Community/Recap/S3/E01 Biology 101

This year will be more normal than the previous two, as explained by the opening musical number.

We're gonna have more fun

And be less weird

Than the first two years combined!

Pierce tries to rejoin the group, only to be edged out by Jeff when he claims that their friendship has evolved beyond needing to be in the same class. In reality, though, he only wants Pierce gone, and when he gets kicked out of the biology class it sends him panicking.

Chang's been trying to live in the air ducts, though Troy has convinced Dean Pelton that it's just Annie's Boobs the monkey, causing him to get the ducts gassed.

The Dean, meanwhile, wants no more of the National Lampoonery that's been going on the past two years and tries to take a more active administrative role, starting by chastising the Dean of Greendale's Air Conditioning Repair Annex for purchasing a new coffee machine. However, his efforts to crack down reveal that not only does the Annex have a higher rate of graduate employment, 80% of Greendale's funds come from it. The Vice-Dean subsequently gets the Annex split off, leaving Greendale virtually bankrupt. The security guards quit and Chang becomes their replacement, working for room and board.

In a third, smaller subplot, Britta tries to help Abed cope with Cougar Town's premiere getting bumped to January by hooking him on British shows. Her successful efforts lead her to decide to major in psychology and become a therapist.

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The Community episode "Biology 101" provides examples of

• Actor Allusion: "You feel me" is said several times in the episode much like another show Michael K. Wiliams stars in.
  • Also, the Dean saying the "National Lampoonery" will come to an end plays along with the idea that Chevy Chase won't be returning. Which he does.
• All Blacks are Alike: The study group thinks Jeff thinks this after he sees a picture of Pierce and Sugar Cube in Kane's office and assuming that it depicts Kane. He saw it from a distance! He saw the prison jumpsuit!
• Analogy Backfire:
  • Paradoxed. Britta actively shows how well she ruins things by ruining Troy's Ruining Club analogy, thus, proving his point.
• Ax Crazy: Jeff, literally for both criteria.
• Badass Beard: The Dean tries one out, and it doesn't turn out very well.
• Badass Boast:

Vice-Dean Robert Laybourne: You could have lived the rest of your life in ignorance and died a happy pansexual imp. But you wanted to feel power this year. Well, now you are going to feel my power, as it surges downward from me straight through you from nostril to rectum now until the end of time. And that's 'wassup'.

Dean Pelton: [Panicking]... I forgot everything you said before 'rectum'!

• British Brevity: Discussed.
• Call Back:
  • Six seasons and a movie!
  • Abed becomes catatonic when incredibly stressed.
• Captain Ersatz: Inspector Spacetime
  • Made all the more entertaining because this is one of the few instances (if not the only one) where they don't give the name of the actual show (see Cougartown, M*A*S*H, etc.).
• Cliffhanger Copout: The second series ended with Pierce declaring he was done with the study group and walking out on them, leaving audiences to wonder what this would mean in the next series. The resolution is... Pierce walking into the study room, explaining he'd changed his mind, and asking them to take him back. Probably deliberate, since it was never likely that Pierce would be gone from the group for good.
• Crowd Song
• Digging Himself Deeper: Jeff's frantic attempts to explain his various rationales for the All Blacks Are Alike example and why that doesn't make him a racist only serve to make him look more racist.
• Downer Ending: Cougarton Abbey. Doubles as Black Comedy.
• Dream Sequence: Jeff's kicks off the episode.
• Drunk with Power: As part of his drive to kick back on 'National Lampooning', the Dean starts throwing his weight around. Unfortunately, this antagonizes the Vice-Dean of the Air Conditioning Repair Annex... who, as it turns out, is considerably more powerful.
• Dueling Shows: Fictional example, Doctor Who vs. Inspector Spacetime. Word of God is that Doctor Who is a ripoff of Inspector Spacetime.
• Eating Lunch Alone: Leonard is quick to call out Jeff on this.
• Easily Forgiven: Part of the Cliffhanger Copout. Pierce is automatically forgiven by everyone (except Jeff) for all of his evil actions last season. Pierce also forgives the study group rather easily for alienating him.
• Even Racists Have Standards: Even Pierce seems to think that Jeff implying that "all black people are in prison" is going too far.
• Evolving Credits: Rash had been added as a regular.
• Flowery Insults:

Troy: You are human tennis elbow. You are a pizza burn on the roof of the world's mouth. You are the opposite of Batman.

• Fridge Brilliance: Inspector Spacetime would appear to be just a ripoff of Doctor Who that looks even cheaper. However, it's mentioned that it started in 1962, meaning that Doctor Who itself is the ripoff.
• Funny Aneurysm Moment: Fans found Abed's freakout over Cougar Town being benched a LOT less funny once NBC's Spring 2012 lineup was revealed.
  • Also when the actual Cougar Town's production order was cut from 22 to 15.
  • In light of the benching, the study group's conversation upon learning that Chang is a security guard where they all matter-of-factly discuss that "this is the year we all die" takes on this edge as well.
• Funny Background Event: More of an unfunny background event; several students can be seen walking across campus normally in the background of Jeff's musical fantasy.
• Genius Bruiser: Professor Kane got his PHD from 6,205 hours of reading books from a library...in prison. Also doubles as Badass.
• Heroic BSOD: Abed nearly has one when he discovers Cougar Town's been moved to midseason and has a full one when Cougarton Abbey ends at six episodes with a mass suicide.
• Ho Yay:

Troy: Speaking of figuring things out, me and Abed have an announcement.
[Uncertain looks between Annie, Shirley and Britta]
Abed: Troy and I are living together.
Annie: [underwhelmed] Oh, that's...
Shirley: That's nice!
Troy: If you want to get us a gift, we're registered at Linens and Things.
Abed: We have plenty of linens; we mainly want the things.

• Hypocritical Humor: Jeff, having just attacked the study room table with an axe screaming about how he's going to kill it because it controls their lives, on Dean Pelton:

Jeff: What is with that guy? [does 'crazy' motion with his finger]

• • A meta-example; the show essentially announces that it's going to dial back the zany weirdness a bit from the previous years... by having the characters launch into a big, flashy song-and-dance musical number about how they're going to dial back the zany weirdness a bit.
  • Pierce getting shocked when Jeff appears to be racist.
• Imagine Spot: Jeff gets one. It's a musical number. About how much less zany this year will be.
• Ironic Echo: When throwing his weight around to Vice-Dean Laybourne, the Dean demands to know 'wassup'. Later, upon being confronted with the true power of the Air-Conditioning Repair Annex, the Dean is informed in no uncertain terms by Laybourne precisely 'wassup', and he's a lot more intimidating.
• Irony: Jeff's dream shows just how much he wants everything to be more "calm and normal." But in this episode, it's mainly him disrupting the calm and bringing the crazy.
• "I Want" Song: We're gonna get more calm and normal! We're gonna fix our state of mind!
• Large Ham: Chang is seen carrying an actual large ham, for no apparent reason other than to lampshade that he is one.
• Metaphorgotten: The Dean has put a lot of thought into what he'd do if he was running a monkey hotel.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Abed was in a funk to begin after learning Cougar Town wouldn't premier until midseason, but he was still functioning. Britta's intervention puts him into a complete catatonic state.
• Not So Different: Jeff and Pierce. Jeff's breakdown over the episode is a mini-version of the character arc Pierce underwent over the previous season, and he begins to be ostracised from the group for the same reasons they ostracised Pierce.
• Offscreen Teleportation

Pierce: I'm back.

• Pet the Dog: Pierce's lie about bribing the teacher to kick Jeff out of class. May border on a Heroic Sacrifice, considering that Pierce sacrificed his rarely-achieved moral high ground in order to redeem Jeff in the group's eyes.
  • Made even more heroic when you consider that of all the members of the study group, Jeff was the most antagonistic against him, especially in this episode.
• Promoted to Opening Credits: Jim Rash (Dean Pelton) is added to the opening credits starting with this episode.
• Rainbow Motif: The last scene of the episode provides a blink and you'll miss example. Each member of the study group is wearing a particular color motif, that clockwise around the table goes increases up the specturm. The specific colors involved are grey (Jeff), violet (Annie), blue (Shirley), green (Pierce), yellow (Troy), orange (Abed), and red (Britta).
• Reality Subtext: There seems to be more than a few references to having less money to spend on the show.
  • Also parodied in the opening musical number, which seems like a desperate plea to get more "mainstream" viewers, but is actually Jeff's utopian vision of a year without Pierce.
• Precision F-Strike: Averted in "Biology 101". A furious Jeff cuts himself off right before he tells Pierce to "shut the ____ up".
• Scary Black Man: Prof. Kane is very intense.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules: As Jeff says, Professor Kane never took a bribe in his life.
• Serious Business: The fact that Cougar Town is delayed to mid-season nearly provokes a mental breakdown in Abed. The fact that its British counterpart only lasted six episodes sends him into a catatonic state.
• Ship Tease: The biggest one would be Jeff/Annie, but Abed/Annie, and Abed/Britta are also hinted at.
  • Abed/Troy also gets a pretty big spotlight (see the Ho Yay entry).
• Shout-Out:
  • The name Cougarton Abbey is one for Downton Abbey.
  • The ending of Cougarton Abbey is one to Blackadder
  • Inspector Spacetime is one to Doctor Who.
  • In Jeff's psychotropic-induced meltdown is one for the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the upright study-room table as the The Monolith .
  • The opening song-and-dance number is not dissimilar to those which appear on Glee or High School Musical.
  • Breaking Bad.
  • "I know who Sean Penn is! I seen Milk!"
  • At the end, as Jeff destroys the table.
• Status Quo Is God: Lampshaded, Jeff and Dean Pelton both think things are going to change a lot this year, only to be proven quite wrong.
• Stern Teacher: Prof. Kane is presented as one.
• Stylistic Suck: Inspector Spacetime somehow manages to look even cheaper than Doctor Who ever could even on it's lowest budgets.
• Subject 101: Biology 101
• Suicide as Comedy: The ending of Cougarton Abbey.
• The Man Behind the Man: Turns out, Greendale's Air-Conditioning Repair Annex is where practically Greendale's entire budget comes from, and Vice-Dean Robert Laybourne has far more power and clout than Dean Pelton. As Dean Pelton unfortunately discovers.
• Tempting Fate: Saying out loud that Pierce would never be coming back.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Jeff towards Pierce.
• Trans-Atlantic Equivalent: Cougar Town and Cougarton Abbey.
• Up, Up, and Away: Opening Shot.
• Villainous Breakdown: Jeff, who takes over Pierce's normal role as the group 'villain' upon losing his place in the biology class, ends up attacking the study room table with a fireaxe. Pierce even lampshades it when he lies to the group to enable Jeff to be redeemed at his expense:

Pierce: I lied. But you seemed to have a worse time being the bad guy than me.