History Recap / CommunityS3E04RemedialChaosTheory

-->'''Shirley:''': Excuse me for being the only married woman in a group of horny-toads making googly-eyes at each other!\\

* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: Britta in Timeline 6 after she lets it slip that the group was boycotting Shirley's baking; {{Justified}} in that she's just smoked a joint and is too high to stop herself from even eating the pie, let alone keeping that big of a secret.

!!The ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Remedial Chaos Theory" provides examples of:

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

%% * DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: Britta in Timeline 6. Blame it on the pot.

* FreudianExcuse: In Timeline 6, Shirley eventually admits to Britta that the only reason she bakes excessively is that she feels excluded by the rest of the study group, and baking is her way of feeling needed and included. Unfortunately, this means that Jeff's plan to confront her excessive baking by colluding with everyone to refuse to eat what she cooks unwittingly works to validate her fears of being left out.

* LethalChef: Shirley insists on making her homemade pizzas despite the study group having already ordered one via delivery, implying they were of dubious quality (even when they don't get burned). It's probably this reason and Jeff trying to prevent cooking from being Shirley's dominant characteristic that they actively avoid eating them.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: In the prime timeline, Abed catches the dice and calls Jeff "a devious son of a bitch" for rigging the game so he would never have to get the pizza. Jeff gives a roguish grin as the study group playfully calls him out for being classic Jeff. Despite Jeff banging his head and the gang calling it karma, he's amused on seeing them dance to "Roxanne".

* BrickJoke: Several, given the "alternate timelines" nature of the storylines. In the first few timelines, everyone who goes to the door to get the pizzas makes a point of noting what a creepy weirdo the pizza delivery guy was. So of course, when it's Britta's turn, she falls madly in love with him at first sight and they get engaged.

** The Indiana Jones temple replica. In each timeline, Abed catches the boulder before it goes over the table...except in the darkest one, where Annie trips on it, triggering DisasterDominoes.
** Troy finds a gun in Annie's purse in the timeline where she goes downstairs. In the darkest timeline, the purse falls to the floor when Annie trips and the gun goes off, shooting Pierce in the leg (a wound that he apparently dies from).
** Pierce brings a bottle of strong Serbian rum to the party, while Britta smokes a joint in the bathroom in every timeline she goes there. In the darkest timeline, the bottle breaks and Britta accidentally drops the joint onto the liquor, setting it on fire.
%% * ChekhovsArmoury. The boulder, the gun, the high-proof rum, Britta's joint, and the [[ChekhovsGift troll doll]] each as their own ChekhovsGun.

* DancePartyEnding: The prime timeline ends with Jeff going to get the pizza downstairs. Thus Britta can start singing "Roxanne" and everyone starts dancing.

* DisasterDominoes: Timeline 5. Troy hurriedly leaves the apartment for the pizza delivery — he dislodges the rolling boulder from the "Raiders" set model which lands on the floor — Annie trips on it and falls into the coffee table, smashing Pierce's bottle of overproof rum — Pierce jumps up from the game table in panic and Annie's purse hits the floor — a gun inside it fires, shooting Pierce in the thigh and hitting an artery — as the others frantically try to stop the bleeding, Britta steps out of the bathroom, and as she gapes in alarm the marijuana cigarette she's smoking falls and ignites the rum. Eventually, one is dead, one is driven mad from guilt, one lapses into chronic drunkenness, one's larynx is destroyed, one loses an arm in the fire, one thinks [[MultiversalConqueror they should invade the Prime Timeline,]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking one dyes a strand of her hair blue]].

* ChekhovsGun:
** Literally, Annie's gun which is shown off in timeline 1 only to go off in another (third act).
** The Indiana Jones temple replica. In each timeline, Abed catches the boulder before it goes over the table... until the timeline where Troy gets the pizza and the boulder causes DisasterDominoes.

* PrimeTimeline: Jeff's die roll determining which of their seven-man party goes downstairs to get the pizza is immediately lampshaded by Abed to generate six different timelines. We then see six different versions of the night. After these, Abed catches the die and commenting that Jeff had left himself out of the count, and the group sends him downstairs instead. This results in the best and happiest version of the evening. In TheTag, the group that had lived out the darkest version of the evening considers this one the "Prime Timeline", and Evil Abed schemes to return there.

* AddictionDisplacement: Baking is heavily implied to be one of several hobbies that Shirley took up as a replacement for alcohol. [[spoiler:When the housewarming party ends in disaster in the Darkest Timeline, she goes back to drinking.]]

** Jeff's line "I don't like being the bad guy any more than anybody else!" [[spoiler:In the Darkest Timeline, ''all'' of the group (including Jeff) become evil.]]
** In the first two timelines, Britta gets indignant after Abed comments that the bathroom smells weird after she uses it, and [[NoSocialSkills he asks her what she was doing in there]]. [[spoiler:Abed wasn't being socially awkward: Britta was smoking weed in the bathroom.]]

* InSpiteOfANail: Pierce claims his Eartha Kitt story comes up organically but he actually brings it up in each timeline regardless of the topic at hand.
** Subverted when, in the GoldenEnding, the story ''does'' come up organically, but someone cuts him off two words in.

* KillingYourAlternateSelf: Evil Abed hatches this plot upon deducing they occupy an evil timeline: go back to the "prime" timeline, kill their counterparts, and [[KillAndReplace assume their normal lives]].

* MileHighClub: In six of the seven timelines, Pierce shoehorns in his story about having airplane bathroom sex with Eartha Kitt.

%% * ChekhovsArmoury. The boulder, the gun, the high-proof vodka, Britta's joint, and the [[ChekhovsGift troll doll]] each as their own ChekhovsGun.

* AbsenteeActor: This episode features only the study group, and thus neither Ben Chang, nor the recently [[PromotionToOpeningTitles promoted to the opening titles]] Craig Pelton appear.

-->'''Jeff:''' Shirley just had a mental breakdown.\\
'''Pierce:''' More like a mental-\\

** Timeline 6 ends with each member save for Abed having either awkwardness or genuine hatred of one another (and also implies that the group wouldn't be friends if not for Abed]]).

* HappyEndingOverride: TheStinger shows off the grim aftereffects of Timeline 5: Pierce died from his gunshot wound, Annie went mad with guilt, Shirley became a drunk, Troy destroyed his voicebox after trying to eat the troll, Jeff lost an arm in the fire, and Britta [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking put a blue streak in her hair.]]
* HeldGaze: {{Lampshaded}} by Shirley, who calls the group a bunch of horny toads making googly eyes at each other. Like in [[Recap/CommunityS1E15RomanticExpressionism Romantic Expressionism]], another set of glances go around, starting with Jeff/Annie and then going from Troy/Britta and ending with Troy/Abed (who does his eyebrow thing again.). On top of that, several of the alternate timelines have Jeff and Annie staring schmoopily at each other and every time they do so, Shirley excuses herself to check on her pies.

'''Jeff:''': ''[Brutally]'' '''''No.'''''

* NightmareFuel: InUniverse, Pierce's Norwegian troll doll literally gave Troy ''nightmares'' when it was placed outside his bedroom at Pierce's.

-->'''Jeff:''' Is charades off the table?

* ValuesDissonance: {{Invoked}}; Troy and Abed discuss a handbook they consulted for advice on how to act as hosts for their party. The first piece of advice was "dress to impress". The second was "avoid touchy subjects like 'the Negro problem'". Turns out it was written in the 1940s.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Jeff's line "I don't like being the bad guy any more than you!" [[spoiler:In the Darkest Timeline, ''all'' of the group (including Jeff) become evil.]]

--->'''Jeff:''' I don't like being the bad guy more than anyone.\\

* ImmediateSelfContradiction: Troy claims to be a grown-up man when chatting to Britta in the bathroom. Then he pulls out his candy cigarette.

* JerkassRealization: In Timeline 6, after Troy [[FriendshipMoment sincerely thanks him for having let him stay in his mansion last season]], Pierce clearly feels awful about his troll doll "gift" and tries to stop Troy from opening it, with him instead trying to offer Water Piks and other ''actual'' presents to make up for it while the two are wrestling over the "present."

* PetTheDog: While Pierce doesn't get up from the table and just happily watches his friends (minus Jeff) dancing and singing to "Roxanne" in the prime timeline, he takes the troll doll "gift" he was going to give Troy and Abed and hucks it in the trash, which is then followed by him [[NoKillLikeOverkill taking the doll out of the box and]] ''[[NoKillLikeOverkill throwing it out the window.]]''
* PizzaBoySpecialDelivery: Pierce mentions that all the good-looking pizza delivery guys must have gone into porn.

* AlmostKiss: Jeff and Annie in Timeline 4.
** Subverted in Timeline 6, where the two successfully make out, only to stop when Annie mentions Jeff reminding her of her father.
%% * AlternateTimeline: Seven different ones are explored during this episode.

* ActorAllusion:
** Downplayed, but Danny Pudi is apparently a huge fan of Yahtzee even off the set.

* AlternateTimeline: Seven different ones are explored during this episode.
* AmusingInjuries: The darkest timeline version of Troy destroyed his vocal cord trying to eat the troll doll and now has to speak with an electrolarynx, but it's okay since this isn't the "real" timeline.
--> '''Evil Troy:''' ''(deadly serious) Clearly,'' you don't understand anything about defeating trolls.

* BerserkButton:
** {{Played For Laughs}}; while everyone else more-or-less laughs off the fact that Jeff was manipulating them in order that he wouldn't have to get the pizza and considers [[LaserGuidedKarma making him go down for them a fitting punishment]], Pierce seems genuinely offended and outraged by it.
** Abed does not react well to Shirley's suggestion that they should have her (admittedly ''very'' unappetizing) home-baked pizzas instead of getting them delivered like had already been arranged.
* BigNo: Troy upon seeing the troll standing amid the chaos of Timeline 5. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-jVbjtTKVM The reasons have to be seen to be believed.]]
* BloodyHilarious: Happens to Timeline 5 Pierce when he gets shot in the leg.

* CallBack: [[Recap/CommunityS2E10MixologyCertification "Duh-doy!"]]

* CerebusSyndrome: Timeline 5 as it gets incredibly dark by the end. Also, since it's an alternate timeline, as far as we can know it never happened.
* CharacterDeath: Pierce in Timeline 5 after being shot in the leg.

** Another is the Indiana Jones temple replica. In each timeline, Abed catches the boulder before it goes over the table... until the timeline where Troy gets the pizza and the boulder causes DisasterDominoes.
** Really, it becomes more of a ChekhovsArmoury if one considers the boulder, the gun, the high-proof vodka, Britta's [[DrugsAreBad joint]], and the [[ChekhovsGift troll doll]] each as their own ChekhovsGun.

** Annie is described as a good nurse, a phrase previously used in "[[Recap/CommunityS2E06Epidemiology Epidemiology.]]"
** In the first timeline, we discover that [[Theatre/AnnieGetYourGun Annie keeps a gun]]. We learned in last season's episode "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design", that Annie carries a gun due to her apartment's neighborhood being dangerous.

* DancePartyEnding: The prime timeline has this.

* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: Britta in Timeline 6. Blame it on the pot.

* DownerEnding: The end tag displays the aftermath of what happened in Timeline 5 (see above). Also Timeline 6 ends with each member save for Abed having either awkwardness or genuine hatred of one another (and also implies that [[FridgeBrilliance the group wouldn't be friends if not for Abed]]).
* EruditeStoner: Britta in Timeline 3 is very perceptive of the root cause of turmoil between Troy and Jeff.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: In the tag set in the "darkest timeline" where Pierce is dead, Annie went insane, Shirley is drunk, Troy lost his larynx, Jeff lost an arm and Britta...

** Jeff's hair is also notably unkempt (well, more so than usual) and starting to prematurely grey from stress.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In the tag, Troy and Abed are watching JustForFun/InspectorSpacetime, introduced in [[Recap/CommunityS3E01Biology101 the season premiere]].

* {{Gasp}}: Annie, the first time the buzzer goes off.

* HypocriticalHumor: Discussing Shirley's 'baking problem':
-->'''Jeff:''' I don't like being the bad guy more than anyone.\\

** Related to this, Jeff is adamant that Shirley is "not allowed an identity around baking!" Given that we learn in this episode that Jeff keeps his toiletries locked up in a safe, which one way or another suggests incredible vanity, he's probably not the best person to be making decisions about what other people are allowed to base their identities on.

** Seeing as Britta sneaks off to smoke pot, [[IncrediblyLamePun Shirley isn't the only one with a baking problem]].
* ImmediateSelfContradiction: Troy claims to be a grown-up man when chatting to Britta in the bathroom. Then he pulls out his gum cigarette.

* KillingYourAlternateSelf: Evil!Abed hatches this plot upon deducing they occupy an evil timeline: go back to the "prime" timeline, kill their counterparts, and [[KillAndReplace assume their normal lives]].

* LibationForTheDead: Evil!Shirley pours one out for Pierce. May he [[GallowsHumor "Rest In Pierce."]]
* LoveAtFirstSight: Britta and Toby the pizza man.

* OffTheWagon: Shirley in the evil timeline tag.

* RunningGag: Several, given the nature of the episode, but the most notable is Pierce finding an opportunity in every timeline to mention how he had sex with Eartha Kitt in an airplane bathroom. And Jeff hitting his head on the ceiling fan.
** Also worth a specific shout-out in the opening scene: "Troy and Abed's new apaaartment!"

* SplitTimelinesPlot: No less than ''seven'' are ultimately created, depending on who is chosen to go get the pizza.
* StatusQuoIsGod: In the prime timeline all the conflict, ShipTease and CharacterDevelopment (well, virtually for the lattermost) of the other timelines is avoided.
** Although, TheTag makes it look like the dark timeline actually made it into canon. [[NoCanonForTheWicked Think again]].

* WatchingTroyBurn: [[AccidentalPun Troy]] in the darkest timeline, followed by a BigNo.

* RealityEnsues: TheStinger shows off the grim aftereffects of Timeline 5: Pierce died from his gunshot wound, Annie went mad with guilt, Shirley became a drunk, Troy destroyed his voicebox after trying to eat the troll, Jeff lost an arm in the fire, and Britta [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking put a blue streak in her hair.]]

* SoundtrackDissonance: The song "Roxanne" by Music/ThePolice (which plays on an iPod speaker in six of the seven timelines) becomes this in Timeline 5 during the chaos that erupts with Pierce being shot and the apartment catching on fire.