Fandom of Fandoms Podcast
Fandom of Fandoms is a podcast that dives into the worlds that fans love most — from galaxies far, far away to magical schools, epic quests, and everything in between. Each episode spotlights a different fandom, exploring its history, what makes it special, and why people are so passionate about it. We’ll chat with real fans, share wild stories, and invite you to geek out with us, one fandom at a time.
Fandom of Fandoms Podcast
This Fandom Is Streets Ahead: Let's Talk Community
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We’re recording from a brand new Fan Cave Studios setup, and we kick things off by pulling back the curtain on what it took to build a dedicated podcast studio from the ground up. Then we pivot to a sitcom that’s basically built the same way: one piece at a time, with a lot of weird choices that somehow turn into something unforgettable.
Ben takes the guest seat to make the case for Community as more than a “study group comedy.” We talk about why Dan Harmon’s cult classic still stands out in the crowded world of sitcoms, from its meta humor and pop culture parody to its fearless genre episodes. We dig into the big fan favorites like the paintball wars, the Dungeons and Dragons episode, the claymation and musical holiday specials, and the way Greendale treats totally ridiculous events as canon without ever blinking.
We also get honest about the messy side of the show’s legacy, including the Pierce storyline and the real-life tension between Chevy Chase and the creative team. From legendary background payoffs like the Beetlejuice gag to fandom staples like “six seasons and a movie” and the Darkest Timeline, we break down what makes Community so rewatchable and where a newcomer should start if season one feels like a different show.
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The New Fan Cave Studio
SPEAKER_05All right, coming to you from Fan Cave Studios. We are back for episode 32. The new Fan Cave Studios, we should add. Yes. Guys, this is a very special episode. We are coming to you from our brand new studio. So for our YouTube watchers, you can see the new setup we have. Um, Nick, why don't you tell us about the process of getting this studio um put together?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so uh I moved into a new house back in April. We had uh nice basement space, and uh my wife was nice enough to give me full rain on the basement. And so I said, hey guys, what if I like turned the basement into like a studio specifically for the podcast? And um, you know, been working on that this summer. Uh it was not it was framed in a little bit, but we had to do a ton of work into it. I'm gonna have to post some pictures and video and stuff that I took over the course of the process, but uh yeah, this looks nothing like when we helped you move in.
SPEAKER_04So you know that you did a lot of great work. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I'm excited uh that we're in here finally. I I love how it turned out. Uh Ben did the did the design work a little bit helped to to visualize it. I just tried to match the the picture you did amazing there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And like our our sign has a hole now, which looks great.
SPEAKER_03That is so happy with that. Yeah. I'm so excited to have that on the on the wall.
SPEAKER_05So that's I think I can represent the amount of work that I put into this.
SPEAKER_03Michael, you're you're the pretty face. You're you're here to attract the viewers.
SPEAKER_05Well, actually, I I did make one contribution. So if you look behind us, we have uh a few little nerd items. Our trinkets. Our trinkets, yeah. It is gonna evolve. We're gonna add stuff, but I brought my it's a strip of film from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie. The first the first one. Yeah, so I I brought that for display. What scene is it? So it's a scene where he's fighting Green Goblin in the burning building, and uh Gabby throws his uh I don't even know what those are called, actually, his little little pumpkin bombs or whatever they were like that. Yeah, that's really cool.
SPEAKER_03Where'd you get this from, Michael?
SPEAKER_05Dude, I found it in an antique store in Indiana of all places. Sweet. Yeah, and I'd never taken it out of the packages, so so I took it out and threw it up there. So yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we could start doing that. That'd be fun.
SPEAKER_04It's more excuse for us to buy nerdy stuff and we can just dump them on Nick now. They could they can just live here, so yeah.
SPEAKER_03No, no, but uh I'm I'm so excited to be in the in the new space. And uh, you know, Ben worked hard getting all the equipment over here and getting us set up, so looks beautiful. Michael, actually, Michael brought in another thing that's really important. We got some beautiful new studio lights that uh I think our our production quality took a big step up just now. Like there's a good next to some new cameras, which I've been budgeting out for, so yeah, we'll see. So you guys be the judge of that. You know, when you see this new video and the new podcast space, let us know. Like, is the is the production quality, has it gone up? What do you what do you feel? You know, so yeah. At least say yes with all the work we put in. Yes, exactly. If not, my feeling won't be hurt anyways. I've only got one, so no, I'm just kidding. Uh one feeling? One feeling. Um, no, I I already know. I in my in my heart of hearts, I know that our production quality has gone up. And you know what? Yeah, exactly. It's not about you guys, as we've said from the beginning. It's actually just about us.
SPEAKER_05It is not about the three of you, okay? I'm just uh nice. All right, well, Nick, why don't you hit the intro? Yeah, let's do it.
Why We’re Talking Community
SPEAKER_03Welcome to Fandom of Fandoms, the show, where every single episode we are diving into the worlds that fans love the most. And today we're excited again to just be the three of us. And uh, we're gonna be focusing in on our guest as being Ben talking to us about community, and it's gonna be a lot of fun. This is we're we're hitting a sitcom spree in the next few episodes. So it's gonna be good.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, looking forward to do all of them. Uh man. So, okay,
Our History With The Show
SPEAKER_04uh what do you guys know about community?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we like to start with kind of our our um our uh past well, what is it called? Yeah, our experience. Yeah, sure. Um yeah, so for me, it's funny actually. I think I've seen a total of about five episodes. Okay, and I think I actually watched them with you probably in college. Probably because you would just have it on, I remember. So I'd kind of you know, we'd be in and out of the apartment and whatever, and I so I think I just saw some haphazardly. Okay. Now, obviously, I know you know some of the memes and whatnot that have come from it. Um, but I think honestly, that's really my background. I mean, I I really couldn't tell you anything about the characters. I mean, yeah, I'm I'm totally new to this. So, but Nick, what about you?
SPEAKER_03Um, I watched a decent amount of it. I I will say that uh at the beginning, I was I don't want to say it was like a community naysayer. I don't know, it was just one that I didn't get into while it was on the air for sure. I knew that it was um bigger, obviously that would have been because when we were in college, that would have been towards the end of the show. Correct, yeah. Spin, you were a fan of it back then too, for sure. And I just I hadn't gotten into it yet. I didn't watch a ton of sitcoms at that point. Now I feel like I've seen a bunch. So that was actually how I got into community was I watched all of the sitcoms that I had wanted to watch, and then I got to community, it just kind of worked down the list finally, and then I was like, you know what, I haven't watched community yet. I know um, you know, that Ben loves it. I know that there's a lot of lot of uh followers, it's like a cult classic. Is that a cult classic? Um and so I you know, I sat down, I I've watched it, but I don't know it well enough that I could say like I could quote it. You know what I mean? Like I've seen Scrubs and The Office and How I Met Your Mother, and you know, some of these other ones enough that I could quote just random parts of deep cuts from the episodes and stuff like that, but I I do not have near that amount of uh familiarity with uh with community. Um when I think about though, I know that there's definitely some specials that I'm sure we're gonna get into later that uh big into like that community scene. So that kind of makes it I mean it sets it apart from other other sitcoms, I think, to to some degree. Um but with with that in mind, let's let's kind of for our listeners that maybe you're not familiar with community, um, we always like to give a little bit of an origin slash overview of the show.
What Makes Community Different
SPEAKER_03So here's what uh what Ben was nice enough to type up for us. Uh community was a sitcom that ran for six seasons between the years of 2009 and 2015 about a group of seven community college students after and the study group that they formed, and it turned into a friend group that went on a wide variety of adventures. The show was known for its meta humor, references to pop culture, and extremes to which the episode plots would go. Sorry, it's small. I'm having trouble reading today. Apparently, I need to get some reading glasses. I'll know Nick. I know I'm old. Jeez. Uh it faced a tumultuous time on air, changing networks, showrunners, main cast, and more, but still developed a cult following that is still hoping for the new movie and to the six seasons and a movie, which I'm sure we're gonna get into later. Yep. Um, thanks for writing that, Ben. That's that's good stuff.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, well written. Well written.
SPEAKER_04So I I think I mentioned this last time, and I think Nick, you said you were surprised. This is probably my favorite show. Yeah, yeah, which I actually I don't think I knew that until you said it on air, and I was like, oh, I don't think I knew that. Yeah, it's it's just perfectly my sense of humor. It pushes so many bounds. There's so many little jokes that you don't catch the first time around. Things that happen in the background that we can talk about too, that just there's so many things about this show that just perfectly are in my like little target, my box.
SPEAKER_05Well, that's that's kind of a great segue. So, what like what it what got you in the show originally?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, um, I was in so 2009, I would have been in uh at UC, so studying at University of Cincinnati, and had a friend who didn't go, but like he and I hung out on the weekends, um, and he started watching the show and said, dude, this show is hilarious, you need to start watching it. And so he and I started watching it together, and then I got my my pa my mom into it. Um and so then we would just watch it every week, and again, it's just so quirky and random, and uh it like especially if you watch it from season one, if you watch an episode from like the first three or four seasons uh episodes and then jumped to season three or four and watched a random episode from there, it's so wildly different. Like the characters have expanded so much beyond what they were in the first season that like it's like so it's a some interesting character arcs there. Um everyone just kind of becoming their true selves. And I mean, anytime that uh this this is one of the shows that actually introduced me to DD. There's an episode in season two about DD that introduced me to like I mean I knew about DD, but like what gameplay was like and everything like that. That like, yeah, it just it ticks so many nerdums for me.
SPEAKER_05That's pretty cool. What I mean, what is it about the franchise that just keeps you coming back?
SPEAKER_04Um it's easy to watch for me. Like, so there are overall arcs and stuff like that, but every episode is very standalone. There it'll make references to other episodes, but you don't ever have to watch like episodes uh episode one to ten or whatever.
SPEAKER_05Um I can appreciate that with a sitcom specifically, you know? Because I think we've kind of lost episodic TV in a sense, you know. I would agree with that. So I like that that you can just kind of watch some and like you know, you don't have to necessarily have like the full story. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because like, I mean, you get enough from all the characters, like you know their types, their backgrounds, and everything without having to watch everything. But it is fascinating to watch it though. Um, and then like I said, for me, like there's just so many like extreme episodes that it breaks the bounds of what other shows would do. That I mean, there's an episode where they do a um a Ken Burns style documentary about a um a pillow war. Um it's called Pillows and Blankets, one of again, top episode. Um it and again, like, yeah, the whole campus, this whole community college campus, has been split into two, and there's a civil war between the two pillows, a pillow fort versus a blanket fort, and there's just it they act like it's the civil war, it gets extreme. And like again, it's it's one of those things that I was talking to someone about this the other day, and it's like everything that happens is like canon in the sense that like everyone acknowledges that it happens, but we don't address just how ridiculous it is the time that like that that happened. Yeah, yeah.
The Wildest High Concept Episodes
SPEAKER_05Wow, very cool.
SPEAKER_03Well, we we we've hit on this a little bit. I mean, you kind of uh I I guess I'll bring this back up. So we know there's a lot of specials within the show. Um, I I personally think without knowing a ton of background into it, that that sets it apart. I'm thinking about like the the claymation episode. Yeah, and like I think there's a musical episode too, right? The one that you just mentioned as well, like just these weird, kind of quirky episodes that really set it apart. Would you I mean, is that the main thing, or are there other things about this particular sitcom that set it apart from I think that for sure.
SPEAKER_04Again, there's a lot of acknowledgement that it is a show and that some of the things that happen on this campus are so ridiculous that like it's not real. They go to a joke college.
SPEAKER_05Well, which is funny because the show is based on the showrunner's actual community college experience. I was I was reading about this. Um roughly. Uh very, very roughly. Yeah, roughly. Dan Harmon, the showrunner. Um he was at I took some notes here. Glendale Community College, which didn't you live in Glendale? I did.
SPEAKER_03I lived in Phoenix, Glendale area. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04And this college is Greendale. Greendale.
unknownThat's funny.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so he didn't change a lot there. Yeah. But yeah, um, Dan Harmon went on to most people would know him from Rick and Morty, if you know that shit. Oh, really? He went on to create that. No way. He's a creator. Wow, I did not know that. Okay. And I mean plenty of other things. I think like he had a big cult following called uh call uh clone high. It was on Cartoon Network for a while, I think. Okay. Yeah, I haven't heard of that one. That was that one only got like two seasons, but the people who love it love it. And again, like I think that's true of like all of Dan Harman's stuff from what I've seen. Like they're it has they each have like their own pocket of followers, and so like community is is no different because while it was on, it was never like the most popular show. It was never um we we'll get into some of the background. There's a lot of drama behind the scenes of of producing it and everything like that, but there were like network executives didn't like the show, but like again, they got such a hardcore following, like in such a small pocket that they kept making it. Yeah, that's funny.
SPEAKER_05Like, yeah, so and it did eventually get cancelled. I mean, MEC canceled the show after five seasons, correct, yeah. And then Yahoo Streaming picked it up, which that died, but uh Yahoo Streaming, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but I mean, so again, okay, uh, we'll get into it now. There's uh about I think it's the end of season two, somewhere in season three, around that, there's there was a show on TV for a while called The Cape. Basically about a superhero. And it rings a bell. I feel like that NBC too.
SPEAKER_05Yes, okay.
SPEAKER_04It made like 10 episodes, like it didn't, it didn't do well. But um one of the characters, Abed, there's a couple scenes with him where he gets obsessed with the show and he starts wearing a cape around campus and pretending he's a vigilante, like crime fighter sort of guy. And um he keeps like the the joke is like Jeff, one of the other main characters, keeps saying, like, this show's gonna it's gonna die immediately. Stop acting like it's so cool, and Abed will run away and say, Six seasons in a movie, and just like so that just became like such a like a hashtag, a meme, a like a phrase for the show, uh that six seasons in a movie. And so that's why, like, again, when they got canceled at NBC, Dan Harmon, who had taken back over, um, was like, Um, I need to find someone to make it so we can do six seasons. Yeah, and so they now they have the six seasons, and we'll talk about it later, but there should be a movie coming.
SPEAKER_05I was gonna say, I think there have been rumors about a movie for quite some time. Some time, yeah. Yeah, we'll get into that later.
SPEAKER_03Interesting. Well, talk to us about the I mean, so I brought up the claimation episode. Are there any other what what else stands out to you as being like just these, I don't know, other crazy episodes?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you mentioned you mentioned the musical one. Uh, that's a spoof off of Glee. It's specifically a Christmas special, and um basically anyone in Glee Club is brainwashed, and um it they try to like get each other into Glee Club. Um, and so it's it's because it starts with just one person and then he starts singing to someone else and they convince them. So it's a musical episode, but it's also like this like cult episode in some way, and it's really it's it's super amusing, especially all the songs are very again tongue-in-cheek. Um, there's uh one song, one of my favorites, which I don't know how much of it we can quote, but it's essentially um uh Annie is the character name trying to seduce one of the other characters into joining. But she's like she does the typical, like, I think like Betty Boop style character of just like overly sexualized, but she starts like doing like baby talk sort of stuff, and he's like, at some point this just doesn't work. Like it's at some point you just sound like a baby and it's not attractive, and she just like takes it to an extreme after that. And so again, everything's just very tongue in cheek and just like oh gosh, like yeah, just ridiculous stuff that you wouldn't see anywhere else. And the claimation episode that was another Christmas special Christmas special, yeah, or one Abed again like thinks that um he is an acclaimation special, and so everyone else in like a group therapy session like comes to pretend to go on acclaimation adventure with him, and it's it's uh uh John Oliver, like the psych professor leading them through it to try to get him to like figure out what caused this psychic break or whatever, but yeah. Um yeah, so it's uh just uh the DD one I've talked about, which has like a think the um, you know, like the pro the prologue like voiceover of uh Gladriel, um, just like yeah, over the whole like thing. It has someone doing that like throughout. So it's just and again, it feels very like even though it's like six people sitting around the table playing a game, like it has like this epicness to it. I don't remember that one. I'm gonna have to go and watch it. It's a good one.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you're making me want to watch this. Wow. It's funny. It sounds like this was just uh like a true creative outlet for for Dan and I guess for his whole team. But that is pretty cool that like he could have that kind of outlet, you know, where it's like you just basically try anything, and it seems like community was the perfect like um conduit for that. Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Uh gosh. And then there's like so there's another episode later on where there's this whole rivalry with another city college called City College. Um that and like gets to such an extreme point that the dean of the other college has hired a person to be pretend to be a psychologist and put all of the main study group in like a therapy session where he's trying to convince them all that everything that happened at Greendale was in a psych ward. They're all in like a psych ward together, and then everything they've experienced is a group psychosis that he's trying to like coach them through. But like, and so that that's just such an interesting episode of like going between jump between a whole bunch of other scenes and he's like very Shutter Island, like Shutter Island for sure. So they basically they take like popular movies and stuff like that and then spin them off into like a weird thing that happens on campus. Yeah, there's a Hunger Games sort of one where they're all trying to get into a class about uh the history of ice cream, but you have it up, there's only like six spots left, and so like you they have a Hunger Games style competition to see who can get this like sat last six spots in the class. It's so funny again.
SPEAKER_05Just everything everything taken to the extreme, yeah. That that does remind me of Seinfeld a little bit because Seinfeld did something similar, they would take things that were like in pop culture or just current events, really, and kind of put their own little spin on it. Um, you know, there's a hand like there's a JFK episode, yeah, the Schindler's List episode. Um I'm trying to think of others off the top of my head. But anyway, but it's kind of similar to that. That's yeah, I like that.
SPEAKER_04But uh what I what this show does though is it puts it to such an extreme where everyone's in costumes and acting like things are real, but then again, at the end of the episode, everything's back to normal and they don't like ever address. They might like make a mention every once in a while to it, but other than that, they're like, nah, that wasn't a thing.
SPEAKER_03Well,
Where To Start Watching
SPEAKER_03if you were having somebody start this show, is the best place to start the beginning?
SPEAKER_04That's tough. Um because uh so all the characters start as like your typical, like one of them was a a high school like straight A student who went on a psychotic episode and then she couldn't get into real college, quote unquote re real college, and so she ended up here. Um there's uh Donald Glover's character is supposed to be like a former jock who lost his scholarship and like he was gonna be a star football player at a big college, but then lost his scholarship because of an injury, and so now he's at community college because he can't do anything else. So things like that.
SPEAKER_03These are like the the tropes that the characters are fitting into. Right, okay.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so they start off that way, but by like season two, even like they've just completely abandoned. There's like little bits of it here and there, yeah, but they've uh become so much of their own characters that it's hard to like say that season, especially the early episodes, are the like I don't know, like the the main chunk of what attracts me to the series at least.
SPEAKER_03Um it's more like action, like just sit commie in the first season. Like, I mean, yeah when I think about comparing it to other things that are on, it was definitely very much the similar kind of feel of the the character. It didn't get too goofy, I guess. Right.
SPEAKER_04Exactly, yeah. So what I would do, I think, is have someone watch the first episode. Uh-huh. You get an introduction to the characters and the whole premise, which is that Joel McHale, the main character, his Jeff, um he starts the study group to try to get to know another character, Britta, like on an intimate level. He's like, Oh, like, let's do the Spanish sp study group together. We can and he's he starts off just with the intention of it just being two of them. Because he knows he doesn't invite anyone else. He says, I've got the study group as well.
SPEAKER_03He's kind of like a little bit of a sleaze ball to show out what happened. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um, and then by the uh then like next thing he knows, someone else had told about the study group, and then there's like these other people just showed up, and so now he has to pretend to be a Spanish tutor, even though he's he doesn't know anything about Spanish. That's hilarious. Yeah, so like I would start people with that, get the whole premise, like the whole general like uh understanding of how they came together, and then I would jump somewhere into season two, even like the first episode of season two, and I'm blanking out what the actual premise of the first episode is, but um just like yeah, jump to season two, and that's when it starts to like really show its colors in terms of like okay, we're gonna break the bounds of like, yeah, we're in college a little bit, but such wacky things are gonna happen that like they're so unbelievable. Like, uh, I just watched one of the episodes of season two, is a um there's a um a mission to space um simulator that's sponsored by KFC. That's from like the 80s, so like they get stuck inside this space simulator that to like simulate their way out of it, but again, it's like all KFC themed, like it's the colonel talking to you like he's mission control and stuff like that. Like it's just yeah, again, like taking things that are just to the extremes, like this this truly sounds right up my alley.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I mean, it just yeah, that this is all resonating with me. Awesome.
Ben’s Impassioned Plea
SPEAKER_03Well, this we're we're to our favorite part of the show where we like to put our guest on the spot to to give an impassioned plea. Um, I know you've hit some of the high points already, but have you have you thought about what your impassioned plea is gonna be?
SPEAKER_04I have, and and Michael, I'm gonna request I'm gonna request Daybreak. Oh, okay. All right, got it, got it. Yeah. Yep. It's just gonna be a whole different vibe, and you guys are gonna love it. All right, here we go. So let's hit that music. All right. Are you looking for just like a different show? Like just something besides the ordinary like couples meet and fall in love, or like it's it is a group of friends hanging out, but you know what? We're gonna go on all sorts of ridiculous adventures. We're gonna talk to the colonel. We're gonna play DD. We're gonna uh go to like a Comic Con where one of our members pretends to be like a famous actor. There's just so many of random hijinks that you won't see coming that tie together beautifully, that I think anyone could find something to love in this show.
SPEAKER_05Wow.
SPEAKER_04And enjoy daybreak. Well done. So yeah. Daybreak is an inside joke in the show. Um so there's some speculation as to why they used it, but it's it was just like some stock like elevator music that they found that they started using. That's funny. Just like as background for things, because there was one episode where they had a bunch of um ABBA music. ABBA? I can't they had a bunch of ABBA music on and they blew their whole music budget for the whole season on one episode. That's funny. There's some speculation on Dan Harman might have paid for it himself, etc. But like because of that, like they cut down the music budget a lot, so they had to start using like random stuff like that. Yeah, just stock. And so they started using this song like over and over again, and there's like characters like whistle it like like just like and so you just catch it so many times, and so that's so funny.
SPEAKER_03Such a weird like some some hold music, honestly.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. Yep.
SPEAKER_03What you'd hear on the phone if you call a company, maybe the community college, honestly.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I love how meta the show seems to be. Oh, you know, like just so many meta-references, like almost almost like self-referential, you know. A hundred percent. Yeah, I love that.
SPEAKER_03Nice.
Fandom Culture And Extra Content
SPEAKER_03Well, let's go ahead and take a quick break, and then we'll be back with some more discussion.
SPEAKER_06Give me some love.
SPEAKER_00Somebody said it could be here.
SPEAKER_05I like it.
SPEAKER_03I was gonna say, I really do. I like music a lot.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's very catchy. Yeah, it is really catchy. Who's it by, Ben? Do you know? I believe they're a band called the 88. Oh, is it? I think.
unknownHuh.
SPEAKER_04I'll have to double check that, but yeah.
SPEAKER_05Nice. All right, well, we're gonna jump into our fandom culture segment. Um, so starting off, Ben, is there any content outside of the main show that that you enjoy, listen to, watch, etc.? Um, I know there's a couple podcasts out there.
SPEAKER_04There's one, a fan one called Six Seasons in a Pod. Oh, nice. Um, I haven't actually listened to that one, but I know it it's out there and exists and is pretty popular. Um, there was also one for a while during the COVID times called uh The Darkest Timeline that had um Joel McHale and Ken Jong, uh, so two of the stars of the show. And the the two of them just have such a ridiculous friendship where they're just constantly nagging each other and just like ripping on each other that like it's it's it's about 50% about the show, maybe about 30% about like they go over like again. We were all experiencing COVID together, so they were all talking about like the the changes, and sure. Uh Ken Jung, uh if um do you know who he is, Michael? Yeah, I know yeah, he's an actual doctor, so like he was going over like from a medical standpoint what everyone was saying and like giving his opinion on stuff, and then um then the other 20% of the show is them just ripping into each other, like making so much fun of each other. So yeah, but that that's a good time. Um yeah, that's about it right now that I know of.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, that's cool. Are there I feel like we I'm gonna be Michael right now. Are there are there any uh community Lego sets? I've seen some fan-made ones of like the study room, like yeah.
SPEAKER_05But I think, yeah, that'd be a pretty easy one to throw together. I think I mean it'd be fun as heck for sure.
SPEAKER_03I just had to make sure if the people were playing Fandom of Fandom Bingo that I brought up Lego for them, you know.
SPEAKER_05Okay, all right. Let's see. So for the bingo players, Lego, John Williams, it doesn't count if you just say it.
SPEAKER_03The buzzwords.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, the buzzwords. So everybody drink. Sorry. Yeah, right.
Hot Takes And Chevy Chase Drama
SPEAKER_05Um, what are some are there any hot takes either inside the fandom that you've heard or that you have personally about the show?
SPEAKER_04Um so the biggest hot takes that I know of all revolve around uh the character Pierce, who's played by Chevy Chase. Oh, yes. And there's a lot of drama that happened around the show, which I had as one of our discussion questions, but we can kind of get into it now. So Chevy Chase and Dan Harmon did not get along. Um there's just a lot of creative differences. There's you know a lot of stories about what happened on set. Uh, there's some stories about what happened offset too. One of them being um uh there was a particular scene at the end of an episode, the video game episode, where they like it all takes place inside of a video game. And there's supposed to be a moment between Pierce and Abed that's like supposed to be a big sentimental moment and like kind of like the heart of the episode and like what it's driving towards. And apparently Chevy Chase refused to film it. And so they had to like work around it, and but like apparently Dan Harmon hated that so much that like that they had to like push that hard and he didn't even want to do it. Again, for like something that was supposed to be like the linchpin of the episode, what brought everything together. Yeah, that like um at the end of the season when they had like the cast rap party or whatever, uh Chevy Chase didn't come, and Dan Harmon started a chant of F Jeffy Chase. Oh my god, Chevy Chase. So again, and that resulted in Chevy Chase calling Dan Harmon and leaving a really awful voicemail that people have heard, and yeah, so there's a lot of drama around that. Like, so have you listened to the voicemail? I have not, no. Okay.
SPEAKER_03He got wrote off, right?
SPEAKER_04He got wrote off, yeah. That that only partially had to do with him and Dan Harmon. They killed him didn't they? Not on air. It's not like he just he died off like I mean he's he's in his 70s in the so it's not like yeah. Um so everyone kind of knew it was coming. Well, and that's what some of the hot takes are about about the treatment of his character in general. Oh yeah. Um because like he started off as a very like his character started off very just kind of like he's so his backstory is he's a very rich, like um Nebo baby. Like his dad had a company of baby wipes, I believe. Um, and like so he's just got rich baby wipe money. Um baking wipe money, which again, ridiculous thing to be rich off of, but like his dad had an empire of wipes, and so like he's just the inheritor of that, and so he never did anything. So now he's just at college, just like getting degree after degree, just like because he has nothing else to do, and he's an old lonely man who doesn't have any friends, so like he found community college, and yeah. Um so he started off kind of like that. Like, you feel bad for him. A little bit, like a little creepy, mostly he was hitting on one other character a lot, like in a very inappropriate way.
SPEAKER_03Kind of being like a jerky old man, like grumpy old man characters. Grumpy old man, yeah. There we go.
SPEAKER_04That's well, like uh hashtag old white man says, which yeah, one of the old one of the other guy, one of the other characters starts a Twitter that's just repeating the things that he says out of context, like yeah. That's a little ahead of its time, yeah. And again, this was like 2010, so yeah. Um, anyways, um, but uh gradually he just becomes more and more especially racist, and he becomes by season mid-season two and b most of season three, he's just a complete antagonist of the group. Like he's still in the study group and they still do a lot of stuff together, but it just seems about like every episode he's just constantly butting heads with at least one character, if not more. Um, like the DD episode that we've mentioned, he's the full antagonist, which the DD episode's written around the group coming together to try to um there's there's another character, like a minor character called that they introduce called Fat Neil. Um different times. Yep. And well, and that's kind of the whole point of the episode is that like he that character is so severely depressed about being Fat Neil and being called that, that he like eludes to one of the other characters that he might not be around much longer. Um and so like the whole thing is like, oh well, he loves DD, like let's do this thing for him where we can put an adventure together where he's the hero and like etc. And so they do they plan this DD party and they don't invite Pierce because they know that again he's becoming such an antagonist and he's so um blunt about all of his feelings and everything that he won't help. Pierce finds out, comes anyways, and just like disrupts the DD game by like bullying Fat Neil. Like to the extreme where he is now like he's stolen his sword and is running away, and like yeah. And so again, like it it that's just kind of like the the uh like the culmination of like his character is just like he is now just fully against the group and just making fun of everyone and just fully an antagonist. So yeah, so again, like that's the the hot takes around that are like okay, like was is that valid? Like, how much did that take away from what the show could have been by just making him such like a nasty character that because I feel like Chevy Chase, I mean, he's such a heavy hitter, like if you would have made him more likable and you know, more of a not an antagonist, yeah. And I think I think that's what some of the back behind the scenes stuff between him and Dan Harmon was like, why are you making my character like this? And but at the same time, Dan writing parts for him that like okay, we had this heartfelt moment, and then Chevy Jay's being like, I don't want to do that. Like, so again, just like there's some back and forth two sides that we don't know everything about.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was gonna say, so going just away from his character and into both uh what'd you say? Is it Mark? What what's the creator's name? Harmon? Dan Harman, sorry. I was thinking Mark Harman, that's a different guy. Dan Harmon and uh and Chevy Chase, both kind of I mean, like they've had some bad press, some like not so great things in the last several years, right?
SPEAKER_05Like, I mean, it's just yeah I don't even think I've heard of like I mean, you know, I'm off social media. Dan Harmon.
SPEAKER_04Dan Harman did have another thing during the Hold Me Too movement. Uh one of the other writers came out and said some stuff about him. Yeah, I gotcha. He he did uh come forth and apologize, and like, you know, uh I think he handled it well. Um and like he's less been the topic of that because it was just one person who said that. And so, like, again, he both of them have a lot of negative press, probably. So and I'm they both are not the best people.
SPEAKER_03I was gonna say that's that's what was interesting to me when you were telling me that they weren't like getting along at all, and then like, yeah, maybe it's this I don't know, maybe the personality-wise, like they're too similar. I don't know. Could be.
SPEAKER_04I mean, especially like Chevy Jay's coming in and as like the veteran comic, the veteran, yeah, actor of of your show. Like, he I guess maybe maybe Chevy Chase came in and like thought that like he should have some more clout, some more like pull on how things go, and they definitely didn't like that.
SPEAKER_05But it kind of makes sense. Like I said, he is a heavy hitter. I mean, it's that's a big name.
SPEAKER_03I mean, like outside of national lampoons, the does Chevy Chase have much in the way of SNL. SNL. Yeah. Okay. I just didn't know. Like, I genuinely I didn't know what the like that's.
SPEAKER_05Three amigos, three amigos.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, he was kind of in with Martin Short, Steve Martin. I guess I'm thinking three amigos, but I feel like, yeah, the SNL crowd, like the original SNL crowd. Okay. He was kind of in that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Did they? And then he kind of fell off for a while.
SPEAKER_03Wasn't he in um did they leave him off of the 50th anniversary episode? I feel like they did, didn't they?
SPEAKER_04I think they did because again, like he just has so many negative things around him, not just from community, but from other sources. Sure, sure. Um, ironically, Joel McHale, there's there was a movie that came out about SNL, I think. Or was it either SNL or um Hattie Shack or something like that?
SPEAKER_05I think it was SNL.
SPEAKER_04It was like uh yeah, I know I know. Not not very recent. It was a couple it was like maybe five, ten years ago. Oh, okay. And it was not as big of a movie as the one that I think you're thinking of. But regardless, uh Joel McHale, the leader of the show, ironically played Chevy Chase in it. No way, that's funny. I have some inside information on like what he was like.
SPEAKER_05So yeah. Seriously. Uh I'm gonna take us on a quick side sidebar. Um, Joel McHale, he was on The Bear. Did you guys watch The Bear? Oh, yeah. Yep.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he was the chef, the Michelin starred chef.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's so I've never, I don't think I've seen him in a serious role. And he was like scary in that. He's only in like two or three episodes, but yeah.
SPEAKER_04He's only a couple episodes. Uh huh. So the the sh the the restaurant that Carmi was working for in New York, the Michelin starred restaurant. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I did not know that that was him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Again, he takes on a whole different persona. Like him. Totally different personality. It's like, whoa.
SPEAKER_03Now I'm sitting here like I you say it and it's like, okay, I can see it, but like I did not really.
SPEAKER_04But yeah, hilarious. Again, like it was uh when I saw that episode, I was like, that's not him. Like so, like he's in a lot, right?
SPEAKER_03Like he's he's in a decent amount of the episodes he shows.
SPEAKER_05He's probably in I might be in like four. Okay, so he's got flashbacks like here and there. Yeah, but
Meta Jokes And Legendary Payoffs
SPEAKER_05yeah. All right, anyway, okay, before we transition to the group discussion, I have one fandom thing I want to bring up. Okay. Uh, talk to us about the legendary Beetlejuice joke uh that took three seasons to pay off. Okay. Do you know about this, Nuka?
SPEAKER_04No. Okay. So there's the first two seasons, as you said, there's just two times offhand that they just mentioned Beetlejuice. Um, like one of them just says, like, there's one of the characters named Britta, and another girl kind of mockingly is like, What's her name again? Like better butter Beetlejuice or something like that.
SPEAKER_03Like he just said it three times.
SPEAKER_04Well, yeah, no, they only said Beetlejuice one time there. But yes, um, so they said it once there, they said it once in season two, and in season three, they finally said it a third time. And as they say it, again, you don't know about it, and they uh a guy dressed as Beetlejuice just walks through the background. And again, it's not like a dressed-in episode or anything. I think it's a Halloween episode, if I remember correctly. So, like, it's possible, but again, just the irony of like again, we're three seasons in. This is the third time that they've said Betelgeuse, and he just walks by in the background. And again, just clever. I like it.
SPEAKER_03It's gotta be an eagle-eyed fan kind of like man, that'd be a hard one to pick up on.
SPEAKER_04Well, yeah, and again, once you see it, you can't unsee it. So yeah.
SPEAKER_05Well, and the thing is too, think about this. I mean, community came out before you could really binge, unless you went and bought the DVDs, you're probably not really just binging the show necessarily. True. So these continuity things, like season over season, you would never catch that.
SPEAKER_04Catching that it was like, yeah, specifically, that was the third time they said it.
SPEAKER_03Like funny enough, this is gonna come up a lot in our next episode, too. But yeah, how much we'll get into the having your mother has a lot of those those continuity things.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I was telling someone else about so there's uh Abed. Um, he has an episode in season two where he just says, we're just talking about background stuff. So, like again, this is the meta nature of the show that I love. So he's Obed's whole shtick is that he's so into movies and shows and stuff like that that he can only relate to things through those. Like, whenever something's happening, he's like, Oh, this is a bottle episode because we're stuck here, and blah blah blah. Like, or like, well, if you were this character, this is what you would do. Like, that's how he kind of relates to everything. So he has one episode where he's like, like, I can't remember the exact premise, but he's basically like, you know what, I'm gonna take a backseat this episode because I've been like the forefront in the forefront a lot. And so he he legitimately is in the background of like so many shots of that episode. That's so funny. But he's but the funny thing is like so he's like talking to this girl, a pregnant girl, and he's just talking to her like every time throughout the episode, and you can kind of kind of gradually see her like get more and more like ready for labor. And then by the end of the episode and the culmination of like everything else happening in that episode, he's in the background delivering a baby, and like everyone else is just like doing their thing. And so at one point, like everyone's like, Abbe, where were you? And he's like, Oh, I was just having I was just busy, you know, I was just doing some other stuff. And it and it comes up later where another character, one of the main characters, has a baby on campus, and he ends up delivering it, and he's and then everyone's like, How do you know what you're doing? He's like, Oh, I delivered a baby last season, you guys weren't watching, like it's really funny again.
SPEAKER_05Like, it's it's so super meta. Yeah, for sure. Wow. I love that. I mean, another, yeah, that's great.
SPEAKER_03Well, let's go ahead and jump into the to the group discussion a little bit. Uh,
Minor Characters And Rapid Fire
SPEAKER_03we got some good questions to talk about. Um, some of it you've already hit on, so I'm gonna try and get the the stuff that you haven't. Um out of out of the the minor characters, and there's a lot of them in the show, we've already brought up some of them. Um, wh who's one of them that you wish had more screen time or that we learned more about?
SPEAKER_04Michael, there's a uh sound clip I need on there. Alright. Pop pop.
unknownPop pop.
SPEAKER_04This is from a character named Magnitude, who his name is Magnitude. He just randomly pops up in one episode. Pops up. Um and that's his catchphrase. I don't I can't remember if they like introduce him as like he they basically make it sound like he has the persona of like a rapper or like you know, like some big hip-hop artist, and that's his catchphrase is just pop pop, and he just goes around saying it. It goes on to the point where like this character they bring in for there's like a uh a uh campus election for president, student body president, and he's one of the finalists, and he is having a debate with someone else where it's just he just keeps saying pop pop over and over again, like it's his answer to everything is pop pop, and everyone loves it. Like he's like he's just such a crowd favorite, yeah. But we don't know anything else about him. That's he just like that's like kind of his only shtick is every time he pops I keep saying it, every time he appears, uh he just says he works in pop up somehow, and then that's it. Like that's his whole thing, and everyone's like, yeah, that's magnitude. Yeah, that's amazing. So again, it's kind of funny like that, but at the same time, I would like to know so much more about this guy.
SPEAKER_03How many episodes is he in?
SPEAKER_04Maybe a dozen. Okay. He becomes he becomes a very a fairly regularly occurring minor character, but you just know that when he's on screen, it's just gonna be directed towards him saying pop pop. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05All right, before I ask my question, should we do a quick rapid fire? Would you rather?
SPEAKER_03Oh, you're right. We skipped that. I'm sorry. I was surprised when you went right into the book. I wasn't paying attention. Jeez. Took a week off, Nick, and one of the what happens. I forgot. Yeah, I missed the last episode, and all of a sudden, like, it's it's gone, left me. Uh, would you rather have Jeff's confidence or Abed's ability to read people through TV and movie characters?
SPEAKER_04That's a hard one. I I think that I initially would l think I would love Jeff's confidence just because like I don't have a ton of confidence myself, but his confidence gets him in trouble so much, I feel like. Like that's his character just becomes all about his ego. So I think I'd prefer Abed's ability just to like read people and understand people through characters. It's just fascinating.
SPEAKER_03See, I feel like I I've already got that a little bit. Like, you know, thinking about his moving characters.
SPEAKER_05Out of every other people, everyone else we know, we're probably more on that spectrum, you know. That's fair.
SPEAKER_03Uh, would you rather join a campus-wide pillow fight or the annual paintball tar tournament?
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna say paintball tournament. They just get so crazy that it just would be fun to be a part of. Is there more than one paintball episode? There are three. Oh, okay. I can't I can't remember the premise of the third one. First one is your typical um last man standing sort of one apocalyptic one. The second one starts off as a Western, but turns into like more of a Star Wars style like shootout. I'm blanking on the third one right now. But yeah.
SPEAKER_03Sidebar here, either of you guys like play paintball? Was that something like that? Like once in like one high school.
SPEAKER_05I probably have like four times. Four times, yeah. Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_03But not in the last um five or ten years. I'm pretty sure. I I may have told you guys this before. That was one of our like my high school friends and I that we did we played paintball a lot. Oh, that's cool. Nice. I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_04Teenagers, so that was it was always something that I was interested in getting into, but yeah, you know, paying for all the gear and stuff like that's expensive. Yeah, that's true. That's true.
SPEAKER_05I'd rather pay for LEGO.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Uh would you rather have Chang as your professor or your roommate? A hundred percent professor. Gosh, he becomes so crazy by the end that like he his character get goes through what he calls Changnesia, where he forgets all about his past. But, anyways, uh he'd just be unbearable as a roommate. So at least as a professor, he's just a little crazy and just like you can deal with him for a little bit of time.
SPEAKER_03Would you rather be stuck in the dreamatorium with Abed or the study room while the group is in the middle of an argument?
SPEAKER_04If I don't have to be involved in the argument, the study room with the group for sure. Well, it's like you're watching the show. Yeah, exactly. There are literal, there's a literal episode about being stuck in the study room because they lost a pen.
SPEAKER_06Oh.
SPEAKER_03That's funny. Uh would you rather play DD with the study group or make a student film with them? I'm gonna surprise you guys. I think you'd think I would say DD.
SPEAKER_05I I was thinking you were gonna say that, yeah.
SPEAKER_04But they're all just so ridiculous that I think actually the student film would be fascinating. Like just to see like that on it's gonna be chaotic, and I don't know if we're gonna get an end product, but I feel like something like that would be super fascinating.
SPEAKER_03Nice. Uh, would you rather perform with the Glee Club or Vaughn's band?
SPEAKER_04Oh gosh, that's a that's another tough one. Vaughn Vaughn is a minor character who's just in a couple episodes. He's your typical like surfer guy, super into hacky sack. Um, his big shtick is he says hello three times in three different ways, like, hey, what's up? Hello, like and so like that's kind of his thing. And he's just like super like surfer. Uh, a couple of the female characters have like a romantic fling with him, but he has um one episode where he has a band, a very it's kind of reggae style band, which he's a super white guy, so like again, just awkward. But um, he has a song he wrote he about one of the members that he broke up with called Getting Rid of the Bee. Um my god Yeah. Um, but I think I'd rather be in Glee Club. Even though like uh when you're in Glee Club, you're brainwashed. It seems like way more fun, honestly.
SPEAKER_05It's funny though, because you could you could fit in perfectly with either because you kinda did both. I mean, for the most part. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So I'll try and do it like the character pop pop or streets ahead.
SPEAKER_04Pop pop pop pop pop for sure. So Streets Ahead is a joke that um Pierce tries to like coin. Meaning that something is super advanced or something like that. Like it's super cool because it's streets ahead or whatever. And he like tries real hard to like get it be a thing.
SPEAKER_05I I think I I think I've been there. I think I've tried to get things going to be going to be going to be able to do it.
SPEAKER_04You've tried to I feel like you've tried some things going. You try to get nicknames for yourself, if you like.
SPEAKER_03Well, okay, that that's not true. Stop trying to make fetch a thing.
SPEAKER_04Okay, yeah. Me and Girls reference.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I was like, what are you talking about? See, Ben see, see, I knew that this is why. Ben meets all my references.
SPEAKER_05He knows.
The Darkest Timeline Explained
SPEAKER_05Yeah, he does. Nice. All right, let me jump into the question here. Okay, so we've talked about six seasons in a movie, the kind of that whole part of the show. What what's the darkest timeline hashtag?
SPEAKER_04Okay. So you said you've known you know a couple of the memes from the the show. Yeah, yeah. You know the scene with uh Donald Glover just carrying a pizza box, uh, there's this fire going on and everyone's screaming.
SPEAKER_05I don't know if I know that one. Oh, really? Is that from the fire?
SPEAKER_04No, it's from it's from an episode called The Darkest Timeline, I believe. Or it's uh Chaos Theory, I think. Okay. Um Remedial Chaos Theory, something like that. Anyways, um so the whole premise of the show is they are having a house party, and um they're all sitting at the table, and the pizza comes, and they have to decide who's gonna go down and get the pizza. So they decide who's gonna get the pizza by rolling a die.
SPEAKER_05That's pretty funny.
SPEAKER_04We'll put the meme up. It's a very classic meme. Yeah, yeah, that's just pure chaos. Anyway, so like the whole premise is around um they roll a die to see who has to go downstairs and get the pizza. And the whole show is like, okay, well, that means if we're rolling the die, there are six different possibilities of what could happen. And Abed dictates that that means there are six different timelines now. That like funny. And so one of the timelines, that one that with that the meme comes from, is now called the darkest timeline. Uh-huh. One of the characters loses an arm. Troy, the main character, loses his voice because he tried to scream out of fire. Um, like again, someone got shot. Like, again, there's like a bunch of things that happen. Yeah. That again, like they then refer to it as the darkest timeline. Um, and then that became like during the initial Trump years, during COVID, etc. Just whenever something like we're in really bad times, it's just a hashtag that like community fans now use. That's it's the darkest timeline. Uh because again, the idea that like somebody because we rolled a four or whatever the number is, this is where we are, as opposed to if we had rolled a one instead, things could have been way different.
SPEAKER_05Which is kind of funny that there's even that like timeline um like reference because the Russo brothers, I think, directed at least a handful of episodes. They did, yeah. Which for our for our fans, the Russo brothers directed Infinity Game, um Infinity Game, oh my gosh, Infinity War, Endgame, and they're directing Doomsday, and they're all about the you know crazy timelines. I can't remember which episodes they directed, but they were very early on partners with Dan Harmon on some episodes.
SPEAKER_03I didn't know that. Yeah. Oh, it's my turn, isn't it? Um let's see. You oh, okay. Um, so we've already gone into this. We've been in, we've got paintball episodes said there's several of uh a couple DD episodes. I think we've only talked about one. Yeah. Christmas special episodes. So um is there is there any other sort of episode that you wish that they'd done a sequel or a continuation of, or maybe more of those types of episodes?
SPEAKER_04Um they so they ventured into claymation, like we said. I wish they'd done some more. They also did a puppet episode, which is great. Uh they kind of did a little bit of an animated like end credit sort of thing, which we haven't talked about end credit stuff yet, but um, I wish they'd done a whole episode as 2D animation, just like again, along those lines of just like we're in this alternate universe sort of thing, and yeah, just like fully given to like let's give some cool animators, especially now that Dan Harmon has so many animation connections, like would have been cool to like get some of that in there. Just yeah, represent all the characters like that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Nice. Which of the main characters do you feel like changed the most over their arc on the show?
SPEAKER_04Initially, I would probably say Donald Glover's character, Troy. Because I think we we kind of mentioned before he's like a he comes in as a jock, like former football star who now he's in community college because he injured himself and can't play football anymore. Um but and but by like season three or four, whenever he his arc on the show is done, he's just fully given into Donald Glover's weird quirkiness and him being best friends with Abed. That's kind of like his whole thing. He's he's just like an off-the-wall character. There's no reference to him really being a jock anymore, like or athletic or anything. It's just like he's just like a weird, quirky guy. And I I love that. Because again, like uh part of it is like they talk about like this show in general or this campus in general, like just turns people crazy. So, like, yeah, it's fun. Sure. We can relate to that. Uh that's so Mikey.
SPEAKER_03Give me one of your favorite running gags in the show.
SPEAKER_04Um are we talking about like the end credit stuff or running gags in general?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, running gags, things that keep on coming back up. I mean, like I would consider like the Beetlejuice thing that kind of is a running gag.
SPEAKER_04What's the um there's an there's an older another old character named Leonard, just another old guy on campus that we don't know a ton about. But he and Jeff just have this thing where Leonard will say something snarky to Jeff about him, and Jeff will just get mad and say, Shut up, Leonard, you smell like eucalyptus, or something like just something vaguely insulting.
SPEAKER_05That's I like that smell.
SPEAKER_04Maybe it's not eucalyptus, but you know, something random out there that like he'll just say some offhand, like, uh, I don't know, like, shut up, Leonard. I saw your son the other day, and he's he looks like he lives on your couch, or something like that. Like, just something like just vaguely insulting, like kind of like okay, but at the same time, like yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's pretty funny. Well, you've mentioned the end credits a couple of times. I mean, what's your favorite end credit scene?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, um, there's a running gag of those, that's why I asked earlier. Uh, that's called Troy and Obed in the Morning, which again I mentioned just a minute ago. They're Troy and Obed's just bro ship their friendship that developed over the years. And they have a fake uh morning show where they like sit down and like talk about like, you know, like your typical like Regis and Kelly style of just like, oh, we're gonna have a guest on who's gonna tell us all about their new movie and stuff like that. But like they will not, there's no cameras, they're not like filming anything, but they sit in the study room and act like they are. And there's a couple of end credits scenes, which end credits are a big thing in community. Every single one is like completely different, and there's just like a weird tag to the show that usually have nothing to do with the overall arc of the episode, but they're just offhand, like 30-second little skit sort of things that are just crazy and out of nowhere. So, yeah, like there's a recurring season of or a couple of those where they have this morning show, and they'll have like they had Jeff on one time, and they're like, So, Jeff, tell us about your new movie. And he's just like, You guys just what are you doing? Like, there's no cameras, like we're just sitting in the study room, and like, and they're like, Set up this clip for us, and he's like, What clip? Like, and and then the and then the two of them are just like ha ha, that's a good one. Thanks for coming on the show. And so, again, like, and no one else knows what is going on, but they always loop hit them into it, and yeah, just crazy. Yeah, that's great. Wow. Nikki, I know you have one.
SPEAKER_03I did, uh, yeah, and there's there's a soundbite, right? That you that you pulled up. That was the one that I thought you're gonna bring up, but I love this.
SPEAKER_04I love that one too, but yeah, the Spanish rap.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_04So Mike, it what are they saying?
SPEAKER_05Because well, I got that the beer is good.
SPEAKER_04No, so there are subtitles intentionally during that. So again, like this this is during season one when they're in Spanish 101. So they're just random Spanish phrases just mashed together that kind of rhyme. That is so funny. I love that. There's a callback to that in season two where uh Betty White is a guest star for a couple episodes.
SPEAKER_03I've forgotten that too.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and so she has she sings along with them on another rap that again. Maybe we'll look it up look it up after this, but I highly recommend everyone go look it up because it's super funny. Uh oh, no.
SPEAKER_03Oh, no, no, no. I was gonna say that's why to talk to. Oh yeah. Uh no, you the next question was actually gonna be who's your favorite guest star and why?
SPEAKER_04Um, I don't know if you've qualified as a guest star. Okay, sorry. My favorite guest star is LeVar Burton. Uh, who is that? Uh Reading Rainbow.
SPEAKER_00No way!
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and also uh Star Trek. Star Trek, yeah, that's right. He comes on the show as LeVar Burton.
SPEAKER_05Uh, just he plays himself.
SPEAKER_04He plays himself in two episodes, I believe. That's amazing. Um, like well, the first one is because Pierce pretends he's dying, and so he's giving all the other group like wishes, and he knows that Troy loves LeVar Burton. Oh. And so he invites, he uses his rich people connections to get LeVar Burton to come meet Troy. That's but Troy is so petrified when he meets him that he just like stares like this, and just like he just stares into space, and LeVar Burton's like, So what what show do you know me best from? Is it Ring Rainbow? Is it Star Trek? Is it blah blah blah blah? Like, and Troy just like just deadpans the whole time, and so yeah, again, it's that's a funny one. Um, besides that, I we mentioned John Oliver was on the first couple seasons, and he just plays he plays a psych professor, but he's a drunk psych professor, and so his character is really funny.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, nice love me some John Oliver, he is hilarious. He is hilarious, I know he's good. Um well, okay, so we're we're coming up on time here, so why don't we just do a couple more questions to wrap
Character Growth Versus Pure Gags
SPEAKER_05it up? Um, what class at Greendale would you most want to take?
SPEAKER_04Um, I mean, history of ice cream sounds great. Yeah, it does sound great. The running joke would be ladders. There's a there's just a class called ladders. Okay, and there's specifically a scene where the professor gets up on a ladder, writes, welcome to ladders one-on-one, or something like that, and then the whole cra class just cheers like again, just yeah, a nonsense school. Um, yeah. I'm gonna go with the history of ice cream. Okay. I love that.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that's good. So this is kind of a deeper one to end on, but we've talked about so much of the goofiness of the show. Um, you know, the the bouncing around between these different genres and just the the sillier episodes and stuff like that. Um, do you feel like it hurt the the ability of the show to give good character development and like the storio of the show, or do you think that that is the show itself? Like, where would you land on that, I guess?
SPEAKER_04I think I think that Dan Harmon did a great job of finding ways to do each of these episodes, but still giving some character development to each of them. Like um, each character, like whenever they have these uh offshoot episodes, there's still like a central conflict between two of the group members, or you know, it's something that one of them is going through that the others are trying to help with. That is still like kind of like the the anchor point of the episode. And so he I think that Dan Harmon did a great job, which there's season four, which is called the Ghastly season, because Dan Harmon wasn't there. Um and it's just a little bit more off the wall than normal. But like again, like they just they do a good job of still addressing uh one of the characters' insecurities or fears or yeah, things that they have to are trying to get over while doing it in different ways every time. That I think that it works still. Like I think we still get good character build building and um history between them and uh like chemistry that like the the stuff happening adds to it more than it takes away from it.
SPEAKER_03See, here here's where I think that and this is me maybe being on on less like knowledgeable about the show, but to me because it has that very much a Seinfeld episodic feel to it, that there's not a lot of like ability of the the characters are like they're they're the characters are there as I mean I talked about the tropes. Obviously they don't stay as those same tropes from the beginning of the show, but then they just come like to me as I'm watching it, I'm just watching it because it's it's funny. It's you know what I mean? Like I'm not watching it for an overall story, I'm just watching it because it's goofy, it's fun, it's a good time. Um which again, we which we're gonna get into later. I think we'll will differentiate this between the next year that we're gonna talk about quite a bit.
SPEAKER_04I guess I will say that like, yeah, there's not as much like season or like yeah, A to B character arc, but you still get enough about each character in each episode that like every episode you watch builds that character a little bit more. So there's not like as much of a overall story to the show, but you still get some of that stuff that I feel like you don't get from other sitcoms. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it makes sense. Wow, Ben. Well, thank you so much. I'm happy to do it, man. I'd always happy to talk about community. Yeah, this is a great episode.
What’s Next And The Movie Rumors
SPEAKER_05Nick, what's coming up next for us?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I'm gonna I'm gonna be the the guest on the next episode talking about how I met your mother, um, which is my favorite show of of all time that I always uh come back to and um favorite sitcom of all time or favorite show of all time?
SPEAKER_05That's tough.
SPEAKER_03There's a difference. Oh, that's tough. Um I think I'm gonna go favorite show. Like I've I've watched it a lot. Many, many times I've I've watched it, and um, yeah, if if there was one thing that I would say that I am the most well versed, like I just I know it in an inside and out. If I was gonna go to like a trivia night, I bet you I could answer pretty much any question that somebody threw at me about it. Like, I just I don't know. I I just I've always appreciated it a lot, and um I'm hopeful that I'll be able to bring up some stuff that I mean I know Ben's a big fan of it too, so some stuff that he hasn't necessarily heard of before, certainly Michael since I've never seen it, so I'm excited to be exposed. It's it's a good one. I'm I'm hopeful that I can convince you. I know we're we're constantly working to convince Michael to get into these things. Yeah, but yeah, that's uh that's the next thing. We hinted at it though. The next thing for for the fandom of of community, what's what we got there, Mark?
SPEAKER_04There is the for a while there have been talks that a uh a movie is in the works. Dan Harmon himself has confirmed it. Um the biggest thing is that he said that getting everyone on the same schedule now that everyone has become big stars is a lot harder, especially you know, Donald Glover is uh meteoric, Joel McHale's always big, Ken Jong has been a very like active actor. Yeah. So again, like there's just so many of them that like getting it everything on the schedule has been difficult. Sure. So he said, Don't expect anytime soon, but it's in the works, like it's still is there like a script, or he just like he would supposedly there is. Okay, and like so Donald Glover um gets written off midway through season four, just because like with Dan Harmon being gone, the show took like kind of a different route in general. Donald Glover wanted to try his own thing, so he like asked to be written off the show, etc. Um, so like he he's been gone for like two seasons, and then you know, like, but they've confirmed that he's coming back for the movie. No way, that's cool. Nice. Yeah, so again, it's just a matter of giving everyone getting it on their schedules. Yeah, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_03Well, I I would say it's been a very uh successful first episode in the new studio. Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm I'm so happy. I'm I'm excited to to record here for the for the future episodes, and uh we'll catch you guys all next time.
Where To Follow And Send Fandoms
SPEAKER_03Thanks for joining us on this episode of Fandom of Fandoms. If you had fun, be sure to follow us at FOF.pod on Instagram and threads, and at fandom of fandoms on YouTube. Make sure to leave a rating or review wherever you get your podcast. It really helps new fans find the show. Lastly, if you've got a fandom you want us to cover, shoot us an email at fandomofpodcast at gmail.com. Until next time, keep being passionate, keep being curious, and keep being a fan.
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