Community - "Advanced Gay"

Season 3, Episode 6

As I expressed last week, I had some trepidation about going into an episode of Community that was entitled “Advanced Gay”. It’s not that I thought that this was going to be some terribly offensive episode for the show – it’s far too progressive for that to ever be the case – but it was readily apparent that it was going to focus Pierce, and not only would including too much of his behavior risk crossing some sort of line, but after last season, it’s hard for me to take him seriously as a member of the group at times, and I feared that his worst qualities were going to rear up and cause my Pierce-hate to start all over again. Luckily, the show stayed on the right side of the line on both accounts, and produced another highly enjoyable episode in the process.

So let’s talk about that gay humor on display tonight. As a straight man, I can never be 100% certain whether or not a joke is homophobic. I am well educated enough that I know all of the big no-nos, and most the small ones as well, but I am also aware that my life experience leaves me with a lot knowledge gaps, and though try to learn as much as I can about alternative experience to mine (not only because I believe that people should do so, but also because I just find learning about other people to be fascinating), not being gay means that I can never truly know what it’s like to be a gay man, and thus there is always the possibility, however slight, that I won’t know about one thing or the other that gay people find offensive.

I bring this up so that when I say I found nothing offensive about the humor used in tonight’s episode, but you for some reason did, you won’t cast me as some sort of bigot or willful ignoramus. (And if I am wrong, please tell me. I can’t learn if I’m not hold accountable, and whatnot.) Did Pierce say some offensive things? Yes, of course he did, but he always does, and when we laugh at those lines, we are laughing at his ignorance/racism, not with him. And that’s essentially what the humor in the A-plot was tonight. The gay people depicted here in the episode were all flamboyantly so, and while in most instances only having flamboyant gay characters would be offensive, the point here was that Pierce needed to be confronted with what he was prejudiced against, so that we could see (and laugh at) him being forced into a situation that was alien to him. Comedy can get away with over-exaggeration when it has a point (see also the highly progressive-minded South Park, which uses over-the-top gay characters to both shock us and make a point), and I believe that tonight’s episode did.

But none of that really matters. (Okay, it does, but within the context of the episode…fuck it, you know what I mean.) This episode wasn’t really about the gay humor, though it was used as a backdrop to explore Pierce’s relationship with his father, Cornelius (played by Larry Cedar), and by association, Jeff’s own father issues. (I figured an episode title “Advanced Gay” would probably put Jeff and Pierce together, given all of Pierce’s accusations of Jeff’s sexuality, but I can honestly say I didn’t see this coming.) Now, introducing a character’s parent as a way to explain how they are and having said parent be an exaggerated version of the character is somewhat predictable comedy, but it’s also dangerous when the show is using to explain prejudices. It can sometimes be seen as if the show isn’t just explaining the character’s prejudices, but also trying to use it as an excuse, as though “they didn’t know any better”. Fortunately, I think the show walked this lined correctly.

There’s an important point made late in the episode where Jeff points out that Cornelius is such a broken man that he hates because he was never able to love his son. Now, part of this is clearly just Jeff projecting his own issues onto the Pierce-Cornelius dynamic, but I think there’s some truth to that. Pierce grew up in an emotionally toxic environment, and while we are supposed to have pity on him, while we are also supposed to hold him accountable for not shedding his prejudices earlier, as we see he is possibly capable of doing throughout the episode.

But I will admit that the fact that the daddy issue stuff covered the question of whether or not Pierce was actually becoming more open-minded did both me, if only just a bit. Pierce is the kind of guy who would bury his prejudices for the sake of the coin, and while it’s obvious that’s exactly what he’s doing in early going, it’s never quite as certain whether he’s won over. He’s certainly charmed by the fun aspects of the gay lifestyle, but will that override his prejudices totally? It’s one of the questions that I hope will be answered in the upcoming weeks (and I’ll explain more in a bit), but I’d rather a more definitive answer have been given now.

Jeff’s role in all of this was a bit sidelined, but I think it worked for what the episode was meant to accomplish. This dynamic is an obvious recall to “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking”, and while I was never a fan of the “they both see each other's as father figure” resolution, I do like how it was brought back up here as a way to show us just how much Jeff cares about Pierce, and how much he empathizes with him, and that he would stand up to Cornelius on his behalf. Yes, he was also exorcising his demons in the process, but there’s obviously some love between the two of them, and that that goes a lot farther in healing their relationship in my eyes than “Filmmaking” ever did. (In a move that’s weird on a purely meta level, Jeff was also the moral compass for this plot, since, as stated above, he helped to shift the focus from Pierce’s and Jeff’s prejudices to the problems in their relationship.)

All of this ending on a dark note – with Cornelius actually dying of a heart attack – was something that I think was supposed to be funnier than was, and failed because we didn’t get to know Cornelius enough. (Or because the joke was too obvious. Or because…I don’t know, really, but something was definitely off.) But, even if Pierce was a real dick at the funeral, I think that this could be a good opportunity to for the character to grow, assuming that they bring these ramifications forward throughout the season. I both hope and believe that they will, because this season seems to be more and more about breaking the group down to its individual members, and showing the minutiae of their relationships, and I think Pierce dealing from being out from his father’s thumb (and possibly his mourning of his loss) would be a great entry point. (Also pointing to possibility? The Inspector Spacetime running gags since the first episode.)

The B-plot, which sees us further exploring Troy’s gift for handy work and the return of Jerry Minor’s plumber character and John Goodman’s Vice Dean of Air Conditioner Repair, actually continued that last trend. Of course, the main point/utility of this plot was to serve as a lighter counterpoint to the A-plot, while also supplying the show’s trademark weirdness, but there was also something in the resolution that I think ties to the season’s main theme. Troy choosing to spend time with Abed is a counterpoint of sweetness to the negativity that the show has been reveling in lately, but the show doesn’t let him off that easy. I believe there’s some truth to Dean Laybourne’s words that Troy will one day be unable to escape his destiny (or whatever you want to call it), that he may one day make the wrong choice for the right reasons, hold some suspense for what this character may face later down the line when the shows decided to really explore him. (Also, this plotline allowed Troy and Abed to imitate each other, and wasn’t that just fantastic?)

Considering that the emotional moments didn’t hit as high in this episode as they do in the series best, I’m going to instead focus on the future potential of this episode. The show seems to be playing the long game with its arcs this season, and while it doesn’t make for the most nearly buttoned individual episodes, I kind of like the idea that these characters stories don’t end when the episode does. Dan Harmon and Co. are taking a risk telling slightly-less contained stories this time around, but if it all comes together in the later part of the season, I think it will all be worth it.

Quotes and Other Thoughts:

After finishing this piece, I realize there are a whole lot of ideas stuffed in here, and this review kind of zigs and zags between all of them, mostly as a byproduct of me using this space to work out a lot of the questions that were raging in my head while watching this episode. Sorry about that. But please, feel free to comment on any one of these issue below. (Or you could just tell me that this review is just one big giant mess. But please don’t. Because that’s just mean.)

I didn’t get to fit in above, but I also liked how the show used the A-plot to remind us once again of how Britta is just the worst, even if her psychological analyses of Jeff and Pierce are actually correct. It also serves as a reminder of Britta’s intellectual growth as she follows her scholarly dreams. Her rising hubris vis-à-vis her education is just used for laughs now, but I suspect this is yet another character arc that will pay off larger dividends down the road.

Allow me to wrinkle your brain just a little: Chevy Chase is actually a few years older than Larry Cedar. Yeah, I know.

“Unclog one toilet with me and tell me you don’t feel something, and I’ll never bring it up again.”

“At your cervix! Sorry, I thought you were a woman. You can use that cervix line if you want.”

“In the wipes business, we call them ‘towel-heads’.”

“I just assumed they were brothers, or wealthy.”

“Oh my, even Bruce Vilanch?” “Especially Bruce Vilanch.”

“That’s not what I meant, stop putting gay stuff in my mouth.”

“Life must be hard enough having to sex pouches in all her dresses.”

“Yeah, but anti-Inspector has a funny mustache, and was kinda rapey.”

“Wow Pierce, congratulations on meeting the minimum requirements for open-mindedness.” “Yeah, I’m really proud of you. You’re growing as a person.”

“Men have to dill their fathers so they can do…something to their mothers…I haven’t finished the chapter.”

“Now come with me to the second floor. Somebody pooped in the sink.”

“We don’t want you telling anybody about this, and if you do, we don’t want them believing you. Isn’t that right, Black Hitler?”

“Are these your friends pierce? Minorities? Jewesses? And the unseasonably tan?” (It worries me that Microsoft Word treats “Jewesses” as a real word.)

“Oh my god, he’s the Abed of racism.”

“After ‘Britta was right’, everything just sounded like a foghorn.”

“I can’t feel my pants.”

“Are you Superman?” “No.” “Would you tell me if you were?” “I’d tell everybody. I never understood why he cared who knew.”

“I’m gonna eat space paninis and with Black Hitler and there’s nothing you can do about it!”

“Can you pretend to be me?” “I like football, but also I don’t…” “Perfect.”

“With all due respect, sir, I have zero respect for you.”

“Due just told his dead dad to suck it.” “So Oedipal.” “You’re the worst.”

“How old are you guys?” The question isn’t how old we are, but when old we are?”