# Community 3/17 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 17, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067 "2011-03-17T21:07:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/21 "2011-03-18T18:26:43Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I guess that’s possible, but I have to admit that I didn’t like it that much, either. And there seems to be a dearth of people talking about it. > > Anyways, I think there was too much story, and not enough funny one liners. Throw in Britta being a caricature of herself, and it really just didn’t work for me. > > Also, I know what they were going for with Jeff and Shirley’s willingness to get Chang thrown in jail, but I still find it inconsistent. I could see her getting charges pressed on Chang since he really did kidnap the boys. I can see them both going to absurd lengths to get Chang out of their lives. I can’t get both of them foregoing their morals–Jeff the ones he’s grew into, and Shirley the ones she’s always had. It seems odd for an ancillary character to be the moral center. > > But I could have taken all of it that if they’d made it funnier. Britta, Troy, and Abed needed more references and Jeff, Shirley, and Chang needed more silliness. I think part of the problem was Chang. He’s hard to write for. When he’s in the background being wacky, especially in a surreal episode like Paintball, he’s great. But when it’s an episode that’s more or less grounded in reality, Chang is more painful than funny. Oddly, Malcolm Jamal Warner was the highlight of the episode for me. His bit about “No, I cheated because I was a coward. But when I was gone, you were forced to accept the bad with the good.” was a great line, and delivered with impact. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/22 "2011-03-18T19:08:56Z")
“Oh look… is that a reason to leave?” ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/23 "2011-03-18T19:12:11Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Except I **like** _Community_. The absence of David Cross might have something to do with it. > That and Annie’s boobs. You really like monkeys, huh? I liked this one, but it wasn’t as funny as most episodes. Seeing Enver Gjokaj (yes! spelled right the first try) was nice. He’s adorable and funny, even when his character makes hats out of babies. Britta’s Brittney was actually so bad it made me intensely uncomfortable, though I laughed at Troy’s reaction. But yes, “It’s all downhill from here” made the whole ep worth it, regardless. (I also enjoyed - after a moment of confusion - the pitter patter in the treetops line!) ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/24 "2011-03-18T19:35:26Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > I think part of the problem was Chang. He’s hard to write for. When he’s in the background being wacky, especially in a surreal episode like Paintball, he’s great. i think he’s hard to write for because the writers kind of painted themselves into a corner. is he merely a more bitter, less cool version of jeff - as in he’s competent but unlicensed? or is he legitimately batshit crazy? he’s displayed semblances of both but it’s hard to juggle. then when you think the writers have picked batshit crazy, he suddenly has this rational yearning to play it straight? but he doesn’t know how to do it? yet he should, because all of 1st season he seemed pretty put-together albeit marginally eccentric. i, for one, thinks chang needs to dialed back on the wacky and leave the crazy guff handled by the senile (pierce and leonard). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/25 "2011-03-18T20:38:11Z")
I loved Troy taking off the green kerchief when Britta was wearing one. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/26 "2011-03-18T20:52:00Z")
Were they wearing green because it as St. Patrick’s Day? Otherwise, it looked out of place. The final scene (everyone looking at their screens) is way too true at the community college where I teach. I wish they would have Pierce’s character turn his calculator upside down to see the dirty words though ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/27 "2011-03-19T11:51:39Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > Oddly, Malcolm Jamal Warner was the highlight of the episode for me. His bit about “No, I cheated because I was a coward. But when I was gone, you were forced to accept the bad with the good.” was a great line, and delivered with impact. Yeah, but Jeff’s follow up made it worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Carmady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f04885/32.png) [@Carmady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carmady)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/28 "2011-03-19T12:03:44Z")
I thought not only Chang but the killer guy needed to dial back on the wacky. I thought at first that Troy and Abed had put him up to it as a trick on Britta, because it just seemed too far out there to say that and be so confident in Britta’s positive response. Maybe if Britta had said something first that he (falsely) interpreted as implying she held similar feelings. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/29 "2011-03-19T12:26:49Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > New episode tonight. > > And … great news, Community has been picked up for a third season. Good news indeed. > [@silenus](#): > > Except I **like** _Community_. The absence of David Cross might have something to do with it. > > That and Annie’s boobs. AD was pretty awful as everyone was hateful. Community balances nice, indeterminate and hateful. It is a much better show. Also Cross is painful. Big fan of the little monkey huh? (I know, I know, someone already made the joke but damn it, I thought of it before I read it.) > [@Carmady](#): > > I thought not only Chang but the killer guy needed to dial back on the wacky. > > I thought at first that Troy and Abed had put him up to it as a trick on Britta, because it just seemed too far out there to say that and be so confident in Britta’s positive response. > > Maybe if Britta had said something first that he (falsely) interpreted as implying she held similar feelings. I really thought it was a set up to. I was surprised it wasn’t. But maybe it was better it wasn’t so obvious. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/30 "2011-03-20T00:44:09Z")
> [@Grapefruit](#): > > I loved the tag at the end. They really haven’t cracked open their anthropology books at all this semester. They’ve evolved from being a study group to being… friends! I loved how everyone was texting away on their various devices, except Pierce, who was just tapping away on an old calculator. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/31 "2011-03-20T11:54:38Z")
Okay, I expressed myself poorly above. It was just after I’d watched the episode, and I was having trouble articulating my dissatisfaction. My problem, now that I’ve taken the time to think about it, is that so many people were out of character. Chang, as mentioned above, is not a complete idiot who can’t function in society. He is somewhat like Jeff–without education, he was able to trick everyone (and not just the gullible dean) that he was a Spanish teacher, despite knowing very little Spanish and sounding like an idiot. He had a job, a wife, and even had friends. Yes, he’s much worse off now, as he was not as good maintaining a life as Jeff. But he’s not stupid enough to kidnap the wrong kids. Nor is he racist enough to make that type of mistake. (Yes, some people can’t tell people of other races apart very well, but we’re not just going to assume that any black kids in the school must belong to a certain person.) Shirley, yes, hates Chang and is somewhat scared of him. She’s always been the most distrustful of him. But she also is very much motivated by and motivates with guilt. She couldn’t lie to get Chang in trouble without feeling bad about it very quickly. She might go with her plan, as he really did kidnap the kids, but she wouldn’t go with Jeff’s, and would think it overkill. I can practically hear her saying “I don’t know, Jeff. Is that right?” Jeff was more in character than the rest, but the problem is that his character only works if he has a foil. And, even then, he does have a moral center, it’s just not always in the forefront of his mind. When it disappears is when he’s being cocky. When coming up with the idea to incarcerate Chang, he didn’t sound caught up in his ability to hurt him, but rather seemed matter of fact about it. It was more McHale’s portrayal than the writing. Of the other three that actually appeared for more than a cameo, I have less of a problem with the two guys than with Britta. Britta is self-assured, or at least wants to come off that way. Sure, she is naive, but she thinks she’s right. Her portrayal here came off more like Annie. She would be doing everything to get people to like her, but she wouldn’t admit it and get all whiny about it. Troy was pretty much dead on, but he’s a fairly unintelligent character and can get away with temporary stupidity. But Abed is the best judge of character on the show. He would have known that the jealousy trope was being played. It wouldn’t take much–just indicate that he was playing along, noticed the trope, and got the other guy to spill. And, now, for an honorable mention, we have not!Theo, who they are apparently grooming to be a real character, so I’ll have to eventually learn his name. But right now, he’s showing up the main cast, and I don’t like that. His way of pointing out the problem just doesn’t work for me. There’s no great insight that Shirley and Jeff were being bad people, and we didn’t need a Cosby Show style moral lesson. And, what’s more, if they’d played that up as a Cosby Show style lesson, it would have been hilarious. WHich takes me to my final point. I’m being really hard on the characterization, but, honestly, that’s usually not that big a deal to me. It’s the lack of humor in this episode. Every joke that was made was subdued. There was nothing to get me started laughing so the smaller jokes would catch on. Sure, there was Britta’s comic overacting that I called a caricature earlier, but that’s not a joke. I mean, look at this thread. Usually there are a bunch of posts about the best one liners. Here we might have one or two, if you actually think they qualify. I watch Community for the zingers. That is why it was the first show that got me laughing continually until the end, as the zingers just kept coming. I didn’t find this one funny, so the characterization killed it for me. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/32 "2011-03-20T12:01:53Z")
I always appreciate that these threads are started. This is one of the shows that I watch on hulu, but sometimes forget that there is a new episode out. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/33 "2011-03-20T14:57:58Z")
> [@TheTerribleTako](#): > > Jeff likes nipple play? Hot. Huh? No. They were actually nipple guards. He had just come in from running - runners do have a problem with having their nipples chafe. Some will apply vaseline - and some will wear guards. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/34 "2011-03-20T15:05:37Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Huh? No. They were actually nipple guards. He had just come in from running - runners do have a problem with having their nipples chafe. Some will apply vaseline - and some will wear guards. I think you missed the line being referred to. At one point, Troy says something to Britta to the effect of “it’s one thing to hear that sombody’s into nipple play [with the implication that she told them that about Jeff] and another thing to know that he likes to wear babies as hats.” ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/35 "2011-03-20T15:18:40Z")
the implication went even further back when they were naming guys she ruined in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/36 "2011-03-20T15:42:05Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I think you missed the line being referred to. At one point, Troy says something to Britta to the effect of “it’s one thing to hear that sombody’s into nipple play [with the implication that she told them that about Jeff] and another thing to know that he likes to wear babies as hats.” Ah, thanks. I was doing something else while watching, and missed a few lines. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/37 "2011-03-20T15:46:49Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Chang, as mentioned above, is not a complete idiot who can’t function in society. He is somewhat like Jeff–without education, he was able to trick everyone (and not just the gullible dean) that he was a Spanish teacher, despite knowing very little Spanish and sounding like an idiot. He had a job, a wife, and even had friends. Yes, he’s much worse off now, as he was not as good maintaining a life as Jeff. But he’s not stupid enough to kidnap the wrong kids. Nor is he racist enough to make that type of mistake. (Yes, some people can’t tell people of other races apart very well, but we’re not just going to assume that any black kids in the school must belong to a certain person.) They basically changed Chang into someone else when he stopped teaching. Before he was intelligent and functional enough to be an effective foil for the main characters. Now he’s just over-the-top nuts. The change was a pretty bad idea, IMHO since a) it left the show without an effective villian b) crazy Chang isn’t anywhere near as funny as evil teacher Chang was. The writers seem to have decided Ken Jeongs hyper over-acting schtick is hilarious, but IMHO its just annoying and c) It leaves the main cast without a class to go to every episode. As a result, they’ve kinda drifted from the main premise of the show. The plots only rarely reference the fact that their supposedly in a Community College now. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/38 "2011-03-20T15:55:45Z")
I agree on Chang. He drags the show down. He was only good in small doses. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/39 "2011-03-20T18:42:40Z")
Chang was good when he was just kinda sad wanting to fit in. Like in the space simulator episode where he rushes in and says “I think I found a way to reroute the power!” and Abed says “reroute… to where?” and he just slinks away. Abusing sad Chang was funny. Making Chang retarded and insane (chasing his backpack? really?) was silly. If they can’t handle pathetic Chang they should put him into some form of power again and get crazy mean Chang. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067/40 "2011-03-20T19:34:05Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Chang was good when he was just kinda sad wanting to fit in. Like in the space simulator episode where he rushes in and says “I think I found a way to reroute the power!” and Abed says “reroute… to where?” and he just slinks away. Abusing sad Chang was funny. Making Chang retarded and insane (chasing his backpack? really?) was silly. If they can’t handle pathetic Chang they should put him into some form of power again and get crazy mean Chang. Yeah, sad Chang worked. It was a natural progression–he had been mean to our guys because he had secretly wanted to be with them. All his pathetic-ness and craziness was caused by him trying too hard to fit in with them. But, at this point, they seem to have just embraced him being crazy for the crazy. To use a TVTropes term, he’s been flanderized beyond all recongnition. Putting him as the main character of an episode in this state just doesn’t work, and probably wouldn’t have even if I liked the B-plot. BTW, anyone else agree or disagree with my proclamation that there were much fewer (if any) one liners this episode? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/community-3-17/575067.md?page=3)