But why is it a comedy worth seeing? For one, it takes place at a college — something we can all relate to. It takes the funniest, craziest people from a college setting and places them in one school. There’s the charismatic and apathetic guy, the jock, the quiet studious girl, the religious mother figure, the crazy old man, the analytical pop culture genius and the hot blonde feminist. How all of them got together to become not only a study group, but best friends, is beyond anyone’s knowledge.
That small synopsis of Community is about the only thing that remains constant throughout the series, and that is a good thing. Every episode is something new and fresh, each with a different focus of characters and humour. No single joke gets old, and every week or two the show takes a different style of its own, usually to parody a well-known movie or television show.
In fact, Community can be seen as one large show full of pop-culture references. This would make the Scary Movie franchise Community’s evil twin. The show has a huge array of characters and jokes to throw around, and has many layers of narrative. This isn’t surprising, as a few of the writers worked on shows such as Scrubs and are inspired by groundbreaking shows like M*A*S*H and Cheers.
The show’s format is also closely connected to college students. One season follows the characters during a regular school year, from September to April, focusing on a few key events (Halloween, Christmas and the horrific times of final exams) for themed episodes, and the remainder of the episodes build upon each other, humorously named as if after a class one might find in a course calendar (“Advanced Dungeons and Dragons” or “Contemporary American Poultry,” for instance). There doesn’t seem to be a single thing Community does not reference or make fun of, even stooping to meta-humour to make fun of itself.
I could go on for pages about how Community is a must-watch show, how the acting is superb and the writing would make an English major weep with joy, but the only way to know how great Community can be is to watch the show for yourself.
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Photo: NBC Univerisal