“Abed, the mafia movie is over.” – Jeff
While some have criticized Community‘s reliance on pop culture references, I say it thrives on it.
Almost all of my friends and I easily lapse back and forth from banter to pop cultural asides to occasional matters serious and real life-ish, and Community functions intuitively in that mode. We know, for example, that Pierce (Chevy Chase) is constantly and desperately trying to do whatever it takes to fit in with the gang, to be hip, to be pop culturally savvy. So it was therefore hilarious that he, apropos of nothing, started to drop the term “streets ahead” to the study group (you know, the one that never actually studies).
While it clearly doesn’t resonate with group’s amorphous sense of hipness, they take the time to dissect and discuss none the less. Inquisitive Annie (Alison Brie) wonders if it means something cool… or something else. Pierce rejoins that if you have to ask… well, then you’re streets behind. What’s especially compelling and funny though is that as the topic shifts to something much more important – racing to the cafeteria in time to get their hands on those delicious chicken fingers before they run out (I’m guessing Jamie Oliver and his Food Revolution would certainly not approve!) – “streets ahead” is thrown in as an off camera aside of approval.
In other words, Pierce, defying the odds, had managed to get the catch phrase to seep into the group’s pop culture vocabulary. And that, kids, is both funny and cool.
Speaking of pop cultural references, Community wins my heart forever and ever with Abed’s (Dany Pudi) segue into Goodfellas-like voiceover, which transitions into an entire Martin Scorsese-esque sequence about the “crew’s” moves to get their hands on those delicious chicken fingers, replete with ’60s croon-y soundtrack. Whether or not you’ve seen Goodfellas (and everyone really needs to see Goodfellas), that’s not just funny, that’s epic.
The “mafia movie” evolves into an ego battle between Jeff and Abed. It works really well in that it plays off what we already know about these characters (Abed is a walking/talking voiceover/self-directing director of the movie of his life, Jeff’s position as “head” of the group is crucial to his persona). There’s even a nice character-driven at the end where we learn a little bit more about these two characters (in every sense of the word.
And that’s good TV. No, great. Streets ahead.
More thoughts on “Contemporary American Poultry”:
- “Not that I’m Catholic, but if it were cool to eat God, he’d be a chicken finger.” – Troy
- I love that Starburns (Dino Stamatopoulos) now appears regularly. More Starburns is good.
- We know Jeff (Joel McHale) and his renowned power over the gang that it’s funny that his ability to shush the group with a simple hand gesture fails him.
- It’s such a cool indicator of how far Community is willing to take things that everyone (except Jeff) begins wearing odd letterman jackets at the peak of “the family’s” run. Oh sorry, the family. In italics.
- “And for your information, I don’t have an ego. My Facebook picture is a landscape photo.” – Jeff
- “My monkey hates this caviar.” – Troy
- More pop cultural awesomeness: Abed likening himself and Jeff to Michael Knight and KITT on Knight Rider.
From Around the Web: Community, “Contemporary American Poultry”:
- TV with Alan Sepinwall: We got Abed-as-Henry-Hill voiceover, push-ins, doo-wop on the soundtrack, freeze-frames, the extended piano coda to “Layla” accompanying a massacre of sorts, and even a brief homage to the end of the famous tracking shot of Henry and Karen at the Copa.
- A.V. Club: If I seem hard on the show sometimes, it’s only because I think this show has the potential to be one of the greatest TV comedies of all time, and I really love every step it takes closer to that post, to not merely being on the level of the best comedies on right now but on the level of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Cheers or Seinfeld.
Some stats and info about Community, “Contemporary American Poultry”
TV SHOW – Community
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 21
AIRED ON – April 22nd, 2010
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – NBC/Yahoo! Screen
GENRE – Comedy, College Shows
CREATED BY – Dan Harmon
CAST – Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Donald Glover, Chevy Chase, Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Yvette Nicole Brown, Ken Jeong, Jim Rash
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.