Community: Season 1, Episode 4 "Social Psychology" Review

 "Is this still part of the experiment?"
-Troy Barnes

"Social Psychology" picks up with Jeff (Joel McHale) avoiding walking to his next class with Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown).  He tells Britta (Gillian Jacobs) that it's because they don't have anything in common to talk about and that Shirley's overly positive attitude can be too much for him.  The next day, when Jeff gets stuck walking with Shirley, it's very awkward until they bond over talking crap about other people.  This works until they see Britta making out with Vaughn (Eric Christian Olsen), a hippie student she had recently started hanging out with, which upsets Jeff.

Britta finds Jeff later and says she didn't tell Jeff about Vaughn because she was worried Jeff would make fun of him for his hippie attitude.  Jeff decides not to talk crap about Vaughn with Shirley anymore and when Shirley brings up Vaughn's tiny nipples, Jeff runs away.   Later, Britta tries to talk to Jeff about her worries that Vaughn is moving their relationship too fast.  She shows him a poem Vaughn wrote for her.  Jeff can't resist and takes a picture of it.  He shows it to Shirley and they gleefully mock Vaughn.  Pierce (Chevy Chase) overhears part of their conversation with his latest purchase, the Ear-Noculars.  He believes they are talking crap about him, so he confronts them in the study room.  They reveal they were talking about Vaughn and Shirley shows the rest of the group, minus Britta, the poem.  When Britta and Vaughn walk in, they quickly realize what's going on and leave.

Shirley admits to Jeff that she has a gossiping problem and they both agree it needs to stop.  Shirley gives Jeff one last piece of info; that Britta had a sex dream about him, but refuses to give any more detail.  Britta tells Jeff that Vaughn dumped her and Jeff apologizes and says he doesn't want to be on the friend-level where he has to hear about the guys Britta dates.  Later, Jeff sees Shirley and Britta gossiping and tries to borrow Pierce's Ear-Noculars, but he got rid of them.  Pierce tells Jeff that man was not meant to hear from a distance, but only from those who are close to them.  

Meanwhile, Vaughn's existence has become much less carefree due to his experience with the study group.

Annie (Alison Brie) asks to join Professor Duncan's (John Oliver) psych lab.  He agrees and tells her to bring two human subjects for the experiment.  She convinces Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed (Danny Pudi) to go.  Señor Chang (Ken Jeong) is also one of the subjects.  The experiment involves forcing the participants to wait for the experiment to start in the waiting room and seeing how long it takes for them to meltdown as the experiment never starts.  The researchers all watch from the next room as the participants blow their tops one by one.  Chang explodes instantly and Troy manages to make it several hours.  Eventually only Abed is left.  He sits patiently for 26 hours, which causes Professor Duncan to explode and take out his frustration on Annie, which ends the study.  Annie tells Abed to leave.

The next day, Annie reveals the true nature of the experiment to Troy and Abed.  Abed reveals he was actually livid with how long it was taking, but waited because of his friendship with Annie.  She feels bad and buys Abed the first three Indiana Jones movies to make up for it.

The episode ends with Troy and Abed in the study room making fun of people passing by and thinking no one can hear them.  When they make fun of Jeff, he reveals that everyone can hear everything they've been saying.  Troy and Abed pretend to be asleep.

What Works:

The psych lab storyline is the much stronger story in this episode.  We get some great physical comedy from the study, even from the background extras.  I love the various meltdowns we get to watch.  Chang is great, but the random screaming student is hilarious and we also get one student chasing another around the room.  

The best of the bunch is Troy's meltdown.  It includes the Soul Train Awards and butt stuff before he literally drags himself out of the room, which has since become an excellent GIF.  That's how you exit a scene, right there!

Eric Christian Olson gives a good performance as Vaughn.  He seems like he'd be a fun dude to hang out with and you can't help but feel bad for him when he realizes the study group is making fun of his poem.  He brings a fun and chill energy to the role and I think about his delivery of "Some worries" all the time.

Finally, Pierce gets a rare profound moment with Jeff when he talks about why he got rid of the Ear-Noculers.  Sure, he may be full of crap and actually got rid of them because he overheard people making fun of him, but it's still a genuinely nice Pierce scene and we don't get too many of those.

What Sucks:

The problem with this episode is that it's mean.  The main focus of this episode is Jeff and Shirley making fun of people behind their back.  That doesn't exactly make for likable characters.  It's one thing to do that to Pierce, but Vaughn didn't do anything to deserve that sort of treatment.  Making this the main storyline of the episode feels poorly thought out.

In all honesty, none of the study group except for Britta come off as very likable in the episode.  Pierce, Annie, Troy, and Abed all join in on making fun of Vaughn's poem and even in the end tag we get Troy and Abed just mocking random people passing by.  Aren't we supposed to like these people?  This episode mostly comes off as mean-spirited.  It doesn't help that none of them really face any sort of comeuppance for their actions.  Maybe if Vaughn or Britta got back at the others in some capacity, it would have worked better.

Finally, the jokes about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull are hackneyed and uninspired.  By all means, make fun of the movie, but the jokes actually need to be funny instead of just saying the movie blows.

Funniest Moment:

The funniest moment of the episode is Troy dragging himself out of the waiting room.  The physicality Donald Glover gives to that scene is simply wonderful.  And it's an excellent GIF.

Heavenly Human Being:

The Heavenly Human Being goes to the MVP of the episode.  For "Social Psychology," this Award goes to Abed Nadir for being willing to wait for 26 hours to help Annie with her psych experiment.  This is Abed's 2nd time winning this Award, which puts him in 1st place overall.

Verdict:

"Social Psychology" is probably my least favorite episode of the series so far.  The psych experiment storyline is fun with some entertaining meltdowns.  Plus Pierce has a really nice scene and Eric Christian Olson does a good job, but he majority of the cast come off as incredibly unlikable in this episode and it's not in a fun way like on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  I just don't think the main storyline of the episode works and the resolution falls flat.

 6/10: Okay