Jeff and Frankie convince Dean Pelton to accept a state grant allowing prison inmates to attend Greendale via "telepresence robots"— basically iPads hooked up to remote-controlled Segways. This ends up creating problems for Jeff when one of them takes exception to his lackadaisical methods of teaching. Meanwhile, Abed is caught in the middle of Annie and Brita's feud over Britta's desire to throw a party.
The Community episode Laws of Robotics and Party Rights provides examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Jeff tells Britta that whilst she is completely wrong about what a petard is, he finds her explanation for the phrase "Hoist by your own petard" to be better than the actual one.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: A non-heterosexual example is Dean Pelton's obvious crush on Willy, and how quickly he cools towards him when he finds out that he was wrongly convicted and is expected to be released soon.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Annie, when Britta outmaneuvers her and gets Abed to agree to the party.Annie: Before this is over, you'll beg for my forgiveness.
- Brick Joke: At the bar, Chang mentions he goes to someone's house to poop, but does not say whose. During the tag, when everybody uses telepresence robots for a meeting, Chang is sitting in a bathroom which Abed and Annie recognize as theirs.
- Call-Back: A flashback "Studies in Modern Movement" to Annie first moving in with Troy & Abed.
- Cutaway Gag: Lampshaded. Abed intentionally did something humorous in the past, just in case he needs a scene to cut to in the future. And then subverted when the second thing Abed set up (Leonard fully nude and covered with lizards) was too gross for the camera to cut to.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Parodied when Jeff throws Willy's robot down the stairs and breaks it. The Dean tenderly cradles the robot while Willy's tablet malfunctions, and does a Skyward Scream when the tablet shuts off.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The ceremony where Willy is made a professor is staged like a wedding between Willy and the Dean, complete with a Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace moment from Jeff.
- Fake Shemp: Troy briefly "appears" in the Cutaway Gag. All we see is his arm.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- Britta gives a long and convoluted explanation of how she thinks this phrase originated.Britta: I guess I just assumed that in the old days a petard was a special outfit like a leotard, with a lot of fancy buckles and loops on it, and that rich people would wear them when they were feeling especially smug, but then poor people would tie a rope through one of the loops, and hoist them up a pole and then let them dangle there as punishment for being cocky.
Jeff: Never look it up. Your explanation is way better.- True to form, Britta gets her party by manipulating Abed into filming people who are "party[ing] like there's no tomorrow". Abed takes this literally and films people partying through the night and into the next morning, making Britta unable to sleep until Annie intervenes.
- Britta gives a long and convoluted explanation of how she thinks this phrase originated.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Willy. See No-Sell.
- MacGyvering: Parodied. The things Elroy needs to make his own telepresence device are a broom, an RC car, an iPad, and... an elaborate gyroscopic servomotor (which they apparently find offscreen).
- Mythology Gag: In the end tag, Abed hacks into everyone else's device to make them show his face, except for Dean Pelton's device, which shows the face of a confused janitor. That janitor is played by Abed Gheith, who is the inspiration for Abed's character.
- No-Sell: Willy tries to repeatedly push Jeff down the stairs but his robot is not powerful enough to do this. Instead he just keeps bouncing off Jeff's body while Jeff gets progressively more annoyed.
- Profiling:
- Willy comments that you can't accuse someone without evidence...unless they're a minority.
- A white inmate is asked for his prisoner number by a guard at Greendale. Elroy (who is black) is let through without a second thought.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Britta manages to circumvent Annie's rule against parties by convincing Abed that it's a film project. However, in typical Abed fashion, he begins to take things too far, eventually forcing Britta to have to grovel to Annie to end the chaos.
- The Reveal: Inverted. The Dean is shocked to discover that Willy is not in fact, a murderer, but was falsely accused of a crime someone else committed and is in the middle of a successful appeal with new DNA evidence. Willy just enjoys how charismatic this reputation of danger makes him.
- Say My Name: The Dean, when Willy "dies."
- Seinfeldian Conversation:
- "She's a coucher!"
- Britta's explanation of "hoist on your own petard."
- Simple Country Lawyer: Pre-law professor Jeff puts on a Southern affectation when he starts competing with Willy's folksy charm.
- Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Dean Pelton's hiring of Willy as a professor is phrased like a wedding, and Jeff interrupts the "I do"s at the last minute.
- Token Minority: Elroy defies this after Dean Pelton expresses his confusion towards the phrase "in the black".Dean: Because black means bad. (notices Elroy) ...when it's a cat, or a banana, or a shirt that makes you think you've lost more weight than you have...
Chang: (to the Dean) Nice save. (to Elroy) Sorry about that, man.
Elroy: (who hadn't been paying attention to the conversation) Hm? What? Did someone use the word "black" and now you want me to give the all clear? Please tell me that won't be my role in this group. I have a brain the size of Jupiter, I'm nobody's fourth Ghostbuster. - Wimp Fight: Between Willy's telepresence device and Jeff's telepresence device.
