History Fridge / Community

** Why was Britta the last hold-out to be 'converted' to the Glee Club? Because she was the only one Mr. Rad didn't actually want around. Why was she converted anyway, despite having the 'vital' role of a mute tree? Because even Mr. Rad has to accept that with the study group, even when brainwashed [[TrueCompanions you include all of them or have none of them.]]

*** This also explains why Rich never shows up in Anthropology after his initial class - He figured out that class was a giant blow-off & Duncan was giving everyone top grades. To paraphrase [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles Syndrome]]: If everyone is special, then no-one is.

** On Wiki/ThisVeryWiki, mentions of Britta dying a streak of her hair blue is usually [[PotHole PotHoled]] to ArsonMurderAndJaywalking. But didn't arson (burning the apartment) and murder (Pierce's death) actually occur (albeit accidentally)?

** The reason why Annie doesn't appear in the beginning is because she does not fit any of the criteria that the Dean mentioned being a teen who was going to be valedictorian in high school. She is not a remedial teen, a 20 something year old drop out, a middle aged divorcee or old. Similarly, while Jeff and Abed aren't mentioned in any of the criteria, they do fit one of them to a degree. Jeff is middle aged and could be a dropout because of not having a bachelor's degree and Abed could be seen as remedial because of having Asperger's.

** Duncan suggests Britta embrace her nomination for Tranny Queen in order to deal with her childhood fears of being used like a blow-up doll. Britta would embrace her nomination, however, it is mainly due to her attraction to Jeff and her competition with Prof. Slater. Duncan also mentions a young Britta's situation at a birthday party between her and a man dressed in a dinosaur costume ([[http://www.greendalecommunitycollege.com/campus-connect/britta-perry.shtml here]]). It seems Britta would take Duncan's advice to embrace her fears in "[[Recap/CommunityS2E06Epidemiology Epidemiology]]" when she comes to the party dressed as a "T-Rex" (or Dragon-Turtle).

* In [[Recap/CommunityS1E01Pilot the pilot]] it is Abed that invites 4 out of the 7 students to the original study group. In "[[Recap/CommunityS1E22TheArtOfDiscourse The Art Of Discourse]]" we discover that on the top of his "quintessential college experiences" list is "bond with a group of lovable misfits." Since Abed processes reality through television it is very likely that Abed picked these individuals from spanish class because he recognized the roles they would fill in an ensemble cast: good girl (Annie), sassy black single mom (Shirley), lummox (Pierce), and dunce (Troy). He probably already recognized Jeff and Britta as hero and love interest.

** There is also a meta-example for [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife us tropers]]. While ''Series/{{Community}}'' is probably one of the most blatantly {{Troperiffic}} series ever made, [[spoiler: ''Film/MyDinnerWithAndre'']] is about as close to JustForFun/TheTropelessTale as you can get.

** Ted [[spoiler:dying from a shark attack]] actually makes sense--swimming with a hole in your hand puts you at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to speed.

** The ''Series/LawAndOrder''-based episode has the Latin name for wolf in the title. Urology is the study of, among other things, part of the male anatomy. The producer of the ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' franchise? Dick Wolf.
*** Urology is also the study of the urinary system--they're "[[StealthPun taking the piss]]" (i.e. imitatingly mocking) out of a Wolf (or at least the show he produced).

** In the opening sequence, we see Annie combing her hair in a very cute girly room. If you look closer you can see that there are bars on the window. [[Recap/CommunityS2E13CelebrityPharmacology Later in the season]] it is revealed that she lives in a rough neighborhood.

** In the opening sequence we see Troy hop out of bed wearing Spider-Man pajamas. This is a reference to the summer's internet campaign to have Donald Glover considered for the role of Peter Parker in the Spider-Man movie reboot.

** Shirley -- the only member of the group who is a practicing Christian -- is in fact the first one ejected from the "Christmas Wonderland". And she was ejected because, for all her self-righteous certainty that she was the only one of the group who knew the True Meaning of Christmas, she refused to put Abed's therapy above her own religious beliefs and indignantly demanded special respect and treatment from the others because of it. In other words, she forgot that one of the traditional messages of Christmas is about putting other people first.

*** When talking about parodies / critiques of feminism, consider also that Britta and Annie's conflict revolves primarily around sexuality. Britta objects to what she sees as Annie using her sexuality in order to attract the support of men to their cause, thus pandering to them and undermining what she feels are the political objectives of what they're doing. Annie, meanwhile, is offended by what ''she'' views as Britta's judgemental and moralistic attitude to her behaviour and the ways she tries to bully, lecture and police Annie into modifying the way she acts (particularly around men) simply because she doesn't conform to Britta's own preferences and viewpoints. This also works as a rough parody of the debates around "sex-positive" feminism: to again (over-)simplify, one side (Britta) views many forms of female sexuality and sexual expression as merely pandering to men and continuing male privilege and oppression, while the other (Annie) views them as a necessary part of female liberation and the first side as, in its way, just as oppressive, puritanical and controlling of female sexuality as [[NotSoDifferent those they initially started fighting against]].

** The episode contains another example of Jeff and Pierce being NotSoDifferent. Both of them enter the election to antagonize one of the female candidates. Jeff enters to attack Annie for her idealism. Pierce enters to attack Vicki for [[DisproportionateRetribution not lending him a pencil]].

** Why does Pierce [[spoiler: help Jeff out even though he was the member who was the most antagonistic to him? It's cause Pierce saw Jeff and himself as NotSoDifferent. Up until Annie tells Jeff that they are no longer friends. Even during all of Pierce's antics, Annie always stuck by him. Jeff was basically losing the one positive thing Pierce had last season, so he took pity on the guy]]. To go even further with this: [[spoiler: Pierce's lowest point in the last season was arguably when even Annie got fed up with his antics and turned on him in "A Fistful of Paintballs". They really are NotSoDifferent -- but the group was willing to give Pierce another chance, so Pierce pays it forward with Jeff.]]

** At the end, everyone is singing and dancing happily... [[NotSoDifferent except Jeff and Pierce]]. However, while it's a pretty clear NotSoDifferent moment, it also has a few indicators of how Jeff has undergone CharacterDevelopment which has to some degree distanced him from his implied fate of ending up like Pierce; while Pierce is preoccupied with getting rid of his cruel housewarming gift to Troy so he doesn't get in trouble, Jeff is happily watching his friends enjoy themselves. While he might not yet be ready to take the step of actually joining in, Jeff has still bonded with them sufficiently to take simple pleasure in their happiness, however silly he might think it.