Community 4x08: Herstory of Dance

To distract the student body from the fact that the CDC is confiscating Greendale's drinking fountains, the Dean decides to hold a dance. For no particular reason, he makes it a Sadie Hawkins dance, which rankles stereotypical ultra-feminist Britta to no end. As a response, she decides to throw a Sophie B. Hawkins dance in protest. Correctly deducing that she really meant Susan B. Anthony, Jeff busts Britta's lady balls and congratulates her for Brittaing things up once again.

Then he puts on his troll face.

Unwilling to admit she was wrong, Britta fully commits to the bit and so there will be duelling dances in the Greendale cafeteria on Friday.

Meanwhile, Abed's trying to grow as a character. In order to help, Annie and Shirley set him up with competing dates for the dance. Unfortunately, he sees it as a chance for some Three's Company style shenanigans, and decides to go with both girls rather than picking one. Annie's choice is Cat, a quirky girl who rides around on a kick scooter, while Shirley's is Jessica, a nice Christian girl. In typical Jack Tripper fashion, things go well at first, and Abed even gets some help from the coat check girl.

She sees what he's doing there.

With Rachel's help, he manages to make it work for a while, but eventually Annie and Shirley figure out his scheme and remind him that it's not a TV show, and he's dealing with real people with real emotions. It's then that he realizes that the girl he really wants was right in front of him the whole time. But, when he goes back to the coat check room to profess his affection, she's gone.

At the same time, it starts to become clear that Sophie B. Hawkins will not be attending the Sophie B. Hawkins dance, and that Britta is a failure. But, just as she's about to admit defeat, a saviour arrives:

I assume it's Sophie B. Hawkins... I honestly have no idea what she looks like.

Before Sophie can get on with singing her two songs that anyone's ever heard of, Abed grabs the mic and makes a public declaration of his feelings for Rachel. She accepts his apology, and they agree to go out on a date.

Elsewhere in the cafeteria, Jeff is flabbergasted. He has no idea how Britta managed to pull things off... until Pierce tells him that Hawthorne Wipes were the official moist towelettes of Lilith Fair back in the 1990s. He dresses Jeff down over the way he treats Britta, making fun of her and using her name as a synonym for screwing up, even after she helped him reconcile with his dad. Jeff apologizes via text, and everyone rocks out to 'As I Lay Me Down'.

It's a good thing they only had time for two songs in the episode, 'cause that's all she has.

What I Liked
-Troll face Jeff. If it's not a meme yet, it should be.
-Pierce calls Jeff out for being a prick. Despite all the flack he takes for being an old, out-of-touch racist, Pierce is the only one who has the strength to put him in his place.
-This week's best line: "According to Dean law, I must now give her my amulet." -Dean Pelton

What I Hated
-The Dean's Donna Reed costume. They've gone too far, now it's just insane.

Seriously, WTF?

-The title to Sophie B. Hawkins' song. When using the subjunctive tense, the proper word is always 'were', not 'was', so it should be Damn I Wish I Were Your Lover.
-Chang DJ's the dances. As an excuse to get him into the episode, it worked. As comedy, it failed.
-The end tag. Seeing the gang as crappy puppets did not encourage me to watch the next episode.

Final Thoughts
I need to start this section off by saying the title of this episode makes me want to punch the writers. That may have been the point, however. If so, kudos, Community writers.

Geez, where did they dig up Sophie B. Hawkins? She hasn't put out a hit album in more than 15 years now, and it's not like her records were mammoth hits to begin with.

They've actually made Pierce more of a well-rounded character over the last couple episodes, and it's kind of a bummer that Chevy flipped out and left the show. Not that he's going to be absent for very long.

This was better than the past few weeks, and actually managed to break double digits in laughs for the first time in a while. That still didn't make it good, though. Parodying long-standing TV tropes while repeating others at the same time is a bit weird.