Line #3 Recap/CommunityS2E20CompetitiveWineTasting


1	[[quoteright:270:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/competitive_wine_tasting_7.jpg]]
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3	The gang picks their spring quarter electives. Jeff and Pierce sign up for Italian Wine Tasting, where they meet the lovely Wu Mei Hong Long (Creator/MichelleKrusiec). Troy and Britta take an acting class and are instructed to share painful emotions from their past, which proves difficult for Troy. Meanwhile, Abed takes "A Critical Analysis of ''Series/WhosTheBoss''" taught by the person who wrote the book of the same name; however, Abed's theories about who the 'boss' was turn out to be surprisingly controversial..
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6	!!The ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Competitive Wine Tasting" provides examples of:
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8	* AccidentalMisnaming: In addition to Pierce's usual mispronunciation of Abed's name ("AY-bed"), the ''Who's the Boss?'' professor keeps calling him "a-BED". He also seems to think it's Abed's last name ("Ah, Mr. Abed, what do you want?")
9	* ActorAllusion:
10	** Abed being meta: Abed is excited about a class taught by Professor Sheffield, holding up his picture on the back of his book... which means he's holding up a headshot of prolific "Hey, I know him!" character actor Creator/StephenTobolowsky, which is exactly the kind of thing actors/writers/TV nerds get excited about while everyone else has no idea what they're talking about.
11	--->'''Abed:''' The professor of this class is the author of this book!\
12	'''Jeff:''' [[SarcasmMode Wow, we got him?]]\
13	'''Abed:''' [[SarcasmBlind I know!]]
14	** At the bar, Jeff's exchange with Pierce ("I just hope she can satisfy me. I'm like an insatiable baboon in the bedroom." "Don't sell yourself short, you're a baboon everywhere.") echoes a similar StealthInsult that Chevy Chase had used on Ted Knight in ''Film/{{Caddyshack}}''. ("He's been club champion three years running and I'm no slouch myself." "Don't sell yourself short, you're a tremendous slouch.")
15	* AirQuotes: Troy tries to downplay his "making up" of the molestation story by using air quotes.
16	* AwesomeMcCoolname: Troy considers one of these for his stage name -- Trevor St. [=McGoodbody=]. Or David.
17	* AffectionateParody: At the end of the episode, Troy is cast in an all-black ''Theatre/FiddlerOnTheRoof'' show. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments It's as funny as it sounds,]] and couples as a ShoutOut to Patrick Stewart's all black show of ''Theatre/{{Othello}}''.
18	** Potentially also referencing the re-imagining of the ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' into ''Theatre/TheWiz''; the original Broadway musical has been condensed into a black box theatre show called ''Fiddler, Please'' where Troy and the others perform some dances while he sings "It's hard to be Jewish in Russia / YO / It's hard to be Jewish in Russia / YO."
19	* BaitAndSwitch: The professor opens a desk drawer to reveal a gun inside... but, before this can all turn into a bad ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' [[SeenItAllSuicide gag]], he chooses a book sitting behind it instead. [[Trivia/CommunityS2E20CompetitiveWineTasting More on that]] ''[[GratuitousSpanish aqui]]''.
20	* BilingualBonus: The Italian on the bottle of wine Pierce gives to Jeff translates as "[[BeerGoggles You become more attractive with each bottle]]."
21	* BondageIsBad: Pierce is revealed to have a "special gym with swings and saddles", and if this is the "Pierce is evil" season...
22	* BreakTheHaughty: Abed teaches the teacher and class who was really the boss on ''Series/WhosTheBoss'' and leaves Professor Sheffield a broken man. ''"CLASS DISMISSED!"''
23	* BrickJoke: Troy mentions an all-black play which we get to see in TheTag.
24	* CallBack:
25	** Pierce holds his engagement party at the same restaurant featured in the previous episode, "[[Recap/CommunityS2E19CriticalFilmStudies Critical Film Studies]]".
26	--->'''Troy:''' Seems like just yesterday me and Abed dined and ditched here.
27	** Professor Garrity from "[[Recap/CommunityS2E09ConspiracyTheoriesandInteriorDesign Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design]]" shows up in his actual job as a drama professor.
28	* CitizenshipMarriage: Subverted. Jeff brings up a green card as one reason the young and beautiful Mei would go for Pierce, an old coot. She tells him she already has dual American and Chinese citizenship and has the financial resources to emigrate easily even if she didn't.
29	* ContinuityNod: As seen in the Kickpuncher movie in "[[Recap/CommunityS1E15RomanticExpressionism Romantic Expressionism]]," Kickpuncher's name is David, or Troy's backup actor name.
30	* CreatorCareerSelfDeprecation: Jeff asks Troy how he got roped into an acting class, something Joel [=McHale=] would probably have to take to get into the career he's in now.
31	* DramaticPause: Drama professor Professor Garrity takes every opportunity to [[LargeHam ham it up]], naturally, including oddly placed... {{beat}}s and pauses.
32	* DrivenToSuicide: After Abed definitively proves that Angela really was "the boss" all along, they tease this as the professor opens a drawer to reveal a gun... [[SubvertedTrope and opens it further to reveal]] ''What Was Happening?: An Analysis of ''Series/WhatsHappening. See WhatCouldHaveBeen.
33	* ElectiveBrokenLanguage: Pierce's fiancee Mei actually speaks perfect unaccented English after being exposed by Jeff.
34	* {{Fauxreigner}}: Mei is a lot more American than she pretends. Her accent is fake, she speaks perfect English, and not only is she only marrying Pierce for his money, but she's also a spy from a rival wipes company planning a hostile takeover of Hawthorne Wipes. Oddly this does not make her the bad guy, as Pierce is only interested in sex. They're both using each other and they're both equally racist, so it turns out they might actually be a good match.
35	* FauxSymbolism: Invoked: Professor Sheffield's class on ''Who's the Boss?'' is apparently based on an increasingly in-depth exploration of what is actually meant by 'boss'. Unfortunately for him, Abed manages to conclusively and empirically prove that by any definition or context, the 'boss' was Angela.
36	* FormulaForTheUnformulable: Abed conclusively proves that Angela was in fact The Boss with equations. His formula covers an enormous board, and viewers get to see he used some organic chemistry in his calculations.
37	* FourthDateMarriage: Brought up with regards to Pierce's tendency to marry his fiancees shortly after meeting them. He and Wu Mei get engaged after ''one'' meeting.
38	* GilliganCut: Troy is determined to defuse the situation with Britta, brought on by lying about being molested by his uncle. MatchCut to him in class fake-crying and doubling down on his molestation story.
39	* GoingByTheMatchbook: The tissue Mei hands Jeff provides him with clues to her true identity.
40	* GoldDigger: Variation. Mei isn't marrying Pierce for his money per se (as her family already has their own fortune), but to make her family's company's takeover of Hawthorne Wipes that much easier. However, Jeff's exposure of her actually makes ''him'' the bad guy; as Pierce points out, he was using Mei just as much as she was using him, there was still the possibility of good feelings between them, and it's clear that Jeff's real motives in doing so were less out of concern for Pierce and more because his vanity was wounded by Mei turning him down for Pierce.
41	* GreenEyedMonster: Jeff's motivation for exposing Mei as a GoldDigger are not because he cares about sparing Pierce's feelings, but because he's jealous and can't believe that a beautiful woman would choose Pierce over him without some underlying motive.
42	* {{Irony}}: To have a traumatic experience as a source for acting, Troy lies about being molested as a child, thus giving the drama professor's next words another meaning:
43	-->'''Garrity:''' This is where acting begins.
44	* ItsAllAboutMe: Jeff is soundly called out for this in the episode, as it's clear that his reasons for exposing Mei as a GoldDigger are out of jealousy, wounded vanity, and general selfishness rather than genuine concern for Pierce.
45	* JerkassHasAPoint: Jeff turns out to be right that Mei is a GoldDigger trying to manipulate Pierce, but in this case the 'Jerkass' part is emphasised, as Jeff's motives for exposing her were based on jealousy and vanity to begin with, and the fact that he was ultimately trying to prove that a beautiful woman wouldn't be interested in Pierce without some underlying motive just makes him look spiteful on top of it.
46	* LargeHam: The joke with drama Professor Garrity is that he dramatizes himself at every opportunity, in the most [[StylisticSuck stylized and unconvincing]] ways. His brand of acting requires everyone to pile on the ham by talking about past trauma, because TrueArtIsAngsty. Garrett and eventually Troy sob out stories in front of the class, entirely fabricated in Troy's case.
47	* MaleGaze: Troy appreciates Britta's stretching routine.
48	* {{Manchild}}: Garrett shares a story of him in the playground demanding to get onto his TraumaSwing. Turns out this was not a childhood memory but happened that morning.
49	* MayDecemberRomance: Mei romantically pursues Pierce, who gladly reciprocates. Mei is a hot thirtysomething and she is significantly younger than sixty-odd Pierce, prompting Jeff's disgust/jealousy.
50	* MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow: Everyone is stunned when racist old man Pierce shows up with a young, beautiful, rich Chinese fiancee who speaks in broken English. Jeff immediately assumes she's marrying him for money or citizenship. However, Mei turns out to have been a {{fauxreigner}} who was manipulating Pierce to take over his company.
51	* TheMole: Pierce's fiancee turns out to be a spy from a rival moist towelette company.
52	* RapeAsDrama: Troy makes up a story about being molested by his uncle so he can have a "painful" memory to share with his drama class.
53	* RecordNeedleScratch: Abed has an app for that.
54	* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: Who was the Boss?
55	-->'''Abed:''' Angela. Angela was the boss.
56	* RuleOfFunny: + RuleOfCool -- why else would Abed need organic chemistry to prove Angela was the boss? [[FridgeBrilliance To prove the 'chemistry' between Angela and Tony.]]
57	* SeriousBusiness: ''Who's the Boss?'' spawns a whole course, which seems to be mostly based on a metaphysical view on what a boss is. Abed deflates the entire thing in just one class.
58	** Abed's excitement at the situation is also funny to the countless college students whose professors have required their students to read (i.e. BUY) their precious book, which is [[SarcasmMode oddly enough]] the textbook of the class, and tout their own work just a little too highly. More annoying in broader topics like History and Literature, less so in narrowed fields where less research and criticism is being done. The situation is made even funnier in that while the specific focus of the class (''Series/WhosTheBoss'') probably counts as the latter, the professor's attitude towards his work -- and Abed's questioning of it -- [[SeriousBusiness is quite conclusively]] [[SmallNameBigEgo the former]].
59	* ShipTease: Between Troy admiring Britta stretching and Britta once again trying to get Troy to open up emotionally. Except it turns out he made up the whole molestation story for attention... which [[WeaknessTurnsHerOn turns out to be her type]] in spite of herself.
60	* ShoutOut:
61	** The class Abed gets into is a media studies course based on a book analyzing ''Series/WhosTheBoss''.
62	** Mei mentions that her dad will likely do bad Film/{{Borat}} impressions at her and Pierce's wedding.
63	** Mei compares Shirley to [[Series/TheOprahWinfreyShow Oprah.]]
64	--->'''Pierce:''' I couldn't be more touched you threw us an engagement party.\
65	'''Shirley:''' You said if we didn't, you'd slash our tires.\
66	'''Mei:''' Ha, ha, ha. She is funny. Like Oprah.\
67	'''Shirley:''' Oprah's not a comedienne.\
68	'''Mei:''' No, you are funny, ''and'' you are [[BigBeautifulWoman like Oprah]]. Heh, heh, heh.
69	** After Jeff exposes Mei as a corporate spy for a company trying to take over Hawthorne Wipes, Mei sarcastically compares Jeff to Series/VeronicaMars.
70	--->'''Mei:''' Very impressive, Veronica Mars. You learned how to use Google.
71	* StealthPun:
72	-->'''Pierce:''' I'm like an insatiable baboon in the bedroom.\
73	'''Jeff:''' Don't sell yourself short. You're a baboon everywhere.
74	* ThatRussianSquatDance: Done in TheTag, as part of the all-black ''Theatre/FiddlerOnTheRoof'' that Troy is in.
75	* TrueArtIsAngsty: The in-universe motivation behind the acting class, to the extent that it seems less like an acting class and more like a rather pretentious therapy session. This prompts Troy to make up his lie about being molested as a child. When he confesses the truth at the end, Professor Garrity interprets it as 'the pain of having no pain'.
76	* UnholyMatrimony: At the end of the episode, after having publicly spilled the beans about Mei's intentions, Jeff brings her back to see Pierce and declares that they might just be well-suited towards each other anyway. His reasoning reads like this trope.
77	* UnusualEuphemism: Troy has several for his no-no hole. Or his plop-plop place.
78	* WeaknessTurnsHerOn: Britta actually develops an [[ShipTease attraction]] to Troy when he lies about being molested as a child. Lampshaded when Britta reveals she has a tendency to do this, as an old boyfriend once pointed out (and apparently exemplified):
79	-->'''Britta:''' Before my ex-boyfriend Pablo was arrested for forging church relics he accused me of only being attracted to 'a certain kind of guy'. Hard to understand him, though; he was pretty huffed up on paint-thinners.
80	** and earlier in the episode:
81	--->'''Abed:''' Britta's attracted to men in pain. It helps her to pretend to be mentally healthy.
82	* WhatTheHellHero: Pierce calls Jeff out on his real, selfish motives for exposing Mei's intentions regarding her relationship with Pierce.
83	* TheWoobie: Troy becomes this to Britta InUniverse after telling a story about being molested as a child, until it turns out he made the whole thing up.
84	* WroteTheBook: Abed's professor wrote the book on ''Series/WhosTheBoss''. He tries to foist his opinion on Abed, but it turns out Abed knows more than he does.
85	* YouNoTakeCandle: Pierce's Chinese GoldDigger fiancee speaks with bad grammar, but [[ElectiveBrokenLanguage it's an act]].

Context Recap / CommunityS2E20CompetitiveWineTasting