Line #14 Recap/CommunityS2E09ConspiracyTheoriesandInteriorDesign


1	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
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3	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/conspiracy_theories.jpg]]
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5	->''"You are making me do work for my fake conspiracy class!"''
6	-->-- '''Jeff'''
7
8	In reviewing Jeff's class schedule, Dean Pelton notices Jeff signed up for an independent study class that doesn't actually exist, with a professor who doesn't exist. When called on it, Jeff tries to prove its existence to both the Dean and Annie, and it's corroborated by Professor Professorson, Jeff's conspiracy professor. Only one problem: Jeff's never seen this man before in his life. So why did he back up Jeff's story? To find out, Jeff and Annie will have to chase this tangled conspiracy all the way to Greendale's night school.
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10	Back at Abed's dorm, Troy and Abed make a BlanketFort that gets out of control.
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12	Now has a [[YMMV/CommunityS2E09ConspiracyTheoriesAndInteriorDesign YMMV]] page.
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14	----
15	!!The ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" provides examples of:
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17	* ActorAllusion: Professor Professorson is played by Kevin Corrigan. Kevin also played Sam Weiss in the TV series ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', which for anyone unfamiliar with the show is currently being driven by a conspiracy theory in the plot (and has been for its entirety); the character, Sam Weiss is a part of it. Corrigan also starred as Uncle Eddie in ''Series/GroundedForLife'', an episode of which prominently featured an epic blanket fort.
18	* AesopAmnesia: And then Jeff comments that he's not exactly sure what lesson he's supposed to have learned.
19	* AffectionateParody: Of {{Conspiracy Thriller}}s. Includes a chase scene through Troy and Abed's blanket fort and a rather impressive GambitPileup.
20	* AmateurSleuth: Annie draws a reluctant Jeff into her investigation of Professor Professorson
21	-->'''Jeff:''' Dammit, Annie... You're going to Nancy Screw me out of my credit!
22	* ApocalypseAnarchy: After the fall of the BlanketFort, people start looting.
23	* ArcWords: Annie herself points out she lives in a terrible neighborhood.
24	%%* AssPull[[invoked]]: [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]], with about five in the space of two minutes.
25	* AuthorAvatar: In-universe - [[AlliterativeName Dean Dangerous]], the hero of Dean Pelton's "Time Desk."
26	* AwkwardlyGayDream: Dean Pelton apparently has some bizarre ones about Jeff
27	-->'''Dean Pelton:''' I have always dreamt of playing Charades with you, Jeffrey, just not like this. And not on dry land.
28	* BewareTheNiceOnes: Annie, although it's really all part of the conspiracy she and Jeff concocted.
29	* BlanketFort: An epic one which took up an entire hallway.
30	* ChaseScene: Includes examples of ExcuseMeComingThrough and MobstacleCourse in the form of a Latvian Independence Parade... all within the confines of a blanket fort.
31	-->'''Troy:''' Don't look at me, they had the proper permits!
32	* ChekhovsGun: The Dean's book, "Dean Dangerous".
33	* TheConspiracy: Annie believes she's stumbled onto a big one with the fake night classes.
34	-->'''Annie''': A dark, vast conspiracy that may just go all the way to the top.
35	-->'''Jeff''': This is Greendale, Annie. If there's a conspiracy, it goes all the way to slightly below the middle.
36	%%* ConspiracyTheorist
37	* ContinuityNod:
38	** One of the courses on the Night School curriculum is Theoretical Phys-Ed, a Call Back to a course mentioned in the earlier episode "Basic Rocket Science".
39	** Troy and Abed's fort includes a Memorial to Pierce's mother.
40	* CountingBullets: In this case, counting guns. Jeff is (pretending to be) upset when Annie [[PantsPositiveSafety pulls another gun from the back of her skirt]], claiming that it can't be a fake gun because there were only three prop guns.
41	* DeadlyPrank:
42	** The shootout at the end involves Jeff (pretending to) [[KudzuPlot think that the Dean killed Annie and shooting him with what Annie believes to be a real gun.]]
43	** Implied by Officer Cackowski at the end noting that in 100% of all fake gun-related shootings, the victim is always the one with the fake gun.
44	* DisproportionateRetribution:
45	-->'''Dean''': Annie! Oh, my God, you... you shot him!
46	-->'''Annie''': Of course I shot him! He was being dishonest.
47	* DivingSave: Jeff saving Annie from the ExternalCombustion. Involving a toy slot car.
48	* DramaClub: Sean Garrity is the drama professor, and is drawn into the ruse because he offered to pay Dean Pelton back in acting after accidentally backing into the Dean's car.
49	* ExternalCombustion: Parodied by playing it entirely straight, but for the fact that it's a tiny electric car in Annie's diorama.
50	-->'''Jeff:''' Looks like someone sent us a message. A tiny, thoroughly underwhelming message.
51	%%* FakingTheDead: Woolley, Jeff
52	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
53	** This episode contains the earliest reference to Fat Neil (although no actual appearance).
54	** Annie mentions that she lives in a terrible neighborhood. While it doesn't affect the plot here, it's later relevant to the plots of "[[Recap/CommunityS2E13CelebrityPharmacology Celebrity Pharmacology 212]]," "[[Recap/CommunityS3E04RemedialChaosTheory Remedial Chaos Theory]]" and "[[Recap/CommunityS3E07StudiesInModernMovement Studies in Modern Movement]]".
55	* FunWithSubtitles: Abed speaks a bit of subtitled Polish. Troy fails at imitating it and the subtitles are nonsense.
56	* GambitPileup: [[ExaggeratedTrope Played up]] ''ad absurdum'' channeling ''Film/TheBloodyOlive''.
57	** Annie and the Dean were trying to teach Jeff that academic fraud is bad...
58	** While Jeff and the Dean were trying to teach Annie not to go behind the backs of her friends...
59	** While Jeff and Annie were trying to teach the Dean that if you conspire with everyone who asks, [[PinballProtagonist you're really just doing random crap]]...
60	** While Professor Garrity and Officer Cackowski were trying to teach all three of them that replica guns aren't toys.
61	** [[Series/ArrestedDevelopment And that's why you don't try to teach people lessons!]]
62	* AGodAmI: One of Jeff's theories for how a professor he made up could appear out of nowhere before him, Annie and the Dean.
63	-->'''Jeff:''' I've denied the signs for too long.
64	* HairFlip: Britta does one after rebuking Troy and Abed's offer to let her join in making a pillow fort as childish.
65	* HeldGaze: Two again per this episode. Jeff and Annie stare into each other's eyes for a long, meaningful moment after he [[DivingSave tackles her to ground]], believing her to be in danger, and again at the end as the blanket fort falls. Jeff looks at Annie's eyes while she looks at his lips.... yet another case of a HeldGaze suggesting a possible J/A AlmostKiss moment.
66	* HerCodenameWasMarySue: Dean Pelton is writing a time travel novel, The Chronicles of Dean Dangerous. From what we hear of it, it's made of this trope.
67	* HighSchoolHustler: Jeff making up an imaginary class to get unearned credits would make Ferris Bueller proud. But he's put to shame by "Professor Professorson"'s fake class, teacher, and ''entire night school''... Or he would have been if any of that were true.
68	* {{Hipster}}: Troy and Abed destroy their fort once fort-building goes mainstream.
69	* HypocriticalHumor:
70	** To celebrate Green Week, the Enviromental Club all made dioramas.
71	** Officer Cackowski giving a lesson about the dangers of using fake guns... with a fake gun. But then it's justified since he can't exactly use a ''real'' gun to do so.
72	** Britta, who sneers at Troy and Abed's invitation to join them in their blanket fort... only to be later seen hanging out in said blanket fort (albeit in a rather [[Film/EyesWideShut strange and pretentious part of it]]) once it's grown in size and popularity.
73	* IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance: Dean Pelton.
74	* IJustWantToHaveFriends: Dean Pelton's reason for conspiring with anyone who offers.
75	* {{Improv}}: In-universe. Annie blurting out that she loves Jeff during the middle of the GambitPileUp.
76	* InadvertentEntranceCue: Lampshaded by Jeff, who is seen mouthing "of course" as the Dean enters.
77	-->'''Britta:''' ''(sarcastically)'' Who wants to hang out in a blanket fort with grown men in tiny Underoos?\
78	'''Dean Pelton:''' ''(entering)'' Hello!
79	* InformedJudaism: Professor Professorson. "My family name was Professorberg, but we changed it when we were fleeing from the Nazis." Although actually his real name is Sean Garrity.
80	* InsultBackfire: The Dean is oddly proud of being too stupid to plan a [[ThePlan gambit]].
81	* InventedIndividual: Professor Professorson. [[ZigZaggingTrope Played straight, subverted, deconstructed]], and, as this is ''Community'', ending with a convoluted nested series of ploys to teach the characters a lesson.
82	* ItsPopularNowItSucks: In-universe example: when their blanket fort makes the school newspaper and inspires similar blanket forts in campuses across the country, Troy and Abed decide it must be destroyed. To clarify: They destroy the ''entire'' blanket fort by pulling down part of the roof in Abed's dorm.
83	* ItWasHereISwear: Jeff, with Professor Professorson's office. Of course, he was bluffing all along, but the Dean and Annie already knew that.
84	* KilledMidSentence: The Dean shoots Annie while she tried to justify her killing Woolley.
85	* LargeHam: Professor Professorson[=/=]Woolley[=/=]Garrity, when revealing his true scheme. To be fair to the guy, look at the dialogue he's been given, all taken from Dean Pelton's unpublished novel:
86	-->Figments! Puffs of hot air, from the lips of a ghost and the shadow of a unicorn's dream.\
87	Would that this desk were a time desk, that I might correct my past mistakes... [[Music/TheFreewheelinBobDylan ride dinosaurs]]... fight with UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper...
88	* LikeADuckTakesToWater:
89	-->'''Jeff:''' Annie took to deception like Abed took to ''Series/CougarTown''.
90	* LittleKnownFacts: Officer Cackowski.
91	-->'''Cackowski''': Fact! In 100% of all fake gun-related shootings, the victim is always the one with the fake gun.
92	* LostInCharacter: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Professor Garrity during the GambitPileUp - even after it's been revealed that Annie didn't really shoot him, he remains in character as a corpse until it's time for him to cue Officer Cackowski's entrance.
93	* LoveConfession: Annie to Jeff, when she goes [[{{Improv}} off-script]] during the GambitPileUp. Of course, Jeff just thinks she was in-character, though an [[http://www.itsjustaboutwrite.com/2012/08/2x09-conspiracy-theories-and-interior.html analysis]] of the pain on his face when Annie rants about his dismissal of her and their kiss implies otherwise.
94	* MadLibsCatchPhrase: "Would that this desk were a time desk," later changed by the Dean to "Would that this hoodie were a time hoodie."
95	* ManChild: Troy and Abed create a "blanket fort for men".
96	* MundaneMadeAwesome: The chase scene through Troy and Abed's fort.
97	* NeverGiveTheCaptainAStraightAnswer: Parodied.
98	-->'''Jeff''': Now, tell us everything.
99	-->'''Woolley''': Tell you? [[BigHam Ha ha ha]]. (DramaticPause). I'll show you!
100	* NightmareFetishist: Annie's diorama of a world destroyed by its need for fossil fuels is full of skeletons.
101	* OutOfFocus: Britta and Shirley only have a few lines this episode, while Pierce doesn't even speak.
102	* ProBonoBarter: Professor Garrity offered to pay back the Dean in acting for scraping his car. It's a decision he has come to regret.
103	-->'''Garrity:''' On Thanksgiving, I'm supposed to crash his family dinner and accuse him of stealing my girlfriend.
104	* RealJokeName: Played with using "Professor Professorson".
105	-->'''Dean Pelton:''' ''(disbelievingly)'' Your real name is Professor Professorson?\
106	'''"Professor Professorson":''' My family name was Professorberg, but we changed it when we were fleeing from the Nazis.
107	** [[DoubleSubversion Eventually]], it does in fact turn out to be a made-up name.
108	* RepeatCut: For... [[ShootTheMoney a slot car sparking a bit]].
109	* ARiddleWrappedInAMysteryInsideAnEnigma: A dioramarama including a diorama about a world ''without dioramas''.
110	* RuleOfFunny: Troy and Abed's fort. It has a memorial wing dedicated to Pierce's mother, a Turkish District, a weird sex club, and...
111	-->'''Jeff:''' What the hell is this?\
112	'''Troy:''' Latvian Independence Parade. [{{Beat}}] Don't look at me, they had the [[SeriousBusiness proper permits]].
113	* SarcasmMode: As with anything, Annie demonstrates that when she wants to be sarcastic, she's a complete overachiever:
114	-->'''Jeff:''' Do me a favor; be very un-Annie and blow it off too.\
115	'''Annie:''' Oh, sure! I'll just blow it off! I'll just blow ''everything'' off! Heck, I guess I'll just blow off walking.\
116	''[She comes to a sudden stop, forcing Jeff to walk into her]''\
117	'''Jeff:''' Okay...\
118	'''Annie:''' And now I'll just blow off standing! ''[She drops to the ground and begins squirming on the floor]'' Just blowing everything off! ''[Jeff steps over her and continues on his way]'' Maybe I'll blow off talking language!\
119	'''Jeff:''' ''[Resigned]'' Okay...\
120	'''Annie:''' Blee-bloo-bluh-bluh-blah-blee-bloo-bluh-bluhhhherr.
121	* ScareEmStraight: What better way to teach someone a lesson than to let somebody else die because of your misdemeanor.
122	* SelfDestructMechanism: When the BlanketFort becomes too popular, Abed and Troy reveal that they had set it up to be reliant on [[TwoKeyedLock two twisted up blankets]] from the beginning, and pull on them to take the whole thing down.
123	* SettingUpdate: In-universe. Jeff is not impressed with the idea of rewriting ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' for gangland Chicago. May also be a TakeThat at [[Film/WilliamShakespearesRomeoAndJuliet Romeo + Juliet]].
124	* ShipTease:
125	** Jeff/Annie: when Jeff tackles her to [[DivingSave save her]] from the 'ExternalCombustion' example above, it ends with a ''very'' sexually-charged moment, particularly in light of the fact that he didn't need to tackle her in the first place. Annie later indicates that her confession of love to Jeff in the climactic confrontation got a bit more real than she'd expected, and when Fluffytown starts to collapse, the two instinctively lean closer into each other.
126	** Possibly between Professor Garrity and Officer Cacowski ("Sean, you got breakfast plans?" "I do now!").
127	* ShoutOut:
128	** This line:
129	--->"Well guess what! [[Theatre/AnnieGetYourGun Annie's got a gun!]]"... Or is it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqQn2ADZE1A "Annie's Got a Gun?"]]
130	** The scene at the end where Jeff, Annie, and the Dean take it in turns to fool each other - and the audience - is similar to an extended GambitPileup in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' where Michael, GOB, and George Sr do the same thing.
131	*** It's also similar to the plot of ''Film/TheBloodyOlive''.
132	** The piano tune from ''Film/EyesWideShut'' is played when the group finds Britta in an orgy club at the BlanketFort where she is [[GrapesOfLuxury being fed blueberries]] by a [[PlagueDoctor guy with a raven mask]].
133	* ShownTheirWork: Yes, the trideksnis is a real Latvian musical instrument.
134	* SignificantReferenceDate: November 18, 2010 (Latvian Independence Day).
135	* SnowballLie: "Professor Professorson" presents his night school as one that got way out of hand. His fake class needed a fake teacher, who needed other fake classes filled with fake students, etc.
136	* SoBadItsGood: Jeff predicts that the Dean's book will fit this trope.
137	-->'''Jeff:''' That's going to be the worst book I'll ever read cover to cover.[[invoked]]
138	* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Jeff recognises that only the Dean could possibly have written Garrity's ridiculous lines.
139	* StalkerShrine: Or scrapbook, as it were.
140	* StealthPun: Annie's diorama, "Alternative Energy: The Key to a Brighter Tomorrow", invokes this twice. First, because it requires a key to operate the tiny car that travels from a world destroyed by fossil fuels to a brighter tomorrow.
141	--> '''Annie''': Notice all the animals wearing sunglasses?\
142	'''Abed''': Because it's a [[BlindedByTheLight brighter]] tomorrow?
143	* StrangeMindsThinkAlike:
144	-->'''Abed:''' Wanna build a cardboard submarine?\
145	'''Troy:''' Get outta my brain.
146	** Also, when Troy and Abed are sitting in their tiny BlanketFort.
147	-->'''Troy''': [[AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering You thinking what I'm thinking]]?
148	-->'''Abed''': We're too big for this, aren't we?
149	-->'''Troy''': Yeah.
150	%%* ThereAreNoCoincidences
151	* TroubledFetalPosition: Dean Pelton, in the study room at the end of the fake shootout.
152	* TwoKeyedLock: After Troy and Abed agree that the fort has to go, they simultaneously pull down different blankets to [[SelfDestructMechanism trigger its collapse]].
153	* VictoriasSecretCompartment: Annie gets some mileage out of it in this episode - first she reaches into her shirt to pull out her phone, then later pulls a gun from it during the GambitPileup.
154	* WhatTheHellHero: Shirley calls Britta out on her overly-snide response to Troy and Abed's invitation to join them in their blanket fort.
155	* WomanScorned: Annie plays this part when shooting Jeff [[MultipleGunshotDeath trice in the chest]] for dumping her after their FirstKiss.
156	* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: The Dean [[GambitPileup just can't take it.]]

Context Recap / CommunityS2E09ConspiracyTheoriesandInteriorDesign