Community – “Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts” – review

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So we find out that with Professor Duncan teaching Anthropology, the class devolved into just another excuse to get drunk. There’s nothing wrong with that, right? A part of me wishes more time could have been spent in this class, to see how this change took place, but it doesn’t really matter.

Getting right into the meat and potatoes of “Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts,” we find Shirley is having her baby in the middle of their final exam. The baby is early, leading Chang to think that the baby is his (all Chang’s are born premature; they soak up more nutrients so they grow faster). The Dean pops in (of course) and has what can best be described as a dean meltdown. The poor guy doesn’t have a clue what do, and it’s funny watching him struggle mentally, constantly changing his mind about how to proceed.

With Shirley in labor and all the ambulances busy (there’s a riot fueled by racism that’s turning all the ambulances over), she’s going to have to have the baby at Greendale. Since Abed is the only one with experience delivering a child, having done so earlier in the year (if you didn’t know that, you need to go back and watch “The Psychology of Letting Go” more closely), he’s put in charge. But being the conservative lady she is, Shirley doesn’t feel comfortable with Abed looking at her privates.

Enter know-it-all Britta. What a great time to have Britta put in her place. She talks a big game, but when she actually has to do something she crumbles. In this case, she throws up at the sight of Shirley’s hoohaw.

It’s heavily implied that the baby is going to be Chang’s, and in the heat of the moment, Shirley accepts this and has Chang comfort her by telling her stories about Chang babies (some of them lived underground apparently, and they have tails). But fear not, the baby isn’t Chang’s, and the baby is born normal.

Other fun bits:

Pierce buys Abed and Troy’s handshake for $1000 and proceeds to corrupt it, making it feel dirty to use. He essentially leaves Troy and Abed feel like they’ve been raped and/or are prostitutes.

Fat Neil returns and mentions the St. Patrick’s Day fishing trip, which we saw bits and pieces of in last week’s episode “Paradigms of Human Memory.” For a half-hour sitcom, Community loves continuity, and as a fan of it myself, it’s hugely rewarding when things get brought up from past episodes.

This was the last episode before the two-part finale. It was good, but not the greatest episode of Community. No worries, though, because it’s still stupid funny and never feels dull.