Sitcoms are very formulaic. From Friends to Parks and Recreation, they have an order of events they follow. It’s a three act episode that introduces a problem, scenes of rising action, and ultimately overcoming the problem. Sometimes you get a heartfelt lesson, a “womp womp” moment, or some character development for future episodes. One sitcom in particular tends to veer off from the general sitcom formula: Community, 2009. Community is different from sitcoms because there are different goals for each character, different stylized episodes, and the meta jokes that are present.
Community’s Multifaceted Characters
Community is a sitcom about unlikely friends coming together at a community college
Jeff is an ex lawyer trying to get his degree after his firm found out it was fake, played by Joel McHale.
Britta is a social justice lover who has just returned from traveling the world, played by Gillian Jacobs.
Abed is a pop culture obsessed outcast, played by Danny Pudi.
Troy is an ex football player after an accident during a keg stand and losing his scholarship, played by Donald Glover
Annie is a perfectionist, goody two shoes, who had a pill addiction landed her in community college, played by Alison Brie
Shirley is a Jesus loving mother, played by Yvette Nicole Brown
Pierce, is an elderly conservative who is the heir to a moist towelette empire, played by Chevy Chase
Side characters include, their crazy Spanish teacher Senor Chang, played by Ken Jeong
And flamboyant Dean of Greendale Community College, Craig (he just goes by ‘Dean”), played by Jim Rash
This cast of characters are so incredibly different that as the show goes on, their values and personalities change because of their unique friendship. In most sitcoms, the characters are just one thing, Chandler is sarcastic, Leslie Knope is overly positive, and Dwight is weird. Instead of being defined by one trait, the characters of Community are multifaceted. For example, in the beginning of the show Troy is seen as “the jock”. As the show goes on Troy develops a close friendship with Abed, changing him into a nerdier, happier, and more emotional guy.
Community’s Stylized Episodes
Many sitcoms seem to follow the same style of episode. Modern Family and The Office stay true to their style of cut away interviews and documentary style filming throughout the series. However, Community has multiple episodes that don’t follow their original format.
The episode “Modern Warfare” is about how the Dean of the community college has implemented a school wide game of paintball with the prize being priority registration. This episode is shot like a war movie, the school is flipped into a battle zone and the characters take the paintball shots to be life ending.
In the episode “Contemporary American Poultry”, the study group wants to be the first to get the chicken tenders at lunch, so they plan that Abed will get a job in the kitchen and get them the chicken. The chicken becomes a sort of currency, making the group super popular on campus. This episode is shot and told like a mafia film, with the study group being a cartel dealing out the chicken, the voice over done by Abed, and is overall an homage to Goodfellas.
The most different from them all would be the episode “Digital Estate Planning”, which is about Pierce’s dad manufacturing a video game for him and his friends to play after his death; the winner gets Pierce’s inheritance. The episode places the study group in a video game, turning them tinto 90s Marion looking characters as they help Pierce win the game.
Community’s Meta Episodes
Many sitcoms never acknowledge the audience or what a viewer would be seeing from an outside perspective, but with Community having a character like Abed,whose only way to connect with people is through films and television, making meta jokes (self aware humor) is undeinable.
One example would be the episode “It’s A Bottle Episode”. This episode starts with Annie not being able to find her pen and that soon becomes the major plot of the episode. Abed acknowledges multiple times that this is a “bottle episode,” poking at the fact that this is a filler episode in their show.
There have also been many times where Abed has addressed the camera. In the “Pillows and Blankets” episode, he looks right at the camera and says “to be continued”.
In “Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples”, Shirley asks Abed to make a religious film to make young people think Jesus is “dope”. Obviously, Abed takes it to the extreme by first looking at the camera and saying “maybe this is the movie”. Then he becomes super meta by making the film itself be about a filmmaker who is Jesus trying to find God with his camera, but then realizes that he is Jesus and he is being filmed by God.
Community’s most famous episode and most meta is “Six Different Timelines”. This episode focuses on the different timelines created by Jeff rolling a six sided die which decides who will go get the pizza from the delivery guy. It plays out each different possibilites and what would happen to all the characters. This episode also sets up future episodes where Abed talks about the different timelines, creating an alter ego called “Evil Abed” from the darkest timeline where Troy got the pizza. The outcome being, Pierce dies, Jeff loses an arm, Troy loses his voice, Anna goes insane, Shirley becomes an alcoholic, and Britta just dyes a blue streak in her hair.
Community is still a sitcom, but a sitcom with much more to it than what the label implies. It has elements that are barely implemented in the natural sitcom formula, characters that change throughout the show, and meta jokes for the audience. The show is a masterpiece and is personally one of my favorites shows. But, maybe in another timeline where I never watched it my favorite show would be Friends and I wouldn’t even be writing this article.
-Evil Lucienne