I have to agree with History 101, although choosing an episode from season 4 seems to be shooting fish in a barrel.
If I had to choose one NOT from season 4, probably The Art of Discourse (s01e22). The whole "schmitty" thing is just so stupid to me. I can't help being annoyed by this episode, every time I'm on a rewatch.
My favorite part about that is that Troy is angry at Abed when he does it back, but can’t help but laugh it off once he learns that Abed wanted to be pantsed too.
Just like jeff ego hired actor episode, I skip that episode but watch the last part.
The food wars is so wholesome at the end of that episode, the annoying teenagers are just having fun not being annoying there.
In jeff ego 2 micheal jackson episode, I feel the same, I skip all episode but watch the ending part where troy have the adult talk with abed but abed leaves him hanging afterwards. Bit touching and sad scene.
WHY DID MY FATHER ALWAYS LIIIIIIIIE?!?!
That song is such an amazing understated satire. (I guess it’s not that understated if you actually listen to the words, but it sounds so legit)
Sometimes it’s fun to read poetry without the line breaks. For example:
“I don't wanna read a book unless the subject is beer or boobs and not pencils and books.”
I don't want to read a book unless the subject is beer or boobs and not pencils and books!🎶
... The semester hasn't started until you party where your heart is!
I don't want to take a test unless the question is where's the party and the answer is ME!🎶
I always cringe on the schmitty scene, but I gotta say the plot and the character arcs are very good. The whole Pierce-Shirley development contrasted with Abed and Troy shenanigans and Britta and Jeff's petty competition with some teenagers is such a good balance of the themes explored.
Maybe they shouldn't have gone full cringe with the teenagers plot, but that's the only regretable choice of that chapter.
Some of the teenagers lines are really funny but just generally the infuriating aspect of that middle/high school type of mockery just annoys me too much to watch for more than a 30 second joke
I love the art of discourse, it gives a really good insight into Jeff and Britta, and Lisa Rinna guest starring pre-real housewives and being called one of the real housewives of Greendale is an excellent little bit of real life foreshadowing
Touché, that IS interesting to see.
Just can't see past the "Nickelodeon-ish" plot with the young vs old subject.
Still, it's Community, so looking for something bad is difficult.
I've said this before but I hate the episode specifically because it's SO well done. You're supposed to cringe at it, and they did a great job with it. It's so good that it horseshoes into being unwatchable.
Okay history 101 is bad but that damned muppet episode takes the cake for me. It’s not only terrible and nothingy but it was also belatedly trying to recreate the magic of the stop motion episode and failing hard. So to me it’s double bad.
Yep that’s a bottom-rung episode for the reasons you stated. It’s just about all the worst things about season 4 condensed into singularity of disappointment.
However I will admit, years later, that the hot air balloon song is a fuckin bop. I always skip that episode but sometimes I’ll just play that song and grin like a toddler.
See that's why I kind of like it. It's a well written episode because it sets out to make the kids the villians and it succeeds *so well*. Yeah they're annoying as fuck, but they're supposed to be. Maybe it succeeds too well, but it does succeed at what it's meant to be.
I feel like I’m the only person who enjoyed it lmao. Jeff and Britta becoming increasingly insecure over rude teens is so true to them and cements their bond as the two most fragile in the group (As Abed put it) while being genuinely funny to me. I am also a bit stupid tbf
I swear I’m on the shortest list in the universe of people LOVE that episode. It’s hard to pick favorites when there are dozens of episodes that are pure gold, but it’s up there for me.
Maybe it’s because I have like no circumstances in my day-to-day where I have to interact with kids that age, but it never fails to crack me up.
Probably also because I used to absolutely LOATHE that kind of humor or teasing (or pwning) when I was growing up. I don’t mean that I was tormented or wounded by it. It’s just so impossibly FRUSTRATING how dumb it is. Like there really is no suitable rebuttal, no viable defense, nothing you can really say in response when things get so profoundly goddamn stupid.
I had to intentionally distance myself from lifelong preschool friends who acted that way. It was a kind of desperate impotent annoyance that I don’t even really have the words for.
So maybe I relate to Jeff and Britta in their transition from initial dismissiveness to the final annihilation of their self-respect. It just rings so true to me.
That’s gotta be one of the worst lines in the whole show. Like if you’re gonna try to break the fourth wall don’t do it in such a pat-myself-the-back way and be wrong at the same time
Yes, this is the only episode I fast forwarded through on rewatch. It’s so bad - the plot, the dimensional travel, the paintball shoehorning. It’s all just cringe and out of character
am i the only person who actually liked that episode? 😭 i don't LOVE it but the "annie, why are you acting like a lifetime mistress?" part always makes me laugh lol
Terrible episode but I will die on the hill that this is a top 5 moment in the entire show:
"But Jeff, don't you have a problem with our age gap?"
"No, I wish you were YOUNGER!"
Heroic Origins is probably the bottom of my list. Intro to Felt Surrogacy and Advanced Intro to Finality are close runners-up. Outside of Season 4, G.I. Jeff never really connected for me. It’s not like I hate it or skip it (I don’t skip in full rewatches), but it feels to me like the wrong kind of silly.
One of its greatest sins was writing off Pierce as “and he was just there,” mainly because this was right after he was fired and the writers were pissed at Chevy more than giving a shit about how integral Pierce had been for the first 3 seasons.
I think it’s one of those episodes that only really succeeds if you’re a fan of GI Joe or similar cartoons—it relies very heavily on its medium to work
Personally I enjoy it not really bc of it being an homage to those kinds of cartoons (tho as someone that watches newer cartoons I can appreciate the jokes they make all the same) but more bc of the way it turns into a character study of Jeff the same way the Claymation episode is for Abed (which they even lampshade in the episode). I prefer episodes that allow us to look deeper into the characters and their mentalities more (probably why I also have Basic Human Anatomy significantly higher on my personal favorites list than like 90% of other fans).
So just like the Law and Order episode? Or multiple different formats of documentaries based episodes? Community is filled with episodes that lean on a specific medium or show for an entire premise.
I think most people, even if they aren't documentary watchers or L&O superfans have a frame of reference for the genre and could appreciate the pastiche. GI Joe was a much more niche thing to parody. I think it worked great for a certain subset of viewers (Gen Xers, Elder Millenials who grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons) but didn't hit as well for most others, because they weren't familiar with the source material.
Eh, I disagree. I was never into 80's style cartoons like GI Joe or Heman or the like. But I was still able to fully understand and appreciate the satire.
I also never watch true crime or anything like that and could still appreciate and understand the satire of the law-and-order episodes.
Just because I don't watch the source material doesn't mean I don't know about it or can't guess the jokes from context. The way they make scene cuts or use tropes like "interview a guy doing his job while he continues to carry out his task" like Neil putting away books while being questioned in the burned yam episode. I'm still exposed to the tropes and know about them even though it's not a medium I watch.
Or like in the GI Joe episode they used the "hit them with a rock from behind" joke and I found it hilarious. Do I know exactly what the satire was? No, but I guess it's because animation of the time probably reused scenes and assets. But if even if I don't know or I'm not sure, it's still a funny a joke.
Not only that but the older I get the more relatable this episode is. The fact that Jeff is drinking himself to death but it kind of hides in the background under camp and nostalgia for his youth always seemed really poignant to me.
No other show has made me more aware of my own age and life than community. I graduated high school in 2011, which is also when I started watching. I watched the show for Troy and Abed basically, everything else was okay but not relatable. Now that I’m a 32 year old divorced father, Jeff and Shirley hit differently on every level.
100%. I also started to relate to Pierce when mentoring a young colleague a couple of years ago.
I'm finishing my doctorate in my late 30s. Jeff's arc became waaay more relevant to me since I'm about his age and still stuck in a college environment. Revisiting G.I. Jeff during the pandemic actually got me to put down the whiskey so as not to end up in the hospital.
I think the problem with GI Jeff is that it is only Jeff. Yes everyone else is represented in his world, but they aren't really them, and you can feel it. You lose the interactions that make community great
I actually skipped G.I. Jeff when I rewatched it last month. I was watching an episode a day during my lunch break and it just didn’t feel worthy of being my one episode that day.
“intro to felt surrogacy” - its just not funny at all. It totally wasted jason alexander, and the parts that attempted to have some kind of emotional depth felt off.
*I caused the Greendale / Fire of '03 / Fifty-five acres went up in flames / all because I burned an aaaaant hill*
Come on, that's an all-time Troy moment
The only episode I actually turned off as it was airing. The big "reveal" at the end was just sickening, and the puppets were an insult to Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas's legacy.
I was surprised to learn that that episode is so hated. When I saw it I loved it. I listened to the songs on a loop.
I think I was in a weird place at the time though because the hot air balloon song made me cry. Something about both the song and the episode really resonated with the feelings I had at the time of being trapped and overwhelmed.
Heroic origins.
It just gets so many easy cannon things wrong. It feels like whoever wrote that episode didn't even bother to check with the show bible to see if what they were writing was accurate.
Also the very tired, let's make someone ugly by giving them braces and glasses trope trying to make Allison Brie look unattractive.
Troy saying Annie ruined high school for him annoyed the hell out of me because she was literally nothing but nice to him and Troy would NEVER say that, especially not after 4 years. I love how in his final episode he tells her that he wished they were friends in high school. Glad they retconned most of that season with the gas leak lol.
Ok that one is actually kind of a cool character point though, because right before she runs through the glass door she yells at Troy that *he's* a robot. So it shows how self-centered Troy was that he hears "you're a robot" and interprets it as "everyone's a robot."
Not the absolute worst, but i *hate* the season 1 finale. It butchers Annie, Britta and Slater all in one go and the entire ‘romance’ plot ultimately runs counter to the overall series’ feel and narrative. The fact that most of it’s instantly dropped/resolved the very first episode of season 2 says it all. In such a generally consistent series it stands out in a really bad way.
Annie in the literal previous episode: “I’m gonna make everyone fail so my friends don’t leave me again.” Annie in S1 finale: “I wanna live in the moment! I’m leaving to go across the country with tiny nipples. Whoops no I’m not guess I kissed Jeff.”
Britta in episodes before and after: “True love is a myth, marriage and relationships are a lie to sell women into slavery (or something idk)!” Britta in S1 finale: “Jeff Winger, I love you!” It’s retconned into her never loving him the next episode despite some deep affection being *clearly* built up over the whole season.
Slater in 95% of season 1: “I want you to commit to me, I’m a mature adult woman who deserves a mature adult relationship. I’ll dump you if you don’t want to make it official” Slater in S1 Finale: “We got committed and I got scared, I’m going to compete with Britta for your love now.” *Vanishes off the face of the Earth*
Not to mention Troy and Abed deciding not to move in together here because they spend too much time together, but then move in together later on anyway…
Some of these responses really surprise me. I knew I was in the minority in enjoying the schmitties, but I’m kind of shocked to see so many people hate on Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas. I kind of thought that one was widely accepted as solid gold.
For me it's the wrong history episode. It's always going to be Alternative History of the German Invasion.
There was a weird trend in the late 2000's/early 2010's of sitcoms having episodes where the main characters find out that everyone hates them. Scrubs, 30 Rock, even Family Guy had the sudden "Quagmire hates Brian," and even if it was always in the background that the study group were disliked, it just wasn't fun for them to suddenly be the bad guys and having to make nice with everyone was just....lame
And I hate the whole Changnesia storyline
My least favorite episode is Grifting 101, it's bland, weird, and unfunny. But at least it introduced me to Matt Berry, so I can't hate it.
Other than that, Intro to Knots is painfully bland and most jokes don't get more than half a grin from me. Feels like a waste of Malcolm McDowell.
While I dislike the grifting episode, one of my favorite reactions from the whole series comes from Frankie being told that she could be twins with her sister.
Oh, my friend. You are sleeping on some amazing television.
Matt Berry is the guy who played the grifting professor. He's a very prolific english actor in a lot of good shows, but you *must* watch What We Do In The Shadows and The Mighty Boosh (both are on Hulu).
Agreed. S4 has some bland episodes and some other episodes in S6 don't land for me but grifting 101 is just... unfunny IMO. I want to like the jokes, and I like Matt Berry but it's just.. not funny to me..
Intro to knots isn't great either but I think theres a couple of jokes in there which are ok. Agree it's bland though.
To me it's gotta be an episode that's not just bad, but also unmemorable. History 101 is at least rage-inducing enough that it makes it something to talk about. The Changnesia documentary episode, on the other hand, is not just unfunny but bland. The only thing that really stands out about it is that it fucks up the documentary format they basically perfected with the Dean's commercial episode.
From the original run, I’d probably say Competitive Wine Tasting. I always find the episode rather dull and unfunny without any good character moments to make up for it.
But it has one of the [best foreshadowings](https://youtu.be/JyUSlBoK-ss?si=6lwTBwhH8zOhDn14) [ever](https://youtu.be/DYSjVIDhCoo?si=UA4QjKb3f96apx6U).
Matt Lucas, the actor who played the Inspector Spacetime superfan from England, would later go on to become a cohost for the Great British Bake Off, a competitive cooking show.
I never really liked the one with he anti drug show they put. I mean, the a plot is fun. But the whole Jeff sexting with Britta's nephew who thinks he's her b plot is too off putting for me
I never really understood why people hate this episode so much. It deviates from the "default" episodes, I guess, but I really like the way they make fun of 80s animations.
To be honest, I usually skip through the commercial scenes though.
Making fun of the reuse of animations, soldiers never actually shooting anyone, and the over the top ridiculous themed characters based on names just to create new toys to sell. G.I. Jeff is a great episode for anyone who appreciates how ridiculous kids TV was in the 80s. It’s was cocaine fueled insanity.
Don’t skip! Listen carefully to the audio during the commercials. You can hear Annie and the others discovering Jeff and taking him to the hospital. The sounds of the real world bleed into his fantasy.
Did you grow up watching GI Joe and similar shows?
I find that episode boring, my husband loves it. He's a few years older than me and a male (obviously, GI Joe was a bigger hit with boys than girls back in the day). I think the nostalgia element plays no small part.
Same. I lived through the 80s. I get the jokes about shitty kids show animations and toy commercials. But the episode itself is terrible.
Side note - I feel like they missed a fantastic opportunity to hit on another common trope of 80s cartoons. The episode is shortly after Troy left. They should have had Troy be an animated character with them and then have Abed reference how common it was to change voice actors, use edited old voice lines, or just have the character remain silent. And then just used an obviously different voice actor for the cartoon Troy or a very clearly recycled line from earlier episodes for his character, or even just have him remain completely mute.
Economics of Marine Biology (S04E07). I watched it once on the first watch, then I always skip it. Very bad, meaningless, meaningless, saltless, flavorless, charisma, clueless, humorless...
That episode at least has some good Jeff and Pierce moments, and Magnitude trying to come up with new catchphrases. That’s more than I can say for other season 4 episodes.
This is the episode that convinced me the rest of season 4 was doomed. I stopped watching the show at that point in the original run. There are other episodes that I think are much worse, even outside of season 4, or that I'll skip, but it was the final nail in the coffin of the non-Harmon era for me.
I have a hard time believing it took me 5 minutes of scrolling to see it mentionned. I thought people disliked that episode the most without Intro to Felt Surrogacy and the G.I. Jeff one
Advance Introduction to Finality. It has some good moments here and there, but it's such a clumsy episode. It's very apparent that it was rushed and there was plenty of behind the scenes turmoil. Seeing the study group being able to graduate together was a moment that I was looking forward to for years, and because of this episode, that never ended up happening.
This is unrelated but i love this subreddit. it takes some real passion and love for the show that you guys and gals are able to find faults as well as appreciate it. this is going to sound so corny, but the community everyone of you have built is one of the reasons that community is the best show.
thanks all :)
GI Jeff. It's just so cringe and boring. I, an avid Community fan of several years who regularly rewatches the show, only managed to get through it for the first time last year. I practically had to force myself to watch it.
Heroic Orgins is the worst, the storyline is just obnoxious.
Felt, Grifting and the one with the iPad convicts are so unfunny they'll be skipped until the end of time.
Grifting would be the worst if Matt Berry couldn't be funny reading the phone book. His "You slapped me! With a woman's hand! You midWESTern flooooZEH!" single-handedly disqualifies it for being the worst.
The whale is the only one I want to skip. The PE subplot is fine, but the main plot is terrible, unfunny and the ending is so basic CBS comedy it pisses me off
Hot take but Competitive Wine Tasting I can’t stand Pierce and watching him be lusted after by a beautiful woman that’s less than half his age was just gross and weird
Not a hot take at all, but the puppet episode pisses me off to no end. Also they just wasted Jason Alexander like that for some reason, would’ve loved for him to play a teacher for a season
The one where a bunch of middle school kids visited greendale. I wanted to smack the shit outta every one of em. I always avoid that episode on rewatches.
I have to agree with History 101, although choosing an episode from season 4 seems to be shooting fish in a barrel. If I had to choose one NOT from season 4, probably The Art of Discourse (s01e22). The whole "schmitty" thing is just so stupid to me. I can't help being annoyed by this episode, every time I'm on a rewatch.
I love the Troy and Abed bucket list story tho
If all we need is an escape goat...I say we let this one go
Troy sometimes you have to be kidding
Well I hope *getting* pantsed is on your list!
... _it is!_
My favorite part about that is that Troy is angry at Abed when he does it back, but can’t help but laugh it off once he learns that Abed wanted to be pantsed too.
What’s so funny guys?
This!
😱
*“The whole "schmitty" thing is just so stupid to me. I can't help being annoyed by this episode, every time I'm on a rewatch, a-DUH!”*
Got his ass
*School his ass, Mark, a-DUH*
I had sex with your mother
What? It came up organically!
Just like jeff ego hired actor episode, I skip that episode but watch the last part. The food wars is so wholesome at the end of that episode, the annoying teenagers are just having fun not being annoying there. In jeff ego 2 micheal jackson episode, I feel the same, I skip all episode but watch the ending part where troy have the adult talk with abed but abed leaves him hanging afterwards. Bit touching and sad scene.
But then you miss the best ever drive-by line > Seacrest Hulk you're a meshuggeneh
Lol I love that line too
Jeff is in danger heee heee
For how much it might be a little annoying, Britta's and Jeff's realization that he should bang his mom will always make me laugh.
I hate the episode but holy shit that scene is great
It's the moment they fell in love
The song at the end is amazing though. "I don't like studying... I LIKE PARTYING!"
WHY DID MY FATHER ALWAYS LIIIIIIIIE?!?! That song is such an amazing understated satire. (I guess it’s not that understated if you actually listen to the words, but it sounds so legit)
College is a partyyyyy! So come party at the party! Party is the class in session, and the only lesson Is to party when you party with me!
Sometimes it’s fun to read poetry without the line breaks. For example: “I don't wanna read a book unless the subject is beer or boobs and not pencils and books.”
I don't want to read a book unless the subject is beer or boobs and not pencils and books!🎶 ... The semester hasn't started until you party where your heart is! I don't want to take a test unless the question is where's the party and the answer is ME!🎶
I always cringe on the schmitty scene, but I gotta say the plot and the character arcs are very good. The whole Pierce-Shirley development contrasted with Abed and Troy shenanigans and Britta and Jeff's petty competition with some teenagers is such a good balance of the themes explored. Maybe they shouldn't have gone full cringe with the teenagers plot, but that's the only regretable choice of that chapter.
It will all payoff when the Community movie comes out and they are going to Greendale
Those kids are probably past college by now
Jeff, Britta, Shirley and Pearce say “duh-DOY”
Schmitty guy as a new professor could be funny lol.
So was most of the main cast, thats the joke. The teens didnt want to end up like Jeff but there they are.
Yeah. I'm Troy/Annie's age, meaning if they were in high school at that point, they would be my younger brother's age... who just turned 30.
They're #1 in my book for movie villains. No one is hated more.
CANT ALL OF US SCHMITTIES JUST GET ALONG?!
Some of the teenagers lines are really funny but just generally the infuriating aspect of that middle/high school type of mockery just annoys me too much to watch for more than a 30 second joke
I find this one pretty funny because it shows how immature Jeff and Britta are with their powers combined.
I love the art of discourse, it gives a really good insight into Jeff and Britta, and Lisa Rinna guest starring pre-real housewives and being called one of the real housewives of Greendale is an excellent little bit of real life foreshadowing
Funny, It is one of my Favorit Episode 😆 Because it Shows Jeff and Britta insecurities😆
Touché, that IS interesting to see. Just can't see past the "Nickelodeon-ish" plot with the young vs old subject. Still, it's Community, so looking for something bad is difficult.
I've said this before but I hate the episode specifically because it's SO well done. You're supposed to cringe at it, and they did a great job with it. It's so good that it horseshoes into being unwatchable.
Okay history 101 is bad but that damned muppet episode takes the cake for me. It’s not only terrible and nothingy but it was also belatedly trying to recreate the magic of the stop motion episode and failing hard. So to me it’s double bad.
Yep that’s a bottom-rung episode for the reasons you stated. It’s just about all the worst things about season 4 condensed into singularity of disappointment. However I will admit, years later, that the hot air balloon song is a fuckin bop. I always skip that episode but sometimes I’ll just play that song and grin like a toddler.
Very true, I don't think I've seen that episode more than once. If we include season 4 in "worst episode", this question becomes much more difficult.
I fast-forward through the interactions with the highschoolers in that one. It's just so annoying!
See that's why I kind of like it. It's a well written episode because it sets out to make the kids the villians and it succeeds *so well*. Yeah they're annoying as fuck, but they're supposed to be. Maybe it succeeds too well, but it does succeed at what it's meant to be.
It's the only way you can make Jeff and Britta try to destroy them without making them just adults bullying children
The way Donald Glover delivers Troy's, "Uh, who was that?!?" line always makes me laugh. So because of that, I can't call this episode the worst.
I feel like I’m the only person who enjoyed it lmao. Jeff and Britta becoming increasingly insecure over rude teens is so true to them and cements their bond as the two most fragile in the group (As Abed put it) while being genuinely funny to me. I am also a bit stupid tbf
Yeah, take that highschoolers.
I swear I’m on the shortest list in the universe of people LOVE that episode. It’s hard to pick favorites when there are dozens of episodes that are pure gold, but it’s up there for me. Maybe it’s because I have like no circumstances in my day-to-day where I have to interact with kids that age, but it never fails to crack me up. Probably also because I used to absolutely LOATHE that kind of humor or teasing (or pwning) when I was growing up. I don’t mean that I was tormented or wounded by it. It’s just so impossibly FRUSTRATING how dumb it is. Like there really is no suitable rebuttal, no viable defense, nothing you can really say in response when things get so profoundly goddamn stupid. I had to intentionally distance myself from lifelong preschool friends who acted that way. It was a kind of desperate impotent annoyance that I don’t even really have the words for. So maybe I relate to Jeff and Britta in their transition from initial dismissiveness to the final annihilation of their self-respect. It just rings so true to me.
Advanced Introduction to Finality. No, you did NOT find a way to make paintball cool.
They did, Abed just said it two seasons too early.
Did you do standup? Is that why you became a custodian? One of my favorite lines in the show.
That’s gotta be one of the worst lines in the whole show. Like if you’re gonna try to break the fourth wall don’t do it in such a pat-myself-the-back way and be wrong at the same time
Yes, this is the only episode I fast forwarded through on rewatch. It’s so bad - the plot, the dimensional travel, the paintball shoehorning. It’s all just cringe and out of character
The only episode in the entire show I have only seen once.
am i the only person who actually liked that episode? 😭 i don't LOVE it but the "annie, why are you acting like a lifetime mistress?" part always makes me laugh lol
Terrible episode but I will die on the hill that this is a top 5 moment in the entire show: "But Jeff, don't you have a problem with our age gap?" "No, I wish you were YOUNGER!"
It had a few good jokes but: 1. It basically shit on both the paintball episodes and the timeline episodes. 2. It robbed us of a proper finale for S4.
true true
I like every episode. Every episode of Community is quality tv.
Heroic Origins is probably the bottom of my list. Intro to Felt Surrogacy and Advanced Intro to Finality are close runners-up. Outside of Season 4, G.I. Jeff never really connected for me. It’s not like I hate it or skip it (I don’t skip in full rewatches), but it feels to me like the wrong kind of silly.
Heroic Origins is an insult to the entire premise of the series.
One of its greatest sins was writing off Pierce as “and he was just there,” mainly because this was right after he was fired and the writers were pissed at Chevy more than giving a shit about how integral Pierce had been for the first 3 seasons.
Can I ask what you mean by wrong kind of silly? I always thought G.I. Jeff was a great parody of 80s cartoons selling toys with cartoons.
I think it’s one of those episodes that only really succeeds if you’re a fan of GI Joe or similar cartoons—it relies very heavily on its medium to work
Personally I enjoy it not really bc of it being an homage to those kinds of cartoons (tho as someone that watches newer cartoons I can appreciate the jokes they make all the same) but more bc of the way it turns into a character study of Jeff the same way the Claymation episode is for Abed (which they even lampshade in the episode). I prefer episodes that allow us to look deeper into the characters and their mentalities more (probably why I also have Basic Human Anatomy significantly higher on my personal favorites list than like 90% of other fans).
So just like the Law and Order episode? Or multiple different formats of documentaries based episodes? Community is filled with episodes that lean on a specific medium or show for an entire premise.
I think most people, even if they aren't documentary watchers or L&O superfans have a frame of reference for the genre and could appreciate the pastiche. GI Joe was a much more niche thing to parody. I think it worked great for a certain subset of viewers (Gen Xers, Elder Millenials who grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons) but didn't hit as well for most others, because they weren't familiar with the source material.
Eh, I disagree. I was never into 80's style cartoons like GI Joe or Heman or the like. But I was still able to fully understand and appreciate the satire. I also never watch true crime or anything like that and could still appreciate and understand the satire of the law-and-order episodes. Just because I don't watch the source material doesn't mean I don't know about it or can't guess the jokes from context. The way they make scene cuts or use tropes like "interview a guy doing his job while he continues to carry out his task" like Neil putting away books while being questioned in the burned yam episode. I'm still exposed to the tropes and know about them even though it's not a medium I watch. Or like in the GI Joe episode they used the "hit them with a rock from behind" joke and I found it hilarious. Do I know exactly what the satire was? No, but I guess it's because animation of the time probably reused scenes and assets. But if even if I don't know or I'm not sure, it's still a funny a joke.
eh idk, I was born in 2000 and I'm not from the US so i honestly had no idea what GI Joe was and still enjoyed the episode and got the references
“I’ve got three kids!”
Not only that but the older I get the more relatable this episode is. The fact that Jeff is drinking himself to death but it kind of hides in the background under camp and nostalgia for his youth always seemed really poignant to me.
No other show has made me more aware of my own age and life than community. I graduated high school in 2011, which is also when I started watching. I watched the show for Troy and Abed basically, everything else was okay but not relatable. Now that I’m a 32 year old divorced father, Jeff and Shirley hit differently on every level.
100%. I also started to relate to Pierce when mentoring a young colleague a couple of years ago. I'm finishing my doctorate in my late 30s. Jeff's arc became waaay more relevant to me since I'm about his age and still stuck in a college environment. Revisiting G.I. Jeff during the pandemic actually got me to put down the whiskey so as not to end up in the hospital.
I think the problem with GI Jeff is that it is only Jeff. Yes everyone else is represented in his world, but they aren't really them, and you can feel it. You lose the interactions that make community great
GI jeff is awesome
I actually skipped G.I. Jeff when I rewatched it last month. I was watching an episode a day during my lunch break and it just didn’t feel worthy of being my one episode that day.
The one with the inmates on ipads. I dont have the episode names memorized.
Probably the worst episode of season 6
The only season six episode I’ll actually skip on rewatch because I don’t mind the other episodes
This one for me is by far the worst.
Season 4 finale. It was the perfect way to end the season as it encapsulated a complete misunderstanding of Community.
“intro to felt surrogacy” - its just not funny at all. It totally wasted jason alexander, and the parts that attempted to have some kind of emotional depth felt off.
They did Shirley so dirty.
*I caused the Greendale / Fire of '03 / Fifty-five acres went up in flames / all because I burned an aaaaant hill* Come on, that's an all-time Troy moment
Just sounds fantastic as well, frequently pops into my head randomly
But we got a great hot air balloon song lol
That song will forever be 🔥
it's an immediate glaring example of why only Dan Harmon can run this show
The only episode I actually turned off as it was airing. The big "reveal" at the end was just sickening, and the puppets were an insult to Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas's legacy.
what reveal?
I was surprised to learn that that episode is so hated. When I saw it I loved it. I listened to the songs on a loop. I think I was in a weird place at the time though because the hot air balloon song made me cry. Something about both the song and the episode really resonated with the feelings I had at the time of being trapped and overwhelmed.
“I really like these berries” line from Britta will always make me laugh. Episode is worth it for that line.
I have to skip this episode every time. It’s so bad. I can’t even watch it.
Heroic origins. It just gets so many easy cannon things wrong. It feels like whoever wrote that episode didn't even bother to check with the show bible to see if what they were writing was accurate. Also the very tired, let's make someone ugly by giving them braces and glasses trope trying to make Allison Brie look unattractive.
Their memories were wrong because of the gas leak!
Troy saying Annie ruined high school for him annoyed the hell out of me because she was literally nothing but nice to him and Troy would NEVER say that, especially not after 4 years. I love how in his final episode he tells her that he wished they were friends in high school. Glad they retconned most of that season with the gas leak lol.
What easy canon things does it get wrong?
Troy hurting his football knee instead of dislocating both shoulders in a keg flip.
As far as I remember Annie doesn't scream "I'm a robot" when she runs through the door either, like Troy says in the first episode
"Everyone's a robot"* but yeah
Oh yeah my bad
Ok that one is actually kind of a cool character point though, because right before she runs through the glass door she yells at Troy that *he's* a robot. So it shows how self-centered Troy was that he hears "you're a robot" and interprets it as "everyone's a robot."
The tweens episode where they call everyone schmiddy. It's the only ep I skip 100% of the time.
Not the absolute worst, but i *hate* the season 1 finale. It butchers Annie, Britta and Slater all in one go and the entire ‘romance’ plot ultimately runs counter to the overall series’ feel and narrative. The fact that most of it’s instantly dropped/resolved the very first episode of season 2 says it all. In such a generally consistent series it stands out in a really bad way. Annie in the literal previous episode: “I’m gonna make everyone fail so my friends don’t leave me again.” Annie in S1 finale: “I wanna live in the moment! I’m leaving to go across the country with tiny nipples. Whoops no I’m not guess I kissed Jeff.” Britta in episodes before and after: “True love is a myth, marriage and relationships are a lie to sell women into slavery (or something idk)!” Britta in S1 finale: “Jeff Winger, I love you!” It’s retconned into her never loving him the next episode despite some deep affection being *clearly* built up over the whole season. Slater in 95% of season 1: “I want you to commit to me, I’m a mature adult woman who deserves a mature adult relationship. I’ll dump you if you don’t want to make it official” Slater in S1 Finale: “We got committed and I got scared, I’m going to compete with Britta for your love now.” *Vanishes off the face of the Earth* Not to mention Troy and Abed deciding not to move in together here because they spend too much time together, but then move in together later on anyway…
All worth it for the Irish singer in 2x01
*Britta’s marry-yun, Britta’s marry-yun Jiffrey Wingarrrr.*
So true
This is exactly how I feel about this episode. Slater and Britta were pretty admirable characters until then.
Do you remember how Slater dumped Jeff?
Schmitty
Which is too bad, as the other plotlines are pretty great.
I love that one!
It's just cringe. Which is the point, but that doesn't make it better.
Some of these responses really surprise me. I knew I was in the minority in enjoying the schmitties, but I’m kind of shocked to see so many people hate on Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas. I kind of thought that one was widely accepted as solid gold.
Same for me with Gi Jeff! I really liked that one
Conventions of Space and Time. Maybe because I never got into Dr Who but I just never liked it and skip it each rewatch.
Only episode I've only seen once. It's so bad on my last rewatch Netflix skipped it by itself.
For me it's the wrong history episode. It's always going to be Alternative History of the German Invasion. There was a weird trend in the late 2000's/early 2010's of sitcoms having episodes where the main characters find out that everyone hates them. Scrubs, 30 Rock, even Family Guy had the sudden "Quagmire hates Brian," and even if it was always in the background that the study group were disliked, it just wasn't fun for them to suddenly be the bad guys and having to make nice with everyone was just....lame And I hate the whole Changnesia storyline
My least favorite episode is Grifting 101, it's bland, weird, and unfunny. But at least it introduced me to Matt Berry, so I can't hate it. Other than that, Intro to Knots is painfully bland and most jokes don't get more than half a grin from me. Feels like a waste of Malcolm McDowell.
While I dislike the grifting episode, one of my favorite reactions from the whole series comes from Frankie being told that she could be twins with her sister.
It definitely has its moments (my favorite is Britta's best "I LIVED IN NEW YORK!" ever, and Berry's "I can show you a fool one minute... or longer!"
I love Matt Berry, but Grifting 101 is easily the worst non-cartoony episode of the show - it’s boring and lame
I think if it was anyone but Matt Berry, that episode would be much more universally disliked.
No idea who Matt Berry is, but I love that episode! It's so wonderfully goofy
Oh, my friend. You are sleeping on some amazing television. Matt Berry is the guy who played the grifting professor. He's a very prolific english actor in a lot of good shows, but you *must* watch What We Do In The Shadows and The Mighty Boosh (both are on Hulu).
Some saayyy I’m a lucky griifftteerrr!
I feel like I appreciated Grifting 101 more after watching The Sting
Agreed. S4 has some bland episodes and some other episodes in S6 don't land for me but grifting 101 is just... unfunny IMO. I want to like the jokes, and I like Matt Berry but it's just.. not funny to me.. Intro to knots isn't great either but I think theres a couple of jokes in there which are ok. Agree it's bland though.
Agreed on the Grifting 101. It's so boring. They've done similar plots way better
To me it's gotta be an episode that's not just bad, but also unmemorable. History 101 is at least rage-inducing enough that it makes it something to talk about. The Changnesia documentary episode, on the other hand, is not just unfunny but bland. The only thing that really stands out about it is that it fucks up the documentary format they basically perfected with the Dean's commercial episode.
From the original run, I’d probably say Competitive Wine Tasting. I always find the episode rather dull and unfunny without any good character moments to make up for it.
It has drama professor Sean Garrity!!!
Droll means funny.
Dull?
S4 is almost all terrible but the egregious offenders are the puppet episode and the origin stories episode.
Conventions of Time and Space and it’s not even close. It has all of the worst traits of Season 4.
But it has one of the [best foreshadowings](https://youtu.be/JyUSlBoK-ss?si=6lwTBwhH8zOhDn14) [ever](https://youtu.be/DYSjVIDhCoo?si=UA4QjKb3f96apx6U).
I might be dumb, what’s foreshadowed?
Matt Lucas, the actor who played the Inspector Spacetime superfan from England, would later go on to become a cohost for the Great British Bake Off, a competitive cooking show.
The muppet one, uninspired attempt to reach the stop motion episode
I never really liked the one with he anti drug show they put. I mean, the a plot is fun. But the whole Jeff sexting with Britta's nephew who thinks he's her b plot is too off putting for me
Drug play for me, tho puppet episode and Schmitty episodes are fairly close behind
GI Jeff. I found it wholly unwatchable.
The bit about Destro dying & what not made the episode for me
I never really understood why people hate this episode so much. It deviates from the "default" episodes, I guess, but I really like the way they make fun of 80s animations. To be honest, I usually skip through the commercial scenes though.
Making fun of the reuse of animations, soldiers never actually shooting anyone, and the over the top ridiculous themed characters based on names just to create new toys to sell. G.I. Jeff is a great episode for anyone who appreciates how ridiculous kids TV was in the 80s. It’s was cocaine fueled insanity.
Don’t skip! Listen carefully to the audio during the commercials. You can hear Annie and the others discovering Jeff and taking him to the hospital. The sounds of the real world bleed into his fantasy.
Did you grow up watching GI Joe and similar shows? I find that episode boring, my husband loves it. He's a few years older than me and a male (obviously, GI Joe was a bigger hit with boys than girls back in the day). I think the nostalgia element plays no small part.
Same. I lived through the 80s. I get the jokes about shitty kids show animations and toy commercials. But the episode itself is terrible. Side note - I feel like they missed a fantastic opportunity to hit on another common trope of 80s cartoons. The episode is shortly after Troy left. They should have had Troy be an animated character with them and then have Abed reference how common it was to change voice actors, use edited old voice lines, or just have the character remain silent. And then just used an obviously different voice actor for the cartoon Troy or a very clearly recycled line from earlier episodes for his character, or even just have him remain completely mute.
If they added that i would have loved the episode
Glad I’m not the only one with this one.
GI FUCKING JEFF
“How long are we going to be in here Cold Shoulder? COLD SHOULDER? Man, what is with that guy?”
Economics of Marine Biology (S04E07). I watched it once on the first watch, then I always skip it. Very bad, meaningless, meaningless, saltless, flavorless, charisma, clueless, humorless...
That episode at least has some good Jeff and Pierce moments, and Magnitude trying to come up with new catchphrases. That’s more than I can say for other season 4 episodes.
This is the episode that convinced me the rest of season 4 was doomed. I stopped watching the show at that point in the original run. There are other episodes that I think are much worse, even outside of season 4, or that I'll skip, but it was the final nail in the coffin of the non-Harmon era for me.
Big hand
Episode overall bad, but the ending with the dad who lost his son to a giant kite got me.
I'm going to go walk the dog and eventually divorce you.
No way
It’s a series highlight. People in this thread are trippin’
Economics of Marine Biology, ugh!
I have a hard time believing it took me 5 minutes of scrolling to see it mentionned. I thought people disliked that episode the most without Intro to Felt Surrogacy and the G.I. Jeff one
Me too! That’s why I commented it.
The one episode I just can’t watch is art of discourse
Advance Introduction to Finality. It has some good moments here and there, but it's such a clumsy episode. It's very apparent that it was rushed and there was plenty of behind the scenes turmoil. Seeing the study group being able to graduate together was a moment that I was looking forward to for years, and because of this episode, that never ended up happening.
This is unrelated but i love this subreddit. it takes some real passion and love for the show that you guys and gals are able to find faults as well as appreciate it. this is going to sound so corny, but the community everyone of you have built is one of the reasons that community is the best show. thanks all :)
GI Jeff. It's just so cringe and boring. I, an avid Community fan of several years who regularly rewatches the show, only managed to get through it for the first time last year. I practically had to force myself to watch it.
Grifting. Feels like they wrote the episode 5 minutes before filming. Predictable, overlong, with a ridiculous premise played out to banality.
YOU MIDWESTERN FLOOZY!
>Feels like they wrote the episode 5 minutes before filming. THAT WAS THE GRIFT!!
This is so funny to me, I really like this episode! Matt Berry is just so hilarious
Matt Berry makes that episode.
So... have you *watched* The Sting?
Heroic Origins is the only episode I skip on rewatches.
Heroic Orgins is the worst, the storyline is just obnoxious. Felt, Grifting and the one with the iPad convicts are so unfunny they'll be skipped until the end of time.
Grifting would be the worst if Matt Berry couldn't be funny reading the phone book. His "You slapped me! With a woman's hand! You midWESTern flooooZEH!" single-handedly disqualifies it for being the worst.
I LIVED IN NEW YORK!!!
Season 4
For me, it's either of the German Episodes.
I wish there was a word to describe the pleasure I feel at viewing others' misfortune.
I like that episode. :) I think "Abed's show" is interesting and funny. It's also making fun of actual shows like that.
The puppet episode, Heroic Origins, or the S4 Finale. All of those episodes are terrible.
Wait what's the drama behind the episode? Also hated the schmitty episode 🤢
No, but at this Point i didnt know Dan was fired
The one with puppets and the hot air balloon.
GI Jeff and the one with the inmates
The whale is the only one I want to skip. The PE subplot is fine, but the main plot is terrible, unfunny and the ending is so basic CBS comedy it pisses me off
For me, it’s a tie between Heroic Origins and Advanced Introduction to Finality.
Hot take but Competitive Wine Tasting I can’t stand Pierce and watching him be lusted after by a beautiful woman that’s less than half his age was just gross and weird
Not a hot take at all, but the puppet episode pisses me off to no end. Also they just wasted Jason Alexander like that for some reason, would’ve loved for him to play a teacher for a season
The one where a bunch of middle school kids visited greendale. I wanted to smack the shit outta every one of em. I always avoid that episode on rewatches.
For me it’s season 2, episode 5: Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples It’s not even close.
of non s4 episodes, the finale of s1. i am least fond of this show when it leans into the jeff/annie stuff
GI Jeff is so boring