in Abed’s first movie he makes in S1Ep3 ‘Introduction to Film’ we’re given an indication that he had tests done as a child to figure out what was “wrong” with him through this bit.
and then in S3Ep19 ‘Curriculum Unavailable’ when Abed is made to see a therapist the entire group goes with him and Jeff tells the therapist “Abed won’t go to any kind of doctor on his own. We caught him last year trying to remove his own tonsils.”
i would like to take a moment to appreciate how everyone in community is constantly proving my point that society should be less weird about friends doing “romantic” things together like cuddling, kissing on the cheek/forehead, holding hands, living together/being life partners etc.
annie constantly kisses abed on the cheek and hugs him tightly. they also literally live together despite not being romantic in canon at all, same with annie and troy and abed and troy.
britta and abed cuddled together in the back of jeff’s car during mixology certification. britta also does small things like fix abed’s shirt in urban matrimony and generally sticks close by him a lot.
jeff and britta. that’s it.
jeff and annie definitely have feelings for each other but very rarely act on it. despite this they’re still quite affectionate to one another, with nicknames for the other and hugging and always walking together with their arms locked.
jeff calls shirley “sugar” in the second episode and kisses her on the forehead, she calls him “honey” in response. they also walk out together with their arms locked in the end of the foosball episode.
annie and troy hug a lot and again, live together. plus that whole “look! i’m annie’s backpack!” thing… he’s so silly.
troy and abed are obviously the most clear example of this (despite most of the fandom, including me, shipping the fuck out of them.) they live together. they spend every second together. they hold hands (as confirmed by annie). troy is so comfortable with abed that he instinctively puts his arm around him in curriculum unavailable. abed literally essentially put troy to bed once when he fell asleep after a study session.
abed wiggled his eyebrows at jeff once and i think about it constantly.
annie almost kissed britta once and britta and annie have sincerely considered sleeping together. also britta just straight up agreeing with jeff being like “i love women” as she strokes annie’s arm in the puppet episode.
i love that they’re all friends who do “romantic” things together and remain friends. i love them being so affectionate. more overtly affectionate platonic love in media please and thanks !!
Recently rewatched "Curriculum Unavailable" and the 'therapist' started listing off all the reasons the study group got to Greendale in the first place. Before he got to Britta, she stopped him because "I don't want to hear mine." And something about that is just so emotionally devastating to me. I actually can't stop thinking about it. Like what was it in particular? The An-Her-Chists bailing on her? If it really is that, then to me, this is just another reminder to Britta how people don't really tend to like her, how people always end up leaving if she doesn't go first. I think remembering that drags up too many feelings for her to the point where she'd rather ignore it than ever face the memory of it happening or the realisation it could happen again. I mean, she doesn't even wanna hear it.
Somehow that makes me think of a Britta at home thinking about it all and just helplessly, unavoidably panic crying because she couldn't bear a repeat. "What's an anarchist to do without her organisation," probably would sound something more like "What's a girl to do without her friends," now that she knows what it's like to have them. But of course, Britta being Britta, she'd never want to show that in front of anyone. So it's better to just avoid it all.
Yeah, I'm really out here just devastating myself for no reason tbh
For safety: Because of neuro-cognitive disability - will not spread personal donation posts from people we don't know / don't recognize / not vetted by others, anymore.
What are some texts that aren't impossible to find that explore the basics of, or a wide scope of, improvised/wilderness/austere medicine?
My absolute favorite is Improvised Medicine by Kenneth V. Iserson. (available for probably not super legal download here- but it worked for me).
It's now in it's second edition. It's expensive if you do want to buy it (I found it between $48-$100), and it's designed for people who are already healthcare providers, but it's not afraid to be like "You have one ventilator and 4 people that need vents? Here's how to make that work." He goes way outside what everyone in the medical world is comfortable with, and even says things like "well I wouldn't do this, but I don't know your situation, so maybe try x/y/z". So I really like this book.
My other favorite is Where There Is No Doctor by David Werner. (available free here).
This one is designed for people who are not medical professionals, but who are living or working in extremely resource-poor environments, where doctors and healthcare facilities may be totally unavailable, or so far away it would take incredible effort to get someone there.
Another one I would check out is Wilderness and Remote First Aid Emergency Reference Guide by the American Red Cross and Boy Scouts of America (available free here).
This one is good if you just want kind of a bare-bones primer of the most common illnesses and injuries occurring in the backcountry, as well as a framework for assessment, treatment, and decision making. As someone who has taught from this curriculum, I like it better than most of the other similar ones.
If you like that and want something more in-depth, I recommend Expedition and Wilderness Medicine by Bledsoe, Manyak & Townes. If you want something cheaper, I recommend the Oxford Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine by Johnson, Anderson, & Dallimore.
Auerbach's Wilderness Medicine by Paul Auerbach is a classic and in it's 7th edition. If you're interested in specifically disaster med, I'd look into Ciottone's Disaster Medicine by Gregory Ciottone.
Simulated Agency: When does Nedzu decide the Simulated Agency thing is a huge success and makes it permanent going forward? Does he get the second and third years to do it? If a hero student is unavailable due to internships like the big three, do they get a substitute?
I think he'd want a full term at least before he declares it a success. As for the upperclassmen, he wouldn't change their curriculum partway through the year, but he might adjust it for when the First Years graduate so they continue the simulation
I believe internships/work studies do not happen during school hours, but if a student was unavailable, they would not get a substitution, both because there aren't enough students to go around and because it adds to the realism of the simulation. Sometimes allies won't be available.
Love how in Curriculum Unavailable at least two of the stories start out about different study group members but then throw in some Troy being unhinged like Annie doing the morning show he's immediately like there's imaginary cameras Shirley gives them her kids' things and Troy thinks a karate trophy somehow magically gives him skills like honestly Britta why aren't you studying that guy
I watched a video the other day of top ten community episodes (and the five worst), and realized how nearly impossible that would be for me to do bc 90% of the show is so good to me. But I’m gonna try. I’m also gonna cheat bc it’s my post and idc.
Top 10 Best (aka my favorite) Community Episodes:
Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design - I wish I could watch this episode for the first time again because of the ride it took me on. I said it on here before but if there was only one episode I could recommend to someone from the series, it would be this. It’s so outlandish and fun that it’ll hook you into watching the series to understand how this school and these people got to this point and are just okay with it. Kevin Corrigan was a gem in this also. Anywho. The rest of these are all equally at 2 for me even tho I will be numbering them. Just understand that I love them all EQUALLY.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - another episode I wish I could watch again for the first time. To tell that story in mostly bottle episode form was brilliant. Also, the acting was top notch. Again, not a lot for them to work off of in terms of action and movement, so for it to be SUCH a compelling episode with them just sitting around the study room table is just a testament to the brilliance and vision of Dan and the writers and the cast. And the Russos for directing this masterpiece.
Remedial Chaos Theory - I know this is going to be a shocker, but this is an episode I wish I could watch again for the first time. Darkest timeline intro. Cigarette gag. Pizza dance. Toilet olives. Arguably Troy’s most iconic gif (he has many). What else do I need to say?
Cooperative Calligraphy - again. Bottle episode brilliance. And the twist of it all! I remember watching it and being dumbfounded by the end. But also so heart-warmed at how the group overcame. It’s always the heart in this series that wins no matter how insane the premise might be.
Basic Lupine Urology- if I’m remembering correctly, this might be the first episode I watched live after restarting the series. I started when it aired but didn’t stick with it until til my mom caught Aerodynamics of Gender on a plane and said “Steph you gotta watch this episode of this show I just saw.” And the rest is history. But yeah. The deep regret I had watching this episode bc I’d deprived myself of 2 years of this show…no one was taking the swings community took and pulling it off THIS well. Super conceptual, super low stakes made to be incredibly important, and easily some of the best jokes of the season, maybe the series.
Epidemiology - I literally was stunned that they pulled off that concept so well. I think I watched again after finishing it the first time because I couldn’t believe it. This was also when we got the start of the dean’s iconic costumes, a cornerstone of this show. Also, I was legitimately scared the first time watching this! 😂
Critical Film Studies - I think this was some of the best story-telling on this show. A really sweet story at the heart of it (which is the show as a whole) wrapped in a hilarious and really creative premise paying homage to one of the most obscure movies ever.
Paradigms of Human History - for a long time, this was my favorite episode bc I couldn’t believe what they pulled off. I still can’t honestly, which is why it’s second on my list (remember I said these are all #2 after Conspiracy Theories). When they came back and did it again in Curriculum Unavailable, I was thrilled and once again stunned. (You can count Curriculum Unavailable as part of this list I guess). Leave it to Dan to spin the clip show concept.
Contemporary American Poultry - this episode is amazing and rightfully called one of the best of season one. This episode laid the groundwork for establishing just how whimsical and insane Greendale could be, and made everything that came after it believable. It was also so incredibly heartwarming and the start of a lot of jokes that were called back.
Basic Intergluteal Numismatics - similar to the reasons I love Basic Lupine Urology. The commitment to the genre, the callback to the ACB, a one off joke from 2 seasons before, the fact that it’s still a cold case. I love it so much.
Honorable Mentions:
Modern Warfare, A Fist Full of Paintballs, For a Few Paintballs More, and Modern Espionage - I feel like the paintball run is in a league of their own and unfair to put in a top 10 list. Clearly they are amazing and amongst the best episodes of the series. And yes I purposely left out Advanced Introduction to Finality. That was not paintball. 😭
Football, Feminism, and You - this is when the show hit its stride for me when I finally went back to watch. The pacing, the writing, the actors finally figuring out who their characters were for real, Troy’s politically conservative shamefully outdated fight raps. It’s a perfect episode of television to me and to find that so early in a series is pretty amazing.
Aerodynamics of Gender - the episode that got me back into the show. I owe it so much. Also gave me one of my favorite Troy line: “worth it.”
Regional Holiday Music - again, Harmon’s (and his writers’) mind in pulling off these highly conceptual episodes that feels real to the world they built and grounded. I’m forever in awe.
Basic Human Anatomy - YES. A season 4 episode made this list. Jim Rash wrote the hell outta this episode and it was the brightest spot on season 4.
Five Worst Episodes:
I won’t elaborate on these too much bc the basic idea is that they were not good and felt contrived despite the writers trying to maintain Harmon’s world and the actors giving it everything they had. Yes they’re all from the gas leak year.
Advanced Introduction to Finality
Heroic Origins (I like to pretend none of those origins took place bc too many plot holes)
Alternative History of the German Invasion
Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations (we deserved a better Jeff/William conflict and resolution and so did Jeff)
Conventions of Space and Time (this was a great concept that in Dan’s hands could’ve been brilliant)