Community/Recap/S1/E12 Comparative Religion: Difference between revisions

=== The ''[[Community]]'' episode "Comparative Religion" features examples of: ===

* [[Acceptable Religious Targets]]: [[In-Universe]]. Jeff gets more flak for being an agnostic than Britta does for being atheist.

* [[Actor Allusion]]: Mike (played by Anthony Michael Hall) is described by Pierce as "used to be a [[The Breakfast Club|nerd]], now he's a [[Edward Scissorhands|meathead]]."

* [[Actor Shared Background]]: Although many thought they were just assigning Annie a religion arbitrarily, Alison Brie actually is Jewish. And Donald Glover was raised as a Jehovah's Witness.

** --> '''Troy:''' This nose smells like "[[Community/Recap/S1 E08 Home Economics|special drink]]."

* [[Cannot Tell a Joke]]: Mike.

'''Jeff:''' ... Who's there? }}

* [[The Cast Showoff]]: Yvette Nicole Brown gets to show off her singing voice. Also, Donald Glover displays some pretty nice harmonizing skills in the skit running over the end credits.

* [[Do They Know It's Christmas Time?]]/[[You Mean "Xmas"]]: Subverted, averted, and played straight all throughout.

** Dean Pelton's announcement managed to avoid using any 'denominational' terms to describe the holidays.

** They do refer to Christmas several times.

'''Shirley:''' Joy to the world / The Lord is come / The Lord, the Lord, the Lord! }}

** After Shirley discovers everyone is of a different religion, she tries to incorporate something from every religion into her planned Christmas party, though (very) reluctantly.

** In the end, Shirley keeps Jeff from saying "Merry Christmas" to say "Merry Holiday" instead. But it turns out Jeff was going to say:

* [[Double Entendre]]/[[Heh, Heh, You Said "X"]]: Jeff commends Pierce on not reacting to Shirley commenting on the Dean "shoving his [[Political Correctness Gone Mad|PC-ness]] down my throat." Turns out the only reason was that Pierce didn't get it until Jeff pointed it out.

* [[Dramatic Pause]]: [[Lampshaded]] by Señor Chang:

* [[Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting]]: The ending.

* [[Foe Yay]]/[[Ho Yay]]: Parodied; Britta is utterly ''obsessed'' with the homoerotic tensions in the fight between Jeff and Mike... that only she can see.

* [[Hollywood Atheist]]: Averted. We learn that Britta is an atheist and Jeff's agnostic, but neither is particularly bitter or obnoxious about it. Both go out of their way to politely accommodate Shirley's overtly Christian holiday plans, and Shirley's actually the more obnoxious when it comes to other people's beliefs here.

* [[Hollywood Jehovah's Witness]]: Averted. Troy is revealed to be a Jehovah's Witness and as such doesn't celebrate Christmas. However, you couldn't tell that he was a Jehovah's Witness if he didn't say so.

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: Following the Dean's "Mr. Winter" announcement, Shirley expresses irritation at the Dean "[[Political Correctness Gone Mad|jamming his]] [[Double Entendre|PC-ness]] [[Political Correctness Gone Mad|down my throat]]." Shirley proceeds to spend pretty much the rest of the episode forcing her beliefs on everyone.

** The [[Last-Second Word Swap]] example; Jeff's not impressed when Troy can't think of another word to replace 'fight' ("''Idiot.''") but then, when ''he'' tries, can't think of a replacement word either.

* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Annie takes slight whenever someone says "a Jew" instead of "Jewish [person]". Of course, anyone saying "Jew" is doing so in a vaguely offensive context...

* [[Jerk Jock]]: Mike.

'''Mike:''' Dude my ''life'' is a gym! }}

* [[Last-Second Word Swap]]: Subverted and lampshaded:

'''Jeff:''' Idiot. He meant we were figh- ...ting. It ''is'' hard to think of another word. }}

* [[Motionless Makeover]]: Oh Christmas Troy! Oh Christmas Troy!

* [[Rite of Passage]]: According to Pierce, being punched in the face is one for men.

* [[Shirtless Scene]]: Mike's gang in the climax:

'''Britta:''' I'm being Punk'd, right? }}

* [[Significant Reference Date]]: December 10th.

* [[Teach Me How to Fight]]

* [[Team Mom]]: Deconstructed; Shirley usually fulfills the role in a more benevolent fashion, but here she explicitly does so in a passive-aggressive and emotionally manipulative manner designed to guilt trip and browbeat her friends into doing what she wants to do how she wants to with little consideration for their thoughts on the subject. It's also pointed out that she's not ''actually'' their mother, no matter how much she acts like it, and so has no right to do this sort of thing.

'''Jeff:''' That's "mom" for "mad"! }}

* [[To the Tune Of]]: "Comparative Religion" ends with the group performing an inclusive, secularized rewrite of "Silent Night". (''Sensible night, appropriate night / Snow on ground, left and right...'')

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: The team eventually call Shirley out for her guilt-tripping ("You're a guilt machine!") and her insensitive, obnoxious and hypocritical attitude towards both their religious beliefs and Jeff's fight.

* [[What Would X Do?|What Would Shirley Do?]]: Jeff eventually asks himself this when confronting Mike. He initially reasons that she'd seek a peaceful resolution. However, when Mike throws this peaceful approach back in his face, he receives confirmation of what Shirley would ''actually'' do from the source herself:

* [[Yaoi Fangirl]]: Britta. She encourages Jeff to work out his issues with Mike without fighting. (Though it's less active encouragement than relentless mockery of both the incident and her perception of [[Foe Yay|fighting itself as homoerotic.]])