That’s where the enthusiastic fan fiction thing comes in. They tried to copy the basic idea without actually bringing anything funny or interesting.
But the Christmas episode was playing on established “Christmas special” cliches. That’s why it worked.
As for the videogame episode, well, I think that one gets points because the it really hit the nail on the head. And an entire episode animated as an 8-bit videogame was so bloody weird.
Puppets felt like a lazy theme episode. Like somebody just had the idea, “Puppet episode!” and that’s where the effort ran out.
I love that the song that Abed sings in the episode where they all tell horror stories has made a few short appearances and was featured in the credit cookie.
Also: <long pause> “Our respect for you as a political activist has not changed.”
I just watch this show On Demand, so not sure the order, but just saw the show where they have a Christmas party and tie up their Professor. It was very obviously parodying something, but I had no idea what (apparently I need to watch more television, as I also don’t know who have the “stars” are on NBC’s “The More You Know” segments are).
Any hints?
Die Hard
wooosh
Rope, apparently. I’ve never seen Rope, though so I won’t comment on whether they did it well or not. I didn’t really care for it. The resolution was godawful.
Nah, the Die Hard parts were obvious. I was referring to the way they moved around in small groups and the shots from high angles, things like that.
I wished that they didn’t go back to the Evil Universeon this one, seemed to go back to the well once too much.
I’ll keep watching, but I’m fine with the show ending anytime. I can’t believe how little “Troy and Abed in the Morning!” style vignettes they’ve had since the return.
I ultimately blame it’s demise on too much Chang, Dean, and Pierce.
I really liked this episode with the “body-switching”. It wasn’t perfect, but I appreciated that the wackiness was fueled by character dilemmas. My favorite bit was the stinger. The fake outtakes was classic Troy and Abed.
I got some good laughs out of the episode. The Dean’s impersonation of Winger was pretty funny.
Annie’s reaction to his impersonation had me rolling.
As was Troy of Abed and to a lesser degree Abed of Troy.
Winger’s impersonation of the Dean wasn’t very good at all. In fact, I was wondering if there was a plot point that I missed such that the Dean didn’t get inside Winger.
It was all just pretend. Nobody really switched with anybody, it was just a high-concept way for Troy to chicken out of telling Britta he was breaking up with her. And the Dean was just living out some kind of sick fantasy, as usual.
In other words, nobody actually switched bodies unless they bought into it and wanted to.
Loved this episode.
He didn’t! Jeff got pretty exasperated that the Dean was playing along (instead of helping to solve the problem) and left in a huff.
I semi-liked the puppet episode; this body-switching one was the first one I can honestly say I genuinely enjoyed of the season. Struck the comedic notes and the sad notes quite perfectly, I thought. Pity the show’s not likely to live. 
Aha …thanks!
I hated the puppet episode, but that’s more because I really don’t like musical numbers in my sitcoms. If they had just done an episode as puppets, I might have liked it.
The Christmas episode was better, but still not great.
The body switching episode was really good. The Dean playing Jeff was freaking perfect.
Irritation with this episode: Abed was wearing a Doctor Who tee shirt. Not Inspector Spacetime, but actual Doctor Who, which shouldn’t exist in this timeline.
But agreed that the body switching scenes were the closest to classic Community since the return. Though I’m still ready for them to pull the plug, it’s done.
Sadly, I agree with you. I used to make time to watch Community live, with commercials and all, because the show was that good. Now… well, there’s nothing running against it, so I just don’t turn the channel.