and goes catatonic when upset' thing they've started doing this season, so so awful

Yeah, I don't like that shit either. Some cool stuff in the episode though.

Odds on Abed and Annie hooking up by the end of the season?

i don't think a story where abed magically learns what empathy is is a great look. points for trying, though, i guess. -- jim rash's two minutes were just fantastic, though.

like i feel like there's a lot closed down by going from 'abed is on the spectrum but not to such an extent you wouldn't just take him as being a weird kid sometimes' to 'abed is magically autistic'; it seems weird and distasteful that they retconned his being okay with girls. (in part i'm just not enamored of the narrative possibilities created by making troy and abed function as exaggerated/hyperreal troy and abed all of the time, which setting them up in a blanket fort kind of tends to.) (though i did really enjoy their 'being normal', so i dunno.) (i am sharing my thoughts about the sitcom community on the internet.)

otm

Odds on Abed and Annie hooking up by the end of the season?

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I dunno, I think they've been pretty overt about Troy being torn between wanting to be half of exaggerated/hyperreal Troy & Abed and wanting to be the cool guy who gets girls and is respected as a man by Jeff. But being torn between the cool guy and the nerd has kind of been Troy's thing all along.

i'm expecting the series finale to cross over with that of Fringe

like i feel like there's a lot closed down by going from 'abed is on the spectrum but not to such an extent you wouldn't just take him as being a weird kid sometimes' to 'abed is magically autistic'; it seems weird and distasteful that they retconned his being okay with girls.

Actually agree with this.

I was impressed by what they were doing but you're right: I never thought of him as devoid of empathy before. In fact, the s1 episode where he could make films that consistently showed what everyone in the group would do before they actually did it (because he was a "student of human nature") seemed to suggest quite the opposite. He also never really seemed to have the attitude that other people function at a lower level. They seem to be pushing him into Sheldon Cooper territory. (The "making high-pitched noises and going catatonic" thing seems to fit this too.)

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Perhaps. They made out in s2 and came close in s1. Annie's starting to get over Jeff now and Abed seemed impressed by her 'commitment' in the dreamatorium.

I want to type the word "seem" one more time.

Abed was dating some girl for a few eps too.

How did "Abed doesn't want other people to tinker with group dynamics because he's afraid everyone will outgrow him" get interpreted as "Abed is incapable of meeting or talking to women"?

Yeah where did i say that?

I think people are interpreting this wrongly maybe - the episode's as much about Annie as it is about Abed, I don't think it's really about Abed lacking and then magically gaining empathy at all. It's about the two characters not being able to relate to one another on a one-to-one basis - Abed gets butthurt because Annie accuses him of lacking empathy and then overcompensates by putting himself in the mind of the everyone else in the group. But in doing so he draws a lot out of Annie as well that we haven't heard before and maybe Annie hasn't realised and shows that Annie has her own empathy issues as well, with the two characters meeting in the middle at the end. We've already seen from the psychometric test early in the season that Abed's the psychologically balanced and least sociopathic one.

This was much funnier on the second viewing - Fake Troy on the truth serum cracked me up.

Jeff, Shirley, Pierce and Annie are all pretty lacking in empathy in one way or another.

truth serum Troy was def by far the highlight of the ep (aside from the dean)

i think you're right about a lot of the basic Abed/Annie stuff in the episode but that doesn't change the fact that Abed never bugged his eyes out and made a high pitched whine whenever someone sat in his spot on the couch something upset him in the first 2 seasons.

http://www.vulture.com/2012/04/seitz-community-is-tvs-most-ambitious-show.html

Abed/Annie stuff in the episode but that doesn't change the fact that Abed never bugged his eyes out and made a high pitched whine whenever someone sat in his spot on the couch something upset him in the first 2 seasons.

I haven't seen this week's episode but I swear to god I saw him do the whine thing before

he did it when the british show britta introduced him to ended and she turned him onto inspector spacetime to calm him down

I haven't seen this week's episode but I swear to god I saw him do the whine thing before

― da croupier, Saturday, April 21, 2012 2:32 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

he did, it was in the first episode of s3 that also introduced Inspector Spacetime (aka the episode that i will forever shake my fist at)

ha yeah i had my issues with that episode, too. knock on wood i'll be able to stand in judgment of this one within the next 12 hours

I haven't seen the new Doctor Who shows but i imagine this was a parody of that. Was it really close, stylistically?

If anything it's a parody of old Doctor Who but not a particularly closely observed one.

I agree that Abed's whine is an annoying character development, as is his being borderline aggressive in his obstinacy. I prefer the Abed we saw in the Christmas episode and the first season or so. But I still don't think the writers are doing what Thomp and others are claiming with his character.

@Danharmon As we say on twitter: Squee! RT @KarenGillan2 Haha! Loving #inspectorspacetime on #community brilliant.

matt i think yr reading (oy) would be fine without abed's monologue at the end where he explicitly states he has 'learned how to enter the minds of others'

How did "Abed doesn't want other people to tinker with group dynamics because he's afraid everyone will outgrow him" get interpreted as "Abed is incapable of meeting or talking to women"?

― I need new, hip khakis (DJP), Saturday, 21 April 2012 16:27 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

stuff like: the sight gag here which hinges on his being unable to visualise what a couple making out would look like. i would go back and look for other evidence of how they've done this but i mean, then i'd be a person who went back and looked for evidence to argue a point about the sitcom community on the internet

Abed's ability with women was demonstrated in S2, he just never decides to use it.

with eliza coupe, no less

I completely forgot that episode with Coupe!

(But, really his ability was demonstrated in the "billiards" ep in s1.)

[ / pedant]

i forgot about that bit with Coupe also. also never realized it was her! damn those shades.