Comedy is a real pain in the ass to write about, because it’s subjective. A joke either works or it doesn’t, a reference either catches you or it doesn’t, a gag is either perfectly timed or a split-second off. So what we talk about when we talk about Community is usually the story (furthering the myth of Dan Harmon, story guru and mad genius). Then, sometimes, there’s an episode with a story so bizarre that I’m just not sure whatto talk about.
Thanks to the oddly specific bequeathal of Pierce Hawthorne, and the real-life ambitions of the actor who plays him, Troy Barnes is leaving Greendale Community College. While the rest of the study group (which I still feel inclined to call them, as we’ve not yet seen the Save Greendale group meet again) prepares to send Troy off with one last round of make-believe, Britta, as much of a buzzkill as ever, urges the group not to let fantasy overshadow the emotion of Troy’s departure.
One of these days I’ll be able to avoid making a direct comparison of Dan Harmon’s Community to the Port/Guarascio season (a topic I’m already tiring of) but it’s not going to be today, because last night’s Communityhit upon and dramatically improved upon a theme referenced in one of last season’s most divisive episodes. In the episode “Intro to Felt Surrogacy”, better known as “the puppet episode”, from Season Four, the group became isolated from each other due to “disturbing” revelations made during an accidental mushroom trip.
Butts are a basic unit of comedy. Whether you’re a sixth-grader gleefully farting at recess or a well-paid comedy writer, it’s a rich vein of humor. So much of this episode revolves around the giggly use of “butt” or “ass” or “ass-crack” that it’s hard to really spend any time analyzing the plot of this episode.
Look. I don’t need to tell you what happened. You know. We all know. And, sadly, much of what the world at large knows about Community is that it’s the weird little show where everyone’s always fighting and quitting or getting fired. It’s a show that should never have survived, that should rightly have been crushed by the twin corporate giants, Sony and NBC, who so clearly hate this strange little show that they can’t sell their affiliates or advertisers on, but that just won’t go away.
Any real suspense over what television series would top our list, or pretty much any other, ended on September 15th—the night that Breaking Bad aired its instant classic episode “Ozymandias”. In a chilling, depressing hour, all of Walter White’s brilliant schemes come crashing to the desert floor, and his family is irrevocably shattered, like the visage of the ancient statue in Shelley’s poem.