Community’s 10 Best Movie Parodies, Ranked According To IMDb

NBC’s Community is one of the smartest and funniest shows in television history. Created by Dan Harmon, the show was always trying new things and experimenting with various cliches, tropes and parodying them. The show is full of clever quotes that showcase the genius of the writers. The show starts streaming on Netflix soon.

It was always an unconventional sitcom, as it was always trying new things. It appealed to a very niche audience when it grew a cult-like following on the internet. As a result, it always suffered low ratings. The show was always on the verge of cancellation, before being picked up by Yahoo!. So, here are 10 of the best movie parodies on Community.

10 S02E04 – Basic Rocket Science | 8.7/10

When the Dean plans to use a space simulator before City College, he punishes the study group to clean it. But the group, except Abed, gets locked inside the simulator, after which it gets towed away. The episode parodies classic space movies such as Apollo 13 and 2001: A Space Odyssey, such as the study group’s slow walk.

It also parodies the scientific mumbo-jumbo scientists say in space movies. For instance, Chang runs up to Abed, the “mission commander”, saying he’s found a way to “reroute the power from the auxiliary battery”, to which Abed sharply says, “Reroute to what?”. Chang then slowly walks away, hilariously.

9 S03E10 – Regional Holiday Music | 8.7/10

Another television parody, this episode parodies the TV show, Glee. When the Greendale Glee Club has a collective nervous breakdown, the Dean asks the study group to step up and perform in the Glee Club finals, like they had done the previous year (this was shown during a flashback in season 2).

The show parodies it to perfection, with the entire cast singing songs and musical numbers by each member of the study group, such as Troy and Abed’s Christmas rap and Pierce’s “Baby Boomer Santa”. The jokes were hilarious, from everybody saying the word ‘regionals’ (“What the hell are regionals?!”) to each member of the group slowly being taken over by the gleeful spirit.

8 S02E19 – Critical Film Studies | 9.0/10

On Abed’s birthday, Jeff organizes a Pulp Fiction party for Abed, with the study group even going so far as to dress up as various characters from the movie (making the audience think it’s going to be a Pulp Fiction parody). However, Abed, unknown to the others, is doing an homage to totally different movie – My Dinner With Andre – a movie about a man called Andre who has a conversation with his close friend.

When the others get mad at Abed, he explains to Jeff that he did it to spend some time with Jeff, in a surprisingly heartwarming moment. They then proceed to have a party, with Jeff stating that he’ll never forget his ‘Dinner with Andre dinner with Abed’.

7 S02E08 – Cooperative Calligraphy | 9.1/10

Although not a movie parody, this episode parodies a very classic TV trope – the bottle episode. A bottle episode is when the characters interact within only one or two settings – often to save costs. Some notable bottle episodes of famous shows are the Breaking Bad episode, “Fly”, or the Friends episode, “The One Where No One’s Ready”.

When Annie’s pen gets “stolen”, she accuses the rest of the study group of stealing it. While Abed keeps telling them they’re doing a bottle episode, the group tries to figure out who the thief is. The way the characters interact with each other is also very interesting, and give the viewers an insight into the strong bond the study group has.

6 S01E21 – Contemporary American Poultry | 9.3/10

This episode parodies the classic mafia film trope – movies such as Goodfellas and The Godfather trilogy. When Jeff makes a plan to remove Starburns as the canteen chef and put Abed in that place, Abed begins telling the episode in a mafia movie – complete with narration and cutaway montages.

However, Abed gives too much power to the study group, and Jeff, sensing a shift in his authority, tells Abed to quit. In the end, Abed realizes the study group is abusing their power, and destroys the chicken frier, putting things back to normal.

5 S02E06 – Epidemiology | 9.3/10

When the Dean gets some strange taco meat from the army surplus store – which turns out to be a chemical that turns humans into zombies, the study group must survive for six hours till the army comes to “save” them and get to the thermostat to decrease the temperature and kill the virus. Sticking true to the cliche, they all get turned one by one. In the end, Troy manages to turn down the temperature, saving everyone.

This episode was a parody of almost every zombie movie in existence – from Dawn of the Dead to 28 Days Later – poking fun at classic tropes such as the “people hiding that they’ve been bitten by a zombie until they transform”, or when Abed tells Troy to be the first black man to make it to the end.

4 S03E14 – Pillows and Blankets | 9.3/10

Shot in the style of a documentary, “Pillows and Blankets” has Troy and Abed on opposing ends. Instigated into a fight by Vice Dean Leybourne, Abed builds a pillow fort and Troy builds a blanket fort until both are in each other’s way. The “war mockumentary” films the ensuing war between the two factions.

Community has various other mockumentary episodes, such as the season 2 episode, “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking” and the season 3 episode, “Documentary Filmmaking: Redux”. However, this was shot in the style of a Ken Burns documentary, narrated by Keith David.

3 S03E17 – Basic Lupine Urology | 9.4/10

This episode parodies the popular, long-running police TV show, Law and Order. When the study group’s biology class yam gets smashed, they launch an investigation to figure out the culprit. The episode perfectly parodies the show, like showing Abed and Troy as the good cop and bad cop, respectively (before they switch), and both of them trying to do the ‘zinger’. (“Why do they always run?”)

The episode even uses the characteristic ‘doink doink’ of the Law and Order series to change scenes, with the classic title cards. Even Shirley, who is usually unwilling to participate in Abed and Troy’s hijinks, plays the chief, saying phrases like ‘”canvas the witnesses”, “establish a time frame” and “it’s been a long 15 years”.

2 S02E24 – For A Few Paintballs More | 9.6/10

The season 2 finale saw the western style move towards more of a Star Wars vibe – as Abed casually noted. When Dean Spreck of City College brings his own students to wipe out the Greendale students, the study group teams up with the rest of the Greendale students to win. Abed, true to character, acts meta and assumes the role of Han Solo.

The episode perfectly parodies the Star Wars movies, including tropes like two members fighting to be the leaders (Jeff and Troy), someone sacrificing themselves to save the others (Abed) and an unexpected savior (Pierce, of all people).

1 S02E23 – A Fistful of Paintballs | 9.7/10

Shot in a spaghetti-western style, “A Fistful of Paintball” sees the study group in their second paintball episode. In the episode, the study group competes with each other to win that year’s paintball prize – a whopping $100,000. Meanwhile, Pierce, feeling more excluded from the study group than usual, plans to betray Jeff and get revenge for excluding him.

Unlike the previous paintball episode, this one parodies cowboy movies like Wild Wild West and The Magnificent Seven. This episode was action-packed, filled with both heart and humor. Fun fact: This was one of the episodes because of which an impressed Kevin Feige selected directors Anthony and Joe Russo to direct Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

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