- 11 years ago
Sometimes you just need a bit of, well, community – but what to watch? Join http://www.WatchMojo.com as we count down our picks for the Top 10 Episodes of Community.
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00:12Sometimes you just need a bit of, well, community, but what to watch?
00:17For Greendale Campus TV, I'm Abed Nadir.
00:19And I'm Troy Butt-Soup Barnes.
00:20What?
00:21Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 episodes of Community.
00:27Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun.
00:28Yep.
00:29Honestly, I don't know how we're going to top it next year.
00:31Oh, I got a pitch.
00:32Why use guns?
00:33Take a hose and spray the whole school with paint.
00:35Every inch of it.
00:36Actually, we kind of did that.
00:37Haven't you been to the library?
00:38I'm working my way there.
00:39For this list, we're taking a look at the episodes from the show's numerous seasons
00:43that we found to be the most worth watching and engaging overall.
00:46Whether they excel in drama, character building, concepts, or comedy,
00:51we found their appeal to be undeniable.
00:53Oh, Brit is in this?
00:55I got a Christmas time for me!
00:58I got a Christmas time for a treat!
01:02No!
01:04Number 10.
01:05Contemporary American Poultry.
01:06You want to be sheep?
01:08Keep flocking.
01:09You want to be wolves?
01:10Form a pack.
01:11That was it.
01:12It was that simple.
01:14At that moment, we stopped being a family and started being a family in italics.
01:19Frustrated by a shortage of chicken fingers in the Greendale cafeteria,
01:22the study group decides to fight it mafia-style.
01:25At Greendale, they were always out of chicken fingers.
01:27So whoever could get them had power.
01:30And I was the guy in the apron.
01:31So I came up with a system, and pretty soon half the chicken at Greendale was going out the side
01:35door.
01:35That's the premise of this late season one episode.
01:38Setting up a number of loving nods to classic crime movies like Goodfellas and The Godfather.
01:43But the family's success started to go to their heads.
01:45Jeff Winger concocts a scheme to get lunch food for his friends that's actually edible.
01:50And eventually, that results in each member of the study group being consumed by a vice.
01:55With self-aware student Abed Nadir at the center of it all.
02:07His conflict with Jeff is as funny as it is ultimately heartwarming.
02:12Plus, there's a monkey with a silly name.
02:14Well, that's a relief.
02:15Yeah, it's pretty cool being friends with the biggest man on campus.
02:18Isn't that right, Annie's boobs?
02:21Please rename that thing.
02:22Number 9. Conspiracy theories and interior design.
02:26Hello?
02:26Tell your little friend to stop snooping around night school.
02:29Otherwise, things might get explosive.
02:37Annie!
02:43Who doesn't love a good conspiracy?
02:45Well, regardless, this is a sharply written episode centered around Jeff and Annie Edison's investigation of Greendale's night school.
03:00The writers have a lot of fun playing with expectations, culminating in a sequence of betrayals that has to be
03:06seen to be believed.
03:07If you love Jeff Winger so much, why did you conspire with me against him?
03:11I don't know.
03:12I can't keep track of any of it anymore.
03:16I just keep teaming up with whoever suggested.
03:19Glad to hear you admit it.
03:21Meanwhile, Troy and Abed's construction of a campus-wide blanket fort brings some welcome laughs, especially as they slowly realize
03:29how mainstream their efforts have become.
03:31Leonard, back up!
03:32You shouldn't even be in here, Leonard.
03:34You already have three fighting strikes against you.
03:35Wait, he's getting away!
03:36I know a shortcut.
03:37Through the Turkish district.
03:39Number 8, Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television.
03:43It's TV.
03:44It's comfort.
03:46It's a friend you've known so well and for so long.
03:50You just let it be with you.
03:52If this is to be the end, then it's a glorious way to go.
03:56Meta commentary abounds in this episode, as each member of the study group comes up with their own audacious pitch
04:02for a theoretical season.
04:03Sorry, year 7.
04:05What's your season 7 pitch?
04:06My pitch for your fall semester at Greendale?
04:08Is that everyone is nice and has fun and grows together.
04:11Shirley or Elroy?
04:13See, that's racist, man.
04:14However, the real draw of the episode becomes apparent when it comes to Jeff.
04:19His doubts about people leaving and things changing make for surprisingly effective drama.
04:24I love that I got to be with you guys.
04:26Gay.
04:26You saved my life and changed it forever.
04:29Gay!
04:31And that stinger at the end, courtesy of series creator Dan Harmon, is a nice touch.
04:36Nobody's winning anything.
04:37Don't you see?
04:39This means we don't exist.
04:42We're not created by God.
04:44Created by a joke.
04:46We were never born and we will never actually live.
04:50Number 7.
04:51Paradigms of human memory.
04:53Whoever did it, step forward.
05:00You five are in big trouble.
05:03Jeff and Britta, you're free to go because you didn't step forward and are therefore innocent.
05:07Ah, the time-honored tradition of flashback episodes.
05:11Abed, uh, uh, a leprechaun took our clothes.
05:14And you can never tell anyone, okay?
05:17Acting is a clip show with a mocking twist.
05:19This installment has the study group reminiscing about their past year.
05:23Only, we the audience are shown random never-before-seen adventures, such as an encounter with a cartel and a
05:29boating trip gone wrong.
05:31You can yell at me all you want.
05:33I've seen enough movies to know that popping the back of a raft makes it go faster.
05:37From romantic montages to increasingly eccentric speeches from Jeff, the episode delivers a healthy dose of meta-comedy, including one
05:45of the show's most enduring catchphrases.
05:47Show's gonna last three weeks!
05:49Six seasons and a movie!
05:51Number six.
05:52Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
05:54Worst introduction ever.
05:56Check it.
05:57I am Brutality Jobs!
06:00The magician!
06:02Ready your arrows and keep your character sheets in hand.
06:06This one's a keeper.
06:07Besides offering gems such as Chang's accidental blackface and Pierce Hawthorne's bitter jabs at the study group.
06:14You can ruin anything.
06:15Now come back and give Neil his sword.
06:17I can't hear you over the sound of me rubbing his sword on my balls.
06:21Pierce, you!
06:22Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is also quietly effective in how it handles Neil, a student teased about his weight to
06:29the point of suicidal thoughts.
06:31They're down there by Fat Neil.
06:35That's right, Neil.
06:37Your new best friend, Jeff Winger, coined the name Fat Neil.
06:41Neil.
06:42It manages to balance the absurdity of each character's actions in the ongoing D&D campaign and the real struggle
06:48to help Neil by raising his self-esteem.
06:51Hey.
06:53That was the best game I ever played in my life.
06:55Don't mention it.
06:57Want to play again next week?
07:00Maybe.
07:01Okay.
07:03I'll be around.
07:04And so it was that Pierce Hawthorne saved the life of Fat Neil.
07:08Number 5.
07:09Digital Estate Planning.
07:11Well, if this isn't worth any points, what is?
07:13You're asking me?
07:14I'm still looking for a pong battle.
07:16Let's play poker.
07:18Oh, now we're talking.
07:198-Bit Gaming Gets It's Time to Shine, amid an interesting setup.
07:23Which guy am I?
07:24Pierce invites the study group to be present for the unveiling of his deceased father's estate.
07:30Only one issue.
07:31Pierce's inheritance must be won by playing a custom-built game.
07:35Cornelius spent over 30 years developing a video game for you.
07:38It was his dying wish that you and seven of your closest friends would play it.
07:42Live our burdens, so maybe.
07:43The episode delves into every trope of classic gaming possible.
07:47From cheat codes, to jumping on enemies' heads, to eyebrow-raising acts of looting.
07:51Hello!
07:52Everybody go shopping?
07:53That's all we did.
07:55Add to that an authentic synthesizer-based soundtrack and retro gaming visuals, and it's a swell time for all.
08:02Unbelievable.
08:03Jeff bet all our lives on Britta and won, and I lost my pants to a pair of nines.
08:08Number 4.
08:09Pillows and Blankets.
08:10The United Forts of Pillow Town and the legit Republic of Blanketsburg are at war.
08:15Each side attempting to kick down and replace the other.
08:19A civil war bruise in Greendale, over whether pillows or blankets are better.
08:24The war won't stop with First Blood Part 2.
08:26It will escalate to Rambo 3, which should really be called Rambo 2, First Blood Part 3.
08:30But the Rambo titles never made sense.
08:33And neither does war.
08:34This episode plays out as a documentary not unlike Ken Burns' film The Civil War, complete with dramatic narration by
08:41Keith David.
08:41A softly lobbed hypoallergenic Celis-elect in a floral print case collides with a load-bearing broomstick, collapsing a queen
08:49-size section of blanket fort.
08:51The episode has fun treating such a trivial conflict with faux gravity.
08:55But at the end of the day, this is Troy and Abed's story.
08:58Friends so close, they once graced the cover of Friends Weekly.
09:02Two friends are at odds, yearning to go back to normal, yet caught in an escalating conflict.
09:07We weren't expecting things to get so heart-wrenching.
09:10Today, I had to run and get two imaginary friendship hats from an office.
09:14I could have just walked around the corner and then come back, but for some reason, I actually went all
09:19the way back to where they were supposed to be.
09:21One was crumpled up a bit, that was Troy's.
09:23The other was just a little dusty, that was Abed's.
09:25Number 3. Epidemiology.
09:27That's right.
09:29Prepare to meet the power of imagination.
09:33Fear the dead.
09:34Or in this case, the brain-damaged living.
09:37Okay, last question, and I know it's a long shot, but did anybody happen to shut off the Dean's playlist?
09:41Two percent milk, eggs, deodorant, puppy chow, black light, whole milk, not for drinking.
09:46Okay.
09:46Cotton swab.
09:47It's officially a waking nightmare.
09:49Such is the case for Epidemiology, a not-so-token Halloween episode about questionable food causing a zombie-like sickness
09:56to spread.
09:57This may be food poisoning.
09:58Rich, what did I tell you?
10:00To rule out food poisoning.
10:01Yes, but also not to say the words out loud.
10:03It comes down to the study group to restore order and save the day.
10:07If they can survive long enough, that is.
10:09Special?
10:10You're not special.
10:12I'm special.
10:13I was bit 10 minutes ago and I'm...
10:16Great!
10:18Between some teasing nods to the horror film genre and the reaffirming of Troy and Abed's friendship,
10:23this themed episode remains a classic.
10:26It was just a cat.
10:27Let's keep moving.
10:36What is up with that cat?
10:38Is someone throwing it?
10:40Number two.
10:41A fistful of paintballs and for a few paintballs more.
10:45Howdy, folks.
10:46There's only one rule.
10:48Last man standing gets the prize.
10:50There's your guns.
10:53And here's the prize.
10:56$100,000 cash.
10:59Though the first paintball episode, Modern Warfare, is definitely admirable.
11:03We felt this two-part finale from season two was more memorable.
11:07At first, Greendale's latest campus-wide paintball game seems restrained by their standards.
11:12To the study group.
11:13To the study group!
11:17More juice, Miguel?
11:18Until, little by little, hints of a greater plot to take over Greendale come to light.
11:23The first part draws heavily from spaghetti westerns, while the second aims for a rebels versus oppressors homage to Star
11:30Wars.
11:31In other words, it seems we've left the western motif and entering more of a Star Wars scenario.
11:34Yet the cast all commits wholeheartedly to the increasingly dramatic odds.
11:38And, as always, the conflict between characters drives the plot, leading to a quietly powerful final scene.
11:45You know, I've been coming to this school for 12 years.
11:49I've never been friends with anyone here more than a semester.
11:54Probably for the same reason I've been married seven times.
11:56Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
12:00You boys canvass for witnesses, establish a time frame and motive, and bring me a suspect.
12:04We've got 48 hours before the trail runs cold, so start with the last person to see that yam alive.
12:07Yes, ma'am. Understood.
12:09Okay, now remember, don't kill anybody. Just lay down a suppressive fire, like this.
12:15Oh! Sorry!
12:17Lack of voice!
12:19Earn your M&M!
12:21Troy and Abed, intimidation stance!
12:25One rule I asked you to follow.
12:27One.
12:28Look!
12:29I had it made before he died. It's not in bad taste.
12:32I've become a stranger to myself.
12:34I'm bald now. I've always been bald.
12:38I really dreamt of having hair.
12:40And now, the bald man is awake.
12:42Out! Abed, seal the doors!
12:45Nobody leaves until this pen shows up.
12:47I don't like this.
12:48Yeah, tell it to the pen you might have.
12:51Number one.
12:52Remedial Chaos Theory.
12:53Starting on my left with one, your number comes up, you go.
12:56Just so you know, Jeff, you are now creating six different timelines.
12:59Of course I am, Abed.
13:00It all began with a roll of the dice.
13:03Early in season three, we were given this innovative episode that explored the question of alternate timelines.
13:09I wonder what happened to all those other timelines.
13:11Wait, there are other timelines?
13:13Jeff rolls the dice to determine who gets pizza for the study group's party.
13:17And this is part of a simple yet effective set-up, allowing the writers to examine each member of the
13:23group and how they interact with one another.
13:39The resulting seven timelines, each varying based on who is present, are equal parts funny and thoughtful, revealing how amazing
13:47community's character-driven stories can be.
13:50Cool. Cool, cool, cool.
13:52Evil Troy and evil Abed.
14:00Do you agree with our list?
14:02Greendale is the best school in the entire world.
14:05What's your favorite episode of Community?
14:07Butterfly in the sky.
14:12I can go twice as high.
14:15For more episodic top tens published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
14:21See you next week.
14:23Well, that is.
14:25If I still exist.
14:27If I still exist.
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