Community (TV show): (Postmodernism)

The NBC TV show Community is a meta-comedy about a group of students who attend the dysfunctional Greendale Community College. The show is centred on a hot-shot ex-lawyer named Jeff Winger, who is forced to go to community college to legitimize his lawyer degree, where he founds a Spanish study group in order to get close to his love interest, Brita Perry. As the show plays out, Jeff Winger learns to trust and care about people other than himself, while still retaining his snarky and dignified personality. The show uses pop culture references and meta-humour as its main comedic selling points. Needless to say, it exhibits most of the qualities of postmodernism, such as intertextuality, self-awareness, and a portrayal of diverse voices.

 The show references real life characters and movies, usually through the character Abed, whose whole personality is he “connects with people through movie [references]”. The running gags of Jeff Winger looking like Ryan Seacrest and Brita probably being named after a water filter are some classic examples of the kind of references they use in the show. The Seacrest joke is actually an intertextual reference to Joel McHale’s work as the host of The Soup, where he was the bud of the same joke. This blurs the line between fiction and reality as well, having the same character played across several TV shows. The history of the show’s creation itself is relatively intertextual, being based on the life of the show’s writer Dan Harmon. Another thing that blurs the line is the “OldWhiteManSays” twitter account. What is simultaneously a joke on the show and an actual twitter account; the lines from the show are broadcast live during the playing of each new episode. It is also a fact that an episode or pilot of Community was released exclusively as a twitter conversation between the actors playing the rolls online.

 The episodes, such as the Presidential Debate Episode or the Zombie/Halloween episode, are usually themed episodes which fully satirize the conventions of whatever they are spoofing on. They mock twist endings in the Conspiracy Theories episode. They challenge the discourse of what makes a good leader in the Presidential Elections episode. They even parody meta-films and postmodernism itself in the Documentary Filmmaking episode. As a postmodern text Community exhibits self-awareness through Abed’s dialogue where he submerges their lives in an “episode” metaphor, in addition to other methods. He refers to his friends as “characters”, and the days in their lives as “episodes”, defined by their archetypal plots. For instance, in “Cooperative Calligraphy”, Abed outright states that that day is a “bottle episode” after they find themselves trapped in the study room with no escape achievable in the near future.

The show takes common, stereotypical characters like the buff jock and hip senior and enhances them with elements of personal depth (e.g. sensitivity, phobias). All of the characters exemplify this diversity and rejection of universality, and not just physically. As the show progresses, each character unveils something new that changes the audience’s perspectives of them. This often involves moving away from the storyline by interrupting the linear flow of time. Interestingly, the “Flashback” episode of Community flashed back to never-before-seen footage of their adventures (probably ideas that never made it through development), which is a rare feat for a TV show. The effort the producers put into the show is partially why Community is such a well-received program, the other reason is quality, which the show seems to radiate.