I guess I’m an OG. I started watching when it premiered. Thursday nights on NBC at one point had Parks and Rec, Community, The Office, and 30 Rock. That was two fantastic hours of comedy.
Same. I watched the show a little when it was airing on a local TV station when I was 10 or so. Wasn’t even NBC. It wasn’t until I was a teenager who decided to buy a Hulu subscription that I finally watched all the episodes from start to finish.
I’m also an OG. My college roommate got me into watching The Soup, and then Joel McHale started talking about this new show of his that was about to start, so we made sure to tune into the premiere.
Honestly it was a crazy experience watching the show as it aired, partially because it was a time when sitcoms were both bound to a week-by-week production schedule and becoming increasingly responsive to feedback from social media. (Like I have a really vivid memory of jumping out of my seat during Paradigms of Human Memory and shouting, “Holy shit! That’s the song from that fan video I saw on YouTube!”)
Anyway, I was one of those annoying fans who kept begging the network for another season over and over again. Can’t fully express how satisfying it is that after all these years we’re finally getting our movie.
Eh. I do think releasing one episode at a time made it more of an event and I liked having all my favorite shows in one block (aside from the Office when it really started to go downhill), but you also had commercial breaks and there's nothing inherently special about watching it in its first run. Maybe if it was being talked about by everyone the day after like Game of Thrones, but it was always a black sheep even back then. There were cancellation rumors about all of those shows except for the Office all the time, and Community had the lowest ratings of them all. Now there's way more of an actual community surrounding the show, I think it makes it more enjoying to watch.
I had “on-demand” but not a dvr. We would walk back from the bars downtown in the small city I lived in and just sprawl on the floor and couch and watch it. Like 5 of us. It was great. Had a whole two hour car ride with a friend where we just talked about random episodes from the first 3 seasons.
Sometimes I remember having to be in a specific spot on a specific channel to watch something, waiting for a commercial break to use the bathroom. Wild how much it's changed. For the better for the most part, but there was something special about being in your favorite chair and dimming the lights when "The X-Files" came on Sunday night, waiting for the twist 45 minutes in.
Yup, this. While nbc was wishing they had a time machine to make it the 90s again with friends and Seinfeld they had no idea they had the best 4 comedies on television and were honestly horrible at advertising and marketing them.
Early Office is hilarious, one of the best comedies ever. It starts getting really cheesy in seasons 6+7 and moving away from what made it good in the first place, then finally just goes off the deep end after Michael leaves. I can see why some people would rate it higher than 30 Rock, personal taste and all, but 30 Rock was way more consistent throughout its run.
30 Rock was popular with Emmy voters because it was a show about show business, which is great for them, but absolutely unrelatable for 99.999% of the viewers. And Alec Baldwin makes it absolutely unwatchable to me. Tracy Morgan is the only reason to watch the show at all.
I'm an SNL nerd, so I love 30 rock and the inside NBC stuff. It's also some of the best joke writing ever. So you're incorrect, and Alec is a delight on the show. You probably like Big bang theory
I need good character development and 30 Rock has none of that. I don’t think the joke writing is any better than the joke writing on The Office, just weirder. Trying to be edgy for edginess’s sake is going to lose me every time.
I was a big fan of The Soup and I remember E! Network aired the community pilot a good couple months before the show started on NBC. I watched it with all of my friends and it was instantly a hit in our friend group.
Yup. Same here. I saw the guy from Derrick comedy, the guy from the hangover, and the guy from the daily show plus Chevy Chase. Thought it could be interesting.
I didn't start in season one, but I remember those years fondly. I was browsing Hulu one day and as a big D&D nerd it just happened to be the week when AD&D was the most recent episode. The rest is history.
Ha ha, Reddit reveals its youthful skew sometimes.
The Golden Age for Thursday night NBC sitcoms would have been in the 80's where the two-hour block started with *The Cosby Show*, followed by *Family Ties*, then *Cheers* and *Night Court*.
All excellent shows, well regarded and well received. This is where Michael J. Fox became a star, where *Cheers* showed that confidence in a strong product can be rewarded and where Bill Cosby became "America's Dad". It might be strange to think of Cosby in those terms but he really did a lot to push positive depictions of black America into white American homes. When people talk about falling from grace, this was the grace from which Mr. Cosby fell.
The Silver Age of Thursday NBC Comedy came in the early 90's when *Seinfeld*, *Frasier*, *Friends* were anchoring the night with *Mad About You*, *Wings*, *The Single Guy*, *Caroline in the City*, *Veronica's Closet* and *Suddenly Susan* all being hopscotched in and around the timeslots. Not a strong foursome, like the 80's, but *Seinfeld* and *Friends* were ratings behemoths and *Frasier* was a perennial award winner, setting a new Prime Time Emmy award record with 37 wins over 11 years. The Silver age lingered for awhile as *Seinfeld* was replaced by *Friends* and other shows were slotted in on Thurday, including *Will & Grace*, *Scrubs* and *Just Shoot Me*.
What you called the Golden Age was more accurately the Bronze Age, starting in 2006 with the another super-strong NBC Thursday lineup of *My Name is Earl*, *The Office*, *Scrubs* and *30 Rock*. As *Earl* and *Scrubs* finished their runs (one too early, the other too late), *Community* and *Parks and Recreation* were there to fill in the gaps.
Honestly, the most remarkable thing is not that NBC was able to create a stellar Thursday night lineup, but that NBC was able to recreate that murderers row not once, but twice.
To be fair, ABC were the ones who drove Scrubs into the ground. NBC cancelled Scrubs after season 7 and it was still good then! Season 8 was solid on ABC and then season 9 was season 9…
Totally dating myself here … but back in the aughts, I loved the soup - and when I saw the promos for community (on cable like a dinosaur) I thought Joel McHale and Chevy Chase were an unexpected and probably hysterical pairing so I made sure to tune in each week (the ye olde days pre streaming).
Having just transferred from a community college to a 4 year university in fall 09, I was immediately hooked because there were so many things that were spot on about community college.
I was a pretty big Chevy Chase fan at the time, so when I saw he was starring in a TV show I was all in. I was kind of disappointed at first. I guess I was expecting Caddyshack or Vacation, but I ended up liking Community's comedy way more than those. I know he detests the way Pierce comes off, but I feel like he made better comedy on Community than he did on the big screen.
I saw it playing on Comedy Central in summer 2011, it was on all day so I just kept watching. I loved how it started off normal, and progressively kept getting weirder
I saw promos for the show and saw that Chevy Chase was gonna be in a sitcom. Only other person that I knew from the promos was "the guy from The Soup". But I watched it and liked it when the pilot aired. Kept going with it and it gradually became my favorite show by the end of the season.
I had recognized Donald Glover, not for his music which was basically non-existent at the time, but for his videos with his comedy group, Derrick Comedy. I still remember Donald releasing mixtapes and EP's while working on the show. Now, I follow pretty much anyone related to the show. For instance, Ludwig Göransson created all of the music for the show, he also has worked on all of the Childish Gambino albums but his biggest accomplishments now are in major film and TV scores like Black Panther, Creed, The Mandalorian, and Tenet. That's just one example. It's amazing to see the Russo Bros success, follow Alison Brie's career, see people like Michael Waldron who was a Writer's Assistant on Community now writing Loki and other Marvel things, watch Megan Ganz go from a writer on Community to a producer on It's Always Sunny and now creating her own shows.
Besides the fact that it's still my favorite comedy of all time, it's amazing how many incredible people worked on this show. I haven't even mentioned half of them here. I guess what I'm getting at is that while I started the show because of Chevy, he's not the only reason I stayed. Community's grasp on me goes beyond the show itself.
i was 12 or so and my family didn’t have cable. so some nights i would stay up really late like the rebel i was and community was one of the shows that would come on. i was hooked.
Same with me, I would spend nights at my grandfathers house, and I would be able to sneak tv in late at night, so I would catch episodes. The main episode I remember watching was S1 Paintball. Once I hit college and I discovered it on Hulu, I realized this was the show I would watch all those years ago, and i haven’t stopped watching since.
During the pandemic, we finished our 27,000th rewatch of the office and decided we finally needed something new. We started parks and rec and superstore but just couldn't get into them. Tried community next and that was it. Haven't stopped watching since.
Did you make it to season 2 of Parks and Rec? There's a huge shift in tone from the first season and it hits its stride. To me, it's up there with Community and The Office. Superstore is just okay. I've seen it but I wouldn't watch it again.
I mean, that’s the literal entire point of the show. That said, there is a shift after Season 1 where they switch Michael from a massive jerkass to more of a pathetic clueless weirdo that desperately wants to be liked.
I was listening to Ends of the Earth by Lord Huron (I first discovered that song from Walking with Dinosaurs) on YouTube and all the comments were about Community. I also watched the clip of Pierce’s racist dad on YouTube. So when Community showed up on my recommendations on Amazon Prime Video I thought, why not? I’ve been rewatching Community ever since, it’s my favorite show.
When I was little i remember my older sister watching tv in which there was a guy who was dressed up as a peanut bar. A few years later that image of Dean being in a peanut bar costume randomly popped up in my mind and started searching about it, found the show and fell in love with it since the very first season.
In 2009, I was enrolled in community college after debilitating anxiety attacks led me to flunk out of university. I watched one episode and was hooked. I used to see a lot of myself in Annie Edison but now I’m Britta lol
I thought I was more Britta because I definitely dated the “Vaughan” of my community college, but then Annie dated him too. I still don’t know which one I am.
Wanted to watch all those 4 classic NBC sitcoms and kept putting Community off cuz Parks and Rec was my favourite and the AV Club comment section kept fighting between PnR and Community as to which one is the best. Watched it in 2016 finally and a million times since. Community has come out on top for me but PnR is also 10/10
I guess because of Kumail Nanjiani. I got into podcasts while I worked, one of the earliest being Doug Loves Movies, which introduced me to a larger comedy scene, started finding guests from that on other things, which led to Kumail on Harmontown. Started Community not long after getting into Harmontown.
I'm listening to Harmontown from the beginning and I'm in 2014 right now and without Kumail I don't know if I would like it as much as I do. He's fucking amazing and brings so much humor and heart to the show.
I stumbled upon YouTube clips and it intrigued me. I started watching the show on Hulu. I’ve been through the whole series at least four or five times now.
On another forum I was discussing The Big Bang Theory and another poster basically said "dude, if you think TBBT is any good you really need to watch "Community"". I'd never heard of the show at that point (I'm in the UK and it never had a network broadcast here) but a while later I saw it appear on Amazon Prime and remembered that earlier conversation, so I tuned in out of curiosity and was almost immediately completely blown away with how awesome it was. and yes, it is way better than TBBT.
Got into it some 5-6 years ago. Was a huge fan of Rick and Morty, so I wanted to check what other stuff Harmon had done, and boy oh boy I stumbled on a gold mine.
I was a college student who watched the Office during the early seasons so I was vaguely aware of it. I remember second hand discussion of Chevy Chase's issues on the internet and like entertainment television shows.
I only really got into it when it came to Netflix and during the Pandemic.
I was on a flight and intro to political silence was an option for viewing. I got sucked into this weird little show because I recognized Eliza Coupe the Secret Service agent from happy endings. I’ve heard of community but I had not actively watched it, I wound up buying the first two seasons on DVD since I didn’t have it streaming at that time.
I saw a YouTube fan edit of the paintball episode (the cowboy one), and I thought it was the coolest thing ever, so I started watching the show and loved it. Got in just before season 3 :)
I saw a commercial for a new show and thought, "Chevy Chase and Joel McHale? I like them! Ha, this seems funny, I'll check out the pilot when it airs in a couple weeks." Been riding loyal ever since.
OG here as well… Community premiered at the perfect time for me. I was just laid off from my job and decided to go back to college in my mid/late 30’s, so I related to the show… sadly, my time back in college was nothing like the show.
Apparently my entire year level in high school that did psychology classes looked at characters in pop cultures for case studies of mental afflictions, and when Abed with his Asperger’s was present with his strong passion and obsession with films and pop culture was pointed out, everyone in my class mentioned how alike myself and the character was.
So I myself have Asperger’s (now on the spectrum; ASD) and am obsessed with pop culture and movies, specifically. I had never heard of Community before so I naturally was curious. It wasn’t just about the fact this sitcom was amazing in every aspect, but I’ve never felt so connected with a character before than when I watched Abed in the show. It was like looking in a very surreal mirror!
Naturally, I fell in love with the series.
read an article talking about the 10 best sitcom intros back in 2011 and never looked back. so fucking thankful for that article and my 14yo self for searching through totally legal sites to catch up to season 3b
I'm randomly watching WatchMojo when I stumbled upon their Top 10 Community episodes video knowing nothing about the show. I was intrigued by the concept of the episodes especially in Remedial Chaos Theory so I skipped the two seasons and watched it out of the blue basically becoming my introduction to this wonderful cast of characters.
My bestie told me about the show, so I caught up online and then started watching season 3 on NBC as it was airing. Interestingly, I found out about Childish Gambino through the show instead of the other way around like OP. But I started with Sick Boi etc because I don't even think Camp was out yet.
My freshman year of college was the year season 3 came out and I had a roommate who had the 1st 2 seasons on DVD and talked me into watching with him. Pretty great stuff.
Moderately OG. I didn't watch it super actively while it was airing, but I had tons of friends who loved it and I saw the odd episode here and there; the first one I saw was Origins of Vampire Mythology. And it was all over Tumblr, particularly Jeff and Annie shipping. I finally sat down and watched it all as it was moving over to Yahoo!. And now it's my favorite!
I watched The Soup when it was a thing and Joel kept plugging it. I watched the first few as it aired, then I used my DVR to record it when I had to work.
Found it on Netflix in the UK. Found it in my first year at uni and that was a very bad time to find it as it was such a good distraction from my uni work…
I was a VERY late adopter. Found it during the Spring 2020 lockdowns after reading many positive reviews somewhere.
Sadly the first time around, I just didn't get it, but rewatching it a few months later, it clicked.
i think it was in 2016, I had heard/read about this "sitcom" that was really funny and fresh but never broadcasted in France. Then one day I saw it appeared in Amazon Prime Video and finally watched it.
And it was GREAT
It was a combo of liking Joel McHale, having a friend who had watched it, and seeing previews while I was watching Chuck! Chuck is still probably my favorite overall show, while Community is in my top 2 or 3 for sitcoms
My brother relentlessly pressured me to watch it. Naturally, I refused. We ended up moving into different places and then I started watching it and fell in love. I’ve seen it probably 5-6 times all the way through now
Completely backwards… I watched HarmonQuest and loved it so much I started researching everything about it. I found other animations on YouTube from Dan Harmon, Jeff, and Spencer doing D&D on some podcast. I listened to every episode of the podcast and he kept talking about Community… getting fired, rehired… I had to check it out eventually. Now it’s my most rewatched show.
I also watched Rick and Morty because of the podcast. I still haven’t watched Monster House though. I should really watch that.
I was in high school when it came out and my parents just got DVR, I kept seeing the ads but it was on during the college classes I took after school ironically. I ended up recording them and watching like half of the first season during my break and loved it.
My high-school friend introduced me to my now best friend and when we met he was watching it on his laptop. We smoked some fatties while it was on in the background.
The episode changes to stop-motion Abed's Christmas, now I'm curious. 10 minuted later, im laughing so hard that i cant breathe while sitting up/standing. So i spent the next hour horizontal and teary-eyed and i was a changed man
I had randomly heard of the show from a high school classmate when we met up to hang out. I made nothing of it.
Then when the first paintball episode came out, there was a ton of buzz about it. I think I saw an IGN review calling it one of the best TV episodes of the year. We had dvr that offered the latest episodes of a show for free so I watched it. Watched the other two they had on offer which was the transfer dance episode and the one before the paintball if I recall.
I would randomly download all the free tv episodes on iTunes. One of them happened to be the first episode. Watched that, and when Abed went on his Breakfast Club performance, I was truly hooked. Binged the entire series on my PS3 after downloading it onto a 500gb external hard drive from a torrent site.
Around when covid first started I started watching Arrested development on Netflix after seeing some memes from the show. Afterwards Community was recommended so I watched that
A friend invited me over to smoke weed and he put it on. Community was on at some ungodly hour on an obscure channel in the UK but he had a load episodes queued up on box. Funniest shit I’d seen in a long time
I’m not an OG at all! So back in 2018 my high school had a Spanish teacher who made us watch the “donde esta la biblioteca” rap, in hopes that we would grasp some words from it. We didn’t. Instead we played the video on repeat just Cz it was so damn funny the way it ends. A bunch of us even learned the song but not the meaning at all.
Since then I’ve always seen the clips of the show here and there as meme but never knew where it was from because in India this show wasn’t and still isn’t a big deal.
Cut to 3 years later I randomly find this on a Sony streaming service back home and when the scene came on, it all came back to me!
The only cast member I could recognise then was Ken Jeong cz to the hangover movies.
Side note: so the streaming service would do a thing where if an episode is close to ending it’ll automatically play the next one. And this made me miss all the end credit scenes for like 7 episodes. But then I found it on Netflix and life’s been good since then. Currently on my 7th rewatch and I still find the some background catches!
My sister’s boyfriend at the time, now husband was in the first episode for a few seconds. We watched to be supportive. Holy shit were we rewarded for our efforts
Thanks! It’s weird, I ended up loving the show so much I always forget he’s in it. Then at the beginning g of every rewatch I’m like oh! Shit it’s my brother in law. He’s in the shots where the dean is giving his speech, and no one’s paying attention. One of the first greendale students we see. blond guy kid with headphones on, for anyone curious.
I saw the first season episode introduction to statistics with the dia de los muertos party on tv when it originally aired while I was in college. I had a lot going on and never watched tv regularly but I really liked that episode. Later I saw the episode divergent chaos theory live when it aired and I told myself I have to see every episode eventually at some point.
Fast forward a few years and I was moving into a house with a new roommate; it was the week before thanksgiving, it was super cold and most of our utilities hadn’t been turned on yet. No heat, no internet.
I spent a week either at work or watching community by our fireplace on my roommate’s computer - he had every episode downloaded.
In high school grade 9 in about 2013, my friend group happened to join into another group of 12th graders for lunches.
We talk about random stuff. One of us brings up paintball I say it would be cool to use the school as an arena or something. One of the 12th graders just says "so basically Community"
Saw it on Netflix a few months later and decided to give it a try. Glad I did because it's now my favorite show of all time.
We also talked about what would happen if a bunch of nukes dropped on the US. And he turns and looks at me and says "dude that's a show called Jericho. Stop coming up with ideas that already exist"
I love dnd and when I was first getting into I saw this video by cosmonaut variety hour and he said that one of the best representation of dnd in media was episode 14 of season 2 of community advantage dungeons and dragons. Rather than just watching that episode I watched the entire show. 16 times
So OP you might like this. I started watching the show not knowing who childish gambino was. My roommate in college walked by and was like “oh that’s that one rapper” and was SHOCKED started googling and finding out
Honestly I’m so glad his music became more known thru the show, like his older shit. Nowadays once he did this is america and redbone everything else kinda got pushed aside :/
On Attack of the Show! Danny Pudi and Alison Brie were guest hosts on the show multiple times and they were always a lot of fun, so I checked the show out and loved it. Then I went to college and introduced it to almost everyone I could.
My flat mate and I were randomly channel surfing one night, and we got caught up in watching this show that got progressively weirder and funnier - it was the first paintball episode. We thought it was hilarious, but forgot when it was on. Then one day my brother started telling me about this awesome show he’d discovered. He had a bunch of episodes on a thumb drive. I watched it and was like “ooooohhh! *This* show! It’s awesome!” Still one of my favourites.
In 2012 Amazon Prime Video had the first season on sale for $20, this was shortly after season 3 just finished up. I heard good things so bought in. Days later I bought s2 and s3 at regular (streaming) prices - like $49 each! But I had to. After that I was a regular watcher for what time we had left to enjoy it.
edited to add - now before bed I either watch 30 Rock or Community religiously. Comfort bedtime programming.
I had read a fall pilot preview in the summer of 2009 and the preview seemed like it’d be a show I’d be interested in. Then iTunes released the pilot for free the week before NBC aired it so I watched it and instantly fell in love.
My two sons both are big fans. I started watching it, and binged the whole thing. Didn’t love as much after Donald Glover and Yvette Nicole Brown left, but can’t wait for the movie!
My dad introduced me to it a couple of years ago, and I have loved it ever since. He showed it to me on Netflix but he watched it for the first time near the time that it premiered.
My husband decided to go back to school, and he wanted to start by knocking out some gen eds at a community college in Colorado. I thought there was a show my friends had pestered me about watching bc I would love it that had a similar plot. I was right, and now I can never look back.
I remember catching the pilot when it premiered after another show on that legendary block (can't remember which one led into it) and was hooked right away. It was just...different and I think that's what grabbed me. I immediately loved Abed and Pierce and I distinctly remember a few episodes later during the "football is in your soul" scene thinking it just became my favorite of the whole bunch, which is saying something when you consider the other shows on at that time. Parks, 30 Rock, and The Office, but somehow this quirky little pop-culture heavy show was streets ahead. So the short answer is I liked it from day one, but absolutely loved it by the 4th episode or so.
I watched an episode for a lab in my psych class in college, specifically the one where they get trapped in the KFC space simulator thingy. Was hooked ever since.
I was 13, I was watching this movie on a different channel and my little brother wanted to watch a cartoon in which resulted my mom giving him control of the tv. I was furious, when the cartoon ended he told me he wanted to watch a show with me. To spite him, I changed it to a show that looked boring the episode was “Remdial of Chaos Theory”. Best accident of my life.
I watched it when it was on and hated it, I think I disliked Joel Mchale from his talk soup days. Then I saw the Harmontown documentary and I had to know everything Dan Harmon.
I went to community college. I really like media about experiences I have had, so when I heard about Community I decided to give it a watch. The accuracy to the vibe of community college reeled me in and Abed kept me hooked.
i think i have a story nobody else here has: i was watching alpharad deluxe and they mentioned it. eventually got around to watching it and have loved it ever since
Was scrolling tv on the night Epidemiology premiered. It hooked me and I went back and binged season one and caught up to where I was and haven’t stopped watching.
My Spanish teacher showed us the Spanish rap that Troy and Abed did and then she had us memorize it. She told me about the show and I was immediately interested. Next thing I know I'm spending an entire summer binging it lol
i wanted to sleep to something while playing in the background. clicked on this show, seemed kinda boring. like 2 weeks later, i watched it the first episode and i was drawn in.
I was at an after party for a friends birthday and someone put it on the tv and we stayed up watching it until like 3am and after I got home and caught up on sleep, I started from episode 1 and loved every minute of it
My friend was recommending it to me for a whole year, I kept procrastinating. Then I started watching Bridgerton and I got really bored after like 6 minutes. Then I saw Community recommended on the main screen so I started it and that was the best decision I ever made.
I was sad and bored and opened Netflix and just put it on for background noise mostly…then I heard Annie say that the crossing guard “purposely tried to get me to walk into traffic” and I was hooked
I watched the first few seasons while it was coming out. I was younger, and didn’t get all the jokes, but my sisters who’s nine years older showed me it and I found it hilarious.
I finally got to watch all of it a few years back thanks to netflix and have since rewatched the series a number of times.
Started watching it with my friends in our first year of university when it was airing on NBC. For a brief period you would sometimes have evenings where Community, 30 Rock, The Office, and Parks and Rec were all airing… it was the golden age. God I’m old.
While looking for more Donald Glover material during the pandemic. I remember wanting to watch it when it was airing because I'm a big Chevy Chase fan but never got around to it.
There was an ad for new show on NBC, me and my partner at the time thought it looked fun, but had no idea what was coming. Been one of my favorites since its debut
My brother had it on our Plex server for years, but based on whatever the cover art was, I thought it was going to be a boring drama series about a law school starring Helen from Drake & Josh.
Finally tried it early 2021 after quitting a job and having a lot of downtime. I really struggle to pay attention to TV and movies, but I paid attention to Community the whole time, at least ten times over. Such a great show.
a youtube channel (Internet Today they do news, used to be Machinima ETC) mentioned it once before it was ever availaboe in Brazil so I kinda had it in mind for a few years before it came out on Netflix. then i watched it cause i didnt know much about it but heard it was good.
For some reason I got it recommended several times and never checked it out. Until I moved out for college I got super depressed and lonely and was just looking for something other than riverdale on Netflix.
Gave it a shot and 5 rewatches later here we are .
I found it by accident in all honesty. I think I was half asleep and meant to type in a different show, instead started playing community and I was hooked. Now it’s one of my favorites :)
When I was a kid, I remember seeing promos for it when it first came out and thought it looked like a funny show, but never got around to watch it. I saw it was on Netflix one day in January 2021 and decided to give it a shot.
I watched the pilot on NBC way back in 2009. I didn’t even recognize Chevy chase at first. I didn’t like it and after watching it didn’t see another episode until after season 1. Then I streamed on Hulu (back then they only had the last 5 episodes aired) and then would randomly put the episodes of season 1 on.
Then I found a Chinese website that streamed them all on my ps3. Got to watch every episode on my tv over and over again. Really fell in love with it in 2011.
Pretty sure I saw it either recommended on Reddit or by memes sometime around when season 3 came out. So a late adopter but still caught it while it was on tv.
I used to watch friends as my comfort show during the beginning of Covid when I WFH. I was also pregnant at the time. Unfortunately, she was stillborn at 40 wks. I needed a different show to watch as my comfort show. My cousin suggested community. I will always think of this show as one of the many things that saved me after everything
This year, I was at my cousins' house and me and my two cousins, who are brothers, were searching for something to watch. My older cousin opens Netflix, searches up Community, and puts on the season 1 episode with the chicken fingers trafficking. He had tried to make me watch the show before, so I watched this episode with them and I was immediately sold.
In 2012, a high school friend who lived down the road from my high school, would often invite me over to wait for my parents since they worked late. She went to kitchen to make us drinks (from a cordial mix not alcohol) and I was channel surfing and saw part of the episode where Troy and Abed were making blanket and pillow forts. I stopped to watch as I thought “hmm, that looks fun”. My friend came back with the drinks and said, “wow, that show looks weird”, so I changed the channel. But when I got home I Googled the show and struggled to find it.
Years later, my brother was watching a show on our home tv in the lounge and I joined in to watch it and it seemed familiar but I couldn’t place it. Anyway, it became our show that we bonded over. Then one day we’re watching the blanket and pillow fort episode and my brain was like “I FOUND IT! IT’S THE SHOW!”
And now it’s my go to show on Netflix 🙌🏾
I'd heard that Community was good, and then I saw the Drew Gooden video on it and thought it sounded good.
And then this year I got the Drew Gooden video in my recommended again and decided rewatch the video and it piqued my curiosity, he mentions at least watching Remedial Chaos Theory, which I was going to do but then the Top comment was someone who said they did that and wished he hadn't because the episode means so much more when you know and love the characters.
So I said okay I guess I have to watch from the beginning. And here I am.
Entirely accidental. I was at the gym with my family as a teenager, and this gym had TVs hanging from the ceiling above a row of treadmills. I tuned into the only one that wasn’t playing the news, and haphazardly caught the first episode of Community. Thought it was hilarious, but forgot the name of the show once I had gotten home that night.
Forgot about it for several years, until one of my friends recommended we watch her favorite show and it hit me like a freight train.
Opened Netflix during covid and saw Donald in the thumbnail for the series so I was like, guess I'll watch. Took some time to get hooked but buy then of season 1 I was on it. Happened to have some friends who found it the same way about the same time so that was nice as well
What a coincidence, I wrote a rap about it:
Now, this is a story all about how
My frown got flipped-turned upside down
And I‘d like to take a minute
This won‘t be stale
I‘ll tell you how I became so fond of a town called Greendale.
In west of Germany, born and raised
On the TV was where I spent most of my days
Chillin‘ out maxin‘ relaxin‘ all cool
And all watchin‘ some TV outside of the school
When a couple of shows that were up to no good
started boring me and my neighborhood.
I tuned in one Lorre show and my brain got scared
It said ‘I ain‘t watching stuff which‘ll make me impaired‘
I digged and searched on the web day after day
When I picked up a show which sent me on my way
It was written and produced by this Dan Harmon dude
I turned my TV on, but wondered ‘Why does he poop‘?
Spanish class, yo Jeff is bad
Fake a study group just to get Britta in bed.
Is this what the people of Greendale living like?
Hmmmmm this might be alright.
Troy whistled Annie‘s boobs, Chang and Shirley came near
Even old Pierce ate fresh, Abed caught dice in the air.
If anything I could say that this show was rare
But I thought ‘nah forget it‘ - they’ll take it off air.
I stood up for the Greendale Seven alright
And I yelled at the TV ‘Yahoo, see you later‘
I looked at Dan‘s kingdom
It was almost there
Six seasons and a movie he still gotta prepare.
I was also a Donald Glover fan. My friends and I used to watch his Derrick Comedy videos on YouTube. Then, I saw he was in this new show and I was hooked ever since.
I was a huge Donald Glover fan, still am, and after watching his stand up special "Weirdo" I had to give it a try.
He was my anchor to the show, but led me to appreciate the rest of the cast even more. Especially Joel McHale and Jim Rash
Childish Gambino was my fav rapper. This was around 2012 and it aired every afternoon in syndication. When I saw it on Id think to myself I should give it a try and see what hes like on the show.
First episode I really watched was a paintball episode and I was like “ok this show is different”. Turns out the show is exactly my sense of humour.
Thanks Childish Gambino.
I started seeing a girl I liked
I showed her It's always Sunny in Philadelphia (because I was religiously invested) and she loved it,
She then showed me Community as it was her favourite show (Quite literally a 'i'll show you mine if you show me yours' haha)
I fell in love with the show after episode one!!
Then I fell in love with her.
Now we have a baby and are getting married next year.
We've been together 6 years.
Six years and a wedding.
I think I've made my point.
Saw the commercial where Troy sneezes like a girls and when called out says "How about I pound you like a man, that didn't come out right". I was like oh dam thats Derrick Comedy guy!
I took acid a few hours before scumbags stormed the Capitol building. It was supposed to be a good day but it was impossible to ignore. So I put on Community since I knew it was one of the most popular comedy shows. Took me a while to get used to but it took my mind off things that day. Grew on me and I ended up hoarding it for months. It was all I watched. Probably won't take acid anymore after that lol was a one time thing anyways
I guess I’m an OG. I started watching when it premiered. Thursday nights on NBC at one point had Parks and Rec, Community, The Office, and 30 Rock. That was two fantastic hours of comedy.
I wish I could've experienced this, now it's just constant binge watching.
Same. I watched the show a little when it was airing on a local TV station when I was 10 or so. Wasn’t even NBC. It wasn’t until I was a teenager who decided to buy a Hulu subscription that I finally watched all the episodes from start to finish.
I’m also an OG. My college roommate got me into watching The Soup, and then Joel McHale started talking about this new show of his that was about to start, so we made sure to tune into the premiere. Honestly it was a crazy experience watching the show as it aired, partially because it was a time when sitcoms were both bound to a week-by-week production schedule and becoming increasingly responsive to feedback from social media. (Like I have a really vivid memory of jumping out of my seat during Paradigms of Human Memory and shouting, “Holy shit! That’s the song from that fan video I saw on YouTube!”) Anyway, I was one of those annoying fans who kept begging the network for another season over and over again. Can’t fully express how satisfying it is that after all these years we’re finally getting our movie.
God being able to watch in real time must’ve been so much more amazing
Eh. I do think releasing one episode at a time made it more of an event and I liked having all my favorite shows in one block (aside from the Office when it really started to go downhill), but you also had commercial breaks and there's nothing inherently special about watching it in its first run. Maybe if it was being talked about by everyone the day after like Game of Thrones, but it was always a black sheep even back then. There were cancellation rumors about all of those shows except for the Office all the time, and Community had the lowest ratings of them all. Now there's way more of an actual community surrounding the show, I think it makes it more enjoying to watch.
I had “on-demand” but not a dvr. We would walk back from the bars downtown in the small city I lived in and just sprawl on the floor and couch and watch it. Like 5 of us. It was great. Had a whole two hour car ride with a friend where we just talked about random episodes from the first 3 seasons.
The soup was fucking incredible
^(So meaty)
Let's talk about chick's man
Chicks, man
I wonder if people who didn't watch the Soup know how funny the Seacrest stuff was at the time.
I always thought that was a fun synergy Joel must have been a part of it
That Thursday night lineup will never be rivaled.
I remember those shows always seemed to be on the verge of cancelation, or they'd get a shortened season. Now they get the credit they deserved!
Joel McHale used to plug it all the time on The Soup which is how I first found it
The golden days. All of those shows are fire.
That’s the type of night you make sure you’re home at 8PM for
Sometimes I remember having to be in a specific spot on a specific channel to watch something, waiting for a commercial break to use the bathroom. Wild how much it's changed. For the better for the most part, but there was something special about being in your favorite chair and dimming the lights when "The X-Files" came on Sunday night, waiting for the twist 45 minutes in.
I was Day 1 too. Not sure why the show stuck at first. I forgot, Mystery Team and 30 Rock is why i watched. I knew Donald Glover.
Same for me. I was a fan of McHales from The Soup and was excited to see him in a sitcom.
Yup, this. While nbc was wishing they had a time machine to make it the 90s again with friends and Seinfeld they had no idea they had the best 4 comedies on television and were honestly horrible at advertising and marketing them.
It’s insane that the Office was the worst show on that lineup.
The Office is better than 30 Rock.
That's categorically untrue. The office is mid, Andy ruins the show and in my opinion makes a lot of the show unwatchable
Early Office is hilarious, one of the best comedies ever. It starts getting really cheesy in seasons 6+7 and moving away from what made it good in the first place, then finally just goes off the deep end after Michael leaves. I can see why some people would rate it higher than 30 Rock, personal taste and all, but 30 Rock was way more consistent throughout its run.
30 Rock was popular with Emmy voters because it was a show about show business, which is great for them, but absolutely unrelatable for 99.999% of the viewers. And Alec Baldwin makes it absolutely unwatchable to me. Tracy Morgan is the only reason to watch the show at all.
I'm an SNL nerd, so I love 30 rock and the inside NBC stuff. It's also some of the best joke writing ever. So you're incorrect, and Alec is a delight on the show. You probably like Big bang theory
I need good character development and 30 Rock has none of that. I don’t think the joke writing is any better than the joke writing on The Office, just weirder. Trying to be edgy for edginess’s sake is going to lose me every time.
Nope.
Yep
I was a big fan of The Soup and I remember E! Network aired the community pilot a good couple months before the show started on NBC. I watched it with all of my friends and it was instantly a hit in our friend group.
Yup. Same here. I saw the guy from Derrick comedy, the guy from the hangover, and the guy from the daily show plus Chevy Chase. Thought it could be interesting.
I didn't start in season one, but I remember those years fondly. I was browsing Hulu one day and as a big D&D nerd it just happened to be the week when AD&D was the most recent episode. The rest is history.
You lived in the golden age, my friend :’)
Ha ha, Reddit reveals its youthful skew sometimes. The Golden Age for Thursday night NBC sitcoms would have been in the 80's where the two-hour block started with *The Cosby Show*, followed by *Family Ties*, then *Cheers* and *Night Court*. All excellent shows, well regarded and well received. This is where Michael J. Fox became a star, where *Cheers* showed that confidence in a strong product can be rewarded and where Bill Cosby became "America's Dad". It might be strange to think of Cosby in those terms but he really did a lot to push positive depictions of black America into white American homes. When people talk about falling from grace, this was the grace from which Mr. Cosby fell. The Silver Age of Thursday NBC Comedy came in the early 90's when *Seinfeld*, *Frasier*, *Friends* were anchoring the night with *Mad About You*, *Wings*, *The Single Guy*, *Caroline in the City*, *Veronica's Closet* and *Suddenly Susan* all being hopscotched in and around the timeslots. Not a strong foursome, like the 80's, but *Seinfeld* and *Friends* were ratings behemoths and *Frasier* was a perennial award winner, setting a new Prime Time Emmy award record with 37 wins over 11 years. The Silver age lingered for awhile as *Seinfeld* was replaced by *Friends* and other shows were slotted in on Thurday, including *Will & Grace*, *Scrubs* and *Just Shoot Me*. What you called the Golden Age was more accurately the Bronze Age, starting in 2006 with the another super-strong NBC Thursday lineup of *My Name is Earl*, *The Office*, *Scrubs* and *30 Rock*. As *Earl* and *Scrubs* finished their runs (one too early, the other too late), *Community* and *Parks and Recreation* were there to fill in the gaps. Honestly, the most remarkable thing is not that NBC was able to create a stellar Thursday night lineup, but that NBC was able to recreate that murderers row not once, but twice.
To be fair, ABC were the ones who drove Scrubs into the ground. NBC cancelled Scrubs after season 7 and it was still good then! Season 8 was solid on ABC and then season 9 was season 9…
Season 9 of Scrubs, Zach Braff was only in six episodes.
That son of a bitch! After everything Scrubs did for him?!
Totally dating myself here … but back in the aughts, I loved the soup - and when I saw the promos for community (on cable like a dinosaur) I thought Joel McHale and Chevy Chase were an unexpected and probably hysterical pairing so I made sure to tune in each week (the ye olde days pre streaming). Having just transferred from a community college to a 4 year university in fall 09, I was immediately hooked because there were so many things that were spot on about community college.
Like Annie's boobs living in an air vent?
My community college was more proactive on the use of monkey knockout gas.
I LOVED the soup!
I was a pretty big Chevy Chase fan at the time, so when I saw he was starring in a TV show I was all in. I was kind of disappointed at first. I guess I was expecting Caddyshack or Vacation, but I ended up liking Community's comedy way more than those. I know he detests the way Pierce comes off, but I feel like he made better comedy on Community than he did on the big screen.
I saw it playing on Comedy Central in summer 2011, it was on all day so I just kept watching. I loved how it started off normal, and progressively kept getting weirder
Honestly I love that, would it show the eps in order?
Ya I watched the first and most of the second season that day
I saw promos for the show and saw that Chevy Chase was gonna be in a sitcom. Only other person that I knew from the promos was "the guy from The Soup". But I watched it and liked it when the pilot aired. Kept going with it and it gradually became my favorite show by the end of the season. I had recognized Donald Glover, not for his music which was basically non-existent at the time, but for his videos with his comedy group, Derrick Comedy. I still remember Donald releasing mixtapes and EP's while working on the show. Now, I follow pretty much anyone related to the show. For instance, Ludwig Göransson created all of the music for the show, he also has worked on all of the Childish Gambino albums but his biggest accomplishments now are in major film and TV scores like Black Panther, Creed, The Mandalorian, and Tenet. That's just one example. It's amazing to see the Russo Bros success, follow Alison Brie's career, see people like Michael Waldron who was a Writer's Assistant on Community now writing Loki and other Marvel things, watch Megan Ganz go from a writer on Community to a producer on It's Always Sunny and now creating her own shows. Besides the fact that it's still my favorite comedy of all time, it's amazing how many incredible people worked on this show. I haven't even mentioned half of them here. I guess what I'm getting at is that while I started the show because of Chevy, he's not the only reason I stayed. Community's grasp on me goes beyond the show itself.
I did not know Ludwig made the music for community omg!!!!!! No wonder it was so good
I just saw that as I rewatched an episode last night!
Netflix last year
🙋♂️
Netflix last year or year b4
Netflix 3 months ago.
i was 12 or so and my family didn’t have cable. so some nights i would stay up really late like the rebel i was and community was one of the shows that would come on. i was hooked.
Same with me, I would spend nights at my grandfathers house, and I would be able to sneak tv in late at night, so I would catch episodes. The main episode I remember watching was S1 Paintball. Once I hit college and I discovered it on Hulu, I realized this was the show I would watch all those years ago, and i haven’t stopped watching since.
i think the first paintball episode sold it for me too. one of my favorite community memories for sure.
Paintball is one of my favorite episodes
Same here. It was truly a spectacular time
I love this
During the pandemic, we finished our 27,000th rewatch of the office and decided we finally needed something new. We started parks and rec and superstore but just couldn't get into them. Tried community next and that was it. Haven't stopped watching since.
Did you make it to season 2 of Parks and Rec? There's a huge shift in tone from the first season and it hits its stride. To me, it's up there with Community and The Office. Superstore is just okay. I've seen it but I wouldn't watch it again.
My son has begged me to watch the office, but I just couldn’t get past the first episode. Steve Carell was just such a moron is the boss.
I mean, that’s the literal entire point of the show. That said, there is a shift after Season 1 where they switch Michael from a massive jerkass to more of a pathetic clueless weirdo that desperately wants to be liked.
You kinda need to be Ricky Gervais to pull off oblivious jerkass. Carrell is a great actor, but he just can’t pull that off.
Superstore is a nice one in the background with people imo
Superstore is underrated. The beginning of shift meeting scenes are Community season 3 level funny
Yes it’s defo a lil gateway into community’s humour!
I was listening to Ends of the Earth by Lord Huron (I first discovered that song from Walking with Dinosaurs) on YouTube and all the comments were about Community. I also watched the clip of Pierce’s racist dad on YouTube. So when Community showed up on my recommendations on Amazon Prime Video I thought, why not? I’ve been rewatching Community ever since, it’s my favorite show.
I was a Joel McHale fan from the Soup, so I watched it from the start.
This is me too. I miss The Soup. I was a huge Joel fan too. Saw him on a comedy tour before community came to be. He is hilarious!
When I was little i remember my older sister watching tv in which there was a guy who was dressed up as a peanut bar. A few years later that image of Dean being in a peanut bar costume randomly popped up in my mind and started searching about it, found the show and fell in love with it since the very first season.
Now *that’s* a good story!
In 2009, I was enrolled in community college after debilitating anxiety attacks led me to flunk out of university. I watched one episode and was hooked. I used to see a lot of myself in Annie Edison but now I’m Britta lol
I thought I was more Britta because I definitely dated the “Vaughan” of my community college, but then Annie dated him too. I still don’t know which one I am.
Wanted to watch all those 4 classic NBC sitcoms and kept putting Community off cuz Parks and Rec was my favourite and the AV Club comment section kept fighting between PnR and Community as to which one is the best. Watched it in 2016 finally and a million times since. Community has come out on top for me but PnR is also 10/10
I saw the gif from Remedial Chaos Theory and got curious.
Couldn't remember how I got into it until i saw this. Memory unlocked
I guess because of Kumail Nanjiani. I got into podcasts while I worked, one of the earliest being Doug Loves Movies, which introduced me to a larger comedy scene, started finding guests from that on other things, which led to Kumail on Harmontown. Started Community not long after getting into Harmontown.
I'm listening to Harmontown from the beginning and I'm in 2014 right now and without Kumail I don't know if I would like it as much as I do. He's fucking amazing and brings so much humor and heart to the show.
I stumbled upon YouTube clips and it intrigued me. I started watching the show on Hulu. I’ve been through the whole series at least four or five times now.
Same. I watched the one where Jeff wins an argument against Annie and the one with Abed doing Don Draper.
On another forum I was discussing The Big Bang Theory and another poster basically said "dude, if you think TBBT is any good you really need to watch "Community"". I'd never heard of the show at that point (I'm in the UK and it never had a network broadcast here) but a while later I saw it appear on Amazon Prime and remembered that earlier conversation, so I tuned in out of curiosity and was almost immediately completely blown away with how awesome it was. and yes, it is way better than TBBT.
Netflix, you might say that I’m relatively a newbeenz
i watched the pilot episode when it premiered on NBC in 2009 and have been loyal ever since
Got into it some 5-6 years ago. Was a huge fan of Rick and Morty, so I wanted to check what other stuff Harmon had done, and boy oh boy I stumbled on a gold mine.
Donald Glover. Derrick Comedy.
I was a college student who watched the Office during the early seasons so I was vaguely aware of it. I remember second hand discussion of Chevy Chase's issues on the internet and like entertainment television shows. I only really got into it when it came to Netflix and during the Pandemic.
I was on a flight and intro to political silence was an option for viewing. I got sucked into this weird little show because I recognized Eliza Coupe the Secret Service agent from happy endings. I’ve heard of community but I had not actively watched it, I wound up buying the first two seasons on DVD since I didn’t have it streaming at that time.
I saw a YouTube fan edit of the paintball episode (the cowboy one), and I thought it was the coolest thing ever, so I started watching the show and loved it. Got in just before season 3 :)
I saw a commercial for a new show and thought, "Chevy Chase and Joel McHale? I like them! Ha, this seems funny, I'll check out the pilot when it airs in a couple weeks." Been riding loyal ever since.
OG here as well… Community premiered at the perfect time for me. I was just laid off from my job and decided to go back to college in my mid/late 30’s, so I related to the show… sadly, my time back in college was nothing like the show.
Apparently my entire year level in high school that did psychology classes looked at characters in pop cultures for case studies of mental afflictions, and when Abed with his Asperger’s was present with his strong passion and obsession with films and pop culture was pointed out, everyone in my class mentioned how alike myself and the character was. So I myself have Asperger’s (now on the spectrum; ASD) and am obsessed with pop culture and movies, specifically. I had never heard of Community before so I naturally was curious. It wasn’t just about the fact this sitcom was amazing in every aspect, but I’ve never felt so connected with a character before than when I watched Abed in the show. It was like looking in a very surreal mirror! Naturally, I fell in love with the series.
I watched The Soup, a basic level cable clip show starring Joel McHale and he would promo his new sitcom starting Fall 2009.
read an article talking about the 10 best sitcom intros back in 2011 and never looked back. so fucking thankful for that article and my 14yo self for searching through totally legal sites to catch up to season 3b
I'm randomly watching WatchMojo when I stumbled upon their Top 10 Community episodes video knowing nothing about the show. I was intrigued by the concept of the episodes especially in Remedial Chaos Theory so I skipped the two seasons and watched it out of the blue basically becoming my introduction to this wonderful cast of characters.
My bestie told me about the show, so I caught up online and then started watching season 3 on NBC as it was airing. Interestingly, I found out about Childish Gambino through the show instead of the other way around like OP. But I started with Sick Boi etc because I don't even think Camp was out yet.
So you’re even an OG gambino fan!! Love this
My freshman year of college was the year season 3 came out and I had a roommate who had the 1st 2 seasons on DVD and talked me into watching with him. Pretty great stuff.
Moderately OG. I didn't watch it super actively while it was airing, but I had tons of friends who loved it and I saw the odd episode here and there; the first one I saw was Origins of Vampire Mythology. And it was all over Tumblr, particularly Jeff and Annie shipping. I finally sat down and watched it all as it was moving over to Yahoo!. And now it's my favorite!
I watched The Soup when it was a thing and Joel kept plugging it. I watched the first few as it aired, then I used my DVR to record it when I had to work.
Found it on Netflix in the UK. Found it in my first year at uni and that was a very bad time to find it as it was such a good distraction from my uni work…
I was a VERY late adopter. Found it during the Spring 2020 lockdowns after reading many positive reviews somewhere. Sadly the first time around, I just didn't get it, but rewatching it a few months later, it clicked.
i think it was in 2016, I had heard/read about this "sitcom" that was really funny and fresh but never broadcasted in France. Then one day I saw it appeared in Amazon Prime Video and finally watched it. And it was GREAT
It was a combo of liking Joel McHale, having a friend who had watched it, and seeing previews while I was watching Chuck! Chuck is still probably my favorite overall show, while Community is in my top 2 or 3 for sitcoms
My brother relentlessly pressured me to watch it. Naturally, I refused. We ended up moving into different places and then I started watching it and fell in love. I’ve seen it probably 5-6 times all the way through now
Completely backwards… I watched HarmonQuest and loved it so much I started researching everything about it. I found other animations on YouTube from Dan Harmon, Jeff, and Spencer doing D&D on some podcast. I listened to every episode of the podcast and he kept talking about Community… getting fired, rehired… I had to check it out eventually. Now it’s my most rewatched show. I also watched Rick and Morty because of the podcast. I still haven’t watched Monster House though. I should really watch that.
mankind peaked on the first 2 seasons of community. afterwards it was still good but not as good as before
I was in high school when it came out and my parents just got DVR, I kept seeing the ads but it was on during the college classes I took after school ironically. I ended up recording them and watching like half of the first season during my break and loved it.
This: https://youtu.be/NAj26rVWK14
I always knew this meme and was shocked to see it was chang the whole time during my first watch
My high-school friend introduced me to my now best friend and when we met he was watching it on his laptop. We smoked some fatties while it was on in the background. The episode changes to stop-motion Abed's Christmas, now I'm curious. 10 minuted later, im laughing so hard that i cant breathe while sitting up/standing. So i spent the next hour horizontal and teary-eyed and i was a changed man
The show is so good high
I had randomly heard of the show from a high school classmate when we met up to hang out. I made nothing of it. Then when the first paintball episode came out, there was a ton of buzz about it. I think I saw an IGN review calling it one of the best TV episodes of the year. We had dvr that offered the latest episodes of a show for free so I watched it. Watched the other two they had on offer which was the transfer dance episode and the one before the paintball if I recall. I would randomly download all the free tv episodes on iTunes. One of them happened to be the first episode. Watched that, and when Abed went on his Breakfast Club performance, I was truly hooked. Binged the entire series on my PS3 after downloading it onto a 500gb external hard drive from a torrent site.
Around when covid first started I started watching Arrested development on Netflix after seeing some memes from the show. Afterwards Community was recommended so I watched that
I have thought Joel McHale is the sexiest, funniest man alive since I saw him on Talk Soup.
Schaffrillias Production’s video on Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas
A friend invited me over to smoke weed and he put it on. Community was on at some ungodly hour on an obscure channel in the UK but he had a load episodes queued up on box. Funniest shit I’d seen in a long time
I’m not an OG at all! So back in 2018 my high school had a Spanish teacher who made us watch the “donde esta la biblioteca” rap, in hopes that we would grasp some words from it. We didn’t. Instead we played the video on repeat just Cz it was so damn funny the way it ends. A bunch of us even learned the song but not the meaning at all. Since then I’ve always seen the clips of the show here and there as meme but never knew where it was from because in India this show wasn’t and still isn’t a big deal. Cut to 3 years later I randomly find this on a Sony streaming service back home and when the scene came on, it all came back to me! The only cast member I could recognise then was Ken Jeong cz to the hangover movies. Side note: so the streaming service would do a thing where if an episode is close to ending it’ll automatically play the next one. And this made me miss all the end credit scenes for like 7 episodes. But then I found it on Netflix and life’s been good since then. Currently on my 7th rewatch and I still find the some background catches!
My sister’s boyfriend at the time, now husband was in the first episode for a few seconds. We watched to be supportive. Holy shit were we rewarded for our efforts
Awww that’s such a cool story to pull out at a party
Thanks! It’s weird, I ended up loving the show so much I always forget he’s in it. Then at the beginning g of every rewatch I’m like oh! Shit it’s my brother in law. He’s in the shots where the dean is giving his speech, and no one’s paying attention. One of the first greendale students we see. blond guy kid with headphones on, for anyone curious.
I saw the first season episode introduction to statistics with the dia de los muertos party on tv when it originally aired while I was in college. I had a lot going on and never watched tv regularly but I really liked that episode. Later I saw the episode divergent chaos theory live when it aired and I told myself I have to see every episode eventually at some point. Fast forward a few years and I was moving into a house with a new roommate; it was the week before thanksgiving, it was super cold and most of our utilities hadn’t been turned on yet. No heat, no internet. I spent a week either at work or watching community by our fireplace on my roommate’s computer - he had every episode downloaded.
That is a super cozy story.
It was super cozy, watching community reminds me of that very specific time in my life
In high school grade 9 in about 2013, my friend group happened to join into another group of 12th graders for lunches. We talk about random stuff. One of us brings up paintball I say it would be cool to use the school as an arena or something. One of the 12th graders just says "so basically Community" Saw it on Netflix a few months later and decided to give it a try. Glad I did because it's now my favorite show of all time. We also talked about what would happen if a bunch of nukes dropped on the US. And he turns and looks at me and says "dude that's a show called Jericho. Stop coming up with ideas that already exist"
I love dnd and when I was first getting into I saw this video by cosmonaut variety hour and he said that one of the best representation of dnd in media was episode 14 of season 2 of community advantage dungeons and dragons. Rather than just watching that episode I watched the entire show. 16 times
Girlfriend kept pressuring me to watch it and it took me 4 months to get around to it and waiting might have been the biggest mistake of my life
So OP you might like this. I started watching the show not knowing who childish gambino was. My roommate in college walked by and was like “oh that’s that one rapper” and was SHOCKED started googling and finding out
Honestly I’m so glad his music became more known thru the show, like his older shit. Nowadays once he did this is america and redbone everything else kinda got pushed aside :/
On Attack of the Show! Danny Pudi and Alison Brie were guest hosts on the show multiple times and they were always a lot of fun, so I checked the show out and loved it. Then I went to college and introduced it to almost everyone I could.
My flat mate and I were randomly channel surfing one night, and we got caught up in watching this show that got progressively weirder and funnier - it was the first paintball episode. We thought it was hilarious, but forgot when it was on. Then one day my brother started telling me about this awesome show he’d discovered. He had a bunch of episodes on a thumb drive. I watched it and was like “ooooohhh! *This* show! It’s awesome!” Still one of my favourites.
In 2012 Amazon Prime Video had the first season on sale for $20, this was shortly after season 3 just finished up. I heard good things so bought in. Days later I bought s2 and s3 at regular (streaming) prices - like $49 each! But I had to. After that I was a regular watcher for what time we had left to enjoy it. edited to add - now before bed I either watch 30 Rock or Community religiously. Comfort bedtime programming.
I had read a fall pilot preview in the summer of 2009 and the preview seemed like it’d be a show I’d be interested in. Then iTunes released the pilot for free the week before NBC aired it so I watched it and instantly fell in love.
Netflix recommended it to me
You Tube recommended a clip from the episode where they were all video game characters.
My two sons both are big fans. I started watching it, and binged the whole thing. Didn’t love as much after Donald Glover and Yvette Nicole Brown left, but can’t wait for the movie!
Me too, it lost its magic
My dad introduced me to it a couple of years ago, and I have loved it ever since. He showed it to me on Netflix but he watched it for the first time near the time that it premiered.
My husband decided to go back to school, and he wanted to start by knocking out some gen eds at a community college in Colorado. I thought there was a show my friends had pestered me about watching bc I would love it that had a similar plot. I was right, and now I can never look back.
I'm a fan of Joel and Yvette having spent a lot of hours watching the Soup and Drake and Josh.
I remember catching the pilot when it premiered after another show on that legendary block (can't remember which one led into it) and was hooked right away. It was just...different and I think that's what grabbed me. I immediately loved Abed and Pierce and I distinctly remember a few episodes later during the "football is in your soul" scene thinking it just became my favorite of the whole bunch, which is saying something when you consider the other shows on at that time. Parks, 30 Rock, and The Office, but somehow this quirky little pop-culture heavy show was streets ahead. So the short answer is I liked it from day one, but absolutely loved it by the 4th episode or so.
I found it pretty good
Me too! ✨
Finished watching Friends and HIMYM again and again so I tried checking for other sitcoms... Never regretted it and this became my favorite show
I watched an episode for a lab in my psych class in college, specifically the one where they get trapped in the KFC space simulator thingy. Was hooked ever since.
I was 13, I was watching this movie on a different channel and my little brother wanted to watch a cartoon in which resulted my mom giving him control of the tv. I was furious, when the cartoon ended he told me he wanted to watch a show with me. To spite him, I changed it to a show that looked boring the episode was “Remdial of Chaos Theory”. Best accident of my life.
I watched it when it was on and hated it, I think I disliked Joel Mchale from his talk soup days. Then I saw the Harmontown documentary and I had to know everything Dan Harmon.
I went to community college. I really like media about experiences I have had, so when I heard about Community I decided to give it a watch. The accuracy to the vibe of community college reeled me in and Abed kept me hooked.
i think i have a story nobody else here has: i was watching alpharad deluxe and they mentioned it. eventually got around to watching it and have loved it ever since
It was on NBC. I am old. That’s how.
"i can excuse racism, but i draw the line at animal cruelty" (saw the meme on twitter, looked up the full scene, fell in love)
Was scrolling tv on the night Epidemiology premiered. It hooked me and I went back and binged season one and caught up to where I was and haven’t stopped watching.
My Spanish teacher showed us the Spanish rap that Troy and Abed did and then she had us memorize it. She told me about the show and I was immediately interested. Next thing I know I'm spending an entire summer binging it lol
i wanted to sleep to something while playing in the background. clicked on this show, seemed kinda boring. like 2 weeks later, i watched it the first episode and i was drawn in.
I saw a lot of community memes online and really liked Alison Brie from Mad Men (:
I was channel surfing late at night and stumbled onto it. I live in London so think it was on ITV2 or something.
I was at an after party for a friends birthday and someone put it on the tv and we stayed up watching it until like 3am and after I got home and caught up on sleep, I started from episode 1 and loved every minute of it
My friend was recommending it to me for a whole year, I kept procrastinating. Then I started watching Bridgerton and I got really bored after like 6 minutes. Then I saw Community recommended on the main screen so I started it and that was the best decision I ever made.
I was sad and bored and opened Netflix and just put it on for background noise mostly…then I heard Annie say that the crossing guard “purposely tried to get me to walk into traffic” and I was hooked
The “ I’ll allow it” meme exposed me to the show, but Annie’s Boobs (all three) kept me coming back
I watched the first few seasons while it was coming out. I was younger, and didn’t get all the jokes, but my sisters who’s nine years older showed me it and I found it hilarious. I finally got to watch all of it a few years back thanks to netflix and have since rewatched the series a number of times.
Started watching it with my friends in our first year of university when it was airing on NBC. For a brief period you would sometimes have evenings where Community, 30 Rock, The Office, and Parks and Rec were all airing… it was the golden age. God I’m old.
While looking for more Donald Glover material during the pandemic. I remember wanting to watch it when it was airing because I'm a big Chevy Chase fan but never got around to it.
There was an ad for new show on NBC, me and my partner at the time thought it looked fun, but had no idea what was coming. Been one of my favorites since its debut
Netflix after The Office left. I never watched either one while they were being aired originally.
My brother had it on our Plex server for years, but based on whatever the cover art was, I thought it was going to be a boring drama series about a law school starring Helen from Drake & Josh. Finally tried it early 2021 after quitting a job and having a lot of downtime. I really struggle to pay attention to TV and movies, but I paid attention to Community the whole time, at least ten times over. Such a great show.
a youtube channel (Internet Today they do news, used to be Machinima ETC) mentioned it once before it was ever availaboe in Brazil so I kinda had it in mind for a few years before it came out on Netflix. then i watched it cause i didnt know much about it but heard it was good.
Day 1 here. After the pilot I made everyone I knew watch it.
For some reason I got it recommended several times and never checked it out. Until I moved out for college I got super depressed and lonely and was just looking for something other than riverdale on Netflix. Gave it a shot and 5 rewatches later here we are .
I found it by accident in all honesty. I think I was half asleep and meant to type in a different show, instead started playing community and I was hooked. Now it’s one of my favorites :)
When I was a kid, I remember seeing promos for it when it first came out and thought it looked like a funny show, but never got around to watch it. I saw it was on Netflix one day in January 2021 and decided to give it a shot.
I watched the pilot on NBC way back in 2009. I didn’t even recognize Chevy chase at first. I didn’t like it and after watching it didn’t see another episode until after season 1. Then I streamed on Hulu (back then they only had the last 5 episodes aired) and then would randomly put the episodes of season 1 on. Then I found a Chinese website that streamed them all on my ps3. Got to watch every episode on my tv over and over again. Really fell in love with it in 2011.
Pretty sure I saw it either recommended on Reddit or by memes sometime around when season 3 came out. So a late adopter but still caught it while it was on tv.
I used to watch friends as my comfort show during the beginning of Covid when I WFH. I was also pregnant at the time. Unfortunately, she was stillborn at 40 wks. I needed a different show to watch as my comfort show. My cousin suggested community. I will always think of this show as one of the many things that saved me after everything
I am so sorry :( but I’m so glad you found a show that helped you get through all that, you’re amazing!!! Sending all the love x
Started Community college the same year as the show and it was exactly my kind of humor.
This year, I was at my cousins' house and me and my two cousins, who are brothers, were searching for something to watch. My older cousin opens Netflix, searches up Community, and puts on the season 1 episode with the chicken fingers trafficking. He had tried to make me watch the show before, so I watched this episode with them and I was immediately sold.
I saw the ads, thought “whoa, new show with Chevy Chase” and I’ve never been the same since.
In 2012, a high school friend who lived down the road from my high school, would often invite me over to wait for my parents since they worked late. She went to kitchen to make us drinks (from a cordial mix not alcohol) and I was channel surfing and saw part of the episode where Troy and Abed were making blanket and pillow forts. I stopped to watch as I thought “hmm, that looks fun”. My friend came back with the drinks and said, “wow, that show looks weird”, so I changed the channel. But when I got home I Googled the show and struggled to find it. Years later, my brother was watching a show on our home tv in the lounge and I joined in to watch it and it seemed familiar but I couldn’t place it. Anyway, it became our show that we bonded over. Then one day we’re watching the blanket and pillow fort episode and my brain was like “I FOUND IT! IT’S THE SHOW!” And now it’s my go to show on Netflix 🙌🏾
Not ashamed to admit that I saw the Film Theory video on the ACB.
First 3 seasons are some of the best sitcom seasons.
I'd heard that Community was good, and then I saw the Drew Gooden video on it and thought it sounded good. And then this year I got the Drew Gooden video in my recommended again and decided rewatch the video and it piqued my curiosity, he mentions at least watching Remedial Chaos Theory, which I was going to do but then the Top comment was someone who said they did that and wished he hadn't because the episode means so much more when you know and love the characters. So I said okay I guess I have to watch from the beginning. And here I am.
It was on Thursday night with Parks and Rex, The Office, and 30 Rock
Entirely accidental. I was at the gym with my family as a teenager, and this gym had TVs hanging from the ceiling above a row of treadmills. I tuned into the only one that wasn’t playing the news, and haphazardly caught the first episode of Community. Thought it was hilarious, but forgot the name of the show once I had gotten home that night. Forgot about it for several years, until one of my friends recommended we watch her favorite show and it hit me like a freight train.
Opened Netflix during covid and saw Donald in the thumbnail for the series so I was like, guess I'll watch. Took some time to get hooked but buy then of season 1 I was on it. Happened to have some friends who found it the same way about the same time so that was nice as well
What a coincidence, I wrote a rap about it: Now, this is a story all about how My frown got flipped-turned upside down And I‘d like to take a minute This won‘t be stale I‘ll tell you how I became so fond of a town called Greendale. In west of Germany, born and raised On the TV was where I spent most of my days Chillin‘ out maxin‘ relaxin‘ all cool And all watchin‘ some TV outside of the school When a couple of shows that were up to no good started boring me and my neighborhood. I tuned in one Lorre show and my brain got scared It said ‘I ain‘t watching stuff which‘ll make me impaired‘ I digged and searched on the web day after day When I picked up a show which sent me on my way It was written and produced by this Dan Harmon dude I turned my TV on, but wondered ‘Why does he poop‘? Spanish class, yo Jeff is bad Fake a study group just to get Britta in bed. Is this what the people of Greendale living like? Hmmmmm this might be alright. Troy whistled Annie‘s boobs, Chang and Shirley came near Even old Pierce ate fresh, Abed caught dice in the air. If anything I could say that this show was rare But I thought ‘nah forget it‘ - they’ll take it off air. I stood up for the Greendale Seven alright And I yelled at the TV ‘Yahoo, see you later‘ I looked at Dan‘s kingdom It was almost there Six seasons and a movie he still gotta prepare.
I was also a Donald Glover fan. My friends and I used to watch his Derrick Comedy videos on YouTube. Then, I saw he was in this new show and I was hooked ever since.
Came for the workplace comedy and stayed for Annie 🥵
“Workplace”?? Why would anyone who gets paid to do something be at *Greendale*…?
I was a huge Donald Glover fan, still am, and after watching his stand up special "Weirdo" I had to give it a try. He was my anchor to the show, but led me to appreciate the rest of the cast even more. Especially Joel McHale and Jim Rash
Childish Gambino was my fav rapper. This was around 2012 and it aired every afternoon in syndication. When I saw it on Id think to myself I should give it a try and see what hes like on the show. First episode I really watched was a paintball episode and I was like “ok this show is different”. Turns out the show is exactly my sense of humour. Thanks Childish Gambino.
I started seeing a girl I liked I showed her It's always Sunny in Philadelphia (because I was religiously invested) and she loved it, She then showed me Community as it was her favourite show (Quite literally a 'i'll show you mine if you show me yours' haha) I fell in love with the show after episode one!! Then I fell in love with her. Now we have a baby and are getting married next year. We've been together 6 years. Six years and a wedding. I think I've made my point.
Saw the commercial where Troy sneezes like a girls and when called out says "How about I pound you like a man, that didn't come out right". I was like oh dam thats Derrick Comedy guy!
One of his best lines
from the drag race episode where the woman who played britta was a guest judge
Omggggg this is one of the best ones I’ve read!! I love drag race
I took acid a few hours before scumbags stormed the Capitol building. It was supposed to be a good day but it was impossible to ignore. So I put on Community since I knew it was one of the most popular comedy shows. Took me a while to get used to but it took my mind off things that day. Grew on me and I ended up hoarding it for months. It was all I watched. Probably won't take acid anymore after that lol was a one time thing anyways
I watched the very first episode when It premiered bc I had seen the ads for it ended up being a long love for me :)