As an undergraduate freshman discovering Community from friends discussing it in my presence, I related to the show's first season as a first-year in college. Though I did not attend a community college, the general college/higher education experience provided an outlet for me to relate to something on television, one of my parents coming up in this world. The first time I actually watched Community, it was over the Winter break after the first semester of freshman year, and, while hanging out with some friends who were fans of the show, began to devour episodes on Hulu. Thank God for Hulu, whose users voted Community the best program on television a few years ago. I am not sure what initially struck me about the show in its comparatively tame first season (I say 'tame' in comparison to the adventures, escapades, meta-humour, and extravagant spoofs and parodies in seasons 2 and 3), but perhaps just a shared experience as college students united us. The characters are likeable and interesting (well, excluding Chevy Chase's Pierce, a racist, sexist, homophobic old man who only exists in the show because NBC wanted a big name to attract viewers), and, deliberately 'diverse' for the purposes of being "politically correct" while mocking their own internal diversity of the study group through the well-intentioned, awkward liberal racism of Dean Craig Pelton. The socially awkward Abed, assumed to have asperger's according to Jeff and Britta, reminded me of a friend of mine while also speaking to my own personality and lack of obeisance to social cues. Like Abed, I too often find it difficult to communicate with people, live through obsessive hobbies and habits, and, often face ignorant and racist assumptions. Though the actor who plays Abed is clearly Indian, his character is a half-Palestinian, half-Polish American Muslim whose actual Palestinian heritage or thoughts on America's "War on Islam" or the Israel-Palestine conflict remain hidden, perhaps to reflect mainstream network television sitcoms' tendency to avoid addressing politically 'controversial' issues.
As someone often assumed to be "Indian" or "Muslim" (as if Muslim is a race and not a religion), as well as being socially awkward (unfortunately not as popular culture savvy as Abed, who devours infinitely more television, film, and genres than I ever could), I have been recognized as an "Abed" by a friend who also loves Community. In addition to Abed and the rest of the study group, Jeff, Brita, Pierce, Shirley, the adorable Annie, and Donald Glover's Troy, and the hilarious pansexual Dean with a Dalmatian fetish (and many other fetishes and an unhealthy obsession with the handsome Jeff Winger), the world of Greendale Community College is enticing. Throughout the show's run, the campus oscillates between a world of fantasy and rather down to earth episodes focusing on more mundane material, all the while relating to the universal experiences of college students groaning and moaning over exams, procrastinating on campus with friends, discovering who they are and how they fit into this crazy thing called life, and, last but not least, becoming a family. Every sitcom is always centered on this basic nuclear unit, the family, including my other favorite program, Futurama, which uses the crew and workforce of the Professor's shipping company to establish a 'family' around a lovable group of misfits! Indeed, Community was aptly titled by Harmon, since this show is ultimately about community, friendship, and solidarity, which can take place in or outside of a college campus. Thus, Community related to my experiences as a student, socializing on campus, the search for self and self-realization, and my own idiosyncrasies and child-like worldview, encapsulated in the behavior of Troy and Abed. As the past four years of my life flowed by, I "grew up" with Community's cast as parallel experiences in the undergraduate 'experience,' eagerly awaiting each subsequent season of the program. May you live long and prosper to six seasons and a movie!
My other reason for loving Community relates to my other favorite television show, Futurama, which is essentially one long series of animated spoofs, parodies, and numerous examples of intertextuality, something Matt Groening and writers for both Futurama and The Simpsons (a show I actually grew up with, watching from my elementary school years until the end of my secondary schooling) infuse into the series for comedic effect, plots, allusions, and for establishing their fictional worlds. Moreover, Futurama, as a sci-fi parody world, often created entire episodes based on Star Trek or Star Wars and a plethora of other elements of science fiction, film, television, literature, and references beyond the world of sci-fi. Similarly, Dan Harmon's comedic vision and tenure as head of Community also relied on similar methods for sitcom success, loading up episodes with references to popular culture, film, other television shows, incorporating meta-styled humour and lines, often through Abed, who became a voice for the show's writers and Harmon at times, as well as doing spoofs of sitcom tropes and archetypes, such as bottle episodes, clip shows, and using Abed as a filter to break the fourth wall by making fun of Community itself as a sitcom. That, my friend, is genius! Perhaps it drove additional viewers away from the show in seasons 2 and 3, especially as both season premieres clearly established the direction of the show into fantastical escapades, soaring parody, and mind-boggling metafiction and dense allusions to other great television shows, such as The Wire and Breaking Bad (there's absolutely no way that the Dean's beard in season 3 is not an homage to Walter White's bad-ass beard in Breaking Bad).
This style of multi-layered meta humor, intertextuality with other elements of popular culture, ranging from Pulp Fiction to Doctor Who, spoofs of sitcom writing, and numerous parody episodes reflect the influence of previous classics in American television, such as Futurama and The Simpsons, besides the obvious Arrested Development (the influence of AD is prominent in the conspiracy theory episode of the second season wherein Annie and Dean Pelton endeavor to teach Jeff a lesson about faking a class for credits but in reality ends with numerous conspiracy crossovers and hijinks over who shot you and who teaches who a lesson). Perhaps for many viewers, this style of humor veered to far toward individual creative excess of Harmon, who was clearly indulging himself in seasons 2 and 3 of the show with episodes of clay-mation, videogames, fake clip shows (Fun Fact: the infamous "Gravity" video of Annie and Jeff is actually a parody of a fan-made video from youtube!). Nevertheless, the show has developed a cult following, largely because of the "Harmon touch" with these rather complex, densely layered allusions, intertextuality, and meta-humor, perhaps following in the path established by Arrested Development, another classic show cancelled before its time. We know some writers of Community worked on AD or were influenced by it, so following in the predecessor's footsteps through high DVD sales, a visible, cult following, and the spread of the fandom base to mainstream audiences could lead to Community's recognition as one of the greatest American sitcoms of all time.
The show does not feature the annoying traditional laugh track, explores intellectually-engaging plot developments and clever, meta-parody, and in the process, weaves the lives of a diverse cast into a real community. Therefore, Community not only challenges viewers to rethink comedy and television, but also retains elements of traditional sitcoms' focus on family, friendship and love. It's the type of college most students would love, where the Dean is close to students, lines are crossed in terms of professionalism and personal relationships, teachers and students mingle, and talented actors are given space for improvisation to further develop their characters. Undeniably, the presence of Chevy Chase's character often weakens the cohesion of the group and the show's overall strength, but even Pierce occasionally has glimpses of brilliance and plays a large role in the show's family structure, since even old, racist grandfathers or crazy uncles have a role at the study room table. It's a powerful, enlightening show that at its zenith, approaches the alleged "hysterical realism" of Zadie Smith's enchanting White Teeth: a combination of insightful, deep thoughts on the realities of life and social commentary with a deliberately overly contrived world of extreme reality-bending. Perhaps undermined by the use of "hipster racism" through Pierce's character and a few duds in the indulgences of Harmon in season 3 of Community (I am not even going to bother to include season 4, which, minus Harmon, is sub-par in comparison), Community remains one of the more racially-integrated network comedies with meaningful television moments of the promise of American democracy, integration, and, finally, comedy and acting as artistic endeavors. The cast relate to each other superbly, and the Troy-Abed friendship is adorably hilarious, as well as the blurring of fact and fiction in the innocent, naive Annie versus the sexually exuberant Alison Brie. God, I love this show (but you just have to ignore Chevy Chase most of the time and Senor Chang, except in season 1, where he was in a position of authority that was believable and amusing, versus the rest of his character's existence as a social freak struggling to join the study group). Oh, and the cross dressing pansexual Dean is always hilarious, coming on to Jeff periodically as well as his obvious pan-attractions, love for costumes, and the show's mockery of him perhaps veering toward negative, slightly offensive views of the Dean's sexuality. Oh, did I mention the lovable misfits who populate the world of Greendale? The lovable douche bag Starburns, whose name is Alex, has a great line in the first episode of season 2: "Come On, I know you and Britta did it. Isn’t the whole reason you got together with those people because you wanted to bang the blonde. Now I hear you frenched the brunette. What more could you have gotten out of that group?"
The show's numerous allusions to Cougar Town (including a scene in the latter where Abed appears in the background, sitting at a table, and the brilliant episode of season 2, "Critical Film Studies") and Doctor Who have also aroused my curiosity and fascination with perhaps later discoveries of additional television gems. The blending of fiction and reality also occurred in the intersection of social media, in this case, Twitter accounts for the fictional characters in Community's study group. This show transcends the already blurry division between fact and fiction, surpasses the limits of the sitcom medium, and has led to one of the best, in my opinion, fan communities. Ultimately, I love Community for imparting with viewers the important message that the border between fact and fiction is not nearly as clear-cut as many would like us to believe. Like all great art and fiction, Community reminds us that social realities are shaped by fiction, from our archetypal mythology and literary trends (which have carried over into television) to the very ideas, theories, and stories constructed over the last several thousand years that have given meaning to categories of social identity, function, and, in the end, contributes as much as "so-called reality" towards constructing humanity's relations with itself and the world around us. Through it all, Community carries over to the non-animated, real-time format, elements of the genius of Futurama with significant boosts of metafiction and an interesting college experience pertaining to finding community. As Abed would say, "Cool. Cool, cool, cool."
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