Community

2009-2013

Mastering the B.S degree at college

Community

Background Information

• Beginning in 2009, US sitcom Community was created by Dan

Harmon who has written and produced the show.

• Community have aired 4 seasons and 84 episodes total. They are

creating a 5th season.

Plot

• Set in the fictional city of Greendale, Colorado, it tells the story of a

Cocky/pretty boy lawyer Jeff Winger, whose law degree is deemed

void by the state BAR, is forced to attend the local community

college with an extremely eclectic staff and student body.

• Along the way, he forms a study group with 6 other students, all of

different backgrounds and ages, including a millionaire, a former

drug addict, a divorced mom, a former high school quarter back and

a pop culture obsessed teen.

Recurring Characters

• Along with the 7 members of the study group they are a few recurring

characters which eventually are added in as main characters.

• ‘ Senor’ Ben Chang- Psychopathic Spanish teacher of Chinese decent

who torments the group, year in, year out.

• Dean Craig Pelton- Principal of the school who is desperate for his

community college to be like a real university. His sexual orientation is left a

mystery as he frequently cross dresses.

Type of Humour

Community has always heavily focused on Meta-humour and Pop culture

references which has attained a very specific audience.

Often episodes will be spoofs of famous television programmes or films such as in

the picture their “Pulp Fiction episode.” or their tribute to John Hughes in their

many Breakfast club references and jokes.

In Community, they do not use “Canned laughter” which adds to their quick wits

and comments sometimes being unnoticed until the third or fourth viewing.

They use a lot of running gags or inside jokes which has made Community quite a

secluded show as it is hard to jump straight in without knowing the characters or

their wit.

Typical Storylines/Themes

• Almost always their adventures and problems occur in the community college or

more specifically their Study room in which they sit at the same table in the same

seats.

• However they will have variations of episodes in which the school will completely

change such as their series finally paintball episodes which reference „Die Hard‟

to the „Western‟ stereotype and „Star wars.‟

• They often try not to keep the story the same as their lessons will vary to the

normal lessons such as „Spanish 101‟ to the History of Ice Cream.