If you haven’t binged classic sitcom Community yet, you really should. A found family show about a study group of deeply flawed yet (mostly) lovable misfits who found each other at a community college, Community lovingly subverts and parodies classic film and tv tropes from every genre.
A weird, clever, and very funny show, (though admittedly with some deeply cringe moments thrown in there) Community is one of those series I’ll watch over and over again (the first four seasons, anyway). While it was hard to decide which episodes deserved to be on the top ten list, I’ve narrowed it down to these, ranked from tenth runner-up to the absolute winner.
10. “Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design” (season 2, episode 9)
Jeff (Joel McHale) invents a fake class on conspiracy theories in an attempt to scam credits, only to get drawn into an increasingly weird series of events along with Annie (Alison Brie) and the Dean (Jim Rash), by the end of which no-one is really sure what’s going on anymore. Meanwhile, Abed (Danny Pudi) and Troy (Donald Glover) build a blanket fort in their dorm that other students start adding to until it begins to take over the entire campus. The Jeff plot is classic Community absurdism, but what makes this episode for me is that it’s the beginning of the blanket fort storylines, one of my favorite recurring Community bits.
9. “Comparative Religion” (season 1, episode 12)
Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) decides to throw a Christmas party for the study group and is shocked, and concerned for their souls, when she finds out none of them are Christians. Then, Jeff agrees to a fistfight with a man who was harassing Abed, and Shirley lays down an ultimatum: If he goes through with the fight, he can’t come to her party. However, this is the study group, so what actually ends up happening is the entire lot of them, including Shirley, join Jeff for a Christmas-themed brawl with the bully and his gang in the Greendale parking lot. Highlights include someone getting whacked with a giant candy cane and Shirley finally getting to unleash some of her entirely justified rage.
8. “Intro to Felt Surrogacy” (season 4, episode 9)
The study group is refusing to talk to each other, so what is Dean Pelton’s solution? Puppets. Why does he have an muppet-style study group full of puppets ready to go? Don’t ask questions. The episode is almost entirely filmed using the puppets in place of the cast members, there’s a hot air balloon ride, embarrassing drug-fueled confessions, and the puppets sing about their deepest, darkest shames. Do I like Britta’s continued devolution into a ridiculous airhead from smart and competent activist? No, I do not, which is why it’s so far down on the list, but if you overlook that part, it’s a great episode.
7. “Modern Warfare” (season 1, episode 23)
This is the first paintball episode, a.k.a. the beginning of something truly magical. It’s the end of term, and the Dean organizes what should be a friendly game of paintball assassin, but makes the terrible mistake of far too valuable a prize: priority registration for classes next semester. Everyone on campus goes absolutely feral trying to win, and Jeff then walks into the middle of all this completely unaware, as he was taking a nap in his car when the prize was announced. What follows is a truly fun series of sci-fi and action movie pastiches as the study group members team up to ensure one of them takes home the prize, and the school gets covered in paint.
6. “Paranormal Parentage” (season 4, episode 2)
As the study group gets ready to go to a party that Pierce (Chevy Chase) hasn’t been invited to, he calls them up, asking for help as he’s apparently locked himself in his own panic room and needs them to come and let him out. The group is convinced he’s just being attention seeking, especially when he reveals he locked himself in after seeing his father’s ghost, but they end up going to rescue him anyway, where things get increasingly spooky.
5. “Pillows and Blankets” (season 3, episode 14)
A mockumentary in the style of Ken Burns’ Civil War, Pillows and Blankets slowly reveals how the schism between Troy’s Blanketsburg and Abed’s Pillowtown began. The two bed linen-based fortifications have expanded to take over the Greendale campus and, with no space left for either encampment to encroach into, they’re now in a standoff, demanding the other take theirs down so theirs can grow and take the Guinness world record of biggest pillow/blanket fort in the world. Jeff attempts to mediate, but things quickly devolve into an all out war between the Blanketsburghians and Pillowtownians.
4. “Epidemiology” (season 2, episode 6)
It’s a zombie episode! Narrated by George Takei! Epidemiology takes place over the Halloween party from hell, a campus party catered by expired military rations, courtesy of the Dean, that seem to be the source for a strange zombie-like illness that rapidly spreads through the partygoers. With U.S. special operations quarantining the school, the study group races to find a cure while bad decisions and classic zombie movie tropes, like a victim hiding their bite, abound.
3. “App Development and Condiments” (season 5, episode 8)
One of the few good episodes after the end of season 4, “App Development and Condiments” sees Greendale taken over by the beta test for social app MeowMeowBeans, whose premise is users getting to rate each other socially the way you rate Uber drivers or restaurants on Yelp. Greendale quickly adopts a Logan’s Run-esque hierarchy, complete with weird color-coded clothing based on people’s social rank. Of course it’s not a dystopia without a resistance movement: Enter Britta, mustard on her face (it’s relevant, I promise) and a revolutionary zeal in her eye. What goes up must come down, and by the end of the episode, Greendale will be back to, well, not normal, but the way it always is, at least.
2. “Geothermal Escapism” (season 5, episode 5)
Another exception to the post-season-4 rule, Geothermal Escapism is the long goodbye to Troy, whose about to leave the show/college on a round the world yachting trip with Levar Burton in order to meet the terms of his inheritance. They decide to play a college wide game of the floor is lava, which is great fun to watch all on it’s own, but it’s the emotional elements underscoring the game that make the episode into something really special. It’s all about Troy and Abed’s friendship, how much they mean to each other, and Abed learning how to cope with change even when it hurts. Fun, and makes you feel things, what more do you want?
1. “A Fistfull of Paintballs” & “For a Few Paintballs More” (season 2, episodes 23 & 24)
In joint-first place, there’s the two-part episodes A Fistfull of Paintballs & For a Few Paintballs More. After the first paintball fiasco, the Dean has decided on a less valuable prize this year. Unfortunately, he also decided to outsource this year’s paintball game to a third party, and let them decide the prize. On learning that the ice cream company sponsoring the event is offering $100,000 to the winner, the entire college once again goes feral, spawning a Western-style epic as the students do battle across the school. Abed’s Han Solo and Troy’s heroic sacrifice are both standout moments from two absolutely brilliant episodes.
(featured image: NBC)
