Community

[domino harvey]

...and the show hit a series-low rating last night of 1.4

[knives]

America=/= get it.

[domino harvey]

The CW beat NBC last night. The CW

[knives]

Ug, part of it though is that they simply are using an outdated system. Did you know none of those tracking devices are in dorms. That alone should explain why semi-popular shows seem to be entirely unknown via ratings.

[Murdoch]

Are the Nielsen ratings still the industry standard for measuring an audience size? Also, how much do streaming sites like Hulu and on-demand factor in ratings calculations? I don't know how effective a barometer it is, but Community always seems to be among the most popular shows on Hulu.

[knives]

They don't count Hulu ratings at all. It's still 100% Nielsen at least officially.

[Matt]

Do you have some evidence to back that claim?

[knives]

I don't know where the article is, but around the time last season ended there was a write up about ratings, NBC, and the possibility of shows like Community and P&R surviving for a long time where an NBC executive said something along the lines of advertisers are only counting the Nielsen rating so that's what they're doing. Then he gave an oblique reference to Hulu that suggested (at least to me) that there was at least some mild consideration of Hulu ratings keeping these 'underground' shows afloat. If I can find it again I'll post it. Until then though this review makes it pretty clear that Hulu doesn't matter nearly as much as Nielsen.

[mfunk9786]

I think the prospect of syndication is going to save this show. A comparable situation is Scrubs, which went on to make a mint and lasted a few more years than it probably should have.

[domino harvey]

Spoiler

Holy shit, is she calling it "the edible complex"?

EDIT: Okay, Britta's faux pas was outdone by Pierce's astonishing pronunciation

[knives]

I hope NBC is smart enough to make that wig a real thing by next Halloween.

[mfunk9786]

Worst. Episode. Ever.

[domino harvey]

You're on your own there

[Matt]

I thought it was kind of a mish-mash, and I'm increasingly uncomfortable with the way that "gay" (both the word and the sexuality) is played consistently and strictly for laughs on this show that has so deftly deflated racism, anti-Semitism and anti-Christianism, sizeism, ageism, and so many other -isms.

[knives]

Yeah I thought that the treatment of "gay" was a bit off with it's treatment of Pierce ect. being usual, but the characterization of the gay characters being exclusively stereotypes. I think the rest of the episode on the whole counteracted that uncomfortableness, but it did make for a few excruciating minutes here and there.

[Andre Jurieu]

I hope this doesn't sound like I'm just attempting to provide some excuse for offensive portrayals of minority cultures, but wouldn't this episode's central tension kind of require that their depiction of "gay" culture be a bit more on the stereotypical/flamboyant side of things, considering its precisely this type of stereotype, or conception of gay-culture that feeds into the Hawthorne homophobia/paranoia? I'm not sure if Pierce's (and his father's) homophobia makes as much sense if they were confronted with a more subtle version of gay-culture (I doubt Pierce would be able to confront the source of his homophobia so overtly if their study-group included a less stereotypical gay-character, like Max from Happy Endings).

I'm not really sure the show is attempting to extract its laugh at the expense of gay-culture as much as it's attempting to extract more laughs from it's ongoing-source of comedy - characters who are uncomfortable with themselves and/or generally unable of being very self-aware of their flaws, which in this case is Pierce and Jeff in the A-story and Troy in the B-plot. That's also the on-going source (the uncomfortable part, not the flaws) of laughs for the Dean Pelton character, since he's so ridiculously unable or unwilling to be open about his sexual-preferences.

While I agree that the show has deftly deflated a number of issues involving minority-groups, I'm not sure it's always so subtle or successful. During the overall run for the show, Shirley has for the most part been depicted in a fairly stereotypical manner. I would also think Abed's father was kind of a stereotypical portrayal of a paternal figure within their culture.

[Matt]

I don't really take offense at the presence of nellies and drag queens to the exclusion of the rest of the range of the gay spectrum in this particular episode, and I actually love Dean Pelton and his spangly hotpants in every episode.

What's more uncomfortable for me is that combined with the repeated use of "gay" as a pejorative with a kind of wink at the audience to say, "oh, you know we don't really mean that." If your show doesn't have a single recurring strong gay character, then I don't think you've earned the right to consider yourself post-homophobia and to make those kinds of "ironic" jokes. Consider if the show repeatedly made Jewish jokes (as it does) without the presence of a major Jewish character, Annie, to counter them. Or Black jokes without the presence of Shirley and Troy to counter them.

What's weird is that this is something that's only seemed to develop in this season. The episode from last year with Britta's "girlfriend" was pretty good (even though that character disappeared after her usefulness as a plot device ended). I never before found myself occasionally grimacing while watching this show.

[Andre Jurieu]

Well, I can't really argue with that point, as the determination of whether or not a creative-staff has earned the right to use ironic, self-aware, pejorative terms for humor depends a great deal on one's personal perspective. Certainly Matt's perspective is going to be different than mine, and in these cases - where sensitively and familiarity towards a subject influences perception - I tend to give more weight/credence to the viewpoint of a reasonable member within the depicted sub-culture. That probably sounds more condescending than I meant it to (man, I really "Britta-ed" that one), but I think it would probably be pretty offensive and flat-out arrogant if I were to think that I had the proper perspective on the use of a pejorative term, even when intended to be ironic, when I have no real direct connection to the term being used, since I can easily disconnect with the general meaning/intention behind the term. Again, I think I really "Britta-ed" this explanation. She is the WORST.

The only thing I can really add is that the show, particularly Pierce, has been using the term "gay" quite a bit since its inception, mostly as an indication of how insecure Pierce feels in regards to Jeff's prevailing virility. I thought this episode really cranked up the use of the term, but I hadn't noticed an increase or dramatic shift in its overall use this season. Of course, it sounds like Harmon does seem to set subject matter up well in advance, so maybe his staff intentionally cranked up the usage of the term in prior episodes with this episode in mind.

Personally, I think the show could use more Dean Pelton. Considering he's in the regular cast, I wouldn't mind them putting him to greater use in the A-plots, rather than just having him pop-up for a quick joke... though they are pretty awesome (remember, it's time to Tina Turner your clocks back this weekend).

[Jeff]

Did anyone else notice that Cornelius Hawthorne was the guy from Square One?

[swo17]

Ha, I knew I'd seen him somewhere.

[Matt]

So it wasn't just me, then.

[Andre Jurieu]

Did anyone else notice that Cornelius Hawthorne was the guy from Square One?

Yup! Though of all the folks from Square One, he seems to be getting the most consistent work. One of the other dudes popped up on the last season of The Wire.

[knives]

Today's episode feels off for the most part, but Rash is hitting it out of the park.

[mfunk9786]

I enjoyed it! It's odd that Community puts on a great episode and Parks and Recreation puts on a below-average one - it tends to happen the other way around.

[knives]

See I thought the opposite. This was the first Parks episode that I laughed really heartily on while Community was loosing one montage away from having a fairly off episode.