Community/Recap/S2/E11 Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas: Difference between revisions

* [[Affectionate Parody]]: Of the [[Rankin/Bass Productions|Rankin/Bass]] stop-motion Christmas specials, but especially [[Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer]].

* [[Alas, Poor Villain]]: {{spoiler|Professor Duncan and Britta. Especially Britta, as she honestly did try to help Abed}}.

{{quote|"Abed sees Jeff as a big talking head with limited practical functionality, and he sees Pierce as maybe deserving of more love than he gets, and sees Troy as a soldier, and sees Britta as a malfunctioning device, and sees Annie as a creature of grace, and sees Shirley as a big baby who feels entitled to the Christmas of her choosing."}}

* [[An Asskicking Christmas]]: The group beats the snot out of Duncan.

* [[Art Shift]]: The entire episode ''is'' [[Stop Motion]]-animated afterall, and Abed's noticing of the art shift that no other character notices is central to episode's plot.

* [[Big Red Button]]: It summons the Christmas pterodactyl! Also initiates the self-destruct.

** [[Break the Cutie]]: {{spoiler|Duncan later does it to Abed, using his mother's absence.}}

* [[The Cast Showoff]]: Somewhat averted; Alison Brie, who sings a bit in real life, was asked to tone down her performances because people would find it unrealistic that Annie is a good singer. Played straight with Yvette Nicole Brown, who belts her section of the song.

* [[Christmas Episode]]

* [[Jerkass]]: Duncan is less interested in helping Abed than in getting a paper published on his delusions, making the enabling of Abed's delusions less worrisome and more heartening instead. And towards the end of the episode, even these self-interested-yet-mildly-benevolent intentions appear to be replaced by simple spite towards Abed {{spoiler|for reminding Duncan how crummy his own Christmases were as a kid}}.

** [[Jerkass Woobie]]: He becomes a lot more sympathetic once we see how unhappy his own Christmas' were after his dad left.

* [[Medium Awareness]]:

** Abed sees that they are all in stop motion. Nobody else does - until the end credits, when {{spoiler|Troy}}goes into it.

** Any sympathy gained by it is pretty much negated by his [[Jerkass]] behavior at the end of the episode, but Duncan's outburst about his missing father and terrible home life counts.

** One that doubles as [[Fridge Brilliance]]: Of course Pierce is the only one to {{spoiler|stay 'til the end}}: this is his {{spoiler|first Christmas without his mom}}, too.

* [[Traintop Battle]]: Christmas Warlock Duncan chases Abed atop the train.

* [[True Meaning of Christmas]]: Of course. It turns out to be that the meaning of Christmas is the idea that Christmas has no inherent meaning, and it means different things to everybody.

{{quote|'''Dan Harmon:''' I remember there was this little elf girl. There was a visit to Duncan’s office where you actually meet all the broken toys outside the hallway. Christmas is a booming time for Duncan because of all the suicide attempts and thoughts and things, and there’s this little redhead elf girl out in the hallway who Abed befriends, and he indoctrinates her into the ability to willfully deny reality and just engage in this fascination. It just got too fucking dark. [Laughs.] Because she ended up killing herself again or attempting it. And it was like, “Oh my God, there was no way. I can’t even watch this.”}}