Community/Recap/S3/E11 Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts



Following an extravagant re-marriage proposal from her ex-husband Andre, Shirley decides to put her plan to open a sandwich shop in the Greendale cafeteria on hold to instead concentrate on planning the wedding. Outraged at this example of Shirley putting her role as a traditional housewife over her career dreams, Britta insists that she and Annie plan the wedding while Shirley instead concentrates on her business pitch, with Pierce -- recently fired from Hawthorne Wipes upon the death of his father, and looking to start a business of his own -- providing the funding. However, this ends up backfiring when Britta suffers a crisis of identity upon discovering a hidden talent for arranging weddings.

Jeff, who has been asked to write a toast celebrating the happy couple, finds himself undergoing a crisis of his own when his cynicism about marriage and his failure to produce a speech ends up digging up old wounds. Troy and Abed, meanwhile, decide to purge their systems of 'weirdness' and become 'normal' for the ceremony.

"Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts", the mid-season premiere for the second half of Community's third season, was delayed after the show was placed on hiatus by NBC, eventually airing on March 15th 2012.

The Community episode "Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts" provides examples of:
"Pierce: "Look at me now Dad!""
 * Accidentally Accurate: The show generally does a pretty good job of including up-to-date topical references, so Britta's reference to "people dying in Uganda" would seem to be another instance of this in light of the media storm about Kony 2012 in the week the episode was aired, and which would be a natural thing for her to reference -- except that this episode was written and shot months before that particular story flared up, and it just happened to be pure coincidence (although, of course, the situation in Uganda had been bad well before "Kony 2012").
 * Amazing Freaking Grace: an R&B a capella version, of course.
 * Ascended Fanon: Danielle is actually Danielle Harmon the Tranny Dance Winner.
 * Bored With Insanity: Troy and Abed get all their weirdness out in the Dreamatorium so they'll be perfectly normal for Shirley's wedding. Their idea of perfectly normal, anyway.
 * Brand X: Annie's can of soda pop is unmistakably Sprite, but labeled generically as Soda.
 * Call Back:
 * Like in "Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts", a significant and traditionally sentimental event in Shirley's life ends up with Jeff and Britta struggling to maintain their ironic-cool, detached and above-everything personas in the face of it (the birth of her child in the prior episode, her re-marriage to Andre here), with both ultimately revealing they're not as aloof as they'd like others to believe on the subject. For Britta, her Straw Feminist-views on Shirley's situation and consequent sense of superiority also end up backfiring and making her look foolish in both cases.
 * Also from this episode, when injured by the 'trouser bench', Pierce begging "would someone please call all the ambulances?" reflects the Dean asking "would someone please get all the mops?" when Shirley's water breaks.
 * Also, Annie hums the song "Daybreak" from Abed's horror story in "Horror Fiction In Seven Spooky Steps", which she probably picked up from Troy.
 * A Take That is dealt to Jim Belushi, as in "Interpretive Dance".
 * This episode continues the theme of how Jeff's dad walked out on him and his mother while Jeff was a kid, and how this has ended up with Jeff being completely messed up as an adult, as seen in "Intermediate Documentary Making" and "Advanced Gay".
 * It also continues the theme of Pierce's issues with his own father.

"Annie: What about pink?
 * Annie's Boobs makes an appearance.
 * The way Abed attempts to be normal is reminiscent of "his birthday dinner with Jeff".
 * Call a Rabbit A Smeerp: Apparently, this is a major principle of floral-arrangement-designer-persons:

Dale: We don’t call it pink. We don’t call anything by its name, that’s like day 1 floral school stuff. [pointing at flowers] This is citrine. This is opalescent. This is sea-glass, cameo and cerulean."

"Pierce: Look at me now, Dad!
 * Disappeared Dad: Jeff's drunken 'toast' reveals that his views on marriage have been informed by his father walking out on his mother and him.
 * Dissimile: Britta compares marriage to a Tea Party. Except the dolls are women, and the men are making them talk, and they aren't drinking tea, but antiquated gender roles.
 * Eureka Moment: Parodied and lampshaded when Shirley gets an unusual reminder of her wedding rehearsal:

Shirley: 'Dad'? Oh my God, I'm supposed to be looking like a bride at my wedding rehearsal to the dad of my children! I'm coming, baby! [She runs off]

Dean: [Puzzled] That was... an odd dot to connect."

"Britta: This may shock you Annie, but I come from a long line of wives and mothers!
 * Generation Xerox: Britta becomes drunk and despondent when she thinks she will end up married like the other women in her family.

Annie: Many do."

"We'll try not to embarrass you at your community college library wedding."
 * Gilligan Cut: Annie suggests that Pierce is more mature and grown-up than he's given credit for. Cut to Pierce, drunkenly ranting at his father's grave.
 * Hidden Depths:
 * Britta, a Straw Feminist who rails against traditional roles for women and domesticity, reveals a hidden talent for floral arrangement and wedding planning. Even Britta is shocked, and disgusted, by this revelation.
 * Subverted with Jeff. Annie believes there's a real person in Jeff and he just needs to dig deep. Cut to a montage of images in his heart consisting of poker, women, cars, and alcohol. Possible Double Subversion, however, in that one of the only 'real' things that appear is Annie.
 * And her boobs.
 * Hypocritical Humor:
 * Jeff and Britta loudly dismiss the idea and institution of marriage before Shirley enters the room, only to immediately and loudly switch to praising Shirley as soon as she enters.
 * Troy is also not particularly impressed by Shirley's demand that he and Abed act 'normal' at her wedding, since she's holding it in the study room:

"Britta: When's our culture gonna outgrow this wedding thing?
 * I Need a Freaking Drink: Both Britta and Jeff hit the sauce over their conflicting hatred and fatalism over marriage.
 * I Resemble That Remark:

Annie: You're anti-wedding now?

Jeff: Oh, she's just pro-anti.

Britta: No to everything you both said!

Abed: (Scoff! scoff! scoff! scoff! scoff! scoff! scoff! scoff!) It's the noise people make when they're offended in all the movies Annie rents.

Annie: (Scoff!)"

"Britta: Shirley, if that really is your excuse, I'll plan your wedding for you!
 * It Will Never Catch On: Andre, who owns a stereo store, apparently thought this about iPods.
 * Law of Disproportionate Response: Britta is driven to binge-drinking, a complete identity crisis and the depths of despair essentially over the fact that she turns out to be good at flower-arranging and wedding planning.
 * Meta Guy: Even when they're deliberately acting normal, Troy and Abed fall into this when they start commentating on Jeff and Britta's argument.
 * Metaphorgotten: "I know what an analogy is. It's like a thought, with another thought's hat on."
 * My God You Are Serious / You Have Got to Be Kidding Me: Taken up to eleven:

Shirley: (Manic laughter)

Title Card: Literally two full minutes later...

Shirley: (Catches her breath and hands a water bottle back to a concerned passerby, still laughing) (to passerby) Ooh-hoo! Thank you. (to Britta) Oh my good God... Thank you for that...

Britta: (deeply offended) I was serious!

Shirley: (stares incredulously)

Title Card: One minute later...

Shirley: (deadly serious) Britta, you're not planning my wedding."

"Abed: (Calmly) What, Shirley's late to the rehearsal for her wedding? Oh my.
 * Noodle Implements: Troy and Abed step out of the Dreamatorium in streamer-covered black unitards, Hawthorne Sr.'s ivory toupee, and a Kickpuncher mask.
 * Not So Above It All: Jeff and Britta, when it comes to marriage.
 * Product Placement: Subway is to open a franchise at Greendale, snatching Shirley's planned sandwich restaurant out from under her.
 * The Power of Love: Subverted. When Jeff writes the toast for Shirley's wedding, we are led to believe he will write it based on his feelings of Annie. Turns out, he bases it on alcohol instead.
 * Ridiculously Average Guys: Troy and Abed try to be this for Shirley's wedding.
 * Sarcasm Mode: Troy and Abed's "normal mode" comes off as this.

Andre: Hey, man. You don't have to be sarcastic.

Abed: I'm not being sarcastic.

Troy: (Calmly) We're heavily invested in your situation. Nothing's more important to us than your second wedding's rehearsal going smoothly.

Andre: ... Walk away, man."

"Dean Pelton: That's me! Where did I get all the money I'm holding?"
 * Self Deprecation: Dean Pelton cannot believe that Shirley actually learned some useful business sense at Greendale.
 * Shout Out:
 * Pierce spends the first half of the episode dressed as Michael Douglas's character from the film Wall Street.
 * Troy and Abed mention a wedding episode of Inspector Spacetime.
 * Britta makes a ("Britta'd") reference to something called The Steppenwolf Wives.
 * Ship Tease: In the montage of images that represent everything in Jeff's 'heart', Annie pops up quite a lot. As well as her cleavage at one point.
 * Sincerity Mode: Abed insists this after being Normalized.
 * Stay in The Kitchen:
 * Andre has some conflicts over Shirley being the breadwinner.
 * Britta seems to view marriage as fundamentally this for women, leading to an alcohol-fueled breakdown when it turns out she's good at planning weddings.
 * Take That: Again, to Jim Belushi.
 * Thief Bag: A drawing of the Dean holding one in each hand is used in Shirley and Pierce's slide presentation to him about opening a sandwich shop on campus.


 * Why Waste a Wedding: Played with. While drunk, Jeff and Britta decide to get married, at the rehearsal for Shirley and Andre's wedding. Later, the minister convinces Shirley and Andre to cancel the scheduled wedding, having been practically married at the rehearsal.