Surfing Sitcoms: Community – “Critical Film Studies”
I prefer to think of these Community spoilers as an homage…
In some ways, “Critical Film Studies” was a the most hardcore of the series’ movie parody/homages yet, but it didn’t feel that way. This is partly because it wasn’t based on Pulp Fiction, as NBC wanted us to think it was in the ads, but rather My Dinner with Andre, a movie very few people have actually seen. It belongs instead in a category with the series’ darker, more heartfelt episodes such as “Mixology Certification”. Sure, the characters dressed up in funny outfits (Shirley as Samuel L. Jackson!) but the biggest set piece of the episode is funny solely because it exists. Abed delivering that long, long, very weird monologue about a visit to the set of Cougar Town may have been a film homage on one level, but on another it was a completely unique TV moment.
Summary of this episode is somewhat beside the point, but here it is: it’s Abed’s birthday, so Jeff plans a surprise Pulp Fiction-themed party at the theme diner where Britta works. But Abed asks Jeff to meet him at a fancy restaurant instead, where they have a long conversation in which Abed says he’s decided he hasn’t really been living and wants to have a “real conversation” with Jeff. Jeff ends up admitting several deep insecurities, including that he’s worried no one would like him if he weighed 400 pounds and that when he was seven his mother dressed him up as an Indian Princess for Halloween. In the end it is revealed that Abed was actually doing an homage all along (to My Dinner with Andre) because it was his way of saying he wanted to hang out more with Jeff. The party occurs anyway, though it’s described as “dark and lame”. That’s it.
Despite the seventeen levels of metafiction at work, not to mention an all-time record for references to Cougar Town, “Critical Film Studies” actually had some real things to say. Some people think that shows like this are shallow because they base themselves in the language of pop culture, but isn’t that how so many of us found each other in real life? None of us at this site would be have met each other without the pop culture we love, but I don’t think our lives are somehow meaningless. Does it really matter to Jeff that his mother dressed him up like a girl? I would say it matters that he and Abed have a real friendship, even if it is partly based on a mutual love of the films of Tarantino. I feel like I learned a little something about myself from this silly comedy this evening.
Bits:
-My Dinner with Andre, for those unfamiliar, is now available on YouTube in its entirety. Enjoy!
“He watched Cougar Town. It’s as if he didn’t want people to like him.”
“I’m hot, and my balls are touching a zipper!”
“What, I have 3-D vision now?” “YES!”
“Am I the hero or the love interest?”
“I saw Pulp Fiction on a plane once. It’s a 30-minute film where the heroes like dancing, cheeseburgers, and the Bible.”
Again, on Cougar Town: “If you want me to take it seriously, stop saying its name.”
“Why are you dressed like Mr. Rogers and talking like Frasier?”
“They were already moving on. Courtney had nailed it.”
“After they get frightened by the evening news, many people seek the foods and soothing music of a pre-racial America.”
“You know who has real conversations? Ants. They talk by vomiting chemicals in each other’s mouths. They get right down to brass tacks.”
“Why would you pay a woman on the phone to think you’re fat?”
“He seduced me with his dark Chinese powers!”
“Once the shame and the fear wore off, I was just glad they thought I was pretty.”
“Abed, what’s My Dinner with Andre?”
“Ooh, no-no juice!”
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