Community: Difference between revisions

The show also has its own [http://communitytropes.tumblr.com/ Community Tropes Tumblr].

 

 

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* [[Big Bad]]: {{spoiler|Chang}} in Season 3; Dean Spreck for the entire series, arguably.

* [[Book Ends]]: The first and last episodes of anthropology class under Duncan are, fittingly, about death and birth, respectively.

* [[Brand X]]:

** Characters sometimes sip on "Old British 600" and an ill-sized oval changed Jeff's laptop's brand from a Sony Vaio to, apparently, a teapot.

* [[Breakout Character]]: Abed, Troy, and Chang.

* [[Brick Joke]]: Abed has a whole subplot entirely in the background in "The Psychology of Letting Go" - he refers back to this in "Applied Anthropology" when Shirley goes into labor, to widespread confusion among the rest of the study group.

** Lampshaded in "Curriculum Unavailable" with the brick from "Remedial Chaos Theory" turning out to be an antique fire brick worth fifty to sixty dollars. Hi Dan!

* [[Butt Monkey]]: Greendale seems to be one among institutes of higher learning, especially where [[The Ace|local powerhouse]] City College is concerned.

* [[Cerebus Syndrome]]: Pierce's increasing villainy and peeks at other characters' issues made the second season significantly more serious than the first, and the third is building up to be even heavier.

** {{spoiler|After [[Community/Recap/S3/E17 Basic Lupine Urology|Starburns dies]], [[Community/Recap/S3/E18 Course Listing Unavailable|all]] [[Community/Recap/S3/E19 Curriculum Unavailable|hell]] [[Community/Recap/S3/E21 The First Chang Dynasty|breaks]] [[Community/Recap/S3/E22 Introduction to Finality|loose.]] This was apparently deliberately caused by Evil Abed breaking through into the main timeline}}.

* [[Characterization Marches On]]: Chang suffers this the most.

* [[Chewbacca Defense]]/[[Courtroom Antic]]: Jeff's go-to strategy as a lawyer. He particularly seems to like invoking 9/11. {{spoiler|Subverted}} when he uses it in Debate: {{spoiler|his team loses, 50-8 (and the 8 were to Annie)}}.

* [[Le Film Artistique]]: Abed's films.

* [[Logo Joke]]: The first, third and fourth logos at the end are the same on each show (Krasnoff-Foster Entertainment, [[NBC|Universal Media Studios/Universal Television]] and Sony Pictures Television), but the second states this to be "A Dan Harmon/Russo Brothers...

* [[Love Dodecahedron]]: Jeff started the study group to be closer to Britta, who at one point dated Vaughn, then went out with his (former) statistics teacher who he broke up with in "Basic Geneaology". Annie had an intense study session with Jeff when he joined Debate Club, but still had a serious crush on Troy, until she decided to pursue her relationship with Vaughn. Troy apologized for leading Annie on when he announced he had a date with Randy, quickly explaining that Randy can be a girl's name, too, but (due to some interference by Britta and Jeff) became attracted to Annie, who rejects him for Vaughn. Britta claims she doesn't have feelings for Jeff, but {{spoiler|choked onstage}} when she saw him with an "official" girlfriend, Professor Slater, and Troy had to snap her out of it by "being a friend AND a man." A few episodes later, Jeff and Britta hooked up in the middle of an intense paintball game. In the finale of Season 1, Slater and Britta both declare their love for Jeff, but he leaves and kisses [[Third Option Love Interest|Annie]].

** Going into Season 2, Jeff and Annie experience ongoing UST. Meanwhile, Troy and Britta take and drama class together, which leads {{spoiler|Britta kissing Troy}}. Then, it is revealed that {{spoiler|Jeff and Britta had been sleeping together all year}}. In the final episode, {{spoiler|Abed (playing the part of Han Solo) and Annie share a passionate kiss in the midst of an intense paintball game}}.

{{quote|'''Jeff:''' All right, all right, maybe we're not a family. Maybe it's more complicated, because unlike a real family, there's nothing to stop any one of us from looking at any of the others as a... sexual... prospect... ''(everybody starts glancing around the table, leading to the entry under [[Crack Pairing]])''}}

* [[Loves My Alter Ego]]: Annie when Abed cosplayed as Han Solo or Batman.

{{quote|''[brightly]'' We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year~!}}

* [[May-December Romance]]:

** In "The Psychology of Letting Go", the background events tell the story of Abed helping a pregnant woman, getting in an argument with the father, and eventually delivering the baby.

* [[Memetic Badass]]: In-universe, Jeff Winger and the study group - at least according to the Dean.

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: Inevitable in a series which insists on playing out typical comedy scenarios - but with genuine consequences and character development. For example, the story arc where {{spoiler|Pierce}} gets injured in a [[Amusing Injuries|wacky accident]] on a trampoline... which leads to his being forced to wear [[Reality Ensues|full casts on both legs for a good portion of the season, and become addicted to painkillers which nearly claim both his friendships and his life.]]

* [[Moral Myopia]]:

* [[Remember the New Guy?]]: Mocked with both Buddy and Paradox.

** [[Fridge Brilliance]]: "Remember the New Guy" is, itself, a paradox.

* [[Rousing Speech]]: This has become something of a Jeff Winger trademark.

* [[RPG Episode]]: "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons".

** Chicken fingers are so important that the gang starts a mini-Mafia to control them.

** Paintball.

** The rivalry with City College - up to and including a 'space race.'

** Love of the game of pool is treated this way in "Physical Education".

* [[Shout-Out]]: The show does this a ''lot''. Examples from individual episodes are listed on the Recap pages.

* [[Show Within a Show]]:

** In the Season 3 premiere, two fictional television shows are mentioned - ''Cougarton Abbey'', a portmanteu of ''[[Cougar Town]]'' and ''[[Downton Abbey]]'', and the [[Memetic Mutation|fan-favorite]] ''[[Inspector Spacetime]]'', an affectionate ''[[Doctor Who]]'' parody (although ''[[Cougar Town]]'' and ''[[Doctor Who]]'' both exist in ''Community'''s universe--it's just that the former is a [[Trans-Atlantic Equivalent]] and the latter is a more popular [[Follow the Leader|rip-off]]).

* [[Significant Reference Date]]:

** Shirley doesn't really fall into a slot as she's [[Team Mom]].

* [[Slut Shaming]]: Jeff is a shallow manwhore and the ladies love to call him on it. Annie subverts it, though, in that she's an uptight prude and rather proud of it, thank you very much!

* [[Snark-to-Snark Combat]]: Jeff and Britta excel at this.

* [[Something Completely Different]]: The show has established a ratio of doing this once every three episodes (or so), a few examples include [[Community/Recap/S1/E21 Contemporary American Poultry|mafia movies]], [[Community/Recap/S1/E23 Modern Warfare|action movies]], [[Community/Recap/S2/E04 Basic Rocket Science|space movies]], [[Community/Recap/S2/E06 Epidemiology|zombie movis]], [[Community/Recap/S2/E09 Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design|conspiracy movies]], [[Community/Recap/S2/E11 Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas|claymation]], [[Community/Recap/S2/E16 Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking|mockumentary]], and [[Community/Recap/S2/E23 A Fistful of Paint Balls|westerns]].

** After Pierce draws a swastika in Pictionary ([[Innocent Innuendo|intending it to be a windmill]]) and accidentally starts a fight with Rabbi Chang over it, a cop implies that this is a common occurrence ("it won't stop until Pictionary gets rid of the windmill").

* [[Studio Audience]]: In a very weird example, Joel McHale and Ken Jeong hosted a running commentary for a ''Community'' marathon between Seasons 1 and 2 that had a studio audience. At one point, ''for no reason at all'', the entire audience walked out.

* [[Stylistic Suck]]: Abed's student film.

* [[Subject 101]]: "Spanish 101" and "Debate 109" have both been episode titles.

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]:

** Jeff and Pierce's multi-costumed, multi-propped Spanish presentation, which gets {{spoiler|horrified looks}} from the students and {{spoiler|F/F-}} grades.

** The entire episode "Modern Warfare" does this for paintball.

** The sailing course from "Basic Pottery" which is treated like a high seas adventure.

 

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[[Category:Work Com]]

[[Category:American Series]]

[[Category:TV Series]]

[[Category:Sitcom]]

[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]