Recap / Community S2 E01: Anthropology 101

"Welcome Students new and old to another fall semester at Greendale!"

— Dean Pelton

School is back in session and the study group is ready for Anthropology 101. Unfortunately for them, the aftermath of the end of the previous semester is still lingering...

Guest starring Betty White as the Sadist Teacher Professor Bauer.

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The Community episode "Anthropology 101" provides examples of:

• Actor Allusion: Troy's Spider-Man pajamas is a reference to Donald Glover wanting to try out for the role in what became The Amazing Spider-Man, a campaign that led to the eventual creation of Miles Morales.
• All Men Are Perverts: The central message of Twilight is apparently that "men are monsters who crave young flesh."
• Artistic License – Biology: There are two minor mistakes in the song when the last 's' is dropped from Primates and Sapiens.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: The group quickly forgot about Britta and started talking about Toy Story 3, but it can be construed as wanting to avoid talking about the subject.
• Ax-Crazy: An Anthropology professor who drinks her own urine, drugs one student on the first day and tries to kill another on the second.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Annie's slap leaves her victim covered in blood.
• Big Damn Kiss: Britta and Jeff subvert this.
• Big "WHAT?!": Britta has one when she learns Jeff kissed Annie shortly after Britta declared her love for him.
• Bonding Through Shared Earbuds: Invoked as Jeff and Britta engage in more and more blatant public signals that they are lovers as part of a game of "relationship chicken." One such gesture is listening to a song together through a pair of earphones.
• The Cameo: DC Pierson shows up while Abed brings the wedding people. He previously worked with Glover on Derrick Comedy.
• Continuity Nod: Troy and Abed do a rap about Anthropology with Professor Bauer in The Tag, much like they how they did one with random Spanish words in the second episode of Season 1. This time, it transitions into a cover of "Africa" by Toto midway through its performance.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Professor Bauer hits Starburn with a blowdart for being snarky and tries to strangle Jeff for giving a wrong answer to her assignment.
• Double Entendre: When Star-burns learns that Jeff bedded Britta the previous semester, he congratulates Jeff on "Missionary Accomplished".
• Escalating War: The DVD commentary refers to the conflict between Jeff and Britta as a "staring contest of love."
• Establishing Character Moment: Prof. Bauer shooting Starburns with a blowgun.
• Eye Scream: The commentary jokes that Betty White kept going for Star-Burns's eyes with the dart.
• Female Feline, Male Mutt:
  Pierce: Troy thinks all dogs are boys and all cats are girls.
  Troy: There's no way to disprove that! Have you ever seen a cat penis?
• Foreshadowing: 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. Later in the season it is revealed that she lives in a rough neighborhood.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: Abed attempts to invoke this trope.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The chalkboard in Bauer's class lists Dean Pelton as a "knucklewalker".
• Gollum Made Me Do It: Chang has an argument with himself "Gollum"-style over whether to either join or destroy the study group at the end of the episode.
• Gone Horribly Right: Abed stirs up drama to find some adventure in Jeff and Britta's "relationship". It succeeds... and Jeff as a result gets hospitalized from being strangled.
• Heel Realization:
  • Jeff is clearly left feeling rather shaken by Abed's "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  • Likewise, the group realizes that they were too hard on Jeff when their Anthropology teacher nearly beats him to death and strangles him in front of the class. They gather around his hospital bed and apologize to each other, with Abed, in particular, saying that he stirred up drama on purpose for a new adventure and regrets it. Britta and Annie agree to cool it.
• Hypocrite: As Pierce angrily points out (see above and below), Troy running a Twitter feed dedicated to documenting stupid things that Pierce says is pretty rich considering Troy's own history of stupidity.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • While hyping up the "Fresh Start" dance & talking about putting the last year behind them and starting anew, Dean Pelton brings up Britta's public confession of love at the end of the prior school year.
  • Starburns, in an attempt to get people to see him as more than his wacky sideburns, has added a top hat to his ensemble.
  • Professor Bauer gripes about Jeff and Britta's Sickeningly Sweethearts act making her sick, as she drinks her own urine.
  • Upon learning that Troy has been posting every stupid thing he says to a Twitter feed, Pierce angrily points out that Troy himself says some pretty stupid things — such as his belief that there are only boy dogs and girl cats. See Female Feline, Male Mutt.
• IKEA Weaponry: The professor uses the tools for the Anthropology assignment to make a crossbow/strangling weapon.
• Instant Sedation: Starburns is immediately paralyzed by the blowdart.
• Just Friends: Resolution to the kiss in the first season finale.
• Large Ham: In-universe example. Much to Jeff's annoyance, Britta plays up being the rejected woman in public.
  Jeff: Britta, I know you're excited to finally be popular with women, but don't get too high on your own drama.
  Britta: HIGH on my OWN duh-RAMA?!
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Jeff suggests the believed reaction to Britta's declaration of love in the first season finale is karma for Britta embarrassing him by publically putting him on the spot rather than do it in privately. Britta suggests the same thing in regards to Jeff just walking away after she's started playing up the wounded woman role.
  • Annie punching Jeff for kissing her after sleeping with Britta. And really, pretty much everything he'd done following Britta's public confession of love to that point.
  • Professor Bauer assaults and nearly kills a student during class, all because he gave the wrong answer to her assignment. With a group of eyewitnesses pulling her away, and Jeff needing to be hospitalized, she gets suspended.
    • Slightly Played With, as hospitalizing a student is well within the grounds for firing, possibly prosecution, but Professor Duncan clearly states that she was put on administrative leave with pay.
• Meta Guy: Discussed by Shirley.
  Shirley: I don't understand. Is this you being "meta"?
• My God, What Have I Done?: Abed is shaken when Jeff nearly gets strangled in class after he made up drama on purpose on Shirley's advice to see Jeff's new relationship as an adventure. He apologizes to Jeff for making things worse as Jeff is recuperating in bed.
• Never Mess with Granny: Starburns gets a blowdart to the face after making a quip in class. Also, Jeff's "respect" speech almost gets him killed by a combination crossbow/staff/strangler.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Jeff, after he realises that Annie hasn't taken in what they had previously agreed about their kiss being a mistake.
  • Jeff again, right after his speech about how respect is the tool humanity needs the most to survive.
• Opening Shout-Out: In one shot Britta has a cootie-catcher.
• Opportunistic Bastard: Troy goes where the heat is.
• The Power of Friendship: ...nope. Jeff (wrongly) believes that respect is the strongest weapon man can have, rather than the tools in the box. Professor Bauer cobbles together a weapon made of all nine of them combined and attacks Jeff.
  Bauer: I'll use this to attack you and you can use respect to defend yourself.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Abed delivers a brutal one to Jeff without so much as raising his voice after he snaps at Abed for being unable to distinguish real life from TV:
  Abed: I can tell life from TV, Jeff. TV makes sense - it has structure, logic, rules. And likable leading men. In life, we have this. We have you.
• Right Now Montage: The opening scene scrolling right through a long constructed set of the group's individual bedrooms as the characters go about their morning routine. ^note The montage was actually cheated, though; seven consecutive bedrooms were too long for one stage, so it was split into two and the shots were digitally merged.
• Sadist Teacher: In the span of three classes, Professor Bauer shoots Starburns with a blowdart & tries to strangle Jeff.
• The Scrappy: Jeff seems to be this to Prof. Bauer in-universe, as just the sight of his raised hand annoys her.
  Bauer: Last time I let you speak I got what the Maku-Maku called "dirt-roaded".
  Chang: Using it!
• Shipping Bed Death: In-universe—Abed seems to be trying to invoke this when he goads Jeff and Britta into getting engaged.
• Shirtless Scene: Jeff gets one during the opening scene montage.
• Shout-Out: The end scene where Chang argues with himself in two different personas after hours in the library about the group, à la Gollum from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers movie, finishing with evil laughter and a Big "NO!".
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: An odd example. Jeff begins acting this way to Britta so that the school stops hating him. Then they get into a bizarre competition of who can be the most nauseatingly romantic.
• Subject 101: Anthropology 101.
• Take That!:
  • The episode claims Twilight's aesop to be All Men Are Perverts.
  • When Pierce suggests monetizing Troy's twitter following by creating "Old White Man Says: The TV Show", the response is a unanimous No. Just... No.
• Tranquillizer Dart: Professor Bauer is sedating Starburns with a blow dart.
• Walk and Talk: The second scene following Pierce & Troy and then Annie & Abed walking the Greendale campus.
• Wedding Episode: Abed, wanting more sitcom shenanigans, gets Jeff and Britta to propose and then brings in a wedding troupe.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Abed's response to Jeff when, after the shitstorm caused by Jeff sleeping with Britta and kissing Annie being revealed, he mocks Abed for not knowing the difference between reality and TV.
    Abed: I can tell life from TV, Jeff. TV makes sense. It has logic, structure, rules. And likable leading men. In life, we have this. We have you.
  • Earlier, Annie also makes her feelings known, but less verbally.
  • And Troy gets one for secretly recording every stupid thing Pierce says to a Twitter feed called "Old White Man Says" (which, although Pierce probably deserves it to some degree, is still something of a dick move).
  • Frankly, that whole scene is nothing but everyone calling everyone else out.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: While Jeff is already demonstrating guilt, Starburns' approval of his actions concerning Annie and Britta really seems to convince him he was in the wrong.

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