Ah yes, that was the makings of a very long rant there... Now is not the time for this, here is my top ten Community Episodes.
Top Ten Community Episodes
10 Contemporary American Poultry
A stand out episode for any Community fan, the first fully realised theme episode, the first time everyone thought, 'Damn they got it so right.' The campus is addicted to chicken fingers and Abed is placed by the Study Group in the position of fry cook. It then becomes a case of Abed controlling the supply of chicken fingers in very entertaining a Goodfellas gangster riff. This is also the first episode in which Jeff feels his position as head of the group slipping away and goes to great lengths to prevent this and nudges him to relinquish his position. Plus the introduction of Annie's Boobs, the monkey, not Annie's... well you know.
Best Quote: Troy:I dressed as a crazy Pharaoh for you.
9 Mixology Certification
Not a particularly outstanding episode but a heartfelt observation of the gang together at a pub. Troy has become a man unwittingly reaching the ripe old age of twenty one and is pushed to spend his first legal drink carousing with the study group. It's one of my favourite episodes because of the interplay between the characters, we get a few insights and humorous moments from them all, even Pierce who's destruction of Troy's birthday cake is endlessly funny. We learn Shirley had some 'bad years', Annie is madly insecure, Abed finds it difficult to talk to people about Farscape so jumps on any opportunity even when it's clear he's being chatted up. Britta and Jeff, well they just spend the entire evening drunkenly bickering about what's cool, and Troy comes to terms with his pending adulthood. It's a particularly strong episode for Troy which pleases me.
Best Quote: Troy: Alcohol makes people sad. It’s like the Lifetime movie of beverages.
8 Cooperative Calligraphy
While the previous episode in this list is often acknowledged as a sort of bottle episode, having everyone go to a bar and bounce off each other, this episode is in essence the very definition of a bottle episode, Abed coining the term very early on. Annie's pen goes missing and after losing far too many from giving them to her friends or people simply taking them she blows a gasket and decides enough is enough. She also makes this stand on the same day that Greendale is hosting a puppy parade, so Abed and Troy miss out on this, whilst Jeff cancels a date because no one is leaving the room until the pen is found. Not only is the premise ridiculously simple, and the reactions and conclusions of the characters as the tension ramps up becomes more and more and ridiculous leads to scenes of genius hilarity. Also seeing the guys run around in their underwear is much to be pleased about. Of course the episode is worth reviewing over and over just to see that slight split second where you see the pen sneakily be stolen. The gang concludes it was a ghost, but hey they weren't far off, it's just a monkey!
7 Paradigms of Human Memory
Every television show since the dawn of time has had a reminiscent episode where it's essentially a bunch of clips of previous adventures. It's cheap and easy to do and gives us an insight into how the characters felt about certain events, did I mention it was cheap and easy to do? Well Community decided to turn that tradition on it's head and provide us with a clipshow of adventures we hadn't seen the study group actually go on, but boy do I wish they had. There was a spooky hotel, the old western adventure, filling in for Glee club, that unfortunate St Patrick's Day rafting trip, the mercury poisoning and many more I can't even remember off the top of my head. All the while there is the reveal of Annie's Boobs, the monkey's secret treasure trove of Annie's pens and hubba bubba. Then of course there is the even more exciting reveal of Britta and Jeff's continued sexual encounters throughout the season which is briefly viewed in Mixology Certification. The best part was the Dean's multiple entrances and outfits, I nearly cried laughing every time.
6 Physical Education
What more can I love about this episode than the obvious? The way Britta pronounces Bagel? Jeff Winger/Joel McHale in his undies? Abed being Don Draper? Abed and Troy playing Bert and Ernie? Good God it can't get better than this? Can it? Well obviously it can because this is only number 6 but it was one the first episodes of Community where I had a moment of extreme belly laughing. A good sign, and a seriously memorable episode.
6 A Fistful of Paintballs/A Few Paintballs More
It's so hard to not place this higher. Greendale has it's seemingly annual Paintball Assassin contest in which the whole place is wrecked and alliances are made and broken during a very impressive and dramatic episode. There is the introduction of the Black Rider (who actually doesn't ride anything, he's just got an awesome cowboy outfit and is Sawyer from Lost, smouldering.) Then there is Pierce playing the game to his advantage by starting off as a coward hiding in the toilets and then using his prime position to become the villain of the piece. But all hats go off to Annie this episode, she is looking ridiculously attractive and is kicking some serious ass. It begins as a western and in the following episode takes on an alliance flavour with stormtroopers filling the corridors. Who'd have thought an evil Ice Cream Company was capable of all this? A classic double parter and serious rewatch value.
Best Quote: Annie: That was a game. This is paintball.
5 Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking
This would be much higher if the standard of episodes in the top 5 weren't so ridiculously high. Full props go to Troy once again for having the best reaction ever to meeting his idol. We all have that lingering doubt that if we were to meet the person we admire most in the world we would inevitably disappoint them, and thanks to the magic of the documentary style of the episode we get to the splice together Troy's love of Levar Burton, his meeting face during these encounters, and his multiple (hilarious) breakdowns. Nothing has made me laugh more, and it continues to work on multiple viewings. Not to mention the frankly genius move of having Jeff Winger almost on the brink of his own breakdown and brief insight into his daddy issues.
Best Quote: Troy: 'You can't disappoint a picture!'
4 Modern Warfare
I have toyed with placing this a lot higher but there were other episodes which made me laugh harder. Needless to say this is still an excellent episode. As a singular episode it's a benchmark for all following theme episodes, it managed to redefine the quality of the show all the while pushing forward the Jeff/Britta storyline extensively, and was also a thrill-ride twenty minutes of television. Chang is in essence my favourite part of this episode which I can rarely admit to but he simply nails it here. Action movie references galore, and Jeff Winger does an excellent Die Hard. Every scene is genius and there's not much more I can say than that. A truly magnificent piece of television for newcomers and for great fans.
3 Remedial Chaos Theory
Season 3 never really found itself until this particular episode and then all kinds of shit kicked off in the darkest time line. It's hard to know from the most recent episode which time line actually stuck with as the show recently mentioned Abed wishing he had grabbed the die when Jeff threw it, intriguing indeed. We get the same event happen over and over again, someone has to go get pizza, and each time the same events take place, Pierce mentions a liaison in a aeroplane toilet, Britta tries to sing, Shirley bakes pies, Jeff bumps his head on the ceiling fan, and yet each time something more hilarious takes place than the last, and you never question it. You just laugh along.
2 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
There was a time during my all too short years as a student when I lived with housemates who enjoyed spending their time playing Dungeons and Dragons in the living room on Tuesday nights. I remember this only after I had entered the room and had to manouvere my way to the kitchen and get a cup of tea climbing around their stupid table. One evening I attempted to play with my housemates and boyfriend and eventually got bored and read a magazine instead, mainly because I was losing. I was quite Jeff Winger about the whole scenario so it surprised and amused me at how game the Winger actually was about playing D&D. I was aware of all of the jokes, the emotional stakes that were built up within each game, and the fact that the dungeon master was always an impartial and strangely passive douchebag. The whole episode had me cracking up and this was from personal experience and from the fact that jokes were non stop hilarious. Plus Pierce's reactions and responses remind me of my own thoughts, which is probably not something I should be proud of but was ridiculously funny. Huzzah!
1 Epidemiology
When drunk I have an unwarranted and uncontrollable love of the ever popular band ABBA. This might be a British thing as the movie version of Mamma Mia is the biggest box office sensation since Titanic, so I have the same feeling as every housewife in Britain. I wouldn't never admit this sober though, or in polite conversation. My conflicting love of ABBA and the fact that this is by far one of the best episodes of a television programme in the history of ever, is a complete package. Having an episode dedicated to Zombie movies, even horror in general and still make it a hilarious almost realistic is the reason why it is one of the best and my favourite episodes. For being such an overall hilarious and perfect episode in my mind it is my number one.
Abed: Zombie Attack!
