How Did I Miss This?

Do you remember that episode of ‘Community’ from two weeks ago – the one where Britta and Annie oil wrestled, and Abed was mysteriously absent for most of the half hour? Apparently, Abed wasn’t so absent after all. He had a whole storyline that took place as a running gag in the deep background of scenes. I missed this entirely. Did you catch it?

Someone on YouTube was kind enough to compile this montage of clips:

I feel like a dummie now. This totally escaped my attention.

[via The High Definite]

9 comments

  1. Holy crap. How did I not see any of that? I even failed to notice a girl giving birth in the back of a truck!

    Guess I’d better pay close attention this week 🙂

  2. HuskerGuy

    My wife pointed it out that it was happening, but the only one I actually saw was the delivery in the bed of the truck. Probably would’ve missed that as well had the wife not told me to start looking for it.

  3. Adam

    I didn’t see it either. Then again, even in the montage, it was hard to pick it out of the background in some places, so I guess it’s understandable. This gag just makes me love the show even more and makes me eager to listen to the commentary on the DVD next year. Seriously, how many shows would put a running gag central cast member in the background action throughout an entire episode? Who DOES that? I’m hoping there’s an inside reference or two to it later in the season.

  4. Tim

    I did notice it, but, honestly, I didn’t think it was that funny. It was a physical gag, which usually isn’t my thing.

    In spite of that, I really like this show. I’m a bit worried as, according to tvbythenumbers, its ratings suggest it might be cancelled.

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      Keep in mind that it’s on NBC. Their standards for keeping something on the air aren’t as high as other networks these days. Until Parks & Rec is ready to come back, it’s not like NBC has anything better to replace it with. And I think it far more likely that Outsourced will get dropped for Parks & Rec.

  5. Tim

    What I didn’t get was whether it was one of their typical homages to other shows/movies. Any idea if this was a homage to something?

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      I’ve been thinking about this since you asked. I don’t know whether there’s a direct inspiration, but it kind of reminds me of Airplane and The Naked Gun – those movies where there are usually several layers of jokes going on behind the main action. I can’t think of any that actually built a whole storyline around those background gags, though.

  6. I noticed the delivery scene on first viewing but didn’t register that it was Abed until someone mentioned it to me a couple of days later.

    This is very quickly becoming the best comedy on TV. In fact come to think of it, it already is.

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