A Visual Community Recap: ‘Paradigms of Human Memory’

Even if I wrote 1,800 words on last night’s episode of Community, “Paradigms of Human Memory,� I knew I’d, and especially you’d, be disappointed in the end result. It’s because rather than critically analyzing the show, which basically means finding new ways of saying it’s the funniest show on TV, I’d just be stating “This is funny� and “that was funny.� Because that’s all that “Paradigms� was: funny. There really wasn’t a plot to speak of, and the “group breaking up� was just a device to frame a clip show around.

Also: it was another brilliant episode from the funniest show on TV.

So, instead of a normal recap using, y’know, words, here are screencaps from each of the show’s never-seen plots, ranked in order of how much I wish they were an actual episode. (I only included one screencap for each—so, even though there are multiple scenes for Caesar Salad Day, I just included a single photo, sadly not one of the dean’s surprisingly muscular physique—and I’m excluding Christmas and Halloween because we’ve already seen those episodes, even if it’s “new� footage.)

Now feast your eye tongues on these memory pops!

#31. The Group Gets “Free� iPhones

#30. Shirley Sells Lady Miss Lady Products

#29. Britta: The Kleptomaniac

#28. Jump Rope Competition

#27. Painting Shirley’s Nursery

#26. Monkey Slaps Chang for 22 Minutes

#25. Annie Learns Karate

#24. Jeff and Troy Become Barbers

#23. Night in a Haunted House

#22. Everyone Makes Fun of Jeff Winger Day

#21. Entire Episode of Jeff/Annie Glances

#20. Entire Episode of Abed/Pierce Glances

#19. “I am a living God!!!�

#18. Caw Caw

#17. “It’s a locomotive that runs on us!�

#16. The Group Goes to Mexico

#15. Harpooning Field Trip

#14. Ghost Town with 1800s Disney-Style Racist Prospector

#13-10. Baroque Fundraiser, Greendale Presents: Gone with the Windows, Tina Turner the Clocks Ahead, Feline AIDS Awareness Day

#9. “It’s a contraction of some mores!�

#8. “This habitat was for humanity…�

#7. St. Patrick’s Day (“I’ve seen enough movies to know that popping the back of the raft makes it go faster�)

#6. Caesar Salad Day

#5. The Cape

#4. “Sing a-Ling a-Ling Ding Dong�

#3. “Harrison Ford is radiating our testicles with microwave satellite transmissions�

#2. Boob-a-Tron 6000 Attacks

#1. “An Important Lesson�

Josh Kurp would like to give props to the set design team because holy shit, they had to do a lot of work for this episode to work.