The Community Conundrum

So, I've been watching Season 2 of Community for probably the fifth or sixth time, and it is still impossibly hard for me to understand just why this amazing show is not more successful. Oh, sure, you can point to the Dinner With Andre episode or the Hearts Of Darkness episode as examples of how esoteric the show can be, but for every episode like that, there are ten that are incredibly funny in a remarkably simple way. People constantly talk about how smart Community is, and they're right, but that's not the ONLY thing it is. It's not usually smart in the way that Arrested Development is smart - a sort of tricksy, dirty, pulling-one-over-on-the-censors kind of way (sometimes Community does do these kinds of jokes, and I love them, but that's not the point). Community's comedy is mostly just really funny, straight-up jokes. What differentiates it from other, non-mockumentary sitcoms like its timeslot competitor, The Big Bang Theory, is that Community's jokes are well-written. Awesomely-written, in fact. The writers and producers have a vision and a great deal of investment in their characters and they write incredible jokes for them. On top of that, Community has a stellar cast of comedians with some of the best improvisational skills, with Donald Glover leading the pack. Did you know "Set phasers to 'love me'" was an improv? He's stupendous. What makes people call Community "smart" is that they're simply not doing the same tired jokes that sitcoms have been doing for years. Once you scratch the surface, one Chuck Lorre sitcom is pretty much exactly the same as another - tired jokes about gender roles or fat people where glorified assholes are dicks to and then sleep with women much more attractive than they are. Throw in some thinly-veiled homophobia and you've got 83% of sitcoms on the air. Community's brand of comedy doesn't generally require the viewer to think or be knowledgeable about anything erudite or complicated - it just requires an openness to jokes that don't reinforce all the stupid, previously-constructed concept of what a sitcom is. Sitcoms don't have to all be "Men and women are so different! How will they ever get along in this crazy world? Also, don't get too close with that good friend of yours or people will think you're gay!" Community proves these shows can be silly, whimsical, creative, heartfelt, and, best of all, surprising, while still being continuously laugh-out-loud hilarious.

Community is also one of, if not the most diverse comedy casts currently on TV. White people who run things seem to think that people are so used to seeing mostly white people on their televisions that if a cast isn't mostly white, they won't watch. This is a dumb, racist argument, but then we live in a pretty dumb, racist time. One of Community's hooks is that this is a group of people of differing ages, races, religions, and sexualities (man do I love the Dean's crazy queer pansexual imp), but they come together and, without much trouble at all, find friendship and common ground - without losing their identities. There aren't really any racist jokes, but there are some great jokes about race ("Fiddler, Please!" being one of my favorites). But really it's just nice watching an ensemble of characters (and actors) who are markedly different from one another. Watching white people hanging out with only other white people all the time is boring - but it's better than the other option, like what's happened on 2 Broke Girls, where the characters of color are all horrible racist stereotypes. I see the genius work of actors like Danny Pudi, Donald Glover, and Ken Jeong, and the only reason I can fathom them not being nominated for awards is racism. I mean, there are probably other contributing factors, like the general lack of respect for comedies overall, but they are just SO GOOD I don't see how so many people can ignore that. Absolutely no one can tell me with a straight face that Johnny Galecki is a better actor than any of those three dudes, because it's simply not true. And while Modern Family definitely has its moments (and they all belong to Phil and Luke), it is still an incredibly standard sitcom about a very wealthy white family. Yet Hollywood says, "Congratulations, your show has a gay couple, here are all the awards!" Ugh. Give me Troy and Abed's brand of soulmates over Cam and Mitchell any day. I just think it's depressingly ludicrous how few characters of color AND substance are featured on network television, and that it's the networks' responsibility to be actively working to fix this problem. Instead, I hear complaints about how Community isn't relatable, and can't help but wonder if that's because viewers have been trained to only relate to white people.

The other issue that trips me up when people talk about how Community is too "smart" to maintain a widespread audience is the amount of great slapstick that they do. There is really a remarkable amount of physical comedy on the show - the only reason it seems "smart" is that they do it really, really well. From Glover's freaked-out Levar Burton face to Joel McHale's favorite season 2 moment, when Jeff begrudgingly lets Chang into his apartment and Chang almost instantly breaks a lamp with a pair of nunchucks, to the Christmas fight with the Anthony Michael Hall gang...these are just a small sampling of the great physical comedy they do. Danny Pudi deserves a special shout-out here, because he inhabits Abed so completely that often my favorite moments of an episode are just something small he does with his hands or face, or any time his teeny-tiny Kermit legs are highlighted. These are things that are just indisputably funny! And saying that not enough people can relate to this show is a cop-out for NBC not wanting and/or not understanding how to adequately support and promote it.

Which brings me to another complaint, one that probably deserves to be the subject of a longer post, and that is the way viewers are counted. We can all agree that the Nielsen rating system is incredibly outdated and makes absolutely no sense in our modern times, right? So why is it still being used to determine the fate of some great shows? It especially makes no sense for a show like Community, whose following is mostly young people. Because guess what young people like to do? Watch television on the Internet. It boggles my mind that there's no system, as far as I can tell, that equates Internet viewers with Nielsen ratings. Even if you watch a show on a network website or on Hulu, those stats do not hold as much weight as this antiquated system that uses a statistical model that can't possibly function correctly in the new world of television we inhabit. The networks who vie for the young, trendsetting demographic need to figure out a new way to advertise to us, to accurately count our viewing habits, and to keep making the shows we love. This is the problem that NBC in particular has been having. NBC's viewership skews young and liberal, meaning that some of their biggest fans (like me) might not even own a TV. I keep hearing reports about how the network is struggling, and I think the reason for that is twofold: one, their shows, in particular their comedies, are better, but they do not appeal to the lowest common denominator viewer, who just wants to see the same thing done over and over again. They also haven't managed to replicate the reality show successes of American Idol, Survivor, The Amazing Race, or Dancing With The Stars, and trying to appeal to that LCD audience by bringing back Fear Factor doesn't really seem to be working. And that brings me to two, which is that they need to stop trying to win over CBS-loving conservatives and instead cultivate the audience they have. Make some cutting edge drama - don't try to make another The Good Wife (one is enough already). But more importantly, NBC needs to be the liberal network they both desire and fear to be. Fire Tracy Morgan. Put more gay characters on their shows, and not just on SVU. Keep making shows with multiracial casts. Don't be afraid of exposing the lying, fear-mongering, toxic bullshit that some people spew in this country. And find a new way to advertise to all the smart, young liberals out there. Because I really believe that NBC's success is being undervalued, and they need to figure that shit out so they can BRING BACK MY COMMUNITY!

I really miss it, guys. I don't know what I'm going to do if it's cancelled. Quite possibly it will be the origin story for my future as a drunk, embittered critic: "If only Community had lasted one more season, then everything would have been different..."

Damn The Man! Save The Empire! Six seasons and a movie!

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