This week's "Community" featured the much-anticipated animated episode, a creative spin on the obligatory Christmas episode that every show must do this time of year. The result was an unexpectedly fantastic ride into the absurd, with a surprisingly poignant core to the search behind the true meaning of Christmas and a reminder that "Community" may just be one of the three best damn sitcoms on TV.
It's clear to viewers from the first frame, but Abed begins the ride by announcing that the entire group is now animated in the stop-motion style of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. His friends' concern for his mental state rises, to the point where they set up an intervention to free their quirky genius of his self-imposed claymation prison. Abed, however, takes the newfound animation reality as a sign that he and the group must re-discover the meaning of Christmas, and dives into the experience wholeheartedly. What follows is a Winter Wonderland trip that borders on sheer candycane insanity, and you just know that for a show to pay the kind of homage they're doing here, song and dance numbers are mandatory. Oh yes.
Soon, the entire group finds themselves swept into Abed's narrative, with Professor Duncan (as the stop-motion hating evil wizard) holding the students under hypnosis to explore Abed’s snowy subconscious unravel the truth behind their journey. He starts seeing everyone as rejects from the Island of Misfit Toys, each one representing the uglier shades of their personalities: Britta's a robot (for her cold, emotionless demeanor), Jeff is a mean-spirited jack-in-the-box (he's a cynical bastard with little heart), Shirley is an infant (a God-obsessed crybaby with no use for logic), Pierce is a Teddy Bear (uhh), and Troy becomes a "Troy Soldier" - too good.
Soon Abed discovers where the true meaning of Christmas is hidden: in a Christmas present box, of course. The box gave way to another, and another, and another, all the way down to a little box that held....
Abed: It's the first season of Lost on DVD.
Pierce: That's the meaning of Christmas?
Abed: No it's a metaphor. It represents lack of payoff.
Zing!
Through a series of Christmas-magic claymation events, the group bands together to kick Professor Duncan out of Abed’s fantasy so they can enjoy a peaceful Christmas together, and all ends well on the best episode of "Community" we've seen this season. Put simply, “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” worked because it felt rooted in a basic reality we can all relate to. The poignant gut-hammer of the truth behind why Abed decided to retreat to his cartoon was a very tender moment, and added a depth of gravity to this otherwise fantastically out-there episode. We learned more about Abed in a 22-minute cartoon that featured humbugs than we have in 35 episodes. That counts for a lot, in these parts.
Great care was clearly taken in the details as well, from the Polar Express-like train (who had a setting called “Bjork”), to the ba-hum-bugs - a swarm of insects that attack those who are particularly snarky (Jeff, watch out!). Best song? "Sad Christmas Song," of course.The live-action reflection of the cast while watching TV at the very end is precisely the level of attention to detail that keeps us coming back to "Community" week after week.
To get an idea of just how much work (and fun) went into this week's show, check out a couple hilarious behind-the-scenes clips from the making of the animated Christmas episode:
Part 2:
Classic Quotes:
Abed: Everyone be perfectly sincere. Humbugs are attracted to sarcasm.
Jeff: Wow. Somewhere out there Tim Burton just got a boner.
Abed: If I can find the meaning of Christmas, everything will go back to normal.
Jeff: Asterisk.
Shirley: As a modern christian I’ve learned to be sensitive to other cultures’ jealousies.
Abed: It’s the most Christmas-y planet in the universe. Its atmosphere is 7% cinnamon!
