HUZZAH! IT’S HAPPENING! IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING! WE’RE NO LONGER IN THE DARKEST TIMELINE!
After a long and dreadful seven years of suspense, Peacock TV took to its social media on Sept. 30th to announce the order of the highly anticipated Community movie. Since the news, the internet world has been buzzing, overjoyed that Abed’s prophecy of “six seasons and a movie” has finally come true. Although it’s yet to be confirmed if the entire cast will return, it is rumoured that most of the original stars, such as Joel Mchale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Donald Glover, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jim Rash, and Ken Jeong will be part of the project.
The show ended in 2015 after a mostly successful run of six, pure-comedic and witty seasons chock-full of running gags, amusing commentary, and well-written episodes. Unlike typical sitcom structures seen in Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, and Friends, Community often parodies genre conventions of film and television. From the documentary to murder mystery to the western, Community did them all!
The “Human Beings” of Greendale Community College will return to campus soon, but while we wait, here is a list of 10 Community episodes you NEED to watch before Jeff, Britta, Annie, Shirley, Troy, and Abed hit the big screen.
10) Season 3 Episode 20: Digital Estate Planning
In impeccable Community fashion, this wildly fun episode at the end of the show’s third season mimics the style of a Super Mario’s video game. Each character is displayed in digital form, walking around and interacting with the terrain like the Mario bros. Pierce struggles with the controls because of his age, Annie and Shirly share a comedic moment while trying to cover up their murder of the blacksmith, and Abed breeds a colony of mini versions of himself who say “cool, cool, cool” after falling in love a non-player character. With surreal comedy and exciting visuals, this is a great episode.
9) Season 5 Episode 8: App Development and Condiments
When a new hit social media app that allows you to rate people as you interact with them called “MeowMeowBeenz” is developed, the app creators take it to Greendale to run a beta test. The app’s popularity spreads like wildfire and soon the entire school is divided by their ratings. Greendale separates into factions and fully embraces the tropes of a high-stakes dystopian movie. Ones are considered scum, while fives are considered royalty.
Jeff, who initially believes the app is stupid, makes it his mission to become a five, expose Shirly for her fakeness (because she is also a five), and take down the toxic status quo. Eventually he falls for the trick as well, and becomes another pawn in the new futuristic life system. It’s Britta who leads the revolution at the end and restores normality, reducing all students to a one MeowMeowBeenz status.
After the main show writer, Dan Harmon, left the show back in season 4, the humour was never the same. However, this season 5 episode managed to captivate viewers. It belongs on this list because of its amazing set up and funny jokes!
8)Season 2 Episode 18: Critical Film Studies
In this season two episode, Jeff plans a specially themed Pulp Fiction birthday party for Abed, only for the film-obsessed man to rope Jeff into a shockingly normal dinner with him. While Jeff tries to convince him to leave, Abed continues to insist that he has grown into a different person. Eventually his heart-wrenching stories cause Jeff to break down as well. It’s revealed at the end that Abed was trying to recreate the film Dinner With Andre the entire time, while Jeff is left feeling embarrassed after sharing some disturbing, but ultimately funny, stories.
It’s a brilliant episode with accurate references to both film’s sets, costumes, and props.You’ll be left laughing at Abed’s overly theatrical shenanigans and Jeff’s dramatic honesty.
7) Season 2 Episodes 22-23: A Fist Full of Paintballs/For a Few Paintballs More
This two-part story is the second installment of the show’s classic paintball running gag. Parodying the genres of western and sci-fi, the episodes pull direct references from classic spaghetti westerns and the well-known Star Wars franchise. Having been promised the prize of $100,000, the study group is forced to destroy the Greendale campus in an attempt to win their annual paintball game. When it is revealed that City College is rigging the whole thing, all the students band together to save their school, paintball style.
It’s an episode that expertly mixes comedy with action, creating an engaging and thrilling parody!
6) Season 1 Episode 21: Contemporary American Poultry
In this hilarious Community episode, the study group learns about the positives and negatives of being a part of the mob. What is their source of power, you might ask?
Chicken strips.
After missing the chance to get their hands on the cafeteria’s famous chicken fingers, the study group forms a plan to infiltrate the kitchen and get their own supply. Abed, noticing the resemblances to other mobster tropes, fully adopts the idea that they are in a mafia movie. Under his leadership, the study group, minus Jeff, embrace the lifestyle of true mobsters and use their power to provide themselves with unique luxuries (like a monkey named “Annie’s Boobs”). In the end, the group returns to normal, but not before a stellar 16 Candles reference where Jeff and Abed sit on the counter and eat chicken strips side by side.
It’s a clever and intricate episode that is full of film references and funny one-liners. As the show’s first-ever attempt at mimicking other genres, it is executed flawlessly.
5) Season 1 Episode 23: Modern Warfare
Kicking off the fan-favourite running gag of paintball at Greendale, this episode of Community places the study group in a dangerous competition. They have to work as a team to win the prize of priority registration, in a high-stakes, cross-campus paintball game. Not only is this the first time the show tackles such an elaborate plot with extravagant sets and costumes, but it’s also the first time it takes bold steps with characterization, transforming the people we’ve come to know over the season into deadly assassins. It’s a unique narrative, initially shocking viewers, but one that proved popular and left them wanting more.
This episode of Community sets a precedent for the show’s outrageously out-of-pocket situations that you can’t help but laugh at!
4) Season 2 Episode 15: Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking
Claiming that he is about to die, Pierce gathers the entire study group at the hospital for his bequeathal, giving specifically targeted gifts to each member. He torments Shirly by giving her a CD that is supposedly a recording of the group gossiping about her, he gifts Britta a cheque that she can either donate or deposit, he gifts Troy the chance to meet his favourite celebrity that he never wanted to meet (out of fear of disappointing him), he gifts Jeff the opportunity to reunite with his absent father, and he gives Annie a priceless tiara (because she’s his favourite). Abed records the entire experience with the intent of making a documentary, so the episode is filled with voice-over narration and character interviews to mimic the genre.
It’s an amazingly structured episode, capturing the comedic emotions of each study-group member as they are forced to face aspects of themselves that they’d rather avoid. The documentary style is a refreshing set-up and keeps the audience engaged.
3) Season 3 Episode 13-14: Digital Exploration of Interior Design/Pillows and Blankets
In order to have a Subway in the cafeteria, the Dean allows a student named Subway to enroll in Greendale. Britta agrees to help Shirly take the company down, but falls in love with him instead. Meanwhile, Abed and Troy experience their first-ever fight, arguing over if they should make a giant blanket fort across campus to beat the world record or continue with the pillow fort that they had already started. These two plots coexist side by side, making for a hilarious and insane two-episode arc. The second of the two is structured like a historical war documentary, using diagrams, found photos, and interviews to detail the events of the battle between the two forts: Blanketsburg (Troy) vs Pillowtown (Abed).
Watched together, these two episodes are crafted very differently but flow nicely from one to the other. The Subway story will leave you chuckling, but the war documentary that follows will leave you rolling on the ground in laughter.
2) Season 2 Episode 8: Cooperative Calligraphy
This iconic episode of Community takes on the common sitcom structure of a bottle episode. Commonly used to save money, bottle episodes usually trap the main characters in a single set, relying on well-crafted dialogue to keep the audience engaged. Out of all the episodes on this list, Cooperative Calligraphy is one of the best-written.
Believing that someone stole her pen, Annie angrily forces the entire group to tear apart the study room to find it, keeping them from going to the highly anticipated puppy parade. Accusations are made against one another and dark secrets are revealed, including that Abed has been secretly tracking the menstrual cycles of all the women in their group. In the end, the characters may fail to find Annie’s pen, but the episode is ultimately successful, comedic through the character’s tense but entertaining constant bickering.
This episode is a classic Community story and is often referenced in later seasons. It is witty, fun, and has a great feel-good ending.
1) Season 3 Episode 4: Remedial Chaos Theory
Kicking off the season with a bang, Troy and Abed invite the entire study group to their new apartment for a housewarming party. As they all sit down to play Yahtzee, the pizza arrives and one member of their group has to leave the apartment to get it. Jeff decides to roll a 6 sided die to decide who goes, but before he can, Abed warns him not to because it’ll create 6 different timelines. Jeff ,of course, ignores this and rolls the dice anyway.
As an audience, we get to watch 6 different realities unfold, following what would occur if each member of the group were to leave. It’s such a beautifully written episode because we get to see the collective thrive or falter depending on who stays and who goes. We get to see glimpses of relationships forming between Troy and Britta, and Annie and Jeff, and we get to witness stunning characterization hidden through small telling details in each reality, adding up to tell a deeper story.
To a lot of Community fans, this season 3 story is one of the best episodes of the entire series. So if there’s any to watch on this list this is it! It’s amazingly written and it holds some of the best jokes ever seen in the show.
There you have it! Those are the best 10 episodes to watch before the Community movie is released. Every episode of this list is fantastically written, well-thought-out, outrageously comedic, and feels wonderfully nostalgic to those who have stuck with this loveable sitcom throughout the years. It’ll be very exciting to see the characters we know and love reunite, gathered around that old study table once more.