History Recap / CommunityS1E03IntroductionToFilm

Britta upon finding out that Abed's dream is to be a film maker helps support him financially. However Abed's behavior becomes increasingly erratic leading to a confrontation between Abed, Abed's Dad, Britta, and Jeff. Meanwhile Jeff convinces several members of the study group to join him for an easy A course in Accounting, but is stymied when he must either 'seize the day' or risk not only failing the class but also life.

** Underneath his spacey exterior, Professor Whitman is shrewd enough to see that Jeff is simply planning to coast through the class and strict enough to threaten to fail him if he doesn't seize the day. He also talks down to Shirley and Annie, which was he presumably meant to be ToughLove. However, once he sees Jeff and Britta kiss, he congratulates Jeff and hands him an A+.

* MoodWhiplash: The goofy VanityPlate at the end of Abed's student film.

-->'''Gobi:''' But falafel is a fallback!

** Underneath his spacey exterior, Professor Whitman is shrewd enough to see that Jeff is simply planning to coast through the class and strict enough to threaten to fail him if he doesn't seize the day, without bothering to give him any further advice on how to do so. He also talks down to Shirley and Annie, which was he presumably meant to be ToughLove. However, once he sees Jeff and Britta kiss, he congratulates Jeff and hands him an A+.

'''Jeff:''' Interesting. I hadn't seen the Iraq metaphor...\\
'''Gobi:''' What metaphor? I'm talking about ''your'' speeches and ''her'' guided miss--\\
''(indicates Britta's breasts)''\\
'''Britta:''' ''(cutting him off)'' Got it!

** Abed's father is a rather distant, dominating and short-tempered man who is (initially at least) belittling towards his son's passions and interests, and is forcing him to embark on a career he wants nothing to do with. But he does love his son deep down and is genuinely mortified to realise that Abed believes that he believes Abed is responsible for Abed's mother abandoning them.

* IResembleTharRemark: After Britta mocks Abed's dad as a misogynist, he claims that he loves women but is getting a "major b-word vibe" from her.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Jeff, Britta and Shirley make Islamophobic remarks to and about Abed's dad, though they're mostly one-off.

* DesignatedParents: Abed [[ManipulativeBastard manipulates]] Britta and Jeff into these roles for the sake of making his movie seem all that more authentic.

* WhatTheHellHero: Annie calls Shirley out on making a racist comment about how Muslims can "chop off your head with a salami sword". Jeff correctly predicts that Pierce would say something worse within a minute.

* AbsenteeActor: Ken Jeong as Chang does not appear at all in this episode nor is mentionned.

'''Jeff''': Pierce will beat that in one minute.
[...]

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Invoked. When Abed's father goes on a rant about Jeff and Britta inserting themselves into his family's problems, Jeff mistakenly thinks he's making a comment on the Iraq War. [[invoked]]

* TemptingFate: When one of Professor Whitman's homages to ''Dead Poets' Society'' [[RealityEnsues goes wrong]]:

** Underneath his spacey exterior, Professor Whitman is shrewd enough to see that Jeff is simply planning to coast through the class and strict enough to threaten to fail him if he doesn't seize the day, without bothering to give him any further advice on how to do so. However, once he sees Jeff and Britta kiss, he congratulates Jeff and hands him an A+.

'''Troy:''' How about I pound you like a boy, that didn’t come out right.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Abed's father is a rather distant, dominating and short-tempered man who is (initially at least) belittling towards his son's passions and interests, and is forcing him to embark on a career he wants nothing to do with. But he does love his son deep down and is genuinely mortified to realise that Abed believes that he believes Abed is responsible for Abed's mother abandoning them.

* EnforcedMethodActing: InUniverse, Abed's first student film has him [[spoiler:intentionally annoy and frustrate Jeff and Britta to the point of them abandoning him]] so he can capture [[spoiler:a perfect metaphor for the dissolution of his parents' marriage]].

* {{Homage}}: While Jeff is trying to seize the day under the mentoring of Prof. Whitman, Abed is having his own ''Film/DeadPoetsSociety'' experience in the form of his father [[FantasyForbiddingFather forbidding him to study film]] (as with Neil and his dad in ''Film/DeadPoetsSociety'').[[spoiler: Thankfully, it ends up subverted.]]

** Later, Abed's dad makes a seemingly {{Anvilicious}} speech comparing Britta and Jeff's involvement with Abed to the Iraq War. It turns out that they had misinterpreted it; the "speeches" he was talking about were Jeff's, and the "guided missiles" were Britta's breasts.

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Jeff's plot in Whitman's class turns into this. In their confrontation, when Jeff yells about how much work he's putting into his efforts to seize the day and why Whitman won't give him a break about them, Whitman retorts that his attempts to seize the day are unconvincing because Jeff clearly has no real idea ''how'' to seize the day; he's just acting out superficial expressions of happiness and liberation because he has no understanding of how to relax and do something just for the simple pleasure of it. He shouldn't have to "work" at embracing life.