They’ll probably double the rest up on some night and burn them off May-July. :(

Jim Rash was born in July 1970, making this his probable actual senior yearbook photo.

tho you never know with this show

Dan’s blog:

http://danharmon.tumblr.com/

Dan on the Indoor Kids podcast:

http://www.nerdist.com/2011/11/indoor-kids-19-save-points-with-dan-harmon/

Dan on other podcasts:

http://grandmasvirginity.libsyn.com/webpage/gvp-35-community-creator-dan-harmon-and-more-

http://grandmasvirginity.libsyn.com/webpage/gvp-24-dino-stamatopoulos-dan-harmon

Joel McHale on Adam Carolla’s podcast:

http://www.adamcarolla.com/joel-mchale/

On Joel McHale’s hair plugs:

http://www.baldcelebrity.com/joel-mchale-were-okay-with-his-hair-plugs

we already have three Childish Gambino threads

Not enough.

http://warmingglow.uproxx.com/2011/11/community-won-tv-guides-fan-poll

Hey they actually made Shirley interesting and funny!

She was always interesting and funny; just moreso now. The anime bit killed; like some of the best shit this show has done, it came out of nowhere and initially seemed like it was done just for the sake of doing it, but turned into an unexpectedly poignant moment.

^^^This. She’s so much better not being a religous strawperson.

I lost my shit at the anime thing. Did anyone manage to catch all the text at the end of Leonard’s YouTube video? I assumed our DVR was catching it and I could go back later, but it somehow got clipped in the gap between this show and P&R. Oh well, I’m sure there’ll be a screencap up by tomorrow.

yeah i paused the streaming site and read it, had a pretty funny thing about paying late fees and wanting to bang juliette binoche but otherwise was kinda just lol leonard uses young ppl slang. i kinda assumed it was a spoof/joke abt chuck lore’s vanity cards at the end of his sitcoms?

Thats what I immediately thought of.

i was a p o_O that they went to the dragonball z well of all places tho i think that made it hard for me to really have an opinion on this episode

jeff’s whole monologue about the game of foosball finally being “complete” killed me

Nick Kroll doing ridiculous accent = above average ep.

that soccer ball gag...

I enjoyed this. Much like with the S1 ep where the two of them rip on Vaughn, I think the Jeff/Shirley combo is strongest when they both are allowed to direct their darker sides towards some idiot.

Then again, this is the only view of the two of them we have. Ah well.

Also, with the anime thing; I realized earlier this year with the My Dinner with Andre ep that I was prepared to follow Dan Harmon & Crew off on whatever road they decided to journey down, and that I had enough faith in them that they’d warrant it. The show switching to anime to deliberately highlight the dispute between two characters is another thing that makes me feel like they’re deliberately swinging for the fences; trying to progress what an ensemble sitcom can do.

The Leonard gags were just awesome; another thing I like about the show is that each cast member has an involved offscreen history with Leonard(i.e. Jeff’s talked to his son, eaten his mac & cheese, etc). Also that someone normally as deliberately nice/sweet as Shirley immediately switches to disdain whenever he wanders by.

Also, I wonder if the pizza gags were a deliberate reference to Yvette Brown being in those DiGiorno adverts

Come to think of it, Fat Neil has popped up in at least one pizza chain commercial, too

Yes, and if you do a YT search of “leonard likes pizza”, guess what you get

i didnt care for this episode. it was too ‘wacky’.

I wish there were a word for the pleasure I am feeling at your misfortune.

^^^^ I totally lost my shit at that joke

maybe it’s a psychological defense mechanism but i thought this was a pretty avg episode and i feel ok about community going away. the jeff/shirley plotline was good but the annie/troy/abed thing didn’t go anywhere. plus they acknowledged at the beginning that it’s a hackneyed sitcom plotline and then went ahead and did it anyways.

well no, the hackneyed sitcom plot was attempting to replace the DVD, not inventing a burglary and pinning its destruction on their shoe-stealing landlord

xp—I don’t know if I just love slapstick but Abed as Batman had me (literally) spluttering with mirth. The bit with the grappling iron was just hysterical.

xp to OH NOES—So true. I am laughing just reading the words back again.

Abed’s Bale as Batman voice made all those scenes worthwhile.

Annie as Bale had me dying.

Troy being the voice of reason was also great.

http://twitter.com/#!/Leonard_GCC

I wish there were a word for the pleasure I am feeling at your misfortune.

― Ned Trifle, Friday, December 2, 2011 8:40 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

^^^^ I totally lost my shit at that joke

― OH NOES, Friday, December 2, 2011 2:43 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

thirded. to me that was the apex of the episode (that and the soccer ball bit)

the look on Jeff’s face when Shirley revealed her foosball tyrant past was also amazing; they’ve been pushing McHale pretty far outside of his sarcastically inspirational box this season

oh yeah, even the week before when he weeped after getting fired from the Dean role in the commercial.

I kind of want this show to end this season — it’ll end at the top of its game, and we won’t have to suffer lamenting “how bad the show got in later years” like with every other show I’ve ever liked :/.

“Sam, Ziggy says there’s an 80% chance you can’t leave Woodstock until you bone these hippies!”

xp I heard that, but didn’t make the Quantum Leap connection until just now. LOL

Annie as Bale had me dying.

Yeah me too, ‘this scene was a challenge for all involved’ or w/ev had me falling about. Also the schadenfreud joke and the foosball man gag!

“Sam, Ziggy says there’s an 80% chance you can’t leave Woodstock until you bone these hippies!”

― kingfish sandbox bonaparte, Friday, 2 December 2011 22:15 (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

who said this?

it was from the tv that the landlord was watching

http://danharmon.tumblr.com/post/13675680180/crucial-update-on-my-bodily-functions

Dan posts about his stomach flu, goes on from there.

...Here’s a slightly less scientific but immediately present factor that makes me see very clearly that Community’s story is not over: you guys are fucking nuts, in the best way possible. And you are beautiful and kind and honest. And there is a magic emanating from you. You are in lockstep with a universal rhythm, here. You put our show on the cover of TV Guide BEFORE any of this was going down. It looks from a distance like we got yanked and THEN there was this pity party of clicking on that poll to make some point, but that is not what happened, I was there the whole time watching. First, you won us that cover. And TV Guide swore us to secrecy. Then, NBC rescheduled us. Then TV Guide came to the set and took the photos of the cast and swore them to secrecy. We were half wondering if the network would pull strings to kill the cover because, well, you know, awkward much? My point is that when I look at the timeline, I don’t see a boring cause-effect chain. I see a weird, ironic, poetic blossom of mythology. I see story points. I see the folds in the universal cootie catcher, I see an absurdly happy ending...

This episode was a good example of why Shirley is awesome and the haters are wrong. Glad they resurrected the dynamic of Jeff and Shirley as bitching partners from S1. I would happily watch more of the Germans as well, they need to pop up in an end scene sometime.

She’s so much better not being a religous strawperson.

Quite like that the thing with Shirley is that she so wants to be a good person but she’s actually meanspirited as hell, and that the group likes the honestly meanspirited Shirley much more than the dishonest Christian mother type.

Matt OTM

i love the pictures of her on the walls in the bar episode

haha yes, and when she threatened the bouncer into not revealing that she was a former regular

tbh, the thing that makes the hyper-judgy Christian persona work for me is the undercurrent of darkness that fuels it, generating sweetly smiled cruelty like her Halloween story

Also I watched an old episode of Curb the other week and the actress that plays Shirley turns up as an air hostess and I was genuinely weirded out to hear her speaking normally and not doing either her Miss Piggy or Samuel L Jackson voice.

She also does a voice on the utterly ABOMINABLE Pound Puppies cartoon, which I hate but my daughter loves.

wtf, those aren’t Pound Puppies, those are just regular cartoon dogs

children’s television is a wasteland of unrecognizable ’80s remakes as much as the summer movie season at this point

#puppiez

You have NO IDEA how bad it is, it makes the 80s pound puppies cartoon look like Miyazaki.

lol my only exposure to kid’s TV these days is stuff like Adventure Time, Regular Show and The Amazing World of Gumball, so you’re right re: me not having any idea

also I’ve been lolling at “#puppiez” a little too hard, maybe I should get lunch

This is why I go on about how great the new My Little Pony cartoon is, because the rest of them are so terrible that’s it amazes me that anything legitimately funny and/or good can get made.

Ponybro?

oh my god

YouTube Video

Open

OH MY GOD

sorry everyone for taking the Community thread down the bronyhole

wow that sounds disgusting

BRONY BRONY BRONY

I profusely apologize to my Community friends for involving this thread in a discussion of pound puppies and Ponies.

http://www.nerdist.com/2011/12/the-indoor-kids-22-church-of-skyrim-2-with-dan-harmon/

Not sure what this means, but I’m hoping it doesn’t mean NBC has shitcanned this week’s ep too:

danharmon Dan Harmon

If you’d like to view half of this week’s episode, NBC has dumped it online in pieces as if it was so much garbage. Merry Christmas.

3 minutes ago

iirc he’s not a big fan of web teasers and having lots of ads spoiling too much about episodes before they air

hes referring to the episode previews/commercials

Alright, I just noticed maura’s :( reply among a couple others and wondered if there was more to the story.

there’s a big grassroots campaign to just talk about community on twitter until whiney explodes

haha

I might start using twitter again for that purpose.

would assist

We should all pick an hour to just bombard @1000TimesYes with Community updates.

Maybe live tweet this Christmas episode for him, all of us.

MasonMaguire Mason Maguire

@danharmon Are you sure disparaging the network that’s *this* close to pulling your show is a good idea?

3 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

in reply to ↑

@danharmon

Dan Harmon

@MasonMaguire yeah, I’ll try apologizing for them and kissing their ass in every interview for another 2 years. IT’S THIS CLOSE TO WORKING.

:(

Troy & Abed’s rap from tomorrow night’s episode.

:(

http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6664700/save-greendale-with-the-cast-of-community

das Butt

That guy is like human FroYo.

Genius episode tonight.

can’t wait for the Annie gifs.

“Me so Christmas, me so Christmas.”

Last two eps have been A+.

can’t wait for the Annie gifs.

And I wouldn’t kick Britta in the tree suit outta the forest for droppin’ needles, either.

trudat

Yay Britta’s treesuit.

Dean Pelton: “OHHHHH, BRITTA’S in this?!”

http://cliqueclack.com/tv/2011/12/08/community-christmas-song-lyrics/

We asked our public school to give the answer

But they could only teach us not to pray

The Constitution says the state can’t tell us

Does anyone important born today

Also, I loved the combo doctor who/star wars holiday special combo gags

Man that was so good!

this was amazing. i am going to miss this show.

holy shit, what an episode.

like i knew it would be a glee parody but it was pretty much a horror movie too!

How’s your piano still playing this song?

Troy & Abed’s Coca Cola Santa song—so incredible. My mouth hung open in delight for the whole segment. :O

great episode, started off good and gradually got better—i found abed & troy’s songs kind of annoying/embarrassing (except for abed’s song with taran killam) but annie, shirley, and britta’s songs were amazing.

Taran Killam was amazing as a creepy Will Schuester clone.

holy shit alison brie

Oh god alison brie

how can something be a ratings stunt if it’s happened more than halfway into an episode after anyone ‘on the fence’ has tuned out and wasn’t in any commercials for the episode

anyway the more i think about it the more this episode was a total success — annie’s sexy idiot song, the baby boomer song and the children who don’t know about jesus song were all perfection

I laughed a few times (this Christmas musical episode) because the insanity was awkward and insane (and they were supposed to be brainwashed and acting insanely). It was amazing that Alison was able to exponentially escalate the awkwardness and dumbness of her glee personality during her song. As you watch it, you think she can’t sink any farther but she does so incredibly. The very last line was perfect

how can something be a ratings stunt if it’s happened more than halfway into an episode after anyone ‘on the fence’ has tuned out and wasn’t in any commercials for the episode

― skrillex pretend (Mr. Stevenson #2)

it’s because the writers are still in over-the-top ratings mode... it doesn’t brush off so easily. they aren’t just trying to get new people (putting stuff in the first 5 minutes)... they are trying to keep the folks who are on the fence

and how do you keep people watching if they are only watching with one eye open? big flashy anime and rap sequences

impressed anew with ilx’s ability to suck the fun out of anything

the honeymoon is over mookie

Too much overthinkin’ goin’ on up in this bitch

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvx22ff3gO1qe3p9bo1_500.gif

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvx22ff3gO1qe3p9bo2_500.gif

my bad

i read an article today about how community & himym are like ‘post-tumblr’ where clearly a lot of jokes are written with an internet afterlife in mind—moments made for gifs & hastags

it was all v rmde til i opened this thread

thing is people have been like this w/ comedy for the longest time — i mean seinfeld may be more meme-y than anything actually made in the era of people saying the word “meme” constantly. but now every other fucking show has the title w/ a hashtag in front of it in the corner of the screen or quotes names with @ in front of them in ads instead of magazines or newspapers, so there’s a whole self-consciousness about how entertaining audiences is somehow different now that the audience is all having a million public conversations with each other as soon as the show is over.

just watched the claymation episode with my sisters, full of renewed love for this show.

Assuming NBC had any intention of giving Community a bump in order to attract a bit more viewership, they’d do well to rerun the claymation Christmas episode at some point this month.

they are, either this week or next week

They didn’t promote the Glee episode at all — the online previews didn’t show up until two days before — so I doubt they’ll take any extra measures to promote a rerun from last year (untouchably brilliant as it is).

Two important things to remember when I sound nonchalant about Community’s fate:

a) I basically resent serial TV (too much investment and time, same reason I resent comic books), and would prefer to experience as much as possible in “Trade Paperback” Form. However, my wife is a TV enthusiast and I wind up getting invested in more shows than I’d like to be.

b) a Community I’m not watching would bum me out (the fact that the simpsons is not worth my time STILL bums me out) and I’d rather it die while it was young and beautiful. which it is.

man i knew that after this episode tumblr would be filled with animated gifs and people saying “best episode ever” but i thought that ilx would as usual provide an oasis of sanity, guess not though, this episode was really really subpar, not “bad” per se but i didnt laugh out loud once and the glee parody felt so forced and awkward and stupid and like... song parodies? really?

otm

offtm

i did lol @ “diminishing returns” “what’s a dimibidibwibibdib”

i enjoyed how blasé everyone was after mr. rad confessed to murdering the first glee club, like “oh that guy tricked us” rather than “wow he killed eight people.”

PS this is who mr. rad was based on from glee, mr. schuester AKA mr. schue:

He is the worst person in the world.

anyway the more i think about it the more this episode was a total success — annie’s sexy idiot song, the baby boomer song and the children who don’t know about jesus song were all perfection

I loved how cynically contrived each of those songs was as a recruitment tool, especially Shirley’s.

is it someone’s birthday today??? public schools won’t tell me!

This episode was hilarious and it was more because of the “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” vibe than it was because it was a musical. Britta going up to Jeff and having him turn around going “LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” and her subsequent scream was just money.

yup

yeah just the bland laaaaaaaaaaaaaaa was the lolingest part of that

also the implication that everyone else had to be brainwashed via a specific type of song geared towards their sensibilities in order to get sucked into the glee club, but Jeff could just go “LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” at Britta and after a good scream she’s totally down

like, it actually subtly played to the character’s total lack of connection to music

I got a Christmastime for me. I got a Christmastime for a tree.

like, it actually subtly played to the character’s total lack of connection to music

― OH NOES, Monday, December 12, 2011 11:17 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

haha yes i remember thinking “that’s all it takes?”

Pretty good ep. I really hate musicals and would never watch Glee willingly and was going to stop watching until Annie’s dance. A pretty enjoyable episode. I liked how Pierce took credit for the perfection of music by the baby boomers. And the “Laaaaa” part was LOL, otm. And yay for animated gifs:

i was cringing that entire scene.

prefer it in animated gif form.

I am reasonably certain that scene was supposed to induce cringing, hence Jeff’s commentary at the end.

I enjoyed Pierce’s reaction to the Baby Boomer Santa song. He looked so proud.

I loved that.

yeah and the dylan impression lol

peace

Yeah Troy as Dylan was fantastic. Although Childish Gambino has kind of killed the funny in Troy rapping, A-B-E-D had me laughing twice as much.

yeah i was kind of stunned at how bad the rapping was

I wasn’t, because I’ve heard Childish Gambino records. I think Donald Glover is so funny but his rapping is tragic.

i mean i think he’s a terrible “rap artist” but on a technical level i’ve heard him do better than that at least

Did not know that Dan Harmon busted up with his girlfriend this summer. Maybe this explains all the self-taken bubble bath photos he’s posting on Twitter.

she used to take the pics for him?

I watched this again yesterday and Annie’s “Wha’s a ‘dimwahwahwah wetwahwah’?” babytalk was hilarious

xxp yeah, i remember reading about the breakup (and a few “love is dead”-type things he posted to tumblr) and wondering if it would seep into his writing somehow this season. i don’t think it has, really.

so i was listening to dan harmon on that nerdist podcast and it really alternated between somewhat enjoyable and total pseudo-science bullshit uncomfortable nonsense. i ultimately had to turn it off. that podcast has just the worst two hosts.

It makes me sad that there will be no Community on tonight and yet Whitney continues to exist.

Whitney’s getting swapped with Up All Night soon, isn’t it?

Not soon enough.

I thought it was very VERY telling that Chelsea Handler did a guest appearance on Whitney as her shrink and was EFFORTLESSLY a bazillion times funnier than everyone in the regular cast.

still read that everytime as Whiney and not Whitney.

Works either way.

that podcast has just the worst two hosts.

lol, it has three, but two of them are completely indistinguishable (and both are more subdued verions of the main dude)

i am fine w/ no new community tonight because i really needed to see the stop motion ep again

xp wait there are three hosts on that podcast???

oh, you know, i made a mistake. it wasn’t the nerdist i was talking about. it was indoor kids. can we plz spend a minute talking about how terrible indoor kids are?

Enh, I think they’re okay, but they really need a Jeremy Parish type who actually knows game history, context, the diff between Western & Japanese gamedev philosophies, etc.

the Whitney hate itt makes me very...happy. one episode was enough to make me gag.

Dan himself does Harmontown every once in a while in the space that the Nerdiast guys set up at an L.A. comic shop

the Cheslea Handler love itt makes me very...confused.

Wait where are you seeing Chelsea Handler love, because I know it’s not in my post

it actually subtly played to the character’s total lack of connection to music

She didn’t sing as badly in last year’s Christmas episode though. I have to admit I’m still having some trouble with what they’re doing with Britta this season.

In what way?

For one, it’s a little hard to swallow since they’ve basically changed her character/personality type without really showing how this is some kind of organic or logical development of her character. (Annie’s character has changed as well, for example, but it makes sense as a sort of maturation of her character. Same with Jeff.) Also, I just don’t really find the new Britta all that charming or funny some of the time, especially when they go really OTT with her, e.g. in the model UN episode.

Because character development and continuity do seem fairly important in this show, it’s a little hard for me to accept that the same character who grudgingly began singing the final song of last year’s Christmas episode in a low-key manner is the same character who sang the “Me so Christmas” song on stage in this year’s Christmas pageant.

I love doofus Britta but it’s a clear case of Homerization. Also Warren Piece was a step too far.

britta is the best thing about this show

britta was the last holdout against the glee mania too though.

Still, her whole attitude was different and, like I said, her singing voice was completely different. Her sense of humour, the way she relates to the other characters have all changed (compare her interactions with Shirley and Annie in last year’s Christmas episode.)

i feel like there’s a totally logical contrast between the way Britta acts when she’s a smug defensive hipster and when she lets her guard down and gets enthusiastic about things. it’s what makes her character realistic and, more importantly, hilarious.

i just assumed the difference is that her character is high alla time now

haha that could be it too

“me so christmas, me so merry” was such a perfect callback to “me so hungy”

i feel real spergy questioning this but rly Even In A Heightened Reality who would do that. feels like playing to the people (not me!! I’m way 2 smart for this!!!!) who thought every instance of an Arrested Development character repeating a two- or three-word phrase that had occurred earlier in the series was an intentional super smart callback to another point in the gossamer web of narrative

britta saying “me so _____” >>>>>>>>>> newt calling for “fundamental change”

ppl do have their catchphrases, even on this very borad

i feel like there’s a totally logical contrast between the way Britta acts when she’s a smug defensive hipster and when she lets her guard down and gets enthusiastic about things. it’s what makes her character realistic and, more importantly, hilarious.

I don’t feel like she has been developed as a character with those two facets coexisting in her personality though. I feel like she used to be one and has now been turned into the other because the writers got a new idea or something. Maybe I can buy the always-stoned thing...

i dunno to me it fits perfectly in w/ britta’s botched jokes going back to season 1

every instance of an Arrested Development character repeating a two- or three-word phrase that had occurred earlier in the series was an intentional super smart callback to another point in the gossamer web of narrative

it was

what the hell is wrong with you people?

community is AWESOME

OK, after watching for the fifth time or so, maybe you are right, Mr Stevenson. Britta does sing much more conventionally when they’re carolling at the end so it probably was her getting excited in the pageant when she was still hypnotized. She might have even thought she was doing a punk rock or outsider-art improvisation kind of deal.

Also, I don’t know if we’ve mentioned this or not but Britta really has no fucking clue what the words to the song are, she just knows them in her heart, as Abed said.

OK, after watching for the fifth time or so, maybe you are right, Mr Stevenson. Britta does sing much more conventionally when they’re carolling at the end so it probably was her getting excited in the pageant when she was still hypnotized. She might have even thought she was doing a punk rock or outsider-art improvisation kind of deal.

― EveningStar, Sunday, December 18, 2011 1:00 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

i have posted about britta but afaik i haven’t said anything about the way she was singing in that ep

Yeah, I meant you were right about these things:

i feel like there’s a totally logical contrast between the way Britta acts when she’s a smug defensive hipster and when she lets her guard down and gets enthusiastic about things. it’s what makes her character realistic and, more importantly, hilarious.

i dunno to me it fits perfectly in w/ britta’s botched jokes going back to season 1

and I was extrapolating. It made sense in my head.

rendering the study group as X-men:

http://www.avivor.com/english/

http://www.jonnyeveson.com/

Inspector Spacetime posters!

and the other: http://www.jonnyeveson.com/product/inspector-spacetime-poster

ok, i’ll admit that’s kinda great

I am watching the first season on Hulu and holy shit re: the April Fool’s episode and the billiards episode

we just finished season 1 and yeah those are about when it hit its stride

Oh dude happy belated birthday!

thank you! i have been celebrating by working through three planned vacation days!

Sweet!

wait what is the april fools joke? is that britta and the chang frog?

Yes

I got the s1 DVDs for Christmas. I’d actually forgotten how much I loved those episodes, even before they went all high-concept. Just great humour, stories, and characters. “Intro to Film” is slept on imo. And I forgot that the Dean actually first blackmailed Jeff in “Football, Feminism, and You”.

Brie does seem to overact a little in the early episodes. I wonder if she got better later or if she just became so hot that I wasn’t paying attention anymore.

Also forgot that Abed became Batman for the first time in the Mexican Halloween episode!

I think Brie just found her footing w/the role and it just so happened that it coincided w/her bringing the sexy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WZ2hYXAocTc