The Radiopants Dance

Here’s a still from the season premiere of Community, and it’s a pretty good representation of why I’m worried about a Harmon-less Community. Clearly the episode is a parody of The Hunger Games, judging from the sign that is a direct parody of The Hunger Games, and presumably reads “The Hunger Dales” (The Hunger Deans?) or something. I can’t help but think that if Dan Harmon were running the show, that sign wouldn’t have the word “Hunger” in it. It wouldn’t be the exact font of The Hunger Games. It would be called something entirely different, but it would be a clear homage and reference to The Hunger Games. The best episodes of Community aren’t direct parodies of movies. They’re homages to pop culture. Dr. Who isn’t Dr. Who, it’s Inspector Spacetime. I don’t think “The Star Wars Episode”. I think “The paintball episode that had homages to Star Wars in it.” In the Space Shuttle Episode, there were clear homages to Apollo 13, but no one literally said “This is like that movie, Apollo 13.” It’s that attention to detail and skewing references to fit the Community reality that is going to be missed from Dan Harmon’s absence. I’m sure it will still be funny and, hell, maybe it will be more accessible and do better in the ratings. The cast is amazing, and I’m sure the new writers are all very talented. But this image presents a clear difference between pre-Harmon and post-Harmon, and I hope as the new season progresses, they learn to leave the direct parodies to Family Guy, and start doing homages right. This paragraph is fucking long.