Troy and Annie have been bonding through Annie's helping Troy with his astronomy homework but their friendship is threatened by the Dean's latest scheme to improve the perception of Greendale, which involves attempting to convince Troy, star player of his high school football team, to join Greendale's less prestigious outfit. Since Troy has no interest in doing so, this would normally be a non-starter, but the Dean has incriminating photos of Jeff — specifically, ones depicting him attending the school attached to posters and mailers — which, much to Annie's horror, provides sufficient incentive for Jeff to use his powers of charm to sway Troy's mind. To mark the renaming of the football team into the Human Beings, the Dean enlists Pierce's help in designing an ethnically and gender-neutral team mascot; however, no one foresees the eventual result.
Attempting to bond with Britta, Shirley invites her to be her bathroom buddy, but soon discovers that Britta will need some serious coaching in the mysteries of the Wondrous Ladies Room.
The Community episode "Football, Feminism and You" contains examples of:
- Amoral Attorney: Jeff mentions this about himself when trying to make a point to Troy about following your dreams."And I just wanna jump out of my car, run up the steps, and exploit the legal system for profit."
- Anti Climax Cut: When Jeff seems so excited to take Troy to the Thunderdome, the scene cuts to them standing on the field watching inept football players practicing.
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: When Jeff wants Troy to think about his football carrier at Greendale:Jeff: After the dean talked to you about football, you and I were thinking the same thing.Troy: That dude looks like Moby.Jeff: We were thinking, what if Troy did play for Greendale?
- Blackmail: Jeff accuses the Dean of doing this to him. The latter openly admits.
- Call-Back: Troy's DJ name "the Disco Spider" in The Tag.
- Chain of Corrections: Jeff trying to convince Troy to return to football.Jeff: It's in your blood!
Troy: That's racist.
Jeff: Your soul.
Troy: That's racist.
Jeff: Your eyes?
Troy: That's gay.
Jeff: That's homophobic.
Troy: That's black.
Jeff: That's racist!
Troy: Damn... - Commonality Connection: Metaguy Abed snarking about Pierce and Troy:"Pierce and Troy didn't get along at first but now they're bonding through mutual adolescence."
- Comically Missing the Point:Annie: We should totally study astronomy later. Maybe over some Milky Ways? Or Mars Bars?
Troy: Or pancakes. - Creepy Doll: The completely ethnically neutral Greendale Human Being, having no traits that could possibly belong to any human ethnic group. However, this just serves to make it incredibly creepy instead.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The Dean struggles to improvise a list while threatening to blackmail Jeff.Dean Pelton: You know, I didn't realize it before, but we should mail those out to local companies. Law firms... lawyer companies... legal...gatherings...
- Floating Head Syndrome: The first poster of the Human Beings campaign is culprit of this.
- Foreshadowing: Troy tells Jeff that he needs to accept where he is and stop fighting it. He recommends taking a pottery class. Later in the season, Jeff does just that.
- Golden Mean Fallacy: Jeff tries to invoke this. Annie immediately calls bullshit:Jeff: I just think we were both wrong.
Annie: Really? Because I'm an eighteen-year-old girl and you made me cry in public.
Jeff: Hmm. Okay, maybe I was a little more wrong. - Held Gaze: Jeff and Annie eye cuddle each other after his using "Milady" as an olive branch before going into the rally. The first of many, many Held Gazes between them.
- Hypocrite: see the examples below.
- When Annie calls Jeff out on this, for convincing Troy to play football after previously berating the Dean for trying to recruit Troy, Jeff calls Annie herself out on this for selfishly trying to keep Troy to herself, to satisfy her long-running infatuation and desire for Troy's attention, and admits that while he may be a hypocrite, he's more honest about it and is simply better at selfishness than her.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- The science teacher starts ranting when someone's phone rings in her class... until she realizes it's hers, at which point she proceeds to interrupt the class to chat up the guy on the other end. She then asks to borrow a pen off someone, clearly not having one of her own, and then chews out the person she asks when they also don't have one.
- This exchange:Jeff: I'm saying, you're a football player. It's in your blood!
Troy: That's racist.
Jeff: Your soul!
Troy: That's racist.
Jeff: [Uncertain] Your eyes?
Troy: That's gay.
Jeff: That's homophobic.
Troy: [Casually] That's black.
Jeff: [Indignant] That's racist!
Troy: Damn.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Jeff isn't wrong when pointing out that Annie is being self-serving, which Annie eventually has to admit. That doesn't change the fact that his own motivations are even more self-serving. Or that he points out Annie's self-serving motives in an incredibly cruel fashion that drives her to tears.
- Metaguy: The first time Abed's role as this is being discussed.Jeff: Abed, it makes the group uncomfortable when you talk about the group like we're characters in a show you're watching.
Abed: That's sort of my gimmick, but we did lean on that pretty hard last week. I can lay low for an episode. - Non Sequitur: "Announcement no. 2 - Butt Soup!"
- Not So Above It All: It turns out that Britta is not so aloof to the Wondrous Ladies Room — or at least, the ideals of female bonding that it implies — as she lets on.Britta: [Tearfully] I've peed alone my whole life! Women have always hated me. I don't even know how it started. Maybe it was because I got boobs before everyone—
Shirley: Shh! Not out here. [Indicating a nearby restroom meaningfully] In there. - Out of Focus: Abed willingly, as he puts it, "lays low for an episode".
- Political Overcorrectness: The Dean and Pierce's efforts to make a politically correct 'human being' mascot crash right back into the realm of racism through judicious use of racial profiling. And the resulting creation, while (maybe) not racist, ends deeply creepy.Jeff: Wow. I think not being racist is the new racist.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Jeff delivers a really nasty one to Annie after she discovers his role in persuading Troy to rejoin the football team:Annie: Britta's right; you're the most selfish person alive! And all that is going to end right now, because I'm telling him what kind of friend you really are.
Jeff: Maybe you should tell him you're hopelessly in love with him. [Annie is stunned] High school must have been tough, huh? Waiting for a superstar to notice you. But here, he's all alone, and he needs so much help! Did you enroll in all of his classes, or were you worried that might freak him out? The important thing is that you are there for him. The important thing is that you are the only one there for him. And you don't really care what he wants, just as long as you don't have to share him with the rest of the world. Because really, you're just as selfish as I am. You're just not as good at it yet.
Annie: [Hurt] You're right. I could never be as good as you. Probably because I actually care.
Jeff: [Flippantly] Profound, but ultimately meaningless. [Upset, Annie storms off] And don't bother trying that thing that women do when they walk away and make the guy feel like crap because it's not going to happen! Yeah! [Guilty] Damn it! - Secretly Selfish: Jeff calls Annie out on this, pointing out that while she may claim to want Troy to do what he wants, she actually cares more about keeping Troy to herself because of her crush on him.
- Serious Business:
- The Dean considers Troy joining the football team this.
- Shirley considers the Wondrous Ladies Room this.
- Ship Tease: This is the first episode to focus on Jeff and Annie spending time together apart from the rest of the group for any length of time, and the chemistry is immediate. Also, when they see the Greendale Human Being for the first time and have no idea what they're looking at, Jeff's gut reaction seems to be to protect Annie from it by pulling her out of its reach, even as he's freaking out just as badly as she is.
- Similar Squad: The security guards who very closely resemble Troy and Abed.
- Subverted Punchline: When Pierce mentions the only black hole worth studying, the camera focuses on Shirley, implying a crude joke, but then he goes on to talk about Sagittarius A. It's then double subverted when he uses that as a lead in to a penis joke.
- Take That!: When Troy points out that Annie doesn't think he needs to play football anymore, Jeff casts doubt on her judgment by saying that she thought The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a good movie.
- Taught by Television: How Jeff knows about Wondrous Ladies Room.Jeff: [to Britta] Did you learn nothing from stand-up comedy in the '90s?
- Tempting Fate: "On security news, you gotta start locking the Dean's doors so guys like us can't get in..."
- White Man's Burden: Parodied; having created the race-neutral (and incredibly creepy) Human Being mascot, Dean Pelton is heard to happily chirrup "Well, we've solved racism!"
- Will They or Won't They?: Abed snarking about Jeff and Britta:"Will they or won't they? Sexual tension."
- Wondrous Ladies Room: Shirley considers this a sacred space. Britta initially seems quite aloof to it, but later finds herself tearfully admitting that "I've peed alone my whole life!"
