Line #9 Recap/CommunityS3E10RegionalHolidayMusic


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/regional_holiday_music.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Annie's pretty young. We try not to sexualize her.]]
3
4	->''"It was almost like being on ecstasy, only instead of having pointless conversations and dancing like idiots--Wait, it was '''exactly''' like being on ecstasy!"''
5	-->-- '''Britta''', ''on [[TakeThat being in Glee Club]]''
6
7	As the study group tells each other their plans for Christmas (none of which involve each other), they (and the rest of the cafeteria) are interrupted by the new Glee Club ([[Recap/CommunityS2E21ParadigmsOfHumanMemory the old one having died in a bus crash]]) singing their usual mashups. However, this time the Glee Club is interrupted by Chang, who serves them with a cease-and-desist order for singing copyrighted songs on behalf of ASCAP who found out after receiving an anonymous notification from Jeff), causing them to immediately panic and suffer a collective nervous breakdown.
8
9	Dean Pelton and Glee Club Director Mr. Radison (who prefers just being called "Mr. Rad") try to get the study group to fill in for Glee Club at the Christmas Pageant, but the group (led by Jeff) declines. Concerned that the group is growing apart, Abed later goes to see Mr. Rad, who convinces him that joining Glee and doing the Pageant will stave off the [[CerebusSyndrome growing darkness]] and make everything brighter ('''"Glee"'''). Enthusiasm for Glee Club spreads like a virus, going first from Abed to Troy. Abed convinces him in rap that he can celebrate Christmas even though he's a Jehovah's Witness ('''"Jehovah's Secret Witness"''') and then Troy and Abed get Pierce to join through his Baby Boomer vanity ('''"Baby Boomer Santa"'''). Pierce then gets Shirley via a group of cute children singing about not knowing the meaning of Christmas ('''"Happy Birthday, Jesus!"'''). Annie gets Jeff by singing a seductive song about not understanding Christmas ('''"Teach Me How to Understand Christmas"'''). Finally, only Britta is left until she finds Jeff and he starts [[Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers singing at her]]. Within a day, the entire study group decides to do the Christmas pageant.
10
11	Backstage on the day of the Pageant, Mr. Rad tells Abed (playing the King) that the group won't be filling in for Glee Club for just Christmas: Glee Club is ''forever''. To stop Glee from taking over their lives, Abed switches roles with Britta, who promptly ruins the show (because she's the ''worst'') and causes Mr. Rad to have his own nervous breakdown and accidentally confess that he caused the initial Glee Club's bus crash. Abed concludes that forcing things to be bright just made the darkness underneath even darker.
12
13	Back at his apartment, Abed watches the ''Inspector Spacetime Christmas Special'' alone, until he hears the rest of the study group singing Christmas carols outside his door. He lets them in and [[FriendshipMoment they all sit down to watch it together.]]
14
15	----
16	!!The ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Regional Holiday Music" provides examples of:
17
18	* AccidentalPublicConfession: In a fit of rage, Mr. Rad admits that he killed the previous glee club.
19	* ActorAllusion:
20	** In "Jehovah's Secret Witness," Troy raps like Childish Gambino, Donald Glover's rap stage name.
21	** Gillian Jacobs has also made several self-deprecating comments about her lack of singing ability compared to some of the other members of the cast, which is reflected in Britta's less-than-stellar performance in the Christmas pageant.
22	* AffectionateParody: The episode varies between being this of ''Series/{{Glee}}'' and more of a straightforward TakeThat.
23	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The entirety of "Baby Boomer Santa" is a summary of the history of the second half of the twentieth century as sung by two people who appear to have a pretty shaky grasp of said history. Naturally, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Pierce]] doesn't seem to notice.
24	--->'''Abed and Troy:''' "And when the Commies gave the polio to Doris Day/ Santa helped the Beatles chase [=McCarthy=] away!"
25	* AutoTune: In Troy's rap number.
26	* BabyTalk: Annie's attempt at being a BrainlessBeauty descends first into [[ManChild Woman Child]], then this trope, and finally just gibberish.
27	* BaitTheDog: Mr. Rad plays piano for Abed, and commiserates with him about how hard it is to get the holiday spirit from the people you love. It's all a ruse for him to have the study group as his new Glee club, and he doesn't care about their feelings on the matter.
28	* BetterThanABareBulb: ''Community'' has a high track record of this already, but this episode takes it up to eleven.
29	* BigNO: From Britta when she is assimilated by Jeff.
30	* BrainlessBeauty: Annie's entire routine is a deconstruction of this mentality; she dresses in a [[CatholicSchoolgirlsRule short-skirted costume]] and begins her song with an affected [[BrainlessBeauty cutesy-dumb]] attitude remarkably unlike her usual intelligent, straight-A personality. This then devolves into increasingly childish behavior, until she's flopping on the ground spewing baby-talk. Even the insatiably horny Jeff is [[{{Squick}} incredibly turned off]] by the number she intended to use to seduce him.
31	** Considering that the entire episode is an extended {{Take That}} to ''Series/{{Glee}}'', the scene could arguably be interpreted as a criticism of [[TheDitz Brittany's]] character in particular from that show. She started out as vaguely ditzy, progressed to [[CloudCuckooLander amusingly airheaded]], and then quickly crossed the line into being [[ManChild so childish]] that she could never possibly function in the real world. Since this didn't preclude that series from portraying her in a very sexualized manner, it leads to mass {{Unfortunate Implications}}.
32	* BreakTheCutie: Abed, again, on Christmas. He gets sad when his friends won't be able to spend the holidays with him, not even Troy. Mr. Rad convinces him that everyone doing the pageant is a great way to end the semester on a high note and deliver Christmas spirit. Abed then uses his friends' weaknesses to get them to join, one by one, only to find out Mr. Rad wants them to do Glee Club ''permanently''. He sadly recruits Britta to ruin the show, which reveals Mr. Rad killed the Glee Club the previous year. Abed then apologizes to his friends for trying to impose the holiday spirit on them and prepares to spend Christmas alone. Fortunately, they come to watch Inspector Spacetime with him so as to salvage Christmas.
33	* BreatherEpisode: Subverted. Abed tries his best to invoke this so that everyone can have fun before they have to go away for the holiday. It turns out Mr. Rad is a perfectionist that murdered the Glee Club during their second year. As he puts it bitterly at the end, trying to impose cheer on darkness only reveals more darkness underneath.
34	* CallBack: Frequent reference is made to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ww9Q_hFbec a short scene]] in "[[Recap/CommunityS2E21ParadigmsOfHumanMemory Paradigms of Human Memory]]", which showed the first time the group filled in for Glee Club. At the Christmas Pageant, Mr. Rad reveals that the bus crash that the first Glee Club died in ''wasn't'' an accident.
35	** This Christmas wasn't the first where [[Recap/CommunityS2E11AbedsUncontrollableChristmas Abed's desire for a happy, idyllic Christmas]] has caused problems for the study group.
36	*** Like the previous Christmas special, this one also ends with the study group sitting together happily watching a ChristmasSpecial on TV.
37	** When Pierce sees the pianist before his song, he [[Recap/CommunityS2E15Early21stCenturyRomanticism asks if the others can see him too.]]
38	** Britta awkwardly dances and sings [[Recap/CommunityS3E04RemedialChaosTheory "Me so_____!, Me so _____!"]]
39	** This isn't the first time Jeff tried to use the copyright-infringement-anonymous-call weapon to shut down something he hated. And it only brought about more madness [[Recap/CommunityS3E08DocumentaryFilmmakingRedux last time]], too.
40	** Abed's graphic during the "Christmas Infiltration" rap includes images from ten other episodes, including both paintball episodes, both previous Christmas episodes, and all three Halloween episodes.[[note]]In chronological order, "[[Recap/CommunityS1E01Pilot Pilot]]", "[[Recap/CommunityS1E07IntroductionToStatistics Introduction to Statistics]]", "[[Recap/CommunityS1E12ComparativeReligion Comparative Religion]]", "[[Recap/CommunityS1E23ModernWarfare Modern Warfare]]", "[[Recap/CommunityS2E04BasicRocketScience Basic Rocket Science]]", "[[Recap/CommunityS2E06Epidemiology Epidemiology]]", "[[Recap/CommunityS2E11AbedsUncontrollableChristmas Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas]]", "[[Recap/CommunityS2E23AFistfulOfPaintballs A Fistful of Paintballs]]", "[[Recap/CommunityS3E04RemedialChaosTheory Remedial Chaos Theory]]", and "[[Recap/CommunityS3E05HorrorFictionInSevenSpookySteps Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps]]."[[/note]] Keep in mind that this graphic is on the screen for about ''[[FreezeFrameBonus ten seconds]]'' and that the screenshots are also tiny.
41	*** Clockwise from the top the screenshots are shown chronologically, with each quarter of the circle marking one season. The empty quarter circle is for the anticipated fourth season.
42	** When summing up what a dark semester it's been, Jeff alludes to [[Recap/CommunityS3E06AdvancedGay inadvertently killing Pierce's dad]] (which Pierce shrugs off) and [[Recap/CommunityS3E01Biology101 attacking the other members of the group with a fire-axe]].
43	** Mr. Rad making a diorama of the group doing the Christmas pageant is likely an allusion to the many dioramas made over the course of Season 2.
44	** The study group's defense of Britta from Mr. Rad during the pageant has Troy (and Jeff) shouting "You don't get to call Britta 'the worst!'" That quote's rather reminiscent of [[Recap/CommunityS2E04BasicRocketScience "Greendale's our toilet, and nobody craps in it but us!"]]
45	* ChristmasEpisode: The third one for the show.
46	* CorruptedCharacterCopy: Mr. Rad is this to Mr. Schuester from ''Series/{{Glee}}''. Both coach their school's Glee Club and both resort to extreme measures to get people to join. However, Mr. Rad is willing to go further than Mr. Schuester would, even [[spoiler: committing murder.]] Also, Mr. Schuester does care about his students and encourages them to follow their dreams. Mr. Rad cares only about winning, chewing Britta out when she starts singing badly.
47	* CrapsaccharineWorld:
48	--> '''Abed:''' Maybe forcing everything to be bright just makes the darkness underneath even darker.
49	* {{Deconstruction}}: Mr. Rad is a deconstruction of the character Will Schuester. In ''Glee'', Mr. Schuester forcibly recruited and in one case blackmailed a Glee Club member into joining but is never called out for it. He's genuinely passionate about it but sometimes lets the group's drama and SeriousBusiness go too far in a bid to keep competing and stay as an official club, which makes Sue's vendetta against him more reasonable when her softer side was revealed. In the world of ''Community'', someone like Mr. Schuester is seen as ''too'' ambitious over a hobby club where there are mostly adults trying to get a degree to get a job. With no Sue as his SitcomArchnemesis, Mr. Rad is revealed to be ambitious to the point of wanting to commit ''murder'' and presumably kept this year's Glee Club on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
50	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment:
51	** One of Abed's rap lyrics for "Jehovah's Secret Witness" is "If years were seasons, this December would be the December of our December!"
52	** "Glee ''literally'' means, 'glee!'"
53	* DisproportionateRetribution: The JustForFun/InspectorSpacetime ChristmasSpecial is apparently so bad the producer had his '''knighthood''' revoked.
54	* DrivingQuestion: PlayedForLaughs with "What are regionals?" Furthermore, the answer is later revealed to be essentially "[[FelonyMisdemeanor the end of life as you know it]]."
55	* EveryoneHasStandards:
56	** Jeff realizes he went too far with shutting down the Glee Club when one of the members stabs himself in the hand. He's visibly horrified.
57	** Jeff also may be an insatiable horndog most of the time, and frequently enjoys his ShipTease moments with Annie, even he finds her childlike seductive song to be too off-putting to be turned on by. [[SubvertedTrope Not that it stops him from being brainwashed.]]
58	** A minor example with Pierce when he's brainwashing Shirley - he assures both her and Britta that he has no intention of singing to try to convert her. Then he brings out the children's choir...
59	** As Abed puts it, he just wanted to do Glee Club for one pageant to spend time with his friends. He sabotages the show when Mr. Rad makes it clear that Glee Club is ''"forever"''.
60	** The whole audience boos at Mr. Rad for insulting Britta. Even the Dean stands up and shouts that she should be allowed to finish her song.
61	* EatTheCamera: During Jeff's single, long note to Britta.
62	* FaceRevealingTurn: How Jeff reveals to Britta that he has been assimilated, before assimilating her as well.
63	* FalseReassurance: Mr. Rad tries to turn his MotiveRant into a hypothetical scenario.
64	* FanDisservice: Annie in a SexySantaDress? Hot. A dumb Annie talking in increasingly infantile BabyTalk while wearing a SexySantaDress? Not so much.
65	** Similarly, Britta's "tree costume" is practically painted on... buuut her hilariously bad improvised song spoils the effect a little.
66	* {{Fanservice}}: Not only are there [[FanservicePack the background dancers for "Jehovah's Secret Witness,"]] but there's also Annie in a revealing Santa dress while singing probably one of ''the'' most suggestive songs ever made, and Britta in full skintight spandex for the Christmas pageant. That all being said, the latter two also fall into FanDisservice as noted above.
67	** [[invoked]] Parodied/deconstructed to an extent with Annie, however, since her increasing [[TookALevelInDumbass Taking Levels In Dumbass]] and babyish performance ends up {{Squick}}ing Jeff out a bit despite the {{Fanservice}} on offer.
68	--->'''Jeff:''' ...[[LampshadeHanging Look, eventually you]] [[FetishRetardant hit a point of diminishing returns on the sexiness.]]\
69	'''Annie:''' What's a deminiminmeghh?
70	* FelonyMisdemeanor: [[HypocriticalHeartwarming "You don't get to call Britta the worst!"]]
71	** The second Glee Club (the ones from the beginning of the episode) also all suffer a simultaneous nervous breakdown upon getting a pretty standard cease-and-desist order for publicly singing songs they have no legal right to.
72	* FetishRetardant: Annie's song-and-dance routine becomes this InUniverse for Jeff, as seen above under BrainlessBeauty.
73	* FreakOut: The members of Greendale's second Glee Club suffer a (possibly permanent) one and have to be replaced by our study group.
74	* FriendshipMoment: Everyone comes over to spend the holiday with Abed at the end of the episode.
75	* FunnyBackgroundEvent:
76	** During the Glee Club's breakdown, Chang can be seen [[KickTheDog laughing at them]].
77	** Towards the end of "Jehovah's Secret Witness", Annie can clearly be seen poking her head through the curtains and watching Troy and Abed rap.
78	** During "Baby Boomer Santa" two extras can be seen reacting to the scene outside the study room. One women looks in and laughs and, even better, towards the end of the song an older man in a red sweater starts dancing along to it as he walks by.
79	** During the Christmas pageant, Pierce is clearly out-of-step with the other members of the group (and does some of the wrong moves as well).
80	* GenreRoulette: The study group's musical numbers encompass a wide variety of musical genres: "Jehovah's Secret Witness" is rap, "Baby Boomer Santa" is rock, "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" is gospel, "Teach Me How to Understand Christmas" is a novelty song... You get the idea.
81	* GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul: The effect of Glee Club.
82	* GlurgeAddict: Mr. Rad is one of these. A particularly psychotic and murderous one, as it turns out.
83	** Shirley, who is seduced into Glee Club by a choir of adorable orphans singing about how their public school education has left them with [[TrueMeaningOfChristmas no idea whose birth the Christmas season celebrates]] and no place to pray.
84	* GoYeHeroesGoAndDie: Mr. Rad is not a very good motivational speaker:
85	--> '''Mr. Rad''': ''Your best won't be good enough. And ten times your best? It will be so bad, '''I will yell at you!''' ''
86	* GoneHorriblyRight: Jeff suddenly feels a lot less proud of his attempt to get the glee club to stop singing when their breakdown goes so bad one ''stabs himself in the hand''. And even less so when he's manipulated into filling in for them.
87	* HollywoodToneDeaf: Britta but only during the Christmas Pageant; justified in that Abed pushed her onstage with no warning, preparation or lyrics, so she was freaking out from PerformanceAnxiety. It's averted at the end of the episode when the group collectively sings a carol to Abed in his apartment. She's an average singer but not ''terrible.''
88	* HoldingHands: Final shot of the study group has Annie and Abed doing this. Whether it is platonic or [[ShipTease romantic]] is left to the viewer to decide.
89	* HulkSpeak: By the end of her song, Annie's BabyTalk devolves into this.
90	-->''You smart, me dumb/Help pwetty have fun!''
91	* HypocriticalHeartwarming: While the study group is often quick to poke fun at and mock Britta, Mr. Rad quickly learns that they will ''not'' tolerate anyone else calling her "the worst."
92	* HypocriticalHumor: Shirley considers Troy's family's refusal to observe the Christmas holiday in accordance with their beliefs as Jehovah's Witnesses as "severe"... then reveals that her holiday plans and 'gifts' apparently involve giving Annie (apparently among "the more persuadable of her Jewish friends") a surprise visit from her pastor to try and convert her.
93	* IntercourseWithYou: ''Boopy-doopy-doop-boop, SEX!''
94	* InvisibleBackupBand: Lampshaded and played straight as part of the ''Glee'' parody. Abed asks how Mr. Rad's piano is [[DiegeticSwitch still playing after he starts dancing]], and Pierce nervously asks if anyone else can see the bearded stranger sitting behind the piano in the study room (and yes, he's the spitting image of the LivingProp pianist in ''Glee'').
95	* {{Jerkass}}: While the original Glee Club is experiencing its breakdown, Chang can be visibly seen ''laughing at them''.
96	* KarmaHoudini: Nobody is overly concerned that an admitted murderer just ran out of the cafeteria. Seeing as there are also [[Recap/CommunityS2E18CustodyLawAndEasternEuropeanDiplomacy Balkan war criminals]], [[Recap/CommunityS2E07AerodynamicsOfGender Neo-Nazis]], [[Recap/CommunityS3E07StudiesInModernMovement human-blood-drinking psychopaths convinced that they're]] [[AGodAmI Jesus Christ]], and '''Chang''' running around the area... what's one more murderous nutjob on the loose? And admittedly, there's no indication that Mr. Rad ''wouldn't'' be brought to justice off-screen, as he ''did'' essentially confess to murder in front of an entire audience of reliable witnesses.
97	* {{Leitmotif}}: ''Series/{{Glee}}''-style musical cues can be heard at significant moments throughout the show, and start to become a lot more prominent and overpowering, going on to replace the typical musical score, as the ''Series/{{Glee}}'' attitude gradually takes over the show and characters.
98	* LookBehindYou: Mr. Rad's contingency plan.
99	-->''Look - Music/KingsOfLeon!''
100	** There is an extra layer of absurdity to this when you consider that Kings of Leon were one of the bands that had publicly refused to have any of their songs featured on the ''Glee''.
101	* ManipulativeBastard: Mr. Rad gets Abed to agree to his plan to recruit the study group by pointing out how they're full of cynicism just in time for the holidays, and all Abed wants to do is spend time with them. Abed actually doesn't have a response and starts singing along.
102	* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: While Mr. Rad is yelling at Britta for ruining the Christmas pageant, you can see Abed in the background and out of focus, and his eyes visibly widen in shock after Rad calls Britta "the worst"
103	* MinorInjuryOverreaction: Minor ''psychological'' injury, at least; The relatively minor setback of being told to cease-and-desist publicly singing songs they have no legal right to sing causes the Glee Club at the beginning of the episode to experience a collective psychotic breakdown. One guy even ''stabs himself with a fork''.
104	* MonkeyMoralityPose: The ladies in the study group during "Baby Boomer Santa".
105	* MotiveRant: Mr. Rad goes into one when the audience applauds Britta's singing.
106	* TheMusicMeister: Mr. Rad.
107	* MusicalEpisode: [[DeconstructorFleet Community style]].
108	* MusicalPastiche: The episode features a ''Series/{{Glee}}''-esque scat-based soundtrack.
109	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
110	** Jeff has this reaction when his getting the Glee Club shut down leads to the whole group suffering nervous breakdowns. He didn't want it to go ''that'' far.
111	** Abed has this reaction when Mr. Rad tells him that the study group is going to become the new Glee Club ''permanently''. As Abed put it, he only wanted to end the semester on a high note so everyone could be happy on Christmas. He then decides to ruin the show to save his friends, and is also visibly horrified when he realizes that he was enabling a crazy murderer to brainwash his friends into soulless {{Glurge Addict}}s.
112	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Abed starts recruiting the study group for the Glee club, despite most of them being against it. He eventually realizes that Mr. Rad is off-the-rails and wants to control them forever, and he handed Mr. Rad his friends on a platter.
113	** Ironically, it was Jeff's effort at shutting down the Glee Club's performance for copyright violation that ultimately got them roped into filling in for Glee Club (for a second time).
114	* NotSoSimilar: Abed bonds with Mr. Rad on seeing that he wants to celebrate the holidays and bring in the Christmas spirit. He learns that Mr. Rad was lying to him and manipulating him to have a permanent Glee club in the study group.
115	* OneDialogueTwoConversations: Annie is talking about going to the movies with her grandmother. Troy thinks she's talking about... well, something else.
116	--> '''Annie:''' I'll be at the movies with my bubbie[[note]]"Bubbie" is an affectionate Yiddish term for grandmother, which can sound phonetically similar to the word "boobie", a slang term for a woman's breast.[[/note]]\
117	'''Troy:''' You're not taking both of them?\
118	'''Annie:''' ''[Confused]'' Well... one of them's ''dead''.\
119	'''Troy:''' ''[Even ''more'' confused]'' ...''[[FlatWhat What?]]''
120	* PhraseCatcher: Mr. Rad says to [[ButtMonkey Britta]], "You are [[RunningGag the worst]]!"
121	* PlayingATree: Britta is cast a Christmas tree in the pageant. A mute one at that thanks to being HollywoodToneDeaf.
122	* {{Pun}}:
123	-->'''Mr. Rad''': I thought I told you to call me 'Mr. Rad.' Or Cory. Just don't call me late to dinner. Unless you're serving Brussels sprouts!
124	* RememberTheNewGuy: Mr. Rad is given an introduction by the Dean, despite the study group having previously worked with him off-screen. Somewhat justified in that them filling in for the glee club is a NoodleIncident from a previous episode.
125	* RunningGag: Pierce asking what regionals are.
126	* SeriousBusiness: The Glee Club. Upon receiving a cease-and-desist order, the second Glee Club suffers a collective mental breakdown so severe that the study group's initial jubilation turns into anxiety at being caught. The study group gradually becomes obsessed with the Glee Club as each member is brainwashed, thanks to Mr. Rad's extreme devotion , which extends to the point of murdering the first club. Lampshaded by Britta, who points out that the small-scale nature of things makes the fact that her friends are practically being brainwashed into joining the Glee Club somehow even '''more''' terrifying.
127	-->'''Glee Club Member:''' My soul is dead! ''[Stabs himself in the hand with a fork]''
128	** Also "regionals" -- once you're ''in'' the Glee Club, ''you cannot shut up about regionals''. Pierce doesn't even know what they are, but is certain they are very important.
129	** ''Inspector Spacetime'' is apparently this in Britain, what with the quality of the Christmas special being bad enough to get the creator's knighthood revoked.
130	* SexySantaDress: Annie wears one to seduce Jeff into joining Glee Club.
131	* ShapedLikeItself: Upon being told that the Glee Club had been "this close" to regionals before the letter:
132	-->'''Pierce:''' What the hell are regionals?!\
133	'''Dean:''' They were ''this close'', Pierce!
134	* ShipTease:
135	** At the end of the episode Abed and Annie are holding hands, while Troy and Britta are also sitting together.
136	** And before that, Annie seduces Jeff into joining the Glee Club.
137	** Britta is also "assimilated" into Glee Club largely through Jeff singing to her.
138	* ShoutOut:
139	** The ''JustForFun/InspectorSpacetime'' Christmas special, which is two and a half hours long and was bad enough to get the creator's knighthood revoked, is an obvious send-up of ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial''.
140	*** Also, the band cameo is not dissimilar to the time the Beatles made a cameo in the show of a certain other [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E8TheChase time traveling spacebox alien man]], as well as the appearance of Jefferson Starship in the Star Wars Holiday Special itself.
141	** ''Series/TwinPeaks'' is given a quick mention during "Baby Boomer Santa."
142	** Another ShoutOut is Jeff's single sustained note in the hallway, a reference to the high-pitched screams of Pod People in ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers'' and a near-perfect recreation of the DownerEnding of the 1978 version, with Jeff in the Donald Sutherland role. Britta's descent into horrified shrieks also mirrors the reaction that Veronica Cartwright's character has at the end of the film.
143	** Overlapping with major spoilers for ''Series/VeronicaMars'':[[spoiler: A school bus crash is staged to look like an accident, but was actually done by a murderous psychopath.]]
144	** "Baby Boomer Santa" homages / parodies classic songs like "[[WeDidntStartTheBillyJoelParodies We Didn't Start The Fire]]" and "American Pie".
145	** On the festive appearance of the Human Being, which has been given a coating of icicles to celebrate the festive season (which of course just makes it look more terrifying):
146	--->'''Jeff:''' My favorite holiday tradition is trimming the ''Film/{{Hellraiser}}''.
147	** The opening number of the pageant features [=ParaParaParadise=] dance moves.
148	* SoBadItsGood: The ''JustForFun/InspectorSpacetime'' Christmas Special has this appeal to Troy and Abed in-universe:
149	-->'''Troy:''' [[BerateAndSwitch That sounds]] ''[[BerateAndSwitch terrible.]]'' [[BerateAndSwitch I wanna watch it]] ''[[BerateAndSwitch twice.]]''
150	** However, when he's watching it by himself, Abed's underwhelmed reaction to what we see of it suggests that without anyone to share the experience and mock it with, it's actually just horrible. The creator got his knighthood revoked for a ''reason'', after all.
151	* SpontaneousChoreography: Occurs when Abed and Mr. Rad sing "Glee," for later songs participants may have had time to practice.
152	* StepfordSmiler: Mr. Rad is clearly hiding a lot of unpleasantness underneath his overly cheerful exterior. The members of the study group also become this as they get sucked into the Glee Club.
153	* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: "Teach Me How to Understand Christmas" has an ABCCB rhyming scheme. Then comes the last verse:
154	--> ''Brain hurty understandy Christmas,''\
155	''Mistletoe for eaty taste good?''\
156	''You smarty, me dumb!''\
157	''Help pwetty, have fun!''\
158	''Boopy doopy doop, boop, '''[[LampshadeHanging sex]].'''''
159	* TakeThat: The whole episode functions as a pretty extensive one to ''Series/{{Glee}}''.
160	** Bonus points for also throwing in ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial'' and airing less than a week after the announcement that ''Glee's'' Christmas episode would pay homage to the same special.
161	** Jeff's comment about hating the Glee Club doesn't make them bullies and to imply such is reverse bullying is a TakeThat to the fact that, in ''Glee'', anyone who hates the Glee club is a [[FelonyMisdemeanor "bad person."]]
162	** Mr. Rad shouting [[LookBehindYou "Look -]] [[Music/KingsOfLeon Kings of Leon!"]] is an allusion to Creator/{{Ryan Murphy}}'s [[http://www.avclub.com/articles/glee-creator-ryan-murphy-fuck-you-kings-of-leon,50624/ infamous feud with the band]] after they refused to let ''Glee'' cover one of their songs.
163	* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: One of the reasons Abed gives for doing Glee Club is that they'll have to sing their feelings instead of making a face.
164	* TookALevelInDumbass: Annie for the duration of her song. She goes from normal, to sexy, to cute in a childish way to... ''Boopy-doopy-doop-boop''. Jeff even notes that there's "a point of diminishing returns" on the sexiness as a result.
165	** "What's a deminiminmeghh?"
166	* TraitorShot: Mr. Rad giving a PsychoticSmirk and [[HandRubbing rubbing his hands together]] after Abed agrees to recruit his friends for the pageant. Yyyup, he's evil.
167	* TrueMeaningOfChristmas: Parodied; Mr. Rad and Abed appear to believe that staging the Christmas pageant and the TrueMeaningOfChristmas are inseparable.
168	** Played straighter at the end, when the study group come together to celebrate Christmas together as TrueCompanions by watching the terrible JustForFun/InspectorSpacetime ChristmasSpecial.
169	* VillainExitStageLeft: ''Look: [[TakeThat Kings of Leon]]!''
170	** Bonus points for ''literally'' [[VisualPun escaping off the left side of a stage.]]
171	* VillainousBreakdown: When Britta gets on stage and ruins the show, Mr. Rad goes absolutely nuts and accidentally lets slip that he killed the previous Glee Club.
172	** For a given value of 'villain' (the study group seems to feel this way), the Glee Club is driven to a collective psychotic breakdown upon being served with a cease-and-desist order for the copyrighted songs they've been singing.
173	* VillainHasAPoint: Abed can't contest Mr. Rad when he says that Jeff is full of cynicism. In fact, Jeff was the one that said they shouldn't try to make the holidays brighter.
174	* TheVirus: Abed calls Glee Club recruitment this in the first song, and so it's played for the rest of the episode.
175	* AWizardDidIt: How does a piano [[InvisibleBackupBand keep playing with no musician]]? Glee, of course!
176	* WholePlotReference: The plot is essentially ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY given the]] ''Series/{{Glee}}'' treatment.
177	* WrongGenreSavvy: Abed initially believes he's in a light-hearted and magical Christmas story where he has to save his friends from drifting apart and forgetting the TrueMeaningOfChristmas through the power of song and that Mr. Rad is a magical guide who will help him do this. It turns out, the story is a lot darker than he thinks, his efforts to force his friends to be magical and cheery is played out almost as a MindControl AssimilationPlot where their identities are being stripped away and replaced with [[StepfordSmiler hollow]] [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul cheeriness]], and his friends -- far from turning into Christmas-hating grinches having forgotten the TrueMeaningOfChristmas, and who have never expressed even the slightest desire not to spend Christmas together (just that they already have alternative plans with others arranged) -- are actually quite right in that trying to force things to be bright just ends up making them darker, and that Christmas is about more than just happy singing. Oh, and Mr. Rad is actually a complete psychopath. Abed is understandably horrified when he realizes what he was enabling.
178	* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: Annie, who is Jewish, refers to her grandmother as her [[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bubbe "bubbe"]] which Troy [[OneDialogueTwoConversations misinterprets]].
179	* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Part of the effect of Mr. Rad's brainwashing is getting the group excited for "regionals", which they keep expressing out loud even though it's abundantly clear none of them actually know what that means.

Context Recap / CommunityS3E10RegionalHolidayMusic