Line #118 Recap/CommunityS3E09FoosballAndNocturnalVigilantism


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2	[[caption-width-right:350:[[Anime/DragonBallZ Dragon Ball C]]]]
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4	Jeff enlists Shirley to help him beat three obnoxious German students at foosball. While the experience initially helps bring them closer together, it ends up stirring up a history between them neither anticipated. Annie accidentally breaks Abed's autographed DVD of ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' with exclusive special features, and her efforts to conceal what she's done quickly result in chaos.
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6	----
7	!! The ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism" contains examples of:
8	* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The Germans use nonsensical or irrelevant words like "foosenschaften"[[note]]German for "affiliation"[[/note]], "freudenk(r)atzen"[[note]]German for "joy cats" (no 'R') or "joy scratching" (with the 'R')[[/note]] and "schpankin'"[[note]]Not a real German word[[/note]].
9	* TheAtoner: Shirley both gave up foosball and began a complete shift in her personality out of guilt when [[HeelRealization she realized what a cruel bully she was turning into]].
10	* BadBadActing: Annie pretending to be distraught at their apartment getting robbed.
11	* BaitAndSwitchAccusation: Abed [[BatDeduction correctly deducts]] that the break-in was an InsideJob. With a stern look at Annie he announces that he thinks he knows what happened. Annie is sure her game is up and starts confessing only to be interrupted by Abed who concludes that it must have been the landlord.
12	* BrickJoke: Leonard reviewing frozen pizzas is mentioned early on. The Tag shows a clip of him doing it.
13	* BrokenTreasure: Both {{Discussed\|Trope}} and played with in the Annie/Abed plot.
14	-->'''Troy:''' Annie, do you know how many {{sitcom}}s have done the 'secretly replace a broken priceless item' thing? 'Cause [[GenreSavvy Abed does. Abed knows everything.]]
15	* BuffySpeak:
16	** Troy tells Annie she won't be able to think her way out of this mess, with her "thinkiness".
17	** After Abed decides that the landlord must have "robbed" the apartment and declares that "something has to be done" in a tone that suggests hijinks are afoot:
18	--->'''Troy:''' Let's not leap to ''thing-doing''... right, Annie??
19	* CallBack:
20	** The foosball table is noted by Dean Pelton as one of the main selling points of Greendale in "[[Recap/CommunityS2E04BasicRocketScience Basic Rocket Science]]".
21	** Abed is, [[Recap/CommunityS1E07IntroductionToStatistics once again]], Batman. With Christian Bale's approval.
22	** How many times has Shirley objected that she's not much older than Jeff? This is the episode that finally proves her right -- she's not more than a year or two Jeff's senior.
23	** In the episode tag, the song that plays at the end of Leonard's Website/YouTube video is the same song that Dean Pelton can't shut off in the pilot episode just before giving his less-than empowering speech.
24	** Troy hums the same [[https://youtu.be/3TX_W_CMwT8 tune]] that played on the radio in [[Recap/CommunityS3E05HorrorFictionInSevenSpookySteps Abed's Halloween story]].
25	** [[Recap/CommunityS2E24ForAFewPaintballsMore Once again]], Annie briefly falls for Abed's heroic persona.
26	* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Abed to Troy, briefly.
27	--> '''Britta''': I'm volunteering at the animal hospital.\
28	'''Troy''' ''[excited]'': Animal hospital?!\
29	'''Abed''': The animals are the patients.\
30	'''Troy''' ''[sad]'': Oh, that makes sense.
31	** Troy also mentions that he and Abed had hoped Annie would be this for both of them.
32	* ComedicSociopathy: Most of what happens at the foosball table. The German foosball jock pretends to be unfamiliar with the redirect term [[UsefulNotes/GermanLanguage "Schadenfreude."]]
33	--> [[LampshadeHanging I wish there was a word to describe the pleasure I feel at viewing misfortune.]]
34	* ContinuityNod:
35	** Britta's [[Recap/CommunityS2E22AppliedAnthropologyandCulinaryArts one-eyed cat]].
36	** Troy is humming the smooth jazz from Abed's halloween story in "[[Recap/CommunityS3E05HorrorFictionInSevenSpookySteps Horror Fiction In Seven Spooky Steps]]".
37	** Jeff refers to gossiping about Vaughn's tiny nipples as [[Recap/CommunityS1E04SocialPsychology one of the times]] Shirley and he bonded.
38	** Jeff's "art films and well-engineered cars" insult calls to mind his 'complisult' to the nurse in "[[Recap/CommunityS2E16IntermediateDocumentaryFilmmaking Intermediate Documentary Making]]".
39	** The officer references [[Recap/CommunityS2E09ConspiracyTheoriesAndInteriorDesign his last appearance]] teaching Annie a lesson about fake gun usage.
40	** The Mexican restaurant Jeff and Shirley eat in is identical to the one that Jeff and Dean Pelton ate in "[[Recap/CommunityS3E07StudiesInModernMovement Studies in Modern Movement]]".
41	** There's an ''[[Recap/CommunityS3E01Biology101 Inspector Spacetime]]'' poster on the wall in Troy and Abed's apartment.
42	* CookingDuel: Foosball style.
43	* CreepySouvenir: Discussed. When Annie is uncomfortable that they have to live in the same building with a guy who is into footwear. The police officer tells her she should be happy he's not into heads.
44	* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Shirley is afraid that teaching Jeff proper foosball may corrupt him.
45	* DarkReprise: Troy hums "[[https://youtu.be/3TX_W_CMwT8 Daybreak]]" when he finds Annie and the broken DVD. He hums it again, while sobbing, as he walks away.
46	* TheDarkSide: Foosball corrupts those who play it, according to Shirley. And oh how right she is.
47	* DeathGlare: Annie shoots Troy one of these to make him go along after telling Abed the apartment was robbed.
48	* DisappearedDad: Young!Shirley incorporates this into her trash talk. It seems like a lucky guess.
49	* {{Eagleland}}: Shirley invokes Flavor 2 when she tries to convince Jeff to ignore the German foosballers.
50	* ElSpanishO: Jeff says they're gonna "kick [[Film/DasBoot das Butt]]" when he tries to threaten the German students.
51	* EmbarrassingNickname: Jeff's childhood nickname "Tinkle Town," which Young!Jeff is credited as.
52	* EntertaininglyWrong: Abed deduces that the landlord must have been stealing valuables from the tenants since he had both means and opportunity. He is only incorrect about his motive because of the lie fed by Annie who was unknowingly FramingTheGuiltyParty. He had in fact been stealing women's shoes in the exact manner suggested by Abed.
53	* ExplodingCloset: The landlord's closet full of women's shoes.
54	* FakingAndEntering: Annie's over-the-top [[TakeAThirdOption solution]] to the BrokenTreasure dilemma. It takes Batman!Abed [[BatDeduction about three seconds to work out]] it was an InsideJob, which he [[EntertaininglyWrong blames on the landlord]].
55	* FastRoping / StairsAreFaster: Batman!Abed attaching his grappling hook to the fire escape.
56	* FelonyMisdemeanor:
57	** Officer Cackowski and Abed appear to have different views on exactly how heinous The Case Of The Missing ''Dark Knight'' DVD is.
58	---> '''Officer Cackowski:''' Sorry we couldn't get a car over here until now; our captain was killed on duty last night.\
59	'''Annie:''' My God, I'm so sorry!\
60	'''Officer Cackowski:''' Yeah, good man. Leaves behind two kids and a pregnant wife. So, you're missing a ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' DVD?\
61	'''Abed:''' ''[Very seriously]'' My ''Dark Knight'' extended-extended cut. It ''wasn't'' insured.
62	** Thanks to her experiences with it in the past, Shirley is convinced that foosball is an inherently evil game which brings out the worst in people.
63	* {{Fetish}}: Abed, Annie and Troy's landlord seems to have one for women's shoes and has been stealing them from his tenants and keeping them in his closet.
64	* ForgottenFirstMeeting: Big Cheddar and Tinkletown.
65	* FramingTheGuiltyParty: Annie frames Rick the landlord for robbing the apartment after finding out he steals women's shoes.
66	* FreezeFrameBonus: The WallOfText at the end of Leonard's frozen pizza Website/YouTube review in TheTag. This is widely thought to be a ShoutOut to the wordy vanity cards of Creator/ChuckLorre, who produces both ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'' and ''Community'''s [[Series/TheBigBangTheory time slot rival]].
67	-->First off, would somebody please explain to me why in the age of digital streaming, I have to pay late fees for the movies I rent. I'm a responsible person. I pay my taxes. Seriously, I'm not trying to be a dick about this. I really want to know. It seems to me the only competitive advantage over the internet is face-to-face customer service. So why are you working so hard to make me not want to talk to you. Just because I kept ''Film/DanInRealLife'' a couple extra days. There were a lot of special features, and I didn't ask my daughter for a blu-ray player not to see them all. Oh and by the way? What happened to the days when these rental jockeys would actually WATCH the movies they have, so they could give you recommendations instead of standing there like "Duh doy, I guess there's some nudity in Dan in Real Life." Well guess what Chelsea, THERE ISN'T. That Juliette Binoche though, Va-va-Va-va-VOOM. That's one frozen pizza that gets MY oven going at 350 degrees. Anyway hit me up on the comment side, unless you're a hater. Or catch me at @leonard_GCC and remember: see something, say something. Watch the throne!
68	* {{Funny Foreigner}}s: The German foosballers.
69	* HeelRealization: After she humiliated Jeff when they were children, Shirley realized that she turned into a bully when playing foosball.
70	* HiddenDepths: Shirley's previously unrevealed skills at foosball.
71	-->'''Shirley''': You don't know me.
72	* HurricaneOfPuns: Nearly every [[VolleyingInsults insult that Jeff and the Germans trade back and forth]] is some sort of pun on a German word or phrase.
73	* HypocriticalHumor: Annie protests that she doesn't feel safe living in the same building as her shoe-fetishist landlord ''despite having just encouraged Abed to break into his apartment and menace him under false pretenses.'' The officer also points out that she seems willing to overlook some [[CloudCuckoolander imbalanced behavior]] closer to home.
74	-->'''Officer Cackowski''': This guy sleeps outside your room, though, and ''that's'' okay?
75	* {{Hypocrite}}: Jeff angrily brings this up about Shirley; she's always about being HolierThanThou but she was perfectly fine with bullying those smaller than her. Her only defense was that she was a kid who didn't know any better.
76	* IgnoredConfession: When Annie finally comes out confessing about her plot, Abed doesn't believe her and assumes she is just trying to protect him.
77	* InUniverseCatharsis: Shirley as an apology invites Jeff for a foosball game where she can make it up to him by letting him win. He refuses to accept that and tells her that she never grew up from being Big Cheddar. They end up playing for real and screaming at each other about how hard their lives were. Only then does Shirley apologize.
78	* KickTheDog: Shirley as a child taunted Jeff about his missing father and called him Tinkletown when she made him pee his pants.
79	* KidsAreCruel: Shirley verbally and physically abused Jeff at foosball when they were children.
80	* [[invoked]]LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: Abed buys one of ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' for only $299.
81	* MediumBlending: Jeff and Shirley's angry foosball game suddenly turns into an {{Animesque}} style segment.
82	* {{Metaphorgotten}}: Something of a trademark of Batman!Abed.
83	-->'''Batman!Abed:''' Men like Rick operate above the law. But there's something else above the law... bats. And me.
84	* MirroredConfrontationShot: Of Jeff and Shirley in the {{Animesque}} sequence.
85	* MonochromePast: The flashbacks to when Shirley and Jeff were kids is shown in black & white.
86	* MundaneMadeAwesome: A rather angry game of Foosball between two people is represented as an anime-style shouting match.
87	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Shirley is horrified when she realizes Jeff was the kid she humiliated. She feels even worse when Jeff nearly ends their friendship.
88	* NationalStereotypes: Jeff mockingly asks the Germans why they aren't busy making [[GermanExpressionism weird art films]] and [[GermanicEfficiency well-engineered cars.]]
89	-->'''Bully:''' You take that back!
90	* NoodleIncident:
91	** Jeff reminds Shirley of the something disturbing she once did to Pierce's hoagie, which apparently impressed him so much that he almost proposed to her on the spot.
92	** Annie and Abed also reference an unseen disagreement they appear to have had following Annie's disposal of some buttered noodles Abed apparently wasn't quite finished with. [[LampshadeHanging So, an actual noodle incident.]]
93	* NotSoAboveItAll: Troy, of all people, acts as the OnlySaneMan in this episode, but still can't help but get excited when he seen Abed use the grappling hook Troy got him for Christmas. And when Annie and Troy see him menacing their landlord:
94	-->'''Annie:''' Stop it!
95	-->'''Troy:''' GET HIM! I mean, stop it.
96	* OhCrap: After Shirley tells him why she stopped playing foosball, Jeff's expression is one of absolute ''horror''.
97	* OneDegreeOfSeparation: Not only did Shirley and Jeff go to the same YMCA as kids, it's implied Abed was there too.
98	* OnlySaneMan: Troy takes this role for once, complete with increasingly panicked and exasperated LampshadeHanging that this is ''supposed'' to be Annie's job. Being Troy, he sprinkles this with an appreciation of his grappling hook gift being used and encouragement of Abed interrogating the landlord.
99	--> '''Troy''' ''[exasperated]'': Your moving in was supposed to tone us down!
100	* OutOfFocus: Britta and Pierce only appear at the beginning and end of the episode.
101	* OverlyPrepreparedGag: The German's soccerball. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Jeff.
102	-->'''Jeff:''' Were you guys walking around with a soccer ball just so you could do that?! ''[The Germans strut out; to Shirley]'' They left the ball and everything! I think they were literally walking around with it like a prop to use. It's like a twenty-five dollar bit, it's not even that good!
103	* PaperThinDisguise:
104	-->'''Troy:''' Abed! Where have you been?\
105	'''Annie:''' Troy, ''[[LampshadeHanging really]]''?
106	* PlotMandatedFriendshipFailure: Shirley and Jeff have a fall-out half-way through but make up in the third act.
107	* PoliceAreUseless: To the point that larceny is shrugged off as "you're a renter." Of course, this is only natural for a plot about the Dark Knight.
108	* ThePowerOfHate: Apparently anger is the secret to Shirley's foosball skills which she then teaches to Jeff.
109	* PricelessMingVase: As soon as Abed and Troy gush about their extremely valuable and unique DVD, viewers might suspect is's going to be destroyed. Annie steps on it when she accidentally shoves it off a shelf while she's dusting their TV set.
110	* {{Pun}}: Deutschbags; Power-Krauts; [[Film/DasBoot Das Butt]].
111	** [[LampshadeHanging "Enough Teutonic punnery!"]]
112	* PunctuatedForEmphasis:
113	** Jeff after realizing that Shirley is a HiddenBadass at foosball:
114	--->"Ho. Ly. CRAP!"
115	** There's also one in the [[TheTag end tag]] when the viewer is informed that they've just been treated to "Leonard's! FOOD! ''REVIEW''!!"
116	* PurpleProse: Annie once again shows her penchant for detail, by creating an unnecessary back story for her nonexistent stolen jewelry.
117	-->''"It was a gift from my nana. She was a Rockette. She married a Count. He was blind. He loved her for her mind."''
118	* SarcasmFailure: In her panic over the broken DVD, Annie fails to realize that Troy's suggestion of recording a fake exclusive commentary track by Christian Bale over a replacement disk is neither a serious suggestion nor, in fact, an option in this case.
119	* ShipTease:
120	** Annie/Abed. She visibly swoons when he strokes her face. Although technically, once again it's more Annie/A Character Abed's Playing (in this case Batman).
121	** Jeff and Shirley spend most of the episode bonding and coming to an understanding about themselves. The episode ends with a vision of them as children walking off arm in arm.
122	* ShoddyKnockoffProduct: Britta's phone is a genuine [[BlandNameProduct Totorola]]. It comes in packs of six![[note]]Which is good, because it seems to be prone to bursting into flames.[[/note]]
123	* ShoutOut:
124	** ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' -- the animated sequence, triggered by [[ScreamingWarrior Jeff and Shirley screaming]], or perhaps ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'' OR ''Manga/TheLegendOfKoizumi'' as it's just a game and not a world-shattering physical battle.
125	** [[CallBack Once]] [[Recap/CommunityS1E07IntroductionToStatistics again]], we see Abed rocking his ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' Franchise/{{Batman}} costume.
126	** Before being confronted by Batman!Abed, the landlord appears to be watching a ''Series/QuantumLeap''-themed porn parody ("Sam, Ziggy says there's an 80% chance you can't leave Woodstock until you bone these hippies!").
127	** Leonard's video in TheTag has a vanity card similar to the ones that Creator/ChuckLorre's shows (including ''Community'''s timeslot rival ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'') use.
128	** The German jerk notes that their feud has become on very much like ''Franchise/DonkeyKong''.
129	** "See something, say something" is the awareness and crime-prevention slogan of New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
130	** Dan Harmon mentioned in [[http://www.avclub.com/articles/dan-harmon-walks-us-through-communitys-second-seas,57085/ an article]] that ''Series/TheWire'' would a pretty big influence on the third season. A major plot point of the show was that the dealers started using prepaid cellphones or "burners". [[LiteralMinded Funny that Britta's phone goes up in smoke.]]
131	** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Zizmor Dr. Zizmor]] is a heavily-advertised dermatologist, not a veterinary ophthalmologist.
132	** Cats wearing [[HighClassGlass "pretentious" monocles]] are a minor Internet meme, such as [[Webcomic/PennyArcade Twisp and Catsby]].
133	* SingleIssueLandlord: Apparently all he cares for is woman shoes.
134	* SlouchOfVillainy: The landlord, Rick.
135	* SplitScreenReaction: Happens during the foosball match with Jeff, Shirley, and (for no explainable reason) a cat.
136	* StupidlyLongFillerSound: Annie lets out a panicked one as Abed is preparing to rappel down the fire escape.
137	* SuperheroEpisode
138	* TakeAThirdOption: Instead of accepting the Germans' foosball challenge and lowering themselves to their obnoxious level or having to put up with their taunts over losing/forfeiting, Shirley and Jeff show off their foosball skills by expertly managing to position the ball right in the centre of the table where the Germans can't reach it, thus conclusively showing themselves to be the more skillful players win or lose.
139	* TrickedIntoSigning: One of the perks included in the ''[[Film/TheDarkKnight Dark Knight]]'' [[invoked]]LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition DVD set is a Creator/ChristianBale autograph with "customized message of up to four words". Troy and Abed use the four words to make Bale write "''[[PassingTheTorch Abed is Batman now.]]''"
140	* VagueAge: One of the younger kids in Jeff's flashback resembles a young Abed though a later episode reveals it wasn't him since he didn't know about Shirley bullying Jeff as a kid.
141	* VictoriasSecretCompartment: Where Annie hides the shard of broken DVD before planting it in the landlord's closet.
142	* VolleyingInsults: Jeff spends more time trading these back and forth with the Germans than actually playing foosball.
143	* WomenAreWiser: Hilariously [[AvertedTrope averted]]. Troy was hoping that Annie would be this and rein his and Abed's antics in. It turns out that she made things worse.

Context Recap / CommunityS3E09FoosballAndNocturnalVigilantism