History Recap / CommunityS3E08DocumentaryFilmmakingRedux

** More specifically, Jeff's decision to have his scenes filmed in front of the Luis Guzmán statue is what started it, given how they had to get permission from him to use his likeness...

* ForWantOfANail: Getting Luis Guzmán to agree to appear in the commercial is the point where production begins to nosedive.

-->'''The Dean''': You know, I thought this commercial was going to be okay. Well, guess what? [[TemptingFate It just officially became great.]] Let me give you a little rundown of this commercial's great elements: Luis Guzmán is in it... (can't think of a second one) I'm sorry, will you excuse me?

! The ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Documentary Film Making Redux" provides examples of:

** [[TheFly "I merely dreamed of having hair. And now the bald man is awake."]]

* CreatorBreakdown: In-universe. Lampshaded by the Dean when he prepares to show what he thinks is his commercial to the school board members:

** Another possible one aimed, subtly, at [[Series/TheOfficeUK the]] [[Series/TheOfficeUS Mockumentary]] [[ModernFamily show]] [[Series/ParksAndRecreation format]] where unseen cameramen do nothing to prevent [[HilarityEnsues chaos that they know could unfold.]]

The Dean is filming a new commercial for Greendale starring most of the study group while Abed makes a documentary about it. Famous alumnus Luis Guzman agrees to be in it which causes the Dean to go overboard and over budget.

** Luis Guzman, [[Recap/CommunityS1E05AdvancedCriminalLaw noted Puerto Rican American.]]

* BrickJoke: In [[Recap/CommunityS1E05AdvancedCriminalLaw Advanced Criminal Law]], when the Luis Guzman statue is announced, Abed makes a list of the questions he would like to ask Luis Guzman should he arrive for the statue's dedication, while Troy makes a [[SarcasmMode sarcastic comment]] about Guzman coming over specifically to be interviewed by Abed. In this episode, Guzman ends up being interviewed by Abed for his documentary and would rather talk to him than work with the Dean.

--->'''Luis Guzman:''' Oh, I get it. You're worse than crazy. You're ashamed of your school. And that statue of me out there? That's just wrong.\\

'''Luis Guzman:''' Hey, screw you! I'm just saying -- don't worship the people leaving Greendale, worship the people that are ''here''.

** Jeff made the cameramen shoot in front of the Luis Guzman statue so he could use lawyers to pull the commercial. Then Luis calls and says he wants to be in the commercial, leading the Dean to go through a mental breakdown, just because he didn't feel like being in the commercial. And to rub salt in the wound, the Dean had almost finished production, under budget.
** Also Luis Guzman himself, albeit inadvertently and unwittingly -- he helpfully calls the Dean to sidestep the "trouble" that's arisen around the use of his likeness to offer his services for the commercial (and as noted above, at exactly the point where the commercial is about to be wrapped) which leads to the Dean's breakdown and all the resulting stress of the episode.

* PrimaDonnaDirector: The Dean was already dangerously close to the edge at the start of production but throws himself off of it screaming and flailing once Luis Guzman signs on.

* SanitySlippage: Pretty much everyone except Shirley and Luiz Guzman goes through this while working on the commercial.

** ...and also ''Hearts of Darkness'', the former's "making of" {{documentary}}, which Abed and Luiz Guzman both specifically mention.

* SpringtimeForHitler: Jeff's attempt to derail his role in the commercial by firstly doing an over-the-top caricature of the Dean and then having his scenes filmed in front of the school's statue of Luis Guzman (thereby meaning that it will have to be scrapped when Guzman denies permission for his image to be used) backfires when the Dean loves his interpretation and Guzman, learning about the issue, offers to appear in the commercial.

* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: Abed and Luis Guzman both say that ''Hearts of Darkness'' is way better than ''Film/ApocalypseNow''.
* TakeOurWordForIt: We don't see the original cut of the Dean's commercial, but from what we hear -- and Luis Guzman's reaction to it -- it's not good.

--->'''Dean:''' I'm surrounded by assassins. My own school's paper has turned on me. But when this is all over, I'll have a commercial with Luis Guzman in it, and all they'll have are their words and their fears and whatever embarrassing photos they can get from my two-faced mother.

** Jeff, who confidently predicts that his Dean impression "won't make the cut" and that Guzman's lawyers will intervene to stop the production (and thus his role in it), only to almost immediately be proven wrong both times.

* WhatTheHellHero: Luis Guzman gives one to the Dean for being ashamed of Greendale.
* WilhelmScream: Heard in the cut of the commercial shown to Luis Guzman.

[[caption-width-right:270:He never wanted to be in this commercial. He never wanted to be bald. Now he's both.]]

** Also Luis Guzman himself, albeit inadvertently and unwittingly -- he helpfully calls the Dean to sidestep the 'trouble' that's arisen around the use of his likeness to offer his services for the commercial (and as noted above, at exactly the point where the commercial is about to be wrapped) which leads to the Dean's breakdown and all the resulting stress of the episode.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Like [[Recap/CommunityS2E16IntermediateDocumentaryFilmmaking the earlier documentary episode]], the episode deconstructs documentaries, especially those where the filmmakers follow subjects around with their cameras to record their struggles and traumas without doing anything to help for the sake of distance and remaining "objective"; Abed knows exactly what is going to happen and, as Troy angrily notes, could probably do something to help, but chooses not to do anything and thus lets everyone suffer needlessly. Abed then ends up rejecting this approach when he takes pity on the Dean and uses his footage to cut together a suitable commercial for the school, thus saving his job. It also once again reiterates the artificial nature of 'reality' programming, even documentaries:

* {{Dismotivation}}: Jeff reveals himself as one of the 'puts more effort into avoiding the work than would be necessary to actually just do the work' types, initially going to a lot of trouble to avoid having to do anything for the Dean's commercial.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Like [[Recap/CommunityS2E16IntermediateDocumentaryFilmmaking the earlier documentary episode]], the episode deconstructs documentaries, especially those where the filmmakers follow subjects around with their cameras to record their struggles and traumas without doing anything to help for the sake of distance and remaining 'objective'; Abed knows exactly what is going to happen and, as Troy angrily notes, could probably do something to help, but chooses not to do anything and thus lets everyone suffer needlessly. Abed then ends up rejecting this approach when he takes pity on the Dean and uses his footage to cut together a suitable commercial for the school, thus saving his job. It also once again reiterates the artificial nature of 'reality' programming, even documentaries:

* The Dean's task of shooting a simple commercial ends up shutting down classes for 12 days, goes $17,125 over budget, and results in several people (including himself) having a mental breakdown. Including himself. Also, whatever he did to the [[NoodleIncident ice cream machine]].
* Jeff's attempt to reduce the amount of work he has to do backfires enormously, resulting in a nightmarish amount of distress. He might have just been in a simple commercial, had he actually just decided to do the work instead of trying to avoid it.

* GroupHug

-->'''Britta:''' Yeah, Troy and I are buds, best buds, ''air buds'' even.

* LeaveTheCameraRunning

* LostInCharacter: Jeff's intention to lampoon the Dean

** In the throes of his breakdown, the Dean apparently did something rather unpleasant to the ice-cream machine, and begs no one to eat from it until it's been cleaned.
** Judging from him explaining that the Janitor knew how to clean it, it can be inferred that this isn't the first time it's been done.

** Abed is also wearing a VideoGame/DeBlob shirt, in one scene.

* EpicFail: The Dean's task of shooting a simple commercial ends up shutting down classes for 12 days, goes $17,125 over budget, and results in several people (including himself) having a mental breakdown. Including himself. Also, whatever he did to the [[NoodleIncident ice cream machine]].
** Jeff also gets this too. Any attempt he makes to reduce the amount of work he has to do backfires enormously, resulting in a nightmarish amount of distress. He could have just been in a simple commercial, had he actually just decided to do the work instead of trying to avoid it.

** Annie wore her hair in this episode the same way she wore it in [[Recap/CommunityS1E04SocialPsychology Social Psychology]]. [[spoiler: Fittingly, she went completely batshit in both episodes.]]

** [[spoiler: When the Dean]] strips off after his breakdown, his underwear is identical to that of Jeff's in [[Recap/CommunityS1E17PhysicalEducation Physical Education]].

* {{Deconstruction}}: Like [[Recap/CommunityS2E16IntermediateDocumentaryFilmmaking the earlier documentary episode]], the episode deconstructs documentaries, especially those where the filmmakers follow subjects around with their cameras to record their struggles and traumas without doing anything to help for the sake of distance and remaining 'objective'; Abed knows exactly what is going to happen and, as Troy angrily notes, could probably do something to help, but chooses not to do anything and thus lets everyone suffer needlessly. Abed then ends up rejecting this approach [[spoiler: when he takes pity on the Dean and uses his footage to cut together a suitable commercial for the school, thus saving his job]]. It also once again reiterates the artificial nature of 'reality' programming, even documentaries:

* EasterEgg: [[spoiler: In the Dean's mental breakdown video, [[Recap/CommunityS1E17PhysicalEducation he is shown wearing Jeff's orange underpants.]] ]]
* EpicFail: The Dean's task of shooting a simple commercial ends up shutting down classes for 12 days, goes $17,125 over budget, and results in several people having a mental breakdown. Including himself. Also, whatever he did to the [[NoodleIncident ice cream machine]].

* LostInCharacter: [[spoiler:Jeff.]]
* MotionCapture: Garrett is put in a green mo-cap suit with ping pong ball sensors for the commercial.

* ThePrimaDonna: Parodied; Pierce is outraged when he learns the commercial shoot won't be catered and announces he won't leave his trailer. When he learns that the shoot also won't have trailers, he ''rents'' a trailer and refuses to leave it until he receives a trailer which he can refuse to leave until the shoot is catered. And so on, in a series of events which leads to him spending the entire time in a trailer [[spoiler: which is eventually towed to a movie set in Hollywood.]]

* StockholmSyndrome: Annie, who is absolutely convinced of the Dean's genius until [[spoiler: he replaces Jeff with Chang]].

* ActorAllusion:
** Pierce's [[ThePrimaDonna prima donna]] antics call to mind Chevy Chase's notorious reputation for being difficult to work with for much of his career.
** Shirley's refusal to play "sassy" in the commercial reflects Yvette Nicole Brown's comments in interviews thatshe enjoys playing Shirley precisely because the part isn't a stereotypical "sassy black woman" role.

* TroubledProduction: The Dean's commercial ends up more than $17,000 over its $2,000 budget.

* CreatorBreakdown: In-universe.

-->'''Pierce:''' I'm an actor not a circus freak!

** The Greendale school paper is full of funny quotes like the under the pager image.

* EpicFail: The Dean's task of shooting a simple commercial ends up shutting down classes for 12 days, goes $17,125 over budget, and results in the mental breakdown of several characters. Including himself. Also, whatever he did to the [[NoodleIncident ice cream machine]].

** Another possible one aimed, subtly, at the [[TheOffice Mockumentary]] [[ModernFamily show]] [[Series/ParksAndRecreation format]] where unseen cameramen do nothing to prevent [[HilarityEnsues chaos that they know could unfold.]]

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: Abed's talking-head shot about how a filmmaker can't always stay detached.

* FridgeHorror: Does the Dean simply own a copy of Jeff's underwear, or did he steal them from Jeff?
** This may be a call back, since Dean Pelton was looking pretty closely at them during the billiards contest in "Physical Education."
** And of course the previous episode showed that he's not above buying matching outfits.

* GeniusBonus: While Abed diagnoses Annie as having StockholmSyndrome, she is actually displaying a phenomenon psychologists would call "insufficient justification." It all starts when someone goes through a lot of effort/pain, and doesn't have a really good reason for why they did it, so they try to convince themselves otherwise. She's basically reducing her mental distress by convincing herself that the Dean is a genius, therefore justifying all the work she's done, since there wasn't any real reason for her suffering at all.

* TemptingFate: At the climax of his PrimaDonnaDirector weight-throwing, the Dean yells that anyone who doesn't want to help him with his movie can leave. Everyone, having been driven up the wall with his madness by this point, has gone before he even finishes the sentence.
** Also Jeff, who confidently predicts that his Dean impression "won't make the cut" and that Guzman's lawyers will intervene to stop the production (and thus his role in it), only to almost immediately be proven wrong both times.

-->'''Abed:''' The Dean is going insane and taking all of you with him.\\

* ActorAllusion: Pierce's [[ThePrimaDonna prima donna]] antics call to mind Chevy Chase's notorious reputation for being difficult to work with for much of his career.

* AsHimself: Luis Guzman, [[Recap/CommunityS1E05AdvancedCriminalLaw noted Puerto Rican American.]]
** Also, in the tag, [[CurbYourEnthusiasm Jeff Garlin]].

* CallBack: Annie wore her hair in this episode the same way she wore it in [[Recap/CommunityS1E04SocialPsychology Social Psychology]]. [[spoiler: Fittingly, she went completely batshit in both episodes.]]

* FreezeFrameBonus: During Chang's interview the screen says "Ben Chang: Self-Proclaimed Understudy", meaning that he's hanging around uncomfortably dressed as Jeff dressed as the Dean [[AxCrazy when nobody asked him to]].

*** And of course the previous episode showed that he's not above buying matching outfits.

* HypocriticalHumor: The Dean's efforts to end racism and "pull a four-hundred year old dagger out of America's heart" by having Troy and Britta hug on camera eventually ends with him promising to restore segregation to the school if they screw up one more time.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Jeff made the cameramen shoot in front of the Luis Guzman statue so he could use lawyers to pull the commercial. Then Luis calls and says he wants to be in the commercial, leading the Dean to go through a mental breakdown, just because he didn't feel like being in the commercial. And to rub salt in the wound, the Dean had almost finished production, under budget.

* NoodleIncident: In the throes of his breakdown, the Dean apparently did something rather unpleasant to the ice-cream machine, and begs no one to eat from it until it's been cleaned.

* ShipTease: Britta and Troy do a lot of hugging in this episode, and usually get very giggly and sheepish around each other because of it. Until the Dean makes them hug each other for twelve hours straight while screaming abuse at them the whole time, by which point nervous breakdowns start looming.

*** [[WordOfGod On the episode commentary Dan Harmon]] admits that the orange placement was not intentionally a ShoutOut. It was just a quirk they had written in for the Dean to have.