Community/Recap/S2/E13 Celebrity Pharmacology



The study group is helping Annie put on a play to educate about drugs. Pierce has some ideas on how to 'improve' the performance, and follows Annie home to discuss these changes. After assisting Annie with a financial problem, he uses this leverage to get his changes to the play. When Pierce's scene stealing antics threaten to ruin the message, only Chang is able to right this wrong.

The Community episode "Celebrity Pharmacology 212" provides examples of:
"Chang: Is it because I'm Korean? Shirley: You're Chinese. Chang: Like there's a difference."
 * Abusive Parents: Pierce's father was a bastard.
 * Accidental Innuendo: All over the place.
 * Actor Allusion: This episode has nothing to do with Chevy Chase's troubles with drugs.
 * All Asians Are Alike: Chang apparently suffers from this.

"Annie: What are you doing here? Pierce: Never mind that, there's a rapist in the hallway. Annie: That's my landlord, and if he wanted you raped you'd be raped."
 * Also Lampshade Hanging. Chang is being played by Ken Jeong, who's Korean.
 * The Cast Showoff: Pierce, in universe, derailing Annie's show.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Those baseballs won't be making a reappearance.
 * Broken Aesop: In-Universe. Annie's anti-drug abuse play for middle schooler backfires thanks to Pierce's interference. The intermission ends up with a room full of middle-schoolers chanting for drugs.
 * Call Back: Annie's bad neighborhood makes one last appearance. She lives over Dildopolis.
 * Ceiling Banger: In the tag with Annie banging on her floor when she's kept awake by PA sales announcements at the dildo store beneath her apartment.
 * Crazy Awesome: Is Chang's drugs monologue brilliance on his part, or does he really want to do all those horrible things?
 * Yes.
 * Crosses the Line Twice

"Little Girl: I love you, Drugs!"
 * Do Not Do This Cool Thing: The study group put on an anti-drug show for a group of elementary school children, but the kids love Pierce's performance as "Drugs" so much it backfires. The situation is ultimately remedied by forcing Pierce to leave and replacing him with Chang.
 * Family-Unfriendly Aesop: In-Universe. Pierce teaches kids to love drugs. Everyone is appalled.

"Abed: Do you think bees ever eat their own honey? Troy: I'm sure they've at least tasted it."
 * Freudian Excuse: Shown in a childhood film. Pierce's inappropriateness, overzealous creativity, and pathological need to be accepted at all cost are all possibly due to frustrations getting attention from his father.
 * Friends Rent Control
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar:

"Shirley: That's a suicide mission! Chang: Did someone say crazy PERSOOOOOON?! Everyone: No. Chang: Well, I heard it."
 * Incest Subtext
 * Inadvertent Entrance Cue / Incoming Ham: Parodied:

"Annie: You don't count, Britta, you don't respond to anything appropriately. Britta: Thank you!"
 * Insult Backfire: Lampshaded.


 * Love Letter Lunacy
 * Manipulative Bastard: Pierce dials it up this time.
 * Mistaken Message
 * Playing Cyrano: Jeff tries to do this for Britta. Did not go well.
 * Replacement Scrappy / The Other Darrin: An Invoked In-universe example. Pierce's character Drugs from the school play becomes the most popular character, leaving a room-full of middle schoolers shouting for "Drugs." The gang re-casts Drugs as Chang, so the audience will hate the character.
 * Shout-Out: Abed apparently thought smoking weed just made people paint vans and solve mysteries.
 * What Could Have Been: The episode started off as an attempt to mirror Chevy Chase's tenure on Saturday Night Live. The bee costumes are an allusion to the fistfight between Chase and Bill Murray when the former was a guest host in the second season, which was allegedly broken up by a bee-costumed John Belushi.