Jeff's love life is complicated when Britta drunk dials him. To reestablish the status quo Abed convinces Jeff he must leave an equally embarrassing phone call for Britta. After Troy and Pierce are humiliated by Chang, Annie and Shirley vow to get revenge, but the execution of their plan is less than ideal.
The Community episode "Communication Studies" provides examples of:
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Britta's drunk dial to Jeff at 3 in the morning. Jeff returns the favor with a 40-minute call.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Platonically (for now) — Britta drunk dials Jeff, who takes it as proof she's just playing hard to get. But then, to make her feel better, he gets drunk enough to drunk dial her... and tells her how she's his favorite friend and he just wants her to be as happy as he is with Slater. So, after briefly faking him out to make him think he invited her to the dance, Britta plays the actual message for Slater, so that she and Jeff have a Happy Valentine's Day after all. But Britta's keeping back the rest of the forty-minute voicemail for later use.
- Brick Joke: In the cold open, Abed emphasizes the importance of inflection in successful sarcasm. At the end of the cold open, he goes to town on sarcasm to remind Jeff that he, in fact, knows something about television.Abed: No, I have no IDEA what I'm talking about. (crosses eyes) I'm Abed, I NEVER watch TV.
- Cannot Convey Sarcasm: Subverted. Abed in his normal voice doesn't inflect much, but he is capable of being sarcastic, he just has to over-exaggerate.Abed: Oh that's sarcasm, but I forgot to inflect. This sounds WAY MORE like sarcasm. Inflection is SO interesting.
- Cheating with the Milkman: Slater mentions her mother's affair with the pool cleaner who she was told to call "uncle".
- Conspicuous Trenchcoat: Troy and Pierce use trenchcoats to cover their embarrassing pant suits.
- Creator Breakdown: In-universe with the young Asian actor in Abed's movie. Abed makes a connection to Christian Bale's meltdown
on the set of Terminator Salvation. - Crossdresser: Chang forces Troy and Pierce to wear attractive women's pant suits to a dance as punishment for trying to get revenge on him for humiliating them. It was Shirley and Annie.
- Disproportionate Retribution: All of what Chang does to Troy and Pierce. When the latter two send themselves Valentines to save face, Chang humiliates them in front of the class. And later, when he's almost pranked, he not only blames them and forces them to show up at the dance wearing women's pantsuits, he threatens to fail them if they don't.
- Drunken Montage: Abed and Jeff spend the night getting drunk enough for Jeff to make a convincing late-night drunk dial to Britta (another scene lifted directly from The Breakfast Club).
- Embarrassing Voicemail: This kicks off the main plot after Britta drunk dials Jeff and leaves a long, confused message.
- Epic Fail: Troy's deduction skills.Troy: Yeah. It was written on fake Princeton letterhead. So whoever wrote it, worked at Princeton, ran out of stationary, and didn't have time to go to the store.
- Hangover Sensitivity: Britta starts the episode with a vicious hangover. Jeff and Abed set out to match her drunken hijinks and wake up barely coherent in Abed's dorm room; Abed can barely string together a pop culture reference.Abed: You broke me.
- I Think You Broke Him: Invoked:Abed: The last thing I remember is... You were dancing like that girl... In that movie... Kids in detention?
Jeff: The Breakfast Club.
Abed: Dear god... What have you done to me? - Karma Houdini: This episode is one of Chang's biggest Kick the Dog moments, and he receives absolutely no punishment for it.
- Lady in Red: Britta cleans up nicely in a red dress after Jeff's drunk dial message... to make him think he asked her to the Valentine's Day dance. It's a serious amount of effort just to mess with Jeff.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Britta gets Jeff off the hook with Slater but then whispers mid-hug that his drunk dial is forty minutes long and she intends to hold it over his head.
- Playing Drunk: Jeff tries to do this to drunk-dial Britta. Abed insists he ACTUALLY gets drunk. Hilarity Ensues.
- Playing Hard to Get: Jeff believes Britta's drunk dial proves this is her long-term scheme with him.
- Shout-Out:
- Jeff and Abed's drinking montage has a number of them, mostly to Eighties High School Movies, like recreating the dance sequence from The Breakfast Club (to the same song, "We Are Not Alone" by Karla DeVito no less) and shotgunning cans of beer like in The Sure Thing.
- Chang's chicken impressions recall the Bluth family's chicken dances.
- Abed refers to the adolescent he cast as Chang as "a young the Asian guy from ''Lost."
- A Simple Plan:Jeff: So, what, to even the score I have to drunk dial her? Isn't that absurdly simplistic? Would it even work?
- Slut-Shaming: Parodied after Pierce hops on Chang's bike to go get some frozen yogurt and doesn't invite Troy.Pierce: I'm not gay, man; they close in 7 minutes.
Troy: I could've driven you.
Chang: You said he ''hated'' fro-yo.
Pierce: Just drive. (They drive off)
Troy: Slut! - Strange Minds Think Alike: Jeff and Britta have the same reaction to dressing up the Greendale Human Being as Cupid.Jeff/Britta: Oh, it has arrows now. That's safe.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Troy vehemently denies that his "girlfriend" is made up before Chang even questions it.
- Take That!: Abed compares Jeff and Britta's situation to that of Tony and Angela from Who's the Boss? but is unable to explain the resolution on that show since he could "never make it past the opening credits".
- [Trope Name]: Jeff and Abed once stayed up all night drinking. The following morning, Abed is too hungover to think clearly and is unable to make the movie references he's known for. At one point, he responds to a comment from Jeff with simply "Movie reference."
- Through His Stomach: Abed is on the receiving end of several muffin baskets from actresses who want to star in his next film.
- Undressing the Unconscious: Jeff wakes up after a night of blackout debauchery wearing the pizza guy's tank top.
- Valentine's Day Episode: This episode plays on Valentines's Day.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: Neither Britta nor Jeff can remember their calls last night.
- Woman Scorned: Jeff calls his girlfriend and hangs up when he realizes she's not Britta. Anger ensues.
