Alan Betesh
English
Prof. Perry
20 December, 2022
Life as a Television Show
Community, created, written, and produced by Dan Harmon, is my favorite T.V series. Community is about 7 students who go to Greendale community college together. Each so different from eachother, whether old, young, successful, geeky, sporty, smart, dumb, black, white, indian, the list goes on come together to form a study group. They go through many different issues many teenagers have as well whether love or hanging out with friends. They always have someone trying to join their study group, but never accept anyone else. They are living a fantasy chasing their dreams for after college hoping it falls into their lap. This interested me because I am able to connect with the show since I am so much alike.
Why is Community my favorite? Because you could never expect what is coming next. It is like living in a dream and chasing something that I want. There is never a dull moment in their study group and they never get their studying done. It reminds me of what I did up until now in college. I created a friend group where when we are together we do not get anything done. We are always having a blast ignoring our differences and lifestyles. They became my closest friends that I talk to about everything within a week. We all just clicked. We all come from different backgrounds just like the show community. We have become best friends and I thank community for that; this is why it is my favorite T.V show.
I have chosen the critical race theory to represent community. Jeff is a white Lawyer, Britta a white social activist, Annie a jewish girl, Shirley a black christian, Abed a palestinian, Troy a black football player, and Pierce an old white man. Each character represents their race stereotypes which is very funny. In season one episode six Troy and Jeff have a fight where Jeff says football is in Troy’s blood and Troy answers, “That’s racist, ” and it goes on as comedy. This is one example of how stereotypes of race are being played on the students. This show is usually connected to a friend group becoming a family because of how close they become and how different they are. It is like siblings fighting. Abed often referenced the show directly because he wanted to create a movie. He openly narrates and is often called out for it. He always focuses on the people in the perfect set which is exactly what the show is. They are usually in the library seated around a certain table. This makes you fall in love with the characters and the scene. There is every camera angle you could think of being used at least once showing the talent of the crew and cast. The sound effects are perfect, everything sounds and looks realistic which really pulls you in. The editing wasn’t perfect but that made it even better and funny.
The NY Times has a great review about the show that is similar to mine. They give an elevator pitch of what the show begins on which I didn’t do since it’s not the actual show. They mention how it’s not for everybody and faced a lot of hostility for being “defiantly idiosyncratic” thankfully this did not stop the show. Although threatened many times to be canceled, Community went on to create six seasons. It mentions how close the characters are together and how much better it makes the show with all of their inside jokes that others not in the friend group do not understand. The series only ended because of the actors contracts expiring and them costing too much to rehire. Although peacock has recently announced they will be filming the movie for the show rehiring all the famous actors.
Community isn’t the only hit TV series Dan Harmon created. Rick and Morty , by Dan Harmon, is an extremely popular show that is also considered dark comedy. It is about a grown man that acts like a child going on adventures with his grandson. Although less realistic compared to Community it still pulls you in for never being able to expect what happens next. They don’t really have different races other than aliens that they make fun of for being different. This could be connected to the critical race theory because they see people that are not like them to be aliens and different. Dan Harmon is able to turn big events at the time into a joke and offend many in the process in order to be funny. I think it’s a great way to be funny because it makes me laugh and want to watch more.
Community’s jokes about race are not intended to be hurtful but rather comedy. From my experience people nowadays take offense to everything instead of taking things personally they should just laugh. People have very different humor, but not everyone respects others humor which is a big issue in 2022. I personally enjoy many different types of humor whether dark or a regular dad joke. I just want to laugh. People often compare me to the jewish stereotypes and instead of getting mad I keep making the jokes with them because it is meant to be funny not hurtful. It all depends on how the joke is delivered and most could tell when someone is serious or joking. This is what Community teaches people how to get along with people no matter their differences and even joke about it. Community represents critical race theory very well through comedy and smiles.
Work Cited
Marsh, Calum. “Comfort Viewing: 3 Reasons I Love ‘Community’.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 July 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/23/arts/television/community-nbc-streaming.html.
Libbey, Peter. “Never Watched ‘Rick and Morty’? This Is What You Need to Know.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 May 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17
“Football, Feminism and You.” Community, created by Dan Harmon, season 1, episode 6, NBC, 2009.
Community. Created by Dan Harmon, NBC, 2009–2014.