Line #16 Recap/CommunityS2E05MessianicMythsAndAncientPeoples


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/abed_meta.jpg]]
2
3	Concerned about a lack of what she considers to be wholesome entertainment, Shirley sets out to make a religious film and asks Abed for help. However, Abed is consumed in the project, which evolves into a gratuitously metafictional study of the relationship between UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} and {{God}}, with Abed himself in the starring role. Shirley worries about the blasphemous implications while Abed sweeps the rest of the school into his vision.
4
5	Meanwhile, Pierce grows fed up with being the "child" of the study group despite being the oldest member and joins the "hipsters", a trouble-causing clique of other senior citizens.
6
7	Has a [[YMMV/CommunityS2E05MessianicMythsAndAncientPeoples YMMV page.]]
8
9	-----
10	!!The ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples" provides examples of:
11
12	* AgainstMyReligion: Subverted: Abed does not object to making a Christian movie as a Muslim: as a filmmaker, he does.
13	* AmateurFilmMakingPlot: Abed's plot. Taking inspiration from Shirley, Abed decides to make his own religious film. While he's making it, the film starts to take on some MemeticBadass[[invoked]] traits. Unfortunately, the result turns out to be terrible and Shirley destroys it to save Abed's reputation.
14	* ApatheticTeacher: Duncan admits he's completely given up any pretense of actually teaching Anthropology and just lets the class watch random [=YouTube=] videos instead.
15	* AsideGlance:
16	-->'''Abed:''' This ''is'' the movie.
17	* AudibleSharpness: Parodied when Shirley picks up a (wooden) baseball bat.
18	* BatterUp: Shirley uses a baseball bat to [[TrashTheSet trash Abed's set]].
19	* BookEnds: Duncan's anthropology class where he just shows online videos in lieu of anything like the actual curriculum -- only in the last one, he starts a video that Abed uploaded, which forces him to instruct the class, "Open your books, because Abed has broken the Internet."
20	* CryingWolf[=/=]PlayingSick: Leonard's comrade Richard continually says, "Where am I? What year is this?" and the rest of the Hipsters laugh at this genius ploy of getting out of trouble. This leads to a TearJerker[[invoked]] moment towards the end when Pierce and the others discover Richard is, in fact, suffering from dementia and may not have been previously faking.
21	* {{Deconstruction}}: Abed's film is hyped up by the students of Greendale as a [[MetaFiction metafictional]] TrueArtIsIncomprehensible masterpiece. When Abed sees the final cut of the movie, [[CreatorBacklash he realizes it's too complex and self-indulgent and thinks it's a terrible product]]. Turns out, incomprehensibility won't inherently make something good.
22	* {{Delinquents}}: InvertedTrope--instead of juvenile delinquents, they're senior delinquents. The "Hipsters" (so called because they all have replaced hips) are a clique of old students. They're rude, play poker, drink excessively, and drive unsafely. It uses the trope ScrewPolitenessImASenior, but the rest of the tropes are lifted straight from the youth. Piece falls in with the wrong crowd until he learns they aren't actually very good friends and returns to his old friends.
23	* DesignatedParents: Jeff and Britta, even more so than usual, despite all Jeff's efforts to defy such. Pierce plays the role of the rebelling teenager and Annie is the concerned younger sister.
24	* DirectedByCastMember: Invoked by Abed when he plays Jesus in his own movie.
25	* DressesTheSame: In TheTag Abed and Troy both SpeakInUnison with and [[DressesTheSame dress the same]] as Jeff. Annie apparently wanted in on the gag too, but got stuck in traffic and arrives just after the joke has ended -- only to become the impromptu next victim as the two imitate her, instead.
26	* EvenEvilHasStandards: When the senior citizen group has the idea to take a joy ride in the Dean's car, Pierce is the only one to protest, partially because of it being theft and partly because [[DrunkDriver all of them have been drinking]]. After Richard crashes the car[[note]]read: has the car ''very slowly'' bump into a lamppost[[/note]], Leonard tells the rest of the group to run, but Pierce willingly stays behind to look after Richard, [[BecomingTheMask who it's just been revealed is suffering from dementia]].
27	* EverybodyIsJesusInPurgatory: In-universe. Abed's idea for a viral video for Shirley's church was a film about a filmmaker who was making a film about Jesus who realized that he himself was Jesus having a film made about him.
28	* ExactWords: Duncan shows Website/YouTube videos to the Anthropology class. When Annie protests, he says the descriptor of anthropology as "the study of humanity" is broad enough to justify practically anything.
29	* FreudianSlip: That's Dopey.
30	* FriendshipMoment: Abed makes a new, actually serviceable Jesus rap video for Shirley.
31	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Jeff awkwardly dancing in the background in TheTeaser.
32	* GiveMeASign: Abed asks and [[ExactEavesdropping is being heard]].
33	* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: Nobody besides Abed and Starburns will ever see whatever was in Abed's movie, since Shirley destroys the tapes. Abed himself ''thanks'' Shirley for her intervention, since he does not want anyone to see what's in the movie.
34	* HeavenAbove: Shirley gives two thumbs up pointing at the sky to try to tell Abed she's talking about God, but he doesn't quite get it and she has to explain her own message.
35	* HeroWithBadPublicity: After spending the whole episode fighting against Abed's film, Shirley overhears him realizing that the final product was a self-indulgent mess, and praying that something will happen so he doesn't have to release it. Shirley then publicly destroys the film, knowing that she'll be publicly hated for it, just to give him a way out.
36	* [[NapoleonDelusion Jesus Delusion]]: Abed comes uncomfortably close to it.
37	* JesusWasWayCool: How Abed reacts after reading the New Testament.
38	* JoinsToFitIn: Pierce's reason for becoming a Hipster.
39	* LastSupperSteal: The shot of Abed and his production crew on a table.
40	* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Jesus!Abed.
41	* MostWritersAreWriters:
42	-->'''Abed:''' I want to tell the story of Jesus from the perspective of a filmmaker exploring the life of Jesus.\
43	'''Shirley:''' That sounds… very appealing to filmmakers.
44	* MrFanservice: Britta's reaction to Abed as Jesus.
45	* MyGreatestFailure[=/=]MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Abed refers to his movie as [[WorstWhateverEver the worst piece of crap he's ever seen]]. He thinks that if the movie goes out, critics will turn against him and ending his career before he even has a chance to start it.
46	-->'''Abed:''' It's a self-indulgent, adolescent mess; I can barely sit through it.
47	* OneWomanWail: A female vocalist ululates Abed's name for a sort of joking biblical epic effect many times throughout the episode, then in the "dramatic" ending, the singer eerily wails Shirley's name.
48	* PerpWalk: The Hipsters give the Dean and Shirley a hard time when the two pass from the car to the school's entrance.
49	-->'''Dean''': Don't make eye contact and we'll be fine.
50	* RecycledSoundtrack: When Abed and Starburns review the daily, the sountrack playing sounds like the [[https://youtu.be/cHthbtSbGLM?t=59 main theme]] of ''Film/DragonTheBruceLeeStory''.
51	* ShoutOut: Multiple references to Creator/CharlieKaufman, a screenwriter known for his use of metafiction and MindScrew-y films.
52	* ShroudedInMyth: ''"I heard it's the same film backwards and forwards."''
53	* StandardFiftiesFather: Parodied with Jeff reading a newspaper while acting as Pierce's metaphorical "dad", which he seems to only notice halfway through the scene and throws it away in confusion.
54	* StopCopyingMe: Jeff's reaction to the DressesTheSame gag.
55	* StylisticSuck: Shirley's attempt at making a video without Abed. Featuring BadBadActing by Troy and Britta.
56	* TakeThat
57	** When Shirley tries to get Abed to help make a movie about Jesus, saying that some people have called ''Literature/TheBible'' "the greatest story ever told," Abed notes that [[http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/28/entertainment/ca-lyons28 Ben Lyons]] said the same thing about ''Film/IAmLegend''. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Shirley doesn't quite get it.]]
58	** When Abed realizes his film is terrible and won't live up to the hype:
59	--->'''Abed:''' I think I've got a real ''Film/SnakesOnAPlane'' brewing.
60	* TeamDad[=/=]TeamMom: The roles are the most obvious with Jeff and Britta, but the entire study group plays the "concerned family" in Pierce's B-plot.
61	* TemporarilyExaggeratedTrait: Pierce's pseudo-teenage petulance is highlighted against Britta and Jeff's parental roles in the group.
62	* ThrowItIn: In-universe, Jesus!Abed tells his camera crew to keep rolling when Shirley barges into the middle of his shoot, deciding to make it part of the movie.
63	* ToxicFriendInfluence: Pierce joining the Hipsters leads him to lash out at his true friends, destroy school property and be an accomplice to motor vehicle theft.
64	* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: Abed's vision for the film becomes increasingly complex, strange, and painfully meta. Most of the campus eats it up, but [[DeconstructedTrope Abed ultimately realizes the final product is unwatchable, and fears what will happen when it's released]].
65	* WhatYearIsThis: Pierce uses the line when pretending to have dementia. Gets a DarkReprise later by Richard in the car.
66	* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: One of the Hipsters.
67	* YouJustRuinedTheShot: Shirley ruins the shot when stumbling into Abed's production. Abed insists they ThrowItIn.

Context Recap / CommunityS2E05MessianicMythsAndAncientPeoples