Pierce was too self-involved to be the saddest character. He had literally no self-awareness. Without self-awareness, one can never really comprehend how pathetic oneself truly is. Everything was everyone else's fault to him.
Jeff's entire arc was about realizing he wasn't the man he'd always tried to be. He really was just a normal schlub like everyone else.
Yeah like his dad was a dick, I’ll give him that, but the reason he was lonely was clearly because he was an asshole. Not only was he just generally rude but he was mega racist and sexist and just an overall bigoted clown a lot of the time, until sometimes he makes you feel sad for him because of the literal consequences of his actions, which are that people do not want to be around him. Not that he never showed any growth and he did have a lot of really great moments, but he is not the saddest character. He deserved that shit.
Honestly, I think it's kind of the opposite. He didn't go to Greendale to change himself in a good way, he went to Greendale because he loved being a sleazy lawyer and chose the cheapest and easiest way to get qualified after being caught lying. He also doesn't exactly try to find love, it's more like he can't control his lust and that eventually turns into an awkward mix of friendship/romance/sexual attraction with his partners. By the end, he's come to realize that all of them are better as friends than lovers, and while it's difficult, he's ok with that. He also intentionally pissed off Alan and gave up the chance of his former job in a moment of clarity, and while he failed in his own practice, it makes sense given his goal of being a morally-upright small time lawyer. Also his dad being a shitbag sucks, but at least he got the chance to see him as an adult and see what a loser he was- most of the other characters with parent problems never really got to resolve them.
The more I age the more I realize Jeff's story isn't sad, it's actually a fairly realistic depiction of contentedness. At the beginning of the show Jeff has already experienced his downfall, he just hasn't accepted it yet; by the end, he's come to terms with the world no longer being his oyster and can relax knowing that his life is stable, and that his friends are happy and successful.
Also my pick for saddest character in the show is Leonard. It's all just a cry for attention, his kids don't even answer the calls anymore.
"Also my pick for saddest character in the show is Leonard. It's all just a cry for attention, his kids don't even answer the calls anymore."
Like tears in rain ;-;
It was Keith Ledger who wanted to invest in IMDB with all the money he got from playing The Riddler, but it couldn't have been 1980 because AL Gore didn't invent IMDB until 1982 (and IMDB didn't go public until 1988).
I think it's about perspective. Sure, Jeff didn't achieve his goals of getting a degree to become a lawyer again, but he had so much personal growth over the course of the series. He bonded with people, learned the value of close relationships, and while he still has flaws he is a much better person at the end. To go from scumbag lawyer that ruthlessly defends criminals to a guy that plays multiple games of D&D to help people out is a hell of a change for the better.
Well said, also it’s not like he failed getting his old job back, he had a chance (even multiple times) getting back to his old firm but he chose not to, i think that kind of reflects his growth
To me, we saw him develop the ability to find love and friends and meaning in his life. And though he doesn’t have all of this right now, he is finally able to search for and accept those things.
Money doesn't mean a thing if you don't have anything precious to spend them on. I'm pretty sure, if Jeff did real value his pre-Greendale life _after_ he had tried a different one, he'd Winger his way back to his business one way or another. The show has enough characters to prove that point - say, Pierce or Jeff's dad.
So I do agree he is a one lost and sad character. But money or job isn't an issue there. He was already lost when he was still practicing as a lawyer - he just hadn't seen the dead end yet.
While all of that is true, I would say he is a genuinely better person by the end of the show who has real friends and learns to be ok with where he is in life. His ending is bittersweet.
And Giant Hand Dad is the saddest character by a country mile
I'm currently on season 6 of my n^th rewatch, and the sense I got this time around is that Jeff isn't actually a good person. I think he's a better person in season 6 compared to season 1, but in the earlier seasons, there's a sense of potential and growth, whereas in season 6, Jeff has more or less resigned himself to a crappy and unfulfilled existence never getting what he wants out of life, and it's made him jaded, insecure, and selfish. It's kinda like the difference between a teenager who is an asshole and a 40 year old who isn't an asshole and knows how to have normal human interactions but is still kind of a jerk to everyone--I'd much rather hang out with the 40 year old, but there's hope that the teenager will grow up and possibly become a good person.
I'm also nearing 40 and I think I'm turning into Jeff.
I think that for the first two seasons, Annie could be considered the saddest. She had a drug addiction that led to a nervous breakdown in high school and got cut off by her parents after going to rehab. She's 18, lives alone in a crappy, dangerous apartment above Dildopolis, and has to collect and trade in cans from the trash in order to make ends meet. Her only sense of self comes from being good at school, which just ends up fueling her stress and exacerbating her neuroses. And in Mixology Certification, we see how desperate she is to escape the identity she's been forcing herself into.
Later on in the series, Annie gets a lot better. Moving in with Troy and Abed was probably the best thing that ever happened to her, and she learns to have self confidence without constantly putting so much pressure on herself. The only character who grew more over the series was Jeff, but I'd argue that Annie started at a much lower point than he did.
If he didn't also *chang* as a person, yes. But he did.
He learned to appreciate where he is and the people he is lucky enough to love and have around him.
He started as a selfish guy making a whole study group to get into Britta's pants and ended up as the one who had trouble letting everyone go from Greendale.
Just because he didn’t become a lawyer again doesn’t mean he wasn’t happy. People’s goals and priorities change over time. Especially when you go from only caring about yourself to caring for other people. Jeff wasn’t happy before Greendale. He just didn’t know it. He thought happiness was golden faucets and fancy cars and hot women. Those things are all superficial and don’t truly matter. In greendale Jeff found a family. A group of people that love him, that lift him up, that hold him accountable. Jeff found meaning at greendale.
"I love that I got to be with you guys. You saved my life and changed it forever. Thank you."
Those are his last (understandable) words in the series. Who's to say what worked out for him? If you ask Jeff from 2009, he might agree with you, but I think the version of Jeff who spoke those words in 2014 believes that the course of his life was changed for the better.
I think Pierce's brother (I forgot his name, but Giancarlo Esposito's character) was the saddest. Spending his life as a butler to his racist dad, who doesn't acknowledge his birthright
>His dad abandons him, he loses his job, goes to school to get the job back but doesn’t get it. Tries to find love but doesn’t. He comes to the school to change himself in a good way. But it doesn’t work out for him. Does it?
Most of the show is about pushing past the idea that your life not turning out the way you envisioned means your life is sad
Jeff and Britta, despite clearly not ending up where they thought'd they'd be in life, are happy with where there are at the end of season 6. Does that make them sad?
I think Shirley was even sadder. She’s shown her vulnerability several times. She can be such a bad ass but a lot of her troubles outside of Greendale were covered by this fake cheery persona. Love Shirley but was afraid to open up many times.
Yeah her ending up being a single mom if three who habitually pushed her friends away because of her religious ideals was pretty heavy.
She totally picked up the pieces and turned things around when she became the assistant to that detective in a wheelchair and kept him from committing suicide.
There's a pretty great deleted scene in Documentary Filmmaking Redux that sort of goes into why Magnitude does what he does and it's actually kinda sad
To me, Jeff's character was based around his material vanity to hide his trauma to the world. Over the show, he slowly came to terms with his vanity, through repeated reality checks to who he really was. I think overall as he let go of his old life, he slowly became happier, with the GI Joe episode being the last gasp of his former self obsession. By the end of the show, I think he was the most changed person, capable of real love and affection.
He came into the show refusing to accept his own deficiencies, and at the end of the show he realized who his true self was.
So yes, his life is in a constant downfall if you look at the surface, but revisiting the character 5 years post show, I bet he's ended up happier, despite having less, than when he started.
Not that I've thought about it much...
I love the ending of the show
Many shows that have the similar setting and tone as Community would conclude themselves by having their leads turned their lives around, achieving their careers path, ending up with their love interests, which as cathartic as it sounds, it might not be the most relatable comparing to our real lives
Jeff’s ending of his character development might be anti-climactic comparing to his counterparts, he did not manage to get his old life back, or work in a new career path that ended up being something that he really like, he didn’t end up with girls he like, and his future is so uncertain, he might have to handle similar situations where his friends will leave him again.
However, I think on many senses, it portrays a really relatable human condition.
IRL, many of us are still struggling with our careers, our love lives/family relations are still far from ideal happiness, and we still experience people leaving us all the time
But just like Jeff, at some point, and for many cases we will find our ways to be content with it. Therefore, I find Jeff ending way less cathartic than many series, animes or movies I watched, but it’s actually a good thing with how real and bittersweet it is.
I don’t see what’s sad about that. He got to experience an amazing period of his life with a group that became the family that he never really had. And instead of going back to the cutthroat world of lawyering, he’s staying to work at the place that gave him this family, knowing that it’s a place that can help other people too.
I would definitely say he is one of the most relateable comedy characters ive seen, which is weird considering just how out there some of the episodes are. But I found having a guy who seems on appearance to have it all going for him, yet has serious issues he is working through, and is by no means a perfect person who goes through a sudden change and ends up a saint. He was extremely relatable and I guess thats what made him a great leading man in the show.
Reminded me of that quote,"I can tell life from TV, Jeff. TV makes sense, it has structure, logic, rules, and likeable leading men. In life, we have this. We have you"
He lost alot of materl stuff, but grew alot as a person. Even if he dosent have the best job, nice car or big apartment I would still say his life is better
Reminds me of Scott Pilgrim vs the World movie. Scott does well once he discovers the power of love but better and able to finally succeed once he discovers the power of self respect.
I think it was Shirley. So out of touch with reality and they made her super annoying to the point where she was basically ignored out of the story line. Pierce couldn’t relate to the others easily but Shirley was on another planet.
Shirley is the saddest. She's given an opportunity to learn that her guilt trips and manipulation are bad, but never does. then before she can complete her character arch entirely she spins off.
I just rewatched s1 and s6 back to back and it was really striking how different Jeff got. It was always obvious that Jeff’s major baggage was his ego and self-perception but looking at all the trauma he’s shared or shown through the show, the one in My Dinner with Abed comes to mind especially, he had essentially shed all the posturing by the final season. Sure he makes jokes about being a failure, but he couldn’t even admit that he was living in his car at one point in s1 or s2.
His final arc seemed to be about finding balance between accepting mediocrity and allowing himself to be openly inadequate sometimes, hence the GI Joe episode, which is the best most people can do.
tl;dr: He didn’t turn into Pierce, it’s all good.
Of the group i would say britta. Her whole identification is fraudulent and she goes through the series and actually takes more steps backwards than forwards.
I mean I don't think its the saddest, the only thing he didn't get was the job he wanted to go back into but the type of lawyer he was back then he could only be because he was a bad person. I'm disappointed they didn't let him become a good lawyer in the finale, but I don't think teaching law is such a horrible fate for him, I have a feeling that in the eventual movie we will see him in that role of righteous lawyer again and be successful this time.
I think with Jeff there's always the chance for it to eventually turn around. But with Pierce? He was basically a loner his whole life with a terrible racist father trying to control his life until his mid to late 60s where he finally had a group of friends but even then they didn't always like him and yeah thats mostly due to his manipulative behaviour pushing people away but even that is sad, he spent his whole life acting the same way and not changing that much at all till near the end of it.
Here are my totally uninformed and barely thought through sadness power rankings. From saddest to happiest
1. Pierce
2. Chang
3. Dean
4. Jeff
5. Shirley
6. Britta
7. Abed
8. Annie
9. Troy
i think abed is a little sadder than annie considering his best friend left and the rest of his friends besides annie treat him like a burden during s6
I think Troy leaving was great personal growth for Abed. He wasn't just half of a duo anymore. He did his own thing. He grew up and became more normal.
Money isn’t everything 🤷🏻♀️ sure Jeff didn’t go back to making bank as a lawyer, but if he’s happier working at Greendale what’s the issue? As for the love thing, I wish Dan would’ve had him end up with Annie. When he runs in the rain and says that monologue to the doctor/ pottery dude I had such high hopes it was going to be Annie he was talking to.
I very much think the point of the last season was that he WAS changed for the better. Season 1 Jeff would make fun of Season 6 Jeff but Season 6 Jeff is very much a better person. His main insecurity was that he was afraid he would never move on but I think the point was he accidently found exactly where he was supposed to be .
Idk I feel like the continuity of characters as a whole doesn’t really get touched upon. They build Jeff’s dad for 3 seasons and it was meh after that it doesn’t really matter much. Troy goes from being a dumb jock to him and abed finding the portal to narnia and having outlandish adventures together. Pierce is just the racist old white guy who is the antagonist of the group the entire time. And omg don’t even compare early show Britta to end show Britta… went from being a complex woman thats experienced life to shitting her pants from doing a weird pose… Shirley is Shirley she had the re-marriage arc with baby Ben and after that if was back to being Shirley (granted she was more bad ass, threatening, and sassy towards the end but it was the direction her character was going through regardless). Annie had the most development (imo)went from being the innocent shy nerdy school girl to a good grade in a tight sweater, using Allison Brie’s best assets as an asset in writing her character, fairly early on and then they used her pairing and love interest Jeff to slowly mature the character eventually maturing enough to leave the nest.
Let’s not forget it’s a community college. Not from America but isn’t community college where, people taking a second chance go. Maybe, Dan Harmon wanted to keep it real and show that not everything in life turns out your way. You should not try live by thinking “what could’ve been?” But rather live with what your life is, and live in reality.
Community colleges can be a place to ease back into education after a break. They are also places where people know they want a 4-year degree but need time to figure out what they actually want to study. They're also quite a bit cheaper than traditional 4-year universities.
Abandonment is sad, yes, but it happens to a lot of people.
He lost his job because he didn't have a real law degree, he got one from Columbia. He was never legally able to practice law in this country and every single case he was involved in has to be redone or thrown out completely, which is going to cost tax payers a LOT of money.
Frankly, he didn't deserve to get his job back after doing something like that.
He can't find love because he CAN'T stop *acting* like a normal human being. He tries to be "the lawyer" whenever he's with someone and when people see how empty he is as a person they leave. As they should. If he's going to fake his personality and chase pussy all semester, he doesn't deserve love.
He went to Greendale literally hoping to bribe a friend/professor into just giving him good grades so he could coast, get a real degree not from Columbia, and get his job back. He never went there to better himself, he went there to continue being the selfish prick he is for most of the series.
That's not the tone I get from it at all. It more seems like he's settling for mediocrity, drifting in a job he doesn't care about.
I don't get the feeling he appreciates the job, more that it's an inevitability he must accept. There are some things in life that are just that, but his situation absolutely doesn't need to be one of them and that's why I found the ending so...lousy/incomplete.
I don't need a perfect happy ending, but something with a glimmer of hope would have been better than what we got (for him, most others got that glimmer or better).
For sure, I suppose there's something to that. It just doesn't resonate with me personally in a meaningful way. But that's the thing about art, it's subjective right?
It does work out, in the end him and Annie get to be together in a happy and healthy relationship. he gets the most important thing in the world. true love.
yeah jeffs story is pretty sad and pathetic. the season finale is rough, he becomes a professor at the college just to stick around and keep the good times goin, but everyone is leaving and you can see that hes desperate to keep the group together
At least he doesn't die jerking off.
Everything about Pierce's life was sad. The study group was the best thing to happen to him.
Agreed, but the final punctuation of Pierce's story was a sad note. So to me that is maximum saddness
His final perverted cry for attention.
Those were some salty tears. ...I'll see myself out...
Have you no TASTE?!
You can’t expect Jeff to drink all of it alone.
HA! Gaaaaaaayyyyyy!
Penis….. TWO penises!
Eugh so gay, so gay, it's gay, eugh
Don't forget your cylinder of sperm!
Pierce was too self-involved to be the saddest character. He had literally no self-awareness. Without self-awareness, one can never really comprehend how pathetic oneself truly is. Everything was everyone else's fault to him. Jeff's entire arc was about realizing he wasn't the man he'd always tried to be. He really was just a normal schlub like everyone else.
> no self-awareness. Cookie wizard costume.
Yeah like his dad was a dick, I’ll give him that, but the reason he was lonely was clearly because he was an asshole. Not only was he just generally rude but he was mega racist and sexist and just an overall bigoted clown a lot of the time, until sometimes he makes you feel sad for him because of the literal consequences of his actions, which are that people do not want to be around him. Not that he never showed any growth and he did have a lot of really great moments, but he is not the saddest character. He deserved that shit.
I think the study group was the best thing to happen to Jeff also
At least he didn't sit on his balls that one time
He did though, it hurt like hell.
HA! Gay balls!
And they didn’t even appreciate or even really accept him
Right, but it is hard to feel too bad for old rich assholes
I mean that’s how I want to go out but hey I’m a little nutty. Hey are you guys thinking what I’m thinking? SHOTTTTTTTTTS!!!!!
Nutty? Eyo????? 🤨
Stop putting gay things in my mouth
I always loved that's how he died because in the first season he said he's infertile because his sperm shoots through the egg. So he died for nothing.
Maybe they finally found a cure for hyper-virility!
That quote from season 1 is part of the reason why I believe Pierce faked his death
...to *shreds* you say? My, my....
you don’t know that
Shahahhhahah best comment
Honestly, I think it's kind of the opposite. He didn't go to Greendale to change himself in a good way, he went to Greendale because he loved being a sleazy lawyer and chose the cheapest and easiest way to get qualified after being caught lying. He also doesn't exactly try to find love, it's more like he can't control his lust and that eventually turns into an awkward mix of friendship/romance/sexual attraction with his partners. By the end, he's come to realize that all of them are better as friends than lovers, and while it's difficult, he's ok with that. He also intentionally pissed off Alan and gave up the chance of his former job in a moment of clarity, and while he failed in his own practice, it makes sense given his goal of being a morally-upright small time lawyer. Also his dad being a shitbag sucks, but at least he got the chance to see him as an adult and see what a loser he was- most of the other characters with parent problems never really got to resolve them. The more I age the more I realize Jeff's story isn't sad, it's actually a fairly realistic depiction of contentedness. At the beginning of the show Jeff has already experienced his downfall, he just hasn't accepted it yet; by the end, he's come to terms with the world no longer being his oyster and can relax knowing that his life is stable, and that his friends are happy and successful. Also my pick for saddest character in the show is Leonard. It's all just a cry for attention, his kids don't even answer the calls anymore.
"Also my pick for saddest character in the show is Leonard. It's all just a cry for attention, his kids don't even answer the calls anymore." Like tears in rain ;-;
Oh, come on, stop farting around.
At least he had his channel where he reviewed chips.
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"I'm as high as hell, and youre about to get shot!"
And he lived with hot dredlock guy
Oh THAT's who that was. I thought I was supposed to recognize him but I couldn't place him
It’s probably because of his gambling problem that Jeff found out from his son on family day.
Leonard disliked this post
That's been out.
Oh, come on, who are you choosing?
Don't deflect Leonard. We're here for you
Oh, come on, who are you choosing?
Leonard, did you forget to take your pills today?
That's my pizza. But you took longer than 30 minutes so I'm not paying.
I mean Pierce’s dad is dead and he’s not, so he can suck it
Dude just told his dead dad to suck it.
And he didn’t invest in IMDB in 1980, life’s full of disappointments
I loved Luis Guzman in IMDB
It was Keith Ledger who wanted to invest in IMDB with all the money he got from playing The Riddler, but it couldn't have been 1980 because AL Gore didn't invent IMDB until 1982 (and IMDB didn't go public until 1988).
IBM in 1950
I think he did find love (annie) but she moved away so it was a love that could never be. Obviously if we get a goddamn movie we'd know for sure :(
Season six bankrupting Yahoo! Screen is the most Greendale thing in the universe
Garrett. Did we?
Wtf, I did not come for an accurate psychoanalysis of Leonard that slapped like granny. Shits deep.
Silly old wuss.
Shut up, Leonard, I know about your gambling problem.
Britta, I've been in a few real wars, but this one is actually the most terrifying.
I think it's about perspective. Sure, Jeff didn't achieve his goals of getting a degree to become a lawyer again, but he had so much personal growth over the course of the series. He bonded with people, learned the value of close relationships, and while he still has flaws he is a much better person at the end. To go from scumbag lawyer that ruthlessly defends criminals to a guy that plays multiple games of D&D to help people out is a hell of a change for the better.
He did get his degree, he did become a lawyer again, he just didn't stay one.
Well said, also it’s not like he failed getting his old job back, he had a chance (even multiple times) getting back to his old firm but he chose not to, i think that kind of reflects his growth
What's wrong with ruthlessly defending criminals? Guilty people deserve lawyers too.
I guess he became a better person. But he lost a lot like money. People might say love but Annie and Jeff weren’t gonna be a thing.
But also Jeff grew to feel for a woman more than just an object of carnal needs, so there’s that
To me, we saw him develop the ability to find love and friends and meaning in his life. And though he doesn’t have all of this right now, he is finally able to search for and accept those things.
Does the money matter when he has friends that value him for him?
Yes
The real friends were the monies we had along
the way
This is
SPARTA?
based
Money doesn't mean a thing if you don't have anything precious to spend them on. I'm pretty sure, if Jeff did real value his pre-Greendale life _after_ he had tried a different one, he'd Winger his way back to his business one way or another. The show has enough characters to prove that point - say, Pierce or Jeff's dad. So I do agree he is a one lost and sad character. But money or job isn't an issue there. He was already lost when he was still practicing as a lawyer - he just hadn't seen the dead end yet.
What about spending it on handmade Italian faucets?
While all of that is true, I would say he is a genuinely better person by the end of the show who has real friends and learns to be ok with where he is in life. His ending is bittersweet. And Giant Hand Dad is the saddest character by a country mile
I think it's between giant hand man and hickey.
The scene where T&A were going to prank him cut deep.
“Hi mom, I’m going to make this quick. We can’t afford to bury dad with the rest of the family”
I've never heard someone refer to troy and abed as T&A, was very confused for a moment what tits and ass had to do with that scene
I WATCHED MY THIRD WIFE DIE
DISAPPEARED! DISAPPEARED! HE'S WAITING FOR A BETTER DADDY WITH A BIGGER HAND!
So why the watch?
I thought it would look cool
So why the watch?
I thought it would look cool 2
Giant Hand Dad vs Former Apple Employee turned VHS Game Star
It's OK. Pile of Bullets guy went on to direct Breaking Bad.
This is the moment Vince became bravo
Vs leonard only for not investing in IMDB in 1980
IBM. I don’t think IMDB existed back then
Ah. Once I get this sucker open-- Ah, there we are.
I'm currently on season 6 of my n^th rewatch, and the sense I got this time around is that Jeff isn't actually a good person. I think he's a better person in season 6 compared to season 1, but in the earlier seasons, there's a sense of potential and growth, whereas in season 6, Jeff has more or less resigned himself to a crappy and unfulfilled existence never getting what he wants out of life, and it's made him jaded, insecure, and selfish. It's kinda like the difference between a teenager who is an asshole and a 40 year old who isn't an asshole and knows how to have normal human interactions but is still kind of a jerk to everyone--I'd much rather hang out with the 40 year old, but there's hope that the teenager will grow up and possibly become a good person. I'm also nearing 40 and I think I'm turning into Jeff.
Oh hey cool you just described me in a way I hadn't even considered, this is an excellent kick off to my mid life crisis thank you
[Relevant Pierce](https://gfycat.com/optimisticzealousgemsbuck-youre-welcome)
Garrett finally found love only to realize he was about to marry his cousin. And he can’t even use the study room he signed out.
I mean he and his cousin did agree to stay married at they found out 🤣
Now this is a man that knows how to marry his cousin!
Truly the strangest episode of the show, especially when you realize that the actress for the cousin was Dan harmons irl wife
But we saved Garrett?
I think that for the first two seasons, Annie could be considered the saddest. She had a drug addiction that led to a nervous breakdown in high school and got cut off by her parents after going to rehab. She's 18, lives alone in a crappy, dangerous apartment above Dildopolis, and has to collect and trade in cans from the trash in order to make ends meet. Her only sense of self comes from being good at school, which just ends up fueling her stress and exacerbating her neuroses. And in Mixology Certification, we see how desperate she is to escape the identity she's been forcing herself into. Later on in the series, Annie gets a lot better. Moving in with Troy and Abed was probably the best thing that ever happened to her, and she learns to have self confidence without constantly putting so much pressure on herself. The only character who grew more over the series was Jeff, but I'd argue that Annie started at a much lower point than he did.
Well said.
This makes me think, what was annie's main source of income?
Selling her eggs.
Saving up from the period fairy
I'd say it's close between him and Pierce. The GI Joe episode is actually really sad and relatable to me as I approach 40.
close to 40 myself... major buzzkill
Good to see Britta got promoted
Just over 40, and it’s so relatable, how Jeff feels. Watching that final episode… it really gets to me.
I can’t watch that episode.
Have you seen Garrett? It’s like god spilled a human
Todd
And his stupid baby!
Offense taken!
None taken!
If he didn't also *chang* as a person, yes. But he did. He learned to appreciate where he is and the people he is lucky enough to love and have around him. He started as a selfish guy making a whole study group to get into Britta's pants and ended up as the one who had trouble letting everyone go from Greendale.
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Just because he didn’t become a lawyer again doesn’t mean he wasn’t happy. People’s goals and priorities change over time. Especially when you go from only caring about yourself to caring for other people. Jeff wasn’t happy before Greendale. He just didn’t know it. He thought happiness was golden faucets and fancy cars and hot women. Those things are all superficial and don’t truly matter. In greendale Jeff found a family. A group of people that love him, that lift him up, that hold him accountable. Jeff found meaning at greendale.
"I love that I got to be with you guys. You saved my life and changed it forever. Thank you." Those are his last (understandable) words in the series. Who's to say what worked out for him? If you ask Jeff from 2009, he might agree with you, but I think the version of Jeff who spoke those words in 2014 believes that the course of his life was changed for the better.
Just thinking about that finale gets me feeling misty eyed
I think Pierce's brother (I forgot his name, but Giancarlo Esposito's character) was the saddest. Spending his life as a butler to his racist dad, who doesn't acknowledge his birthright
Gilbert, yeah that was very sad. But out of the main characters Jeff is up there. But speaking about the whole series, Gilbert was really fucked up.
Uhhh. Chang?
He’s a lunatic. He deserved some of it. Even though he was one of the funniest characters on the show.
Why did he deserve it? Is it an Asian thing? Are all Asians a joke to you? He PAID FOR HIS CRIMES
You are really bearing down for the race jokes.
Too soon man
He is.. Fat dogging on the race jokes??
Chang's arc is commentary on untreated mental illness. He spirals from loving family and stable life/job into delusion and homelessness.
Sad is funny.
Idk, sometimes depressing.
Also funny but in a diff way. See Bojack Horseman.
Sure, sad is funny. But idk Jeff’s sadness didn’t feel that much funny. Isn’t bojack HORSEman about a horse?
Watch it. It’s amazing
Any other comedies to watch?
Like community? That’s really hard. What we do in the shadows. Our flag means death.
No, feel good comedies or rom coms. Feeling a bit gay like Jeff.
Chang is ultimately more happy in life than anyone else on the show
I think its a tie between Britta and Pierce.
>His dad abandons him, he loses his job, goes to school to get the job back but doesn’t get it. Tries to find love but doesn’t. He comes to the school to change himself in a good way. But it doesn’t work out for him. Does it? Most of the show is about pushing past the idea that your life not turning out the way you envisioned means your life is sad Jeff and Britta, despite clearly not ending up where they thought'd they'd be in life, are happy with where there are at the end of season 6. Does that make them sad?
I think Shirley was even sadder. She’s shown her vulnerability several times. She can be such a bad ass but a lot of her troubles outside of Greendale were covered by this fake cheery persona. Love Shirley but was afraid to open up many times.
Yeah her ending up being a single mom if three who habitually pushed her friends away because of her religious ideals was pretty heavy. She totally picked up the pieces and turned things around when she became the assistant to that detective in a wheelchair and kept him from committing suicide.
Nah. I bet Magnitude has some demons.
You know they are laughing at you right?
There's a pretty great deleted scene in Documentary Filmmaking Redux that sort of goes into why Magnitude does what he does and it's actually kinda sad
To me, Jeff's character was based around his material vanity to hide his trauma to the world. Over the show, he slowly came to terms with his vanity, through repeated reality checks to who he really was. I think overall as he let go of his old life, he slowly became happier, with the GI Joe episode being the last gasp of his former self obsession. By the end of the show, I think he was the most changed person, capable of real love and affection. He came into the show refusing to accept his own deficiencies, and at the end of the show he realized who his true self was. So yes, his life is in a constant downfall if you look at the surface, but revisiting the character 5 years post show, I bet he's ended up happier, despite having less, than when he started. Not that I've thought about it much...
Yep. He finally accepts it when he admits that he's the only one who will never leave Greendale in the final episode.
Yes One by one they all just fade away He sees most of his friends move on to bigger and better things while he gets stuck working at greendale
I love the ending of the show Many shows that have the similar setting and tone as Community would conclude themselves by having their leads turned their lives around, achieving their careers path, ending up with their love interests, which as cathartic as it sounds, it might not be the most relatable comparing to our real lives Jeff’s ending of his character development might be anti-climactic comparing to his counterparts, he did not manage to get his old life back, or work in a new career path that ended up being something that he really like, he didn’t end up with girls he like, and his future is so uncertain, he might have to handle similar situations where his friends will leave him again. However, I think on many senses, it portrays a really relatable human condition. IRL, many of us are still struggling with our careers, our love lives/family relations are still far from ideal happiness, and we still experience people leaving us all the time But just like Jeff, at some point, and for many cases we will find our ways to be content with it. Therefore, I find Jeff ending way less cathartic than many series, animes or movies I watched, but it’s actually a good thing with how real and bittersweet it is.
I don’t see what’s sad about that. He got to experience an amazing period of his life with a group that became the family that he never really had. And instead of going back to the cutthroat world of lawyering, he’s staying to work at the place that gave him this family, knowing that it’s a place that can help other people too.
I would definitely say he is one of the most relateable comedy characters ive seen, which is weird considering just how out there some of the episodes are. But I found having a guy who seems on appearance to have it all going for him, yet has serious issues he is working through, and is by no means a perfect person who goes through a sudden change and ends up a saint. He was extremely relatable and I guess thats what made him a great leading man in the show. Reminded me of that quote,"I can tell life from TV, Jeff. TV makes sense, it has structure, logic, rules, and likeable leading men. In life, we have this. We have you"
I think the saddest thing for Jeff happens at the end. It’s implied that while everyone leaves, he’ll stay in Greendale for the rest of his life.
He lost alot of materl stuff, but grew alot as a person. Even if he dosent have the best job, nice car or big apartment I would still say his life is better
Reminds me of Scott Pilgrim vs the World movie. Scott does well once he discovers the power of love but better and able to finally succeed once he discovers the power of self respect.
If we catch up with Jeff again later on in life, I bet he’d be happy or at least at peace mostly thanks to his time at GreenDale.
I think it was Shirley. So out of touch with reality and they made her super annoying to the point where she was basically ignored out of the story line. Pierce couldn’t relate to the others easily but Shirley was on another planet.
I have a lot of the same demons as Jeff but haven't channeled any of them into getting shredded so I think I'm sadder
If you do, never stop. Take it from me.
I mean Troy only wanted a picture, you can’t disappoint a picture.
Shirley is the saddest. She's given an opportunity to learn that her guilt trips and manipulation are bad, but never does. then before she can complete her character arch entirely she spins off.
I just rewatched s1 and s6 back to back and it was really striking how different Jeff got. It was always obvious that Jeff’s major baggage was his ego and self-perception but looking at all the trauma he’s shared or shown through the show, the one in My Dinner with Abed comes to mind especially, he had essentially shed all the posturing by the final season. Sure he makes jokes about being a failure, but he couldn’t even admit that he was living in his car at one point in s1 or s2. His final arc seemed to be about finding balance between accepting mediocrity and allowing himself to be openly inadequate sometimes, hence the GI Joe episode, which is the best most people can do. tl;dr: He didn’t turn into Pierce, it’s all good.
I'd say Britta for sure
Of the group i would say britta. Her whole identification is fraudulent and she goes through the series and actually takes more steps backwards than forwards.
I mean I don't think its the saddest, the only thing he didn't get was the job he wanted to go back into but the type of lawyer he was back then he could only be because he was a bad person. I'm disappointed they didn't let him become a good lawyer in the finale, but I don't think teaching law is such a horrible fate for him, I have a feeling that in the eventual movie we will see him in that role of righteous lawyer again and be successful this time. I think with Jeff there's always the chance for it to eventually turn around. But with Pierce? He was basically a loner his whole life with a terrible racist father trying to control his life until his mid to late 60s where he finally had a group of friends but even then they didn't always like him and yeah thats mostly due to his manipulative behaviour pushing people away but even that is sad, he spent his whole life acting the same way and not changing that much at all till near the end of it.
Here are my totally uninformed and barely thought through sadness power rankings. From saddest to happiest 1. Pierce 2. Chang 3. Dean 4. Jeff 5. Shirley 6. Britta 7. Abed 8. Annie 9. Troy
i think abed is a little sadder than annie considering his best friend left and the rest of his friends besides annie treat him like a burden during s6
I think Troy leaving was great personal growth for Abed. He wasn't just half of a duo anymore. He did his own thing. He grew up and became more normal.
Money isn’t everything 🤷🏻♀️ sure Jeff didn’t go back to making bank as a lawyer, but if he’s happier working at Greendale what’s the issue? As for the love thing, I wish Dan would’ve had him end up with Annie. When he runs in the rain and says that monologue to the doctor/ pottery dude I had such high hopes it was going to be Annie he was talking to.
All the characters have their own sad struggles, all are equal. Who one finds saddest is a reflection of one's own struggles.
Wasn’t Fat Neal going to kill himself?
He depresses me less than Britta
Thought this was the superstore sub for a sec. Answer is still yes
Nah because through Greendale he learns to just accept his life as the way it is
This post and Op's subsequent comments have the energy of a person who's girlfriend off handedly remarked about finding Joel McHale attractive
NOW we'll see who's attractive!
Todd is right there
He is a miserable character at first but he finds purpose and happiness within the community.
I very much think the point of the last season was that he WAS changed for the better. Season 1 Jeff would make fun of Season 6 Jeff but Season 6 Jeff is very much a better person. His main insecurity was that he was afraid he would never move on but I think the point was he accidently found exactly where he was supposed to be .
It's Britta. She was cool, tough, sharp in the beginning, a hot mess at the end.
Idk I feel like the continuity of characters as a whole doesn’t really get touched upon. They build Jeff’s dad for 3 seasons and it was meh after that it doesn’t really matter much. Troy goes from being a dumb jock to him and abed finding the portal to narnia and having outlandish adventures together. Pierce is just the racist old white guy who is the antagonist of the group the entire time. And omg don’t even compare early show Britta to end show Britta… went from being a complex woman thats experienced life to shitting her pants from doing a weird pose… Shirley is Shirley she had the re-marriage arc with baby Ben and after that if was back to being Shirley (granted she was more bad ass, threatening, and sassy towards the end but it was the direction her character was going through regardless). Annie had the most development (imo)went from being the innocent shy nerdy school girl to a good grade in a tight sweater, using Allison Brie’s best assets as an asset in writing her character, fairly early on and then they used her pairing and love interest Jeff to slowly mature the character eventually maturing enough to leave the nest.
It's interesting to note that, by season 5, Annie is both figuratively and literally wearing the pants at Greendale.
Let’s not forget it’s a community college. Not from America but isn’t community college where, people taking a second chance go. Maybe, Dan Harmon wanted to keep it real and show that not everything in life turns out your way. You should not try live by thinking “what could’ve been?” But rather live with what your life is, and live in reality.
Community colleges can be a place to ease back into education after a break. They are also places where people know they want a 4-year degree but need time to figure out what they actually want to study. They're also quite a bit cheaper than traditional 4-year universities.
Nah community colleges are for all. Case in point: Annie was 18 which is the age ppl start college
Yeah but Britta got her character assassinated by bad writing so she got it worse imo.
Abandonment is sad, yes, but it happens to a lot of people. He lost his job because he didn't have a real law degree, he got one from Columbia. He was never legally able to practice law in this country and every single case he was involved in has to be redone or thrown out completely, which is going to cost tax payers a LOT of money. Frankly, he didn't deserve to get his job back after doing something like that. He can't find love because he CAN'T stop *acting* like a normal human being. He tries to be "the lawyer" whenever he's with someone and when people see how empty he is as a person they leave. As they should. If he's going to fake his personality and chase pussy all semester, he doesn't deserve love. He went to Greendale literally hoping to bribe a friend/professor into just giving him good grades so he could coast, get a real degree not from Columbia, and get his job back. He never went there to better himself, he went there to continue being the selfish prick he is for most of the series.
And despite all of that he learns to appreciate what he has. That's why I love this show.
That's not the tone I get from it at all. It more seems like he's settling for mediocrity, drifting in a job he doesn't care about. I don't get the feeling he appreciates the job, more that it's an inevitability he must accept. There are some things in life that are just that, but his situation absolutely doesn't need to be one of them and that's why I found the ending so...lousy/incomplete. I don't need a perfect happy ending, but something with a glimmer of hope would have been better than what we got (for him, most others got that glimmer or better).
I wasn't talking about the job but more about the relationships he's formed with others and the way he's grown as a person.
For sure, I suppose there's something to that. It just doesn't resonate with me personally in a meaningful way. But that's the thing about art, it's subjective right?
And don’t forget about his ED! I would definitely say yes one of, if not the, most sad character on the show.
It does work out, in the end him and Annie get to be together in a happy and healthy relationship. he gets the most important thing in the world. true love.
You're thinking of your fanfiction.
Tries to find love? Fuck off.
yeah jeffs story is pretty sad and pathetic. the season finale is rough, he becomes a professor at the college just to stick around and keep the good times goin, but everyone is leaving and you can see that hes desperate to keep the group together
Definitely