Community/WMG

Future Plot

What Jeff's old lawyer buddy said about being the head of Jeff's old firm was a lie.

The third season finale sees the return of Jeff's old co-lawyer, Alan, who ratted Jeff out to the state bar and cost him his lawyer job. He says that he is now the top dog at Jeff's old firm, even though Jeff helped the guy reach a partnership position by praising him to the head of firm, Ted (played by Drew Carey) in the second season.
My thesis is that Alan's claim that Ted was eaten by sharks and thus no longer in charge of the firm was a lie. After all, Jeff would have been smart enough to--metaphorically--keep his ear to the ground and would have heard this news. But Alan couldn't just return to the law firm with his tail between his legs because he couldn't even beat Jeff Winger in mock court, so he concocted the story on the fly to convince Jeff to throw the case by appealing to his previous narcissism.

Robert Laybourne will be the Big Bad of Season 3, with Chang as his Dragon.

Season 3 will end with Jeff graduating, recovering his law degree, and tricking Laybourne into readjusting the Greendale Charter to reinclude the A/C Repair Annex, putting the Dean back in charge.
- Alternately, Laybourne will conspire with City College's dean to completely oust Pelton.

Alternate theory: There will be a showdown between Dean Laybourne and Troy, and Chang will be a Spanner in the Works

As a Manipulative Bastard and the true master of Greendale, Dean Laybourne will try every trick in the book, including trying to create a "spark" that will lead to that moment in the trailer where the greendale 7 are expelled from the school. (temporarily) However, in a fit of psychotic control, Chang will somehow louse it up due to his desire to become the true master of Greendale. With his Child Soldier army, he will wage a private war against the Air conditioning for control over the puppeteer, leading to him destroying the Annex's power, bringing back the Greendale 7 and setting up season four with CHANG as Big Bad, in a Who's Laughing Now? situation as Greendale Dictator.

Possible Third Season Homages:

A Big Bang Theory parody. Like Glee they are their competitors for the same timeslot on different channels.
- Or more likely, a parody of three camera sitcoms in general.
An ep about rebooting horror story characters and a fight of preboot vs reboot characters.
An ep about the My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic phenomenon and the Animation Age Ghetto

Britta will be the jerk of this season, like Pierce in season 2

Maybe not the jerk, but there have been some hints that she may be the "friend-we-have-to-save-from-themselves of season 3. In "Geography of Global Conflict" we see her conflicted between her new goal of becoming a psychologist and her old desire to be a rabble-rouser, and in "Remedial Chaos Theory" we see that she's begun smoking pot. When these signs are combined with the personality traits Britta routinely exhibits (strident, insecure, well-meaning but usually blowing her execution), we have ingredients for a major meltdown before season's end.
- Begun smoking pot? We don't know that this is new for her, just that she's worse at hiding it.

Jeff will be the jerk of this season, like Pierce in season 2

in "Biology 101" Jeff is excluded from the study group and undergoes a condensed rapid-fire version of Pierce's villainous character arc in season 2, with several Not So Different moments throughout. Since then, almost all the episodes have focussed, either overtly or subtly, on how Jeff is in several ways a less-than-positive influence on the group, culminating in the ending of "Remedial Chaos Theory", where the timeline where he is absent from the room is ultimately the one that ends the happiest for all the members of the group. This suggests that Jeff is going to be the outsider of the group just as Pierce was the previous year -- or at the very least, he's in for a serious deconstruction over the course of the season.

Jeff will not go back to being a lawyer after he graduates.

Or, at least, not the same kind as before. Greendale has grown on him and, in turn, has made him grow a heart. Once he tries to go back to his firm he'll realize that he can't defend any of their morally ambiguous clients anymore-- not without it weighing heavy on his newly-developed conscience. If he does return to law, he'll end up fighting against injustices instead of for them.

Britta will have a relationship of some kind with Starburns.

I mean, come on, the pizza dude looks uncannily like him. That can't be coincidental. And with some of the relationships we've already gotten, or even the ones that have only been hinted, this one seems kinda tame, in comparison.

Jossed/Confirmed He's dead, as of the Law & Order parody episode, but Britta's poorly-planned impersonation of Starburns to help the group deal with their grief in the following episode involves her accidental admission that she had made out with him while under the influence of alcohol.

Abed will be the villain in the final season

Let's say maybe for the fourth season as everyone graduates (possibly). As a Meta Guy he will think of the show ending as sort of an apocalypse that he will deal with by living out every insane idea he has. He may even attempt to Jump the Shark as a personal sacrifice.

There will be a paintball episode in Season 3.

And it will be Greendale Vs. The Air Conditioning Repair School.
- Alternately, Greendale invades City College as revenge, in an episode based on spy fiction tropes. Annie as a Bond Girl, anyone?
Jossed. Season Three's fake clip show, "Curriculum Unavailable," includes a black-and-white scene from a Prohibition Era Gangsters style paintball episode. After the flashback, the group agrees that they should "never do another paintball."

Senor Chang is going to join Jeff's Study Group.

Well, he's spent the last season becoming the breakout character. He doesn't even know that much spanish. It would seem he needs some friends. Just a guess.

Confirmed in the second season premiere.
- Though, half way through the season, Chang's still not in the group.

Evil!Troy and Evil!Abed will come back to Reality Prime...

...and gather up Annie Kim, Todd, and three other people who have been wronged by members of the group to create an evil study group. Since Jim Rash is in the principal cast now, Dean Laybourne might get in on the act. They will proceed to have an ultimate showdown in the most high-stakes paintball finale yet.

Crazier sub-theory: Evil!Troy and Evil!Abed will reach reality prime with the help of Inspector Spacetime and the DARSIT.
Bleaker sub-theory: Evil!Troy and Evil!Abed will secretly "supplant" the prime versions. And we only find out in the stinger of the finale.
The head of the Air Conditioner annex could use the evil study group as his way to get rid of Dean Pelton (to combine with a theory below) by pitting his team against the "prime group" in a paintball match. An added thing could be that it then changes from paintballs to Nerf weapons or other such toys from both Abeds trying to one-up each other in their battle of wits.
As of Contemporary Impressionists, Evil Abed found a way to cross back to the Prime Timeline.
Crazy theory as of Course Listing Unavailable: Abed mentions being given Starburns' video will and urn by a "one-armed lawyer" and seems to make a point of the fact that this lawyer was missing his right arm. Has Evil!Jeff somehow found a way to the Prime timeline?

Pierce will end up dating someone's mom.

Maybe Jeff's. Cue hilarious You're Not My Father arguments.

The season 3 finale will not involve paintball.

Dean Pelton has ample reason to head that off at the pass this year. So he'll try to have some kind of year-end competition that will (obstensibly) cause less property damage. (This troper thinks that Nerf or boffer/foam weapons would be interesting.)

Danny Pudi (Abed's actor) will be/is in Knights Of Badassdom. Of course, there's always the possibility that there Won't Be No Rule about wet-paint spells/props...
OR the Dean will attempt to have another event, but it just turns to paintball anyway.
This is pretty much confirmed by Curriculum Unavailable, where we are shown a brief clip of an (unseen) paintball battle that took place some time is Season 3, this time themed around mafia movies. In that same episode, Abed says that they should never play paintball again and the group agrees.

Shirley eventually is going to be chased by a werewolf.

We did see one briefly when Jeff is playing pool against Coach Bogner in "Physical Education."
- In the commentary for "Physical Education," Dan Harmon said that the particularly hirsute character in the background was purely coincidental, and that he only wished he could have planned such a development. Although he could be lying.

There will be a power struggle between Jeff and Chang once Chang joins the group.

Let's face it, Chang loves being in control and using that control to make people pissed. No way he's going to lay back and let Jeff call the shots.

He may attempt a coup but everyone would immediately back Jeff.
Jossed.

Troy is going to become the Team Dad.

While he's not the most Book Smart member of the group, he's one of the more level headed and responsible. He gets major maturity points in his birthday episode. While a lot of his humor is childish, he has a sense of right and wrong and seems to be fairly dependable. In contrast, Jeff ends up being a victim of his vices a lot, and is a little more self-concerned.

- If not necessarily the Team Dad, he's at least becoming the Hero. Along with the birthday episode, he led the group's space mission, and saved them all from becoming zombies.

The Air conditioning School has a particle accelerator.

And that is how Evil Abed will make a timeline crossing british phone booth to conquer the prime line's group... with paint ball.

Vicki and Fat Neil are going to get married.

They will have the Study Group help plan their wedding since the Study Group helped Neil to come out of his shell.

Troy and Abed will actually start dating.

At this point, every single scene of theirs together seems to be leading up to it and the group regularly refers to them as More Than Friends. It's also mentioned during the Community Comic Con panel that Troy and Abed get a Relationship Upgrade.

The group will all work at Greendale after they graduate

With Jeff teaching law, Abed teaching a film class, Troy as the football coach or alternately a plumber, Britta teaching a psych class, Shirley teaching religion, and Pierce as guidance councilor.

Troy is the chosen one who will unite air-conditioner repairmen and plumbers, and forge a new age of brotherhood between all maintenance workers.

It's made obvious in the end of Advanced Gay that he is some sort of line walker with the powers of both groups, which is a good start if you're going to be a messiah.
- Partially Confirmed: As of Introduction to Finality, he has become the True Repairman, who will Repair Man.

Jeff's father will be a plot line

Specifically, it will be revealed that his father died in an accident barely a year after he left Jeff and his mom.

There will be at least one other episode based on something from "Paradigms of Human Memory"

"Regional Holiday Music" has much of its plot derived from the Glee joke in that episode. A third iteration of the Boob-A-Tron, perhaps?

The Grand Finale of Community will be a Distant Finale.

The production team and NBC mentioned that the rest of season 3 will be aired eventually. Thus, as a final offset to the uncertainty, the production team's last episode will be at a Greendale reunion where all the students and teachers of Greendale get back together to reveal what they all ended up doing with their lives. If desired, include potential gags from said episode below.
To be honest, the only way I would be satisfied with a grand finale is if the study group is sitting around the table, someone suggests they go to lunch, Jeff says he needs to do something, and he cancels his table for one that he mentioned early in the show.

The show will use another fake Clip Show similiar to "Paradigm of Human Memory" to cover events that took place during the extended hiatus in Season 3.

Yup.

If there's a fourth season, the study group will be working together for a History class.

Since the existing seasons each had a central theme built around the class, as mentioned on the main page, I figure that the fourth one- which will likely be the final one before the characters graduate- will deal with them coming to terms with their past histories and development, not only during the series but before it as well.

Robert Laybourne has been replaced with his evil counterpart

We know that the Evil Universe Study Group is trying to break into the real world. Evil!Troy and Evil!Abed teamed up with Evil!Laybourne (who has a beard and ponytail and is going through some stuff right now), built a machine that could teleport people between worlds using Evil!Troy's super AC skills (the machine needs to be really, really cold), and sent Evil!Laybourne to replace himself and recruit Troy to the AC Repair School, where he will either be replaced with Evil!Troy outright, or tricked into helping build another teleporter that would allow all the Evil Study Group members to be invade en masse. The season finale will involve Abed using his One of Us powers to realise Troy has been replaced and investigate the AC Repair School.

Troy and Abed will switch roles at some point (metaphorically speaking).

In the second half of the season, one of the undercurrents of tension between Troy and Abed is that Abed tends to be the one who leads and Troy is the one who follows, as represented by the fact that in their Inspector Spacetime role-play Abed is always the Inspector and Troy is always Constable Reggie. It would seem that a natural way to resolve this plot and demonstrate development between them and their friendship would be to present some circumstance whether they either had to or Abed was willing to surrender the role of the Inspector to Troy and to himself take on the role of the Constable.

Past Plot

Pierce got Levar Burton to appear by...

contacting him on Twitter. Pierce saw Troy's tweets of what he was saying before he knew it was him "I'm Stuff Old White Man Says!?". After Levar spends all that time with Troy, it adds further meaning to where he says he's giving up on Twitter in his cameo on BBT.

Abed lied about the results of his algorithm.

The expression on his face when Jeff wants to see them is a dead give away. He lucked out that Britta wanted to help him.

In her timeline in "Remedial Chaos Theory", Britta got high with the pizza guy

Probably more of an obvious implication than a real WMG, but it would explain why she decides to marry him and why he bugs out at Abed's mention of "other timelines."
- Either this, or they were both already high -- it's implied that Britta's a little high even before she goes into the bathroom, and everyone comments on how weird the pizza guy is -- and they bonded over how high they both were.

The entire episode "Competitive Ecology" takes place not in the prime timeline but in alternate timeline 6 from "Remedial Chaos Theory".

Three pieces evidence for this.

The prime timeline is the only timeline that Pierce is shown to not reveal during the housewarming party he had sex with Eartha Kitt in an airport once.
- In "Competitive Ecology" Pierce uses telling the group this as an example of their closeness for Professor Kane.
Timeline 6 is the only timeline where Britta admits she is high to Shirley. Shirely appears to be genuinely unaware of Britta's drug usage before this.
- In "Competitive Ecology" when Britta burns the ballots Shirley identifies the source of ignition as Britta's "marijuana lighter".
In "Remedial Chaos Theory", timeline 6 ends with Pierce and Troy, Shirley and Britta, Annie and Jeff all in argument. This fresh tension may explain the level of dysfunction, read unwillingness for some pairs to work together, seen in "Competitive Ecology".

Jossed by Dan Harmon himself, he ain't that evil.

The music in "Regional Holiday Music" is all (or at least partly) in their heads.

It's part of the weird brainwashing-madness thing that seems to go down before people join the glee club; those who are not in the club can't hear anything, which is why the performance by the second glee club at the beginning had no soundtrack despite their elaborate song-and-dance routines (it was in their heads, but since our viewpoint characters weren't yet in the club, we couldn't hear them). When Abed is being conditioned, he is initially self-aware enough to question why he can hear a piano playing when there's clearly no one playing it, but is soon sucked in and forgets all about it. The other times we hear music are when someone conditioned into the club is conditioning someone else into it, so in reality there's either no music at all or we're hearing what the conditioned characters are hearing rather than what everyone else is hearing; for example, when Troy and Abed are singing "Baby Boomer Santa", they think the song sounds great, but since they're clearly not playing their instruments correctly there's either no sound at all or what sound there is sounds basically like a horrible, ill-played cacophony (explaining why the others look so horrified by what's happening). It's also partly why the music abruptly stopped when Britta came on stage in the pageant to do her routine -- everyone was so stunned by what was happening the effect was broken.

The revealed results of the psychological evaluations in "Horror Fiction In Seven Spooky Steps" should not be taken at face value.

Basing a diagnosis on a single self-report survey is most like going to be error prone, and the results the various study group members may all be false positives.

Jeff's results are the easiest to explain he flat out admits to filling out the questionnaire randomly. He may exhibit signs of narcissism and possibly even sociopathy but his results on the evaluation can't really be used.
- He also does seem to have HUGE father issues, and he can get pretty violent (remember when Pierce bequeathed him his "father"?), but he remarks multiple times that he and Abed are the only sane ones.
- Jeff is also clearly established in a later episode to be in therapy, suggesting some issues at least. And let's face it, we can hardly rely on his own self-reporting when it comes to how 'sane' he is; he's not exactly going to come out and admit to it.
Britta's results can be explained by her unknowingly messing up answering the questionnaire (i.e. she Britta'd it like always). She may have skipped a question or filled it a question twice getting the rest of her results out of order.
Shirley's results can be explained by a simple social desirability bias. She answered the questionnaire as she believed an upright Christian fundamentalist is expected to behave and not on her own behavior.
- She also has thinly veiled rage issues, as demonstrated in many episodes. While she may have a bias, she's pretty violent when you really look at it.
Annie's results can also be explained by a simple social desirability bias. She answered the questionnaire as she believed an ambitious studious go-getter is expected to behave and not on her own behavior. Annie, due to her drug addiction and rehab, has likely also filled out similar questionnaire and may have influenced how she answered.
Pierce's results can be explained by him misinterpreting the purpose of the questionnaire. Pierce's competitiveness and need to feel relevant may mean he filled in the response that he thought would make him 'win'. Pierce, due to his drug addiction and rehab, has likely also filled out similar questionnaire and may have influenced how he answered.
Abed's results are also of questionable validity. Abed has been shown to have the uncanny ability to analyze a situation and anticipate the outcome. He could easily have filled in the results he recognized would give the needed outcome.
Troy's results are the hardest to explain away by character quirks. It is possible he filled in the answers based on which he thought would be the funnest (he has previously said he wanted multiple personality disorder based on wanting to avoid boredom).
- Alternatively, he simply used the lozenges to draw funny patterns (he drew boobs one time), which distorted the results.

^While the above is certainly plausible in the case of the test itself, it's regardless quite clear from the rest of the series that we're hardly dealing with the most psychologically well-adjusted bunch of people here. The tests might not exactly be 100% accurate or foolproof, but they probably shouldn't be dismissed out-of-hand either since they are, at the very least, confirming what we should already know; that these people are frigging nuts -- not necessarily psychotically violent, of course, but still not exactly what you'd call 'entirely sane' either. Especially since a few of the above explanations still hint at some rather irrational (and at times unsettling) personality issues...

The alternate timelines in "Remedial Chaos Theory" all took place in Abed's head.

"Virtual Systems Analysis" showed us that he spends an inordinate amount of time running scenarios for potential situations the group might face. This time, he ran through six of them at a near-impossible speed and decided that none were an acceptable outcome, or at least that none were worth the risk of creating the Darkest Timeline.

Abed's role never changes. He's merely the observer in every timeline.
When Abed leaves, everything goes to hell because of emotional complications that he is as physically absent from as he is usually emotionally absent.
When Troy leaves, everything descends into cartoonish absurdity because his presence is the most influential factor in Abed's ability to stay a little bit grounded.
Lending some credence to this theory is the Season 3 finale: In short, Prime!Abed wears a felt evil moustache and displays knowledge of the evil timeline. Realistically, though, all this can be explained simply by Abed suffering from a mental breakdown caused by Troy's departure.
Lastly, following the alternate timeline logic, only a random decision (like a die roll) can cause the creation of alternate timelines. But Abed catching the die is not a random decision, i.e. either the six alternate timelines exist or the Prime one does (which we know is the truth, because, well, the show is set in it), but not both.

Star-Burns's one-armed lawyer is Evil Jeff.

In "Course Listing Unavailable", Abed describes Star-Burns's lawyer as a one-armed man with a scarred face, missing his right arm. Jeff is a former lawyer, and he loses his right arm in the darkest timeline of "Remedial Chaos Theory". Abed should be Genre Savvy enough to recognize Jeff, even with considerable facial scarring... unless he has been replaced by Evil Abed.

Character

Jeff is a Puppet Master.

As shown in "Investigative Journalism", he can quiet his entire group with just a hand motion. He then manipulates them into voting Jack Black's character out of the group, and convinces Annie to drop her expose on the dean. In fact, maybe Jeff's over break Character Development is all a ruse to have his colleagues think he's truly changed while he still maintains complete control over the group.

If he was feigning character development all along, then he wouldn't care about the study group enough to begin with. He also convinced the group to vote Jack Black in.
I think we should also assume that Jeff cares for the group and isn't feigning character development because of what happened in Pillows And Blankets; Jeff actually went back to the Dean's office to get the friendship hats when he didn't need to. No one would have known if he'd just stood in the hallway for a convincing amount of time. He did it because he really cares about Troy and Abed.

Abed is a Puppet Master

Think about it. He seems utterly content in himself, and as so is willing to change himself to help the group. He's Dangerously Genre Savvy. He even states that he understands everyone perfectly and as such is willing to change himself in order for them to understand them to help. Abed knows exactly what he's doing all the time.

Abed also notes in "Contemporary American Poultry" that it's vital to Jeff's ego that he be in charge of the group -- or, at least, believes himself to be in charge of the group.

Vaughn is the Greendale Human Being.

Think about it, he conveniently disappears right as the Greendale human being is out playing Cupid.

Was the GHB in the final scene in the last episode of the series? Vaughn had already left to play pro hackeysack (or whatever it was) by then.
- He was replaced by the loopy lesbian we saw in The Dean's Office. I mean, the Greendale Human Being wears a bag over its head. It could secretly be five different people.

Duncan's been faking being British the whole time.

Lorries don't have boots, they have trailers. And "eight, which is a british ten" just smacks of... "let me remind you of this and combine it with a very slightly backhanded compliment so that you think I'm hotter and aren't really sure why".

I suppose it will depend on how well John Oliver can pull of an American accent, because I can definitely see them taking that route.
- From watching his attempts on the Daily Show it's safe to say John can not pull off American.
- On The Bugle, John flat-out admits he can't fake an American accent after attempting one.
- As of "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas," it's not so much that he's faking being British - he's just spent most of his life in America, and doesn't actually have as much exposure to British culture as he pretends.

Abed is a troper.

Not even sure this is a guess...

Just a troper? My guess is he created TV Tropes. Maybe....
- Except he doesn't seem to be much of a 'Buffy' guy. I dunno.
- He and Troy once agreed to stage a suicide pact in order to get Firefly back on the air. Given the general respect given to his works by those around this parish, it's perhaps fair to say that Abed at least knows and respects the works of Joss Whedon, even if he's not actually a fan.

Abed is God or a Reality Warper in the same sense as Suzumiya Haruhi.

Think about it. The reason nobody has powers is probably because Abed doesn't like those kinds of movies enough and values interesting situations more.

- In 'Messianic Myths and Ancient People', Abed's making a movie caused him to unconsciously tap into more of his own powers (again, like Haruhi). The difference being that in Abed's movie the camera is God and the filmmaker is Jesus, causing Abed to accidentally start turning himself into God to the point where he becomes aware of his own powers. He then realized that a Reality Warper making a movie about Recursive Reality will inevitably lead to a Divide by Zero scenario. The whole 'my movie is crap, it can't be released' was actually and Indy Ploy to convince Shirley to destroy the movie and thus prevent The End of the World as We Know It.
- Abed did bring four people into the study group...
- Or Jeff is a Reality Warper/God - he admitted as much in Conspiracy Theories and... Apparently what he wants (as Suzumiya wants the guy) is to learn things without having to admit to himself that he's learning....

Jeff is God or a Reality Warper in the same sense as Suzumiya Haruhi.

We have denied the signs for too long.

Annie has an NSFW nickname at Greendale.

When Annie says they call her 'Irony-free Annie', Jeff laughs and says that's not what they call her. Possibly 'Iron-fanny Annie'?

Jeff is subconsciously in love with Annie

Given the dream sequence for the third season opener, this season might be him trying to get together with her.

- The events of season 3 thus far (10/10/11) seem to support this. Jeff is almost rabidly protective of her in "Geography of Global Conflict" and outright admits that playing a protective-big-brother role is his "safe" way of showing that he cares for her.

Abed is in love with Annie but knows he can't properly reciprocate as himself so he lets her go at the end of "For a Few Paintballs More".

Librarian girl was the combination of Britta and Annie, and since Troy was going after Britta, process of elimination dictates Abed has a thing for Annie.
Also, Abed's reason for letting her go might be because Leia's motivation for her actions in Return of the Jedi was a man, thus ruining her as a female role model, so Abed fears the same would happen to Annie.

Pierce is having a crisis of faith.

Sure, he was an obnoxious buffoon in season one, but in season two he's turned outright villainous; however, his outbursts are almost always somehow related to perceiving the others as ignoring him. It all stems from an intense, manic need to be remembered, the sort one might have if one is confronting one's own mortality. Either Pierce actually IS dying, though not as quickly as he claimed to be, or he's much more shaken up by his mother's rejection of their religion than he admits.

Worth considering, his tumultuous relationship with his father probably left him especially close to his mother. When she tells him he's not immortal, even if he's not aware of it, it probably shakes him up.

Abed is an actual shaman.

in the episode Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas he was the only one to realize they were stop motion animated, and In Remedial Chaos Theory he was aware of the diverging time lines Signifying that he has powers of perception the rest of the cast does not, also while they are his friends Majority of the study group thinks that he's crazy and being apart from his/her village is a unfortunate necessity of being a shaman. Semi-confirmed by his interaction with evil Abed and referring to the fact that" it is too dark and and inaccessible for them" Them meaning the audience in the Dreamatorium.

Abed knows that he is on a TV show.

He doesn't compare TV Tropes to real life situations for lack of a better way to interact with the world. He does it because he knows that he is living in the one situation where they can helpfully be applied. Semi-confirmed in Contemporary Impressionists when he references "them"
- This explains why he's the only one who Britta's psychological tests declared sane: believing he lives in a tv show means that he perceives his reality more accurately than any of the other characters. Hell, at the end of Documentary Filmmaking Redux, he even seems to be aware of the camera.
- Abed has also commented on the type of episode that the study group is currently a part of. For example, he refers to "Cooperative Calligraphy" as a bottle episode.
  - Then again, All the Tropes Will Ruin Your Vocabulary . We all have "Bottle Episodes", like getting snowed in or having to finish a large group project in the library.
- Abed asks Shirley if she wants to be in a spin off series with him, thinking they could open a hair salon.
- He says that since the last episode was Abed-heavy, he would lay low for an episode.

Rich was number 1 on the Dean's "hot student/teacher list"

If Jeff is only number 2, and he's eternally the guy who one-ups Jeff, so...

Abed is somewhat aware of an eighth member of the study group.

That person is the viewer.

Ever wondered why there's always a seat free next to Jeff? That's the viewer's chair.
- And that's why nobody else can join the study group.

Abed is a Space Master

Which is nothing at all like a Time Lord. But anyway, not only was he able to recognize the creation Alternate Timelines and Take A Seventh Option to avert them, he was also able to sense the disturbance in the timeline caused by Evil!Troy and Evil!Abed.

There is a bizarro study group.

The group consists of Rich (Doc Potterywood), Joey (white Abed), Page (the non-lesbian), Claire (Page's mousey friend), Magnitude, Leonard, & Vicki (yellow sweater, hat, girl). Chang will join their study group first.

There do seem to be an awful lot of doppelgangers floating around...
Or an Alternate Bizzaro study group. Vicki, Neil, Starburns, Luka, Page, Claire and Leonard.
Annie Kim, while not in the group (either one that exists), is closely associated.

The whole show is an Alternate Universe version of Scrubs

Jeff = Dr. Cox
Abed = J.D.
Troy = Turk
Annie = Elliot
Pierce = Dr. Kelso
Britta + Shirley = Carla
- Or Shirley = Shirley/Lavergne
Senor Chang = The Janitor
Greendale = Sacred Heart
Starburns = Dr. Beardface
The other many weird, wacky background characters of Community = The other many weird, wacky background characters of Scrubs

Or an Alternate Universe version of Star Trek: The Next Generation

Dean = Picard
Jeff = Riker
Abed = Data
Troy = Geordi
Annie = Troi (irony!)
Britta = Crusher
Shirley = Guinan
Pierce + Chang = Q

Pierce is Jeff's dad

Jeff's mum is one of Pierce's many ex-wives. Jeff doesn't know about this, but Pierce has realised at some point. This is why he is always so keen to bond with Jeff throughout the series. He almost reveals it in Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking, but Jeff's response is so negative that he keeps it quiet thereafter.

- ... holy shit this would totally work. I dunno how likely or plausible it is to happen, but it would make perfect sense and explain so much.
- It would put a bit of a odd angle on Jeff having sex with Pierce's step-daughter (sorry ex-step-daughter)

Setting

The show is actually a series of fanfilms created by Abed that's very loosely based on Greendale and the study group.

Abed initially intended to keep it more down to earth and realistic, but eventually grew bored by that approach near the end of the second semester, so he started doing homages to his favorite TV and film genres. The real members of the study group are actually Abed's actors in Debate 109 making a meta cameo.

The whole show was actually created by Abed in the future.

He doesn't need to be a Reality Warper, he's already both One of Us and established as a filmmaker, and he just got Dan Harmon - whom he knows through his work on several Web Original projects, including the one Community was based on (which was shown within the series) - to run the show for him.

Or Abed is just a fictionalized Dan Harmon, even though he says he's Jeff.

Each season is in the point of view of a different character.

The first season we saw through the eyes of Jeff, and the second season is seen through the eyes of Abed.

The Dreamatorium actually works.

In urban matrimony and the sandwich arts a variety of loud noises were emitted from it despite it being empty, And in virtual systems analysis Annie ran into one of the walls inside of it, Meaning the Illusions it creates superseded her perception of reality.

Impossible Crossover

'Pierce Hawthorne' is another alter-ego of Fletch.

He's breaking a story on the AC Repair Ancient Conspiracy. Or the feud between Greendale and City College. Or zombie food poisoning. Or dalmatian fetishism.

Abed is the son of Mary Alice Young and Rod Sterling

It's obvious he is a viewpoint character able to perceive a reality outside of the show, a trait both his parents are famous for.

Community takes place in the future world of Catch-22.

Because, really, all their insanity fits together that way.

So is Closing Time noncanon then?
You know, I can easily picture a younger Leonard on Pianosa...

Jeff's father is the "Man from Tallahassee" from Lost.

Jeff mentions in "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking" that his father was a con man. There is an upcoming guest star that might lend credibility to this...

Senor Chang is The Man in Black and Professor Duncan is Jacob.

"I will find a loophole. Then I'll kill you."

Community takes place in the same Greendale as Better Off Dead

Same name, of course, and same basic rules of reality seem to apply: cartoonish characters abound, occasional forays into claymation, and teachers can get away with teaching absolute nonsense and dating their students. As such, John Cusack will someday appear on Community, possibly as Lane Meyer.

Josh Halloway's character in Fistful of Paintballs is Sawyer from LOST

He didn't have any identity outside Black Rider. Seeing as Sawyer would likely be a celebrity after what has happened to him and his past career, I don't think if would be too far a stretch to say he would be traveling incognito.

Greendale is the #1 choice of college for graduates/drop-outs of Flatpoint High.

Adding to the guess, Flatpoint was Dean Pelton's first job in education, likely a counselor.

It really IS Abed in this T-Mobile commercial

It takes place post-Greendale, the girl is his future girlfriend/wife, and he seems to be much more well adjusted here as a result of his experiences with the Study Group.

This would not work as that model of phone in the above commercial was introduced c. 2007-8. It is often clearly stated that the world of Community shares our time line. Also, Annie is shown in the episode "Early 21st Century Romanticism" using an Android phone that was introduced in 2010.

Pierce's religion is really an arm of SEELE.

In "The Psychology of Letting Go," he tells the anthro class that "When Buddha returns, we all take liquid form and merge into a shimmering ocean of knowledge--which, according to scripture, tastes like Hawaiian Punch." That's a pretty succinct description of the Instrumentality Project, spun to make it sound more appealing for social engineering purposes. The substitution of Hawaiian Punch for Tang is a cheap obfuscatory tactic by SEELE.

Joshua in "Aerodynamics of Gender" is Joshua

He's a philosophizing gardener in a secret Paradisical place. God made him take a vessel on Earth to spread new gospel lessons.

- O_o Joshua is a neo-nazi?

Evil!Troy and Evil!Abed's timeline is the show's Earth-2

The shout outs to Fringe in Geography of Global Conflict were foreshadowing, especially when Abed said he was concerened about alternate dimensions.

Community and The Big Bang Theory exist in the same world

We know that Senor Chang loves Paintball. We also know that his brother is a Rabbi. We know that the 4 guys from The Big Bang Theory lost a paintball match to a group of kids at a Bar Mitzvah. Or so they think. We don't know exactly where Greendale is, but then again, we don't know if Chang's brother even lived in the same city that Greendale is in. Maybe Rabbi Chang lives in Pasadena, and when he mentioned in passing that he was going to be involved with a Bar Mitzvah that would culminate in a paintball game, Chang made his way to Pasadena, where he secretly participated in the game, against Sheldon Cooper, Leonard Hofstadter, Howard Wolowitz and Raj Koothrappali. He was so good at Paintball, by this point, that they didn't even know there was another adult playing, let alone that he was the reason they lost.

Lukka (2x18) is a doll

A unknown organisation wanted to investigate Greendale so they hired the Dollhouse. Knowing that Greendale was a very strange college, they gave Victor an outlandish backstory and sent him in for the long haul (hence he's able to make friends with and date whoever he likes). After a while he was pulled out, hence he's not been seen since.

Annie is the granddaughter of Pete and Trudy Campbell

Per this Jezebel comment

Meta

Dan Harmon reads the WMG page and adjusts the show accordingly.

The whole suspension of Community from TV has been a giant Batman Gambit for NBC to raise awareness of the show's popularity.

The idea for the Greendale Human Being's face came from Uboa

All fans of Star Trek named Kevin have George Takei's Funny Answering Machine message from Epidemiology on their phones