Daniela Toporek

12/7/2015

Final Paper

Not long ago, my boyfriend sat me down and forced me to watch the television show,

Community, whether I liked it or not. A few months after, this paper was assigned and I could not have thought of a better television program to analyze. Community is known as one of the most “inventive and original half hours on television.” Its diverse cast and witty humor is what first drew me in, but after learning from Media Ethics, it’s also led me to believe that media both reflect and affect society. I believe media have definitely reinforced and created stereotypes before and continue to do so, but I also think there are also media that tries to break away from stereotyping and started to create more shoes based on unity and how society is progressing in regards to equality and tolerance.

Community is a half hour television series that aired on NBC from 2009 to 2015. The show takes place present day and is about a Spanish study group of close friends from different backgrounds at what seems to be one of the most agonizing educational institutions, Greendale

Community college. The main character, Jeff Winger (portrayed by Joel Mchale) was a skeezy lawyer up until the state bar suspended his license for forging a college degree. Now, trying to attain a valid one, Winger devises plans to not only create a study group so other students could help him breeze by but to also be able to make moves with the “hot blonde from Spanish class.”

Little did Winger know that his scheming alpha dog yet deep down (way deep down) endearing personality would lead him to become the father figure and mentor of his class mates. The hot blonde that Winger is pursuing is Britta Perry, played by Gillian Jacobs. She’s a sarcastic, independent 28-year-old high school dropout who wanted to “change the world.” She joined the peace core, did some foot modeling and wound up in Greendale struggling with her

Spanish class.

The second member to join the study group is Abed Nadir (Danny Puni), a young half

Arab, half Palestinian student who found a hobby and happiness in film making. He may be a little strange, but he is kind hearted and always tries to help when a friend is in need.

Next there is Annie Edison (Alison Brie), an 18-year-old fresh out of high-school student and quite a perfectionist. After going to rehab for Adderall, she enrolled in Greendale to get a degree in healthcare management.

Troy Barnes, played by comedian and famous rapper, Donald Glover, went to high school with Annie. He was the star quarterback until he broke his legs doing a keg flip and now he’s at Greendale kicking it with Abed and figuring out his purpose in life.

Shirley Bennett (Yvette Nicole Brown) is a Christian divorcee in her mid 50’s who’s studying in Greendale to become gain independence and become an entrepreneur selling her baked goods. Although she is the mother hen of her new family, she learns a thing or two from the rest of the group as well.

Last, but certainly not least is Pierce Hawthorne, played by the famous Chevy Chase. He is 65-year-old old man who was once C.E.O. of “Hawthorne Wipes,” a moist towelette company founded by his father, Cornelius Hawthorne. His lavish lifestyle led him to several marriages and over thirty step-children. Soon after, he started to feel sad and lonely without a family. After traveling the world and finding new hobbies, he decided to go to Greendale and joined the study group. As crazy as he seems, all he does is try his hardest to gain respect from the group.

Whether this study group came together by fate or by Jeff Winger’s sick plotting, together they overcome not only their classes, but also social and diversity issues that bring them even closer together.

The show was created and produced by Dan Farmon alongside Russ Krasnoff, Gary

Foster, Chris McKenna, Patrick Kienlen, and Tristram Shapeero as director. It is a Krasnoff

Foster Entertainment and Harmonious Claptrap production.

The first episode studied was of course, the Pilot episode titled “Pilot.” In this episode,

Jeff Winger is first introduced speaking to Abed about the “hot blonde” in class. He then devises a plan in which he will fake a study group so the “blonde”, later known as Britta, will join. He thinks no one else will show up since the study group doesn’t really exist and then he will finally be able to make his move on her. Little did he know that Britta actually invited Abed to the study group and Abed invited others along as well. Winger then has to find a way to sneak out of the group before they (especially Britta) finds out he’s a fraud.

“Spanish 101” was the second episode studied. In this episode, one actually sees the

Spanish class that the group is studying for. Senor Chang, the crazy Spanish teacher assigns a project in pairs. Winger tries to trade assignments so he’ll be partners with Britta, but Britta already knew the sneaky antics Winger was trying to pull, so she switched her assignment and

Winger ended up with Pierce. Jeff now has to endure Pierce’s creative, senile strategies in order to finish the assignment with a passing grade. The next episode was “Comparative Religion”. Shirley is having a Christmas Party in the study room and invited the whole group. What she did not know was that her group was made up of completely different religions that didn’t even celebrate Christmas. Not only that, but she finds out Jeff Winger wants to fight the school bully right before the party. Shirley learns the meaning of tolerance in this episode as well as standing up for her friends whether she shares the same beliefs as them or not.

In “Interpretive Dance,” we find out that Troy and Britta are hiding secret dance classes from the group. Britta is ready to come out and reveal her secret while Troy is still feeling very insecure about it. He soon finds that real friends accept one another and as long as one is pursuing what he or she loves, then happiness comes easy.

Finally in “Aerodynamics of Gender,” the ladies of the group try and take a women’s studies course without the guys up until Abed decides that it sounds like a very interesting subject. The girls change from annoyed to thankful Abed joined when they find out his observant qualities help in bullying the mean girls of Greendale. The tolls change when their bullying goes too far.

One of the media theories very common to television shows is the cultivation theory. The theory explains that repeated exposure to the same information overtime eventually becomes a definite normality. For example, before the reality show, Jersey Shore, premiered on M.T.V, not many people thought of the term “guidos” or “guidettes” when someone spoke of people of

Italian decent. However, as soon as the show became a hit and millions of viewers tuned in, there was a complete shift on Italian stereotypes. It didn’t help that the Housewives of New Jersey aired at the same time. This brought society to believe that Italians always had fake burnt orange tans with big, greased up hair, and wore Affliction wardrobe or revealing clothing. They were known as loud and very aggressive. As soon as the series ended, the terms “guido” and

“guidette” died off along with all the press and stereotyping. It is no longer the “norm.” The reason these shows are mentioned above and not Community is because Community doesn’t seem to have this theory affect people at all. There is such a variety of people always up to something new on the show that there is no norm to be seen.

The only issue that was a concern was whether people would think negatively of community colleges after watching the series. A group of community college employees and attendees got to see a sneak peak of the show before it aired to the public and there were some mixed reviews from the audience, but no study has been shown or linked to this effect from happening. “I think the show is pretty clever,” said President of the American Student

Association of Community Colleges, Wendy Hamilton. She’s also a student at Florida’s

Hillsborough Community College. “I can see where some offense can come in, to the bias of what type of people community college students are. I know this is show, but I want people to know that the majority of community college students are people who couldn't afford the luxury of a 4-year college, are not prepared to enter a 4-year institution, or are trying in these hard economic times to gain the knowledge that will help them attain a better job in our society. I believe the show is going to be great, but I still believe that it will not help change people's perception of our community college systems.”

Another question many ask is whether media reinforce or create stereotypes in society.

First of all, one can use the example in the last couple paragraphs to prove that media can definitely create stereotypes (looking back on Jersey Shore). Media has also reinforced stereotypes before, such as when African Americans were only portrayed as slaves or servants or when Hispanics were always banditos or Latin Lovers. It’s still evident in shows such as South

Park where the only African American child shown is a kid ironically named Token. There’s also

Modern Family and The League where two characters have Hispanic housewives, both portrayed as curvaceous and sensual, yet loud and naggy with a large family. In It’s Always Sunny in

Philadelphia, the men on the show always make fun of Dee, the only main female character, for being a woman and being inferior and terrible at sports.

The characters on Community are definitely faced with stereotyping in Greendale. It’s an unfortunate problem faced in reality, but unlike the shows listed above, Community aims at stomping out stereotypes or any prejudice.

In the “Interpretive Dance” episode, Troy was supposed to come out to the group about his love for modern dance with Britta, but Troy chickened out saying he thought he had a lot more to lose since he was a man. “Girls are supposed to dance. That’s why God gave them parts that jiggle,” he said. Yes, those are sexist thoughts, but in the end, when Britta needed help with her recital, Troy “manned up” and revealed his moves on stage to help a friend.

In “Comparative Religion,” Shirley asks everyone in the group to bring food and an object that represents their religion. As soon as Abed brings in a popular Muslim dish, Shirley looks very skeptical about trying it and said, “I’m guessing as a woman, I won’t be allowed to eat that. That’s too bad.” This is clearly a jab at Abed’s Muslim beliefs, but once the little blonde chick, Britta scolds mother hen, Shirley realizes that she hasn’t been acting very Christian-like at all and learns the real meaning of respect and tolerance for one another’s beliefs.

A personal favorite example is when the audience is introduced to Senor Chang, the

Spanish professor in both the class and end episode of “Spanish 101.” No one in the world would have expected a man of Chinese descent to teach these students Spanish, but Community nailed it. “‘Why do YOU teach Spanish? They say it just like that,’” hinting at the prejudice while talking about his previous classes.“Why not math? Why not photography? Why not martial arts?” He never discusses why he teaches Spanish since it is “none of your business,” but he does manage to break the stereotypes of both people of Asian backgrounds and foreign language teachers.

If there were a theory from Media Ethics that Community has successfully shown, it would be the Identification theory. One of the greatest aspects about the show is that the plotline is extremely relatable to almost everyone in society. The plotlines are always diverse, yet based off of real life experiences in community college that any student can relate to. Along with the plotline, the characters are so extraordinarily, well.. normal, that it’s very easy for anyone to find at least one character with a relatable trait.

For example, in “Spanish 101,” whether it be a Spanish class or an advanced physics course, every student can relate with the fact that a professor has at some point has given them a group assignment with a partner or at least someone the student didn’t want to work with. Yes, this is a simple concept, but that is what makes the show so genius. It’s about a completely normal lifestyle that almost everyone has on through at some point. Even if a watcher isn’t in community college, there is always a certain story or characteristic that at least one human being out there can watch and relate to.

As the dean of Greendale said in his speech in the “Pilot” episode, whether one is a remedial teen, a senior citizen, 20-something drop outs, a loser, or a middle aged divorcee,

Community has a lot to offer for any demographic. Community has demonstrated that media can do wonders to the human mind. From creating and reinforcing stereotypes, to finding ways to cast different characters in order to identify with various demographics, back to breaking stereo types back down, Community is a genius show that shows everyone in a positive light while still portraying realistic social issues.

Bibliography

Community | NBC. (n.d.). Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://www.nbc.com/community

Colleges Review 'Community' | Inside Higher Ed. (n.d.). Retrieved December 5, 2015, from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/08/24/community

Cultivation Theory. (2011, May 2). Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://masscommtheory.com/theory-overviews/cultivation-theory/

Harris, R., & Sanborn, F. (n.d.). A cognitive psychology of mass communication (Sixth ed.).

Community: Spanish 101. (n.d.). Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://www.hulu.com/watch/97950