Community: The Worst Episode Of Every Season, According To IMDb

Community‘s story is a fascinating one – a show that has been almost-canceled, delayed, threatened, and moved between networks more than almost any other, and all because the fans adore it so much. In fact, this cult comedy may not even be finished, as a movie (to complete #SixSeasonsAndAMovie) may still be in the works. For six seasons, the show seemed to get better and better, leaning into the brilliant bizarre college of Greendale, bringing back completely unrealistic fan-favorites year after year.

However, even with a show as wildly popular as Community, there are bound to be a few dud episodes – or just episodes that don’t live up to the rest. And while the lowest-rated episode of the series (according to IMDb) still manages a respectable 6.7, these are the six that re-watchers can skip – including a couple tied for ‘worst’.

9 Pilot, Season 1 (7.7)

It’s never a great way to start a show when the pilot episode has the worst rating of the entire first season, but at least it means there’s nowhere to go but up. The pilot episode introduced audiences to everyone and everything that they would get familiar with over the next six years – Greendale Community College, the study-group that would become the Greendale Seven, professors Duncan and Chang, and the Dean. The premise of the episode revolves around Jeff, a lawyer disbarred due to his lack of college degree, trying to sleep with Britta, a no-nonsense protest-advocator, by pretending to know Spanish in order to get into their study group. Jeff gets found out, the group asks him to leave, but in typical sitcom fashion the group then feels bad for Jeff and they invite him back in – and it only gets better from there.

8 Football, Feminism, and You, Season 1 (7.7)

The pilot episode was joined by this episode as the lowest-rated of their season and it followed Jeff trying to get Troy to join the Greendale football team (not out of friendship, to get the Dean to do him a favor). Annie discovers Jeff’s ruse and tries to keep Troy from playing football again (also not out of friendship, she wanted to date him). In the end, Troy decides to play football anyway (not because of Jeff or Annie) and just decides to make the most of his time at college while he’s there. Meanwhile, Pierce and the Dean create the infamous Greendale ‘Human-Being’ as the school’s mascot during this episode as well.

7 Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy, Season 2 (7.4)

Season 2 put fans through the ringer when they added the plotline of Shirley and Chang sleeping together, then having Shirley get pregnant with the possibility of it being Chang’s kid instead of Andre’s. This particular episode dealt with Chang’s immaturity, instability, and inability to deal with the fact that (even if it was biologically his child) Shirley and Andre would be raising it as their own. So, naturally, Chang kidnaps Shirley’s existing children (which turned out to not even be her children) and teach them math homework to prove that he’s a good dad. Swing and a miss, Chang.

6 Advanced Gay, Season 3 (7.7)

While this particular episode may not have aged well at all, Community never shied away from making jokes at the expense of gay people (really only from Pierce, though). During this particular episode, Pierce discovers that his father’s signature moist-towelette company is very popular among gay people, causing the gay-population at Greendale to dub Pierce their king… that is, until Pierce’s incredibly racist/homophobic father shows up and gets Pierce to shut the whole event down.

Luckily, Jeff gets a classic Winger-speech in that ends up giving Pierce’s dad a heart-attack and killing him – good riddance.

5 Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts, Season 3 (7.7)

Season 3 had quite a few twists and turns, but one of the many plotlines revolved around Shirley and Pierce starting a sandwich shop/company together with their first restaurant being in the Greendale cafeteria. Things come to a head during this episode when Shirley and Pierce fight over who gets to sign the contract for the shop, and matters only get worse when Andre surprises Shirley with a vow-renewal ceremony that Shirley ends up missing because she gets busy with the sandwich shop. Luckily, Shirley and Andre make up… but she and Pierce get blindsided when the Dean informs them that Greendale will be selling the sandwich shop to Subway instead.

4 Economics of Marine Biology, Season 4 (6.7)

Season 4 is generally determined as the least-favorite among fans of the series so it stands to reason that it would contain the lowest-rated episode of the series. It was no secret that Greendale was a poor community college so naturally, the Dean jumped at the opportunity to persuade Archie, a rich potential student, to join their school (in the hopes that he would donate piles of cash).

The Dean pulls out all the stops and does whatever it takes to get Archie to enroll… until Archie goes too far by taking Magnitude’s signature catch-phrase. The Dean eventually tells Archie off an stands up for his school – which impresses Archie, causing him to enroll and then never be seen from again.

3 Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality, Season 5 (7.8)

Britta was all over the place when it came to who she would date/hook-up with in the group, so during this episode it only seemed fitting that Professor Duncan was the man of the hour. However, Britta ends up running into some of her old friends and they openly ridicule her over how much better they’re doing than she is, causing Britta to be in an incredibly vulnerable state that Duncan just doesn’t feel right taking advantage of. Meanwhile, Abed argues with Professor Hickey over some cartoon drawings of ducks that he ruined, resulting in the two eventually bonding and becoming writing partners.

2 Basic Story, Season 5 (7.8)

Season 5 decided to end with a two-parter and the first episode didn’t resonate so well with fans, sharing the lowest score of the season. The episode itself followed the premise that Greendale had finally been deemed “valuable property” thanks to the Save Greendale Committee… which sadly resulted in the school being sold to Subway. The group expends all of their last efforts and comes up short in saving the school, until Abed discovers a clue leading to a potential buried treasure underneath the campus, with the following episode dealing with the group’s treasure hunt.

1 Advanced Safety Features, Season 6 (7.4)

Talk about product placement. While Community was never a show to shy away from product placement of corporate endorsements on their show (Subway is another prime example) this episode really laid it on thick. Britta’s old-flame, Rick, returns to the school with a new product to sell – Honda.

The human-billboard immediately begins pushing Honda cars and merchandise on the Greendale campus (mostly the Dean) to a point where he can’t seem to stop. In response to Rick’s acts (and because the school couldn’t afford to let the Dean buy any more Honda stuff) they set Rick up and have him escorted from the school.

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