Why I miss 'Community': Because it's hard to be Jewish in Russia, yo
One of many hilarious musical numbers the show has given us
Donald Glover in "Community."
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"Community" fans got one bit of good news today, but it wasn't THE good news we've all been hoping for, which is NBC announcing a return date for the show. And as long as "Community" and its fans remain in limbo, I'm going to mark every Thursday at 8 with a different clip exemplifying just why it is that I love and miss it.
Some weeks, I've put a lot of deep thought into finding a clip that makes a statement about one of the regular characters, or one of the themes of the series, or about the show's huge amibition. Tonight, though, I just went with one that makes me laugh every single time I see it: Troy and a group of fellow African-American students performing "Fiddler, Please," Greendale's all-black adaptation of "Fiddler on the Roof."
(And no, I did not just choose this as a nod to Fienberg, who played Perchik in a high school production of "Fiddler.")
Of course, "Community" has done a lot of fine musical numbers. If embedding on the clip wasn't disabled, I might have gone with Troy and Abed's duet (accompanied by some badass Senor & Senora Chang dancing) on "Somewhere Out There," and there was a request in today's earlier post for Annie's boop-be-doop song from the Christmas episode. So we can certainly open a dialogue about the show's use of music, both original songs and well-placed pop songs, or I can just extend the usual blanket invitation to talk about any and everything "Community"-related.
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Login or create a HitFix account Login Signupjondunn
February 16, 2012 at 9:17PM EST Reply to Commentthe music in this show is amazing and part of what I think makes it the best comedy on TV. Harmon has an amazing resource in Ludwig Goransson - what a talented person to have in charge of music for a tv show.
Here is 'Community Medley' off of the soundtrack with a lot of the great musical cues from season 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXkkdp-HACE
and here is my favorite musical piece from season 1, it was used in the valentines dance in Communication Studies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8fSnMqQQYk&feature=related
jondunn and of course as Alan mentioned, the great musical arrangement used in the 'somewhere out there' montage as well as the 'Kiss from a Rose/Jesus Loves Marijuana matchup' from this season!
February 16, 2012 at 9:19PM ESTother comedies like parks and 30 rock have absolutely NOTHING on community when it comes to music and production values
Ian I agree that Community has the best production value of the Thursday lineup, but I wouldn't discount Parks and Rec or 30 Rock in those departments either. At the very least, all three shows are well photographed and directed. Also, Jeff Richmond's songs and score for 30 Rock are fequently very good too.
February 17, 2012 at 11:11AM ESTSingle camera sitcoms are still an expensive and tasking challenge to produce for prime time television.
dmstorm22
February 16, 2012 at 9:19PM EST Reply to CommentThe "Somewhere Out There" scenes were just brilliant. To me, it was one of the first special moments of the show. It easily could have been way too cheesy, but they way they did that was just excellent.
Kate
February 16, 2012 at 9:44PM EST Reply to CommentCommunity's use of music constantly amuses me. It's just fucking innovative.
They proved in one episode that they could do it better than Glee, but they've also show over the course of three seasons that music in a sitcom can dd another dimension of comedy. Or heartwarming awesomeness.
M.A.Peel
February 16, 2012 at 10:13PM EST Reply to CommentMaybe this will help while everything is in limbo.
The Paley Center is holding a Viewing Party for the Community PaleyFest panel, live streamed on the big screen from the Saban Theatre in Los Angeles, with a Greendale Pep Rally hosted by New York Comic Con before the broadcast. March 3, 9 pm to midnight. Info
http://www.paleycenter.org/2012-paleyfest-nycc-community
philly
February 16, 2012 at 10:57PM EST Reply to Comment"Somewhere Out There" is one of my favorite moments ever in Community. Was so happy for Chang, so happy for Shirley and her presentation, and the fact that Troy came back to sing with Abed to get their pet mouse.
JonG
February 16, 2012 at 11:14PM EST Reply to Commenti bet next week Alan writes about his cameo
XeRocks81
February 16, 2012 at 11:30PM EST Reply to CommentI hate it when you use Hulu clips, they dont't play in canada grrr.... Fuck Hulu, seriously
Roy I second that from the Netherlands.
February 17, 2012 at 7:50AM ESTRoy I love the Community posts, but hate Hulu.
February 17, 2012 at 8:02AM ESTUGABugKiller
February 16, 2012 at 11:54PM EST Reply to CommentAlan, you totally Britta'd this musical choice.
How can it not be Jeff and the Dean's beautiful Kiss From A Rose duet?
Totally streets behind, Alan. ;-)
Col Bat Guano
February 17, 2012 at 12:03AM EST Reply to CommentWait, how did the Annie song not win this competition?
War Chief Shake Zula
February 17, 2012 at 1:13AM EST Reply to CommentI'm actually thinking of Troy and Abed's rap duet from the Christmas episode at the moment - that was wicked awesome (and this is coming from someone who's normally a vehement opponent of rap in his daily music selection).
And w/ that said, I'm going to use this space to re-emphasize the awesome-soundingness of Giancarlo Esposito coming onto the show. (if those episodes ever air)
amg Mine is the other duet from Troy and Abed in that ep...baby boomer Santa. Cracks me up every time!
February 17, 2012 at 3:05AM ESTJon
February 17, 2012 at 1:18AM EST Reply to CommentI can't stand community. I hope it gets canceled.
Jon
February 17, 2012 at 1:25AM EST Reply to CommentI think that shows boring. I hate Britta, Pierce, the black lady, and the loser from E! Who plays the Zack Morris character. I guarantee it's going to get canceled because of it's low ratings, and I'm glad.
John james
February 17, 2012 at 1:28AM EST Reply to CommentI hope it gets canceled. Actually it will due to horrible ratings, and stupid characters that are based off of saved by the bell. Goodbye community
John james
February 17, 2012 at 1:30AM EST Reply to CommentTerrible show! Mark my words... It will be canceled due to poor ratings.
CinemaPsycho You suck. And why do you read this if you don't like the show?
February 17, 2012 at 2:45AM ESTHector I love that this guy dedicated 12 minutes of his life to making these posts. Another way to identify Community's unequalled greatness: How much its quality intimidates certain people, like Jon/John here, who prefer a dumber, simpler sort of television.
February 17, 2012 at 4:03AM ESTTroy You're the AT&T of people!
February 17, 2012 at 8:14AM ESTKate
February 17, 2012 at 8:35AM EST Reply to CommentOh god, take that painful unbearably awkward fanservice Annie song reference out of this post, it does not belong. This post should only reference good things.
Lisa The Annie song was hilarious even while it was being sexy. The song was a total parody of those types of performances and it makes me laugh every time. I realize that's probably not the sole reason it is a fan favorite, but it was really funny.
February 17, 2012 at 12:29PM ESTGeoff Rose Have to agree with Lisa. As Winger says halfway through, "okay, you've turned a corner and made this unbearably creepy." It goes above and beyond the usual teasing and makes it horribly flagrant and just wrong. And then comes the awkward laughter...
February 18, 2012 at 1:31AM ESTA Kate, did you look deeper into the song's meaning? http://persephonemagazine.com/2011/12/deconstructing-comedy-community-christmas/
February 19, 2012 at 7:30AM ESTCris @Geoff Rose The fact that Annie went too far with the sexy baby act is what makes it funny and not just a flagrant case of "let's put a hot girl in a sexy dress". I'm a little baffled as to how you can realize that Jeff describes the situation perfectly when he says, "you hit a diminishing point of return on the sexiness." But you don't realize that when he says it, he's basically punctuating the joke. It's like the writers saying "Yeah, we know that wasn't sexy. That was the point." The first time I watched, I was a bit hesitant and waiting to see how/if it would pay off. I thought the things Anni was doing, like trying to eat mistletoe and crawling on the floor, were funny, but I did feel embarrassed for the character and wondered why they were having her act like an inept sex object. But once Jeff said his line, I realized the writers were on the same wavelength.
February 19, 2012 at 5:51PM EST@Kate As far as it being fan service, presumably to the fan boys who want to see Annie doing something sexy, it seems to me more of a friendly mocking of those fan boys to me. Like "you want to see Annie being sexy, well here's Annie being sexy." Except that Annie's not a character who knows anything about how to seduce a man, so her attempts to be sexy are actually embarrassing. Fan service would have just had Annie just act sexy rather than going a couple steps past.
I just read the article from A, and I hadn't thought about it in those terms, but I think the author is mostly right-on.
Chrissy
February 17, 2012 at 11:55AM EST Reply to CommentThis clip comes from my least favorite episode of Community, but it is still one of the bits that most consistently gets me giggling.
Thanks, Alan, for continuing to champion this show (and Chuck before it) and for not letting out of sight mean out of mind.
Jaynee
February 17, 2012 at 12:25PM EST Reply to CommentSpecifically regarding the Christmas episode, I'm sorry but the birthday cake song the kids sang to Shirley had me crying with laughter, mainly because of Shirley's fantastic reactions to the lyrics the kids were singing.
I agree that the music of "Community" is almost like a cast member along with the rest. So intrinsic to the show that it makes me wonder what the show would be like if they DIDN'T have the music involved!
Margaret Nikoleit
February 18, 2012 at 12:41AM EST Reply to CommentOh man, speaking of Community, I just saw this behind-the-scenes musical gem featuring Danny Pudi and Alison Brie: http://www.twitvid.com/F2B0H
Geoff Rose
February 18, 2012 at 1:39AM EST Reply to CommentTotally loved the one-off joke of "Fiddler, Please" if only for the DVRpause-waitdidtheygothere?-omgtheywentthere laugh it gave me. Then the go back to it for the stinger, and that's all it is, over and over.
And yet, as simple a joke as it was, god but it was effective (and well summed up Fiddler). I can't help but wonder if Phil Rosenthal would have benefited from this before the whole Exporting Raymond fiasco. I started watching this, and he's dumbfounded he can't get through to the writers the sense of commonality, everyday suffering made light of, etc. and I'm thinking, "Phil, the Russians ostracize Jews. They don't have Jewish humor in their comedy."
Sarah
February 18, 2012 at 5:10PM EST Reply to CommentSomewhere Out There was the moment I fell in love with this show.