5 Best Easter Eggs On Community

Airing on NBC for its first five seasons and Yahoo! Screen for its sixth, “Community” has been off the air since 2015. More recently, though, the cast and crew have emerged to deliver on their promise of “six seasons and a movie.” Peacock ordered a “Community” movie back in 2022, setting the wheels in motion to make one of the show’s longest-running catchphrases a reality. Of course, the buzz surrounding the “Community” movie — and even the joke itself — is just one sign of the enduring love fans have for this sitcom.

One of the best things about “Community” is the show’s attention to detail; it hides running jokes and moments of foreshadowing in throwaway lines or the backgrounds of episodes, and these details often get a comedic payoff several episodes (or seasons) later. In that sense, “Community” is one of those rare comedies that actually rewards fans for paying attention.

“Community” has always loved its pop culture references, whether they’re parodies of real-world franchises (such as “Kickpuncher” and “Inspector Spacetime”), Abed’s frequent attempts to turn his life into a TV show, or the series’ homages to particular genres. One of the series’ less overt references, however, is to “Beetlejuice.”

In this classic 1988 Michael Keaton movie, the titular demon is summoned by speaking his name three times. “Community” nods to this by having characters mention “Beetlejuice” on three separate occasions across three separate episodes, with Betelgeuse himself — or, at least, a student in a Betelgeuse costume — walking through the background the third time his name is mentioned.

What really makes this Easter egg so impressive is the fact that the three mentions of “Beetlejuice” are spread across the first three seasons of “Community,” meaning that fans need to know the show inside out to pick up on the punchline. The first mention comes when Jeff’s girlfriend, Michelle Slater, tries to recall Britta’s name, positing “Bitter? Butter? Beetlejuice?” in Season 1’s “Communication Studies.” Then, when the study group strip down to search for Annie’s lost pen in Season 2’s “Cooperative Calligraphy,” Britta describes Jeff’s usual underwear of choice as “the stripy turquoise ‘Beetlejuice’ numbers.” Finally, in Season 3’s “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps,” Annie remarks that Britta’s playlist only includes “spooky party, the ‘Beetlejuice’ soundtrack, and NPR podcasts” — at which point the “Beetlejuice” partygoer walks by.

“Six seasons and a movie” has become something of a mantra for “Community” fans, a call for the series to run for six seasons on TV before making the leap to feature-length format. Initially, however, the phrase wasn’t intended to be so meta.

The first time the words “six seasons and a movie” are spoken on “Community” is in Season 2’s “Paradigms of Human Memory,” a parody of sitcom clip show episodes that features flashback-style clips from “Community” episodes that never actually existed. One of the recurring threads throughout these flashbacks is Abed’s obsession with the short-lived NBC superhero series “The Cape.” When Abed imitates the series’ protagonist, using his own cape to knock Jeff’s lunch onto the floor, Jeff angrily yells, “Show’s going to last three weeks!” To which Abed responds: “Six seasons and a movie!”

The phrase would return in the Season 3 episode “Biology 101,” when Abed begins to worry that the show “Cougar Town” being moved to a midseason slot means it’s headed for cancellation. Troy reassures him the series will be back in January, and they both openly hope that it will last “six seasons and a movie.” The words then reappear as a hashtag at the end of the Season 3 finale, and they’re seen again on the blackboard at Jeff’s study room graduation ceremony in the Season 4 finale, “Advanced Introduction to Finality.” Season 6’s final episode also closes with a fade to black and the hashtag “#andamovie.”

Season 2’s “The Psychology of Letting Go” might well have become one of the most rewatched “Community” episodes, as fans sought out a plotline that unfolded entirely in the background. Unlike many other Easter eggs, however, this background detail is referenced explicitly when it becomes a central plot point later on in Season 2, as Abed has to help deliver Shirley’s baby. In “Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts,” after revealing a surprising amount of knowledge about childbirth, Abed tells the group that he helped deliver a baby in the back of an SUV earlier that school year. When Troy asks where he was when that happened, Abed responds “I don’t know, off in the background.”

From the audience’s point of view, however, it was Abed who was “off in the background” while delivering his first baby. Throughout “The Psychology of Letting Go,” Abed can be seen in the background — first talking to a pregnant student, then being chased by her partner, then helping her out of the cafeteria as her contractions start, and finally delivering the baby in the back of her car. 

The fact the whole story plays out deep in the background means most viewers will have missed this subplot on their first viewing. Only when Abed mentions the incident later does it become clear what was really happening. This dedication to rewatchability — and making every Easter egg count — is what sets “Community” above every other TV show like it.

One of the most impressive — yet least remarked upon — “Community” Easter eggs occurs in Season 2’s “Aerodynamics of Gender.” The episode sees Abed join Britta, Annie, and Shirley in a gender studies class, where he bonds with them through his ability to point out flaws in a group of “mean girls.” As they encourage Abed to roast anyone who gets on the wrong side of them, Abed likens himself to RoboCop and begins seeing the world through a futuristic heads-up display.

As well as revealing various students’ flaws, the HUD also reveals information that factors into the plots of upcoming episodes. For instance, it reveals Abed is tracking Britta, Annie, and Shirley’s menstrual cycles — a fact that the girls are horrified to learn in the very next episode, “Cooperative Calligraphy.”

Abed’s RoboCop vision also includes some of his own personal memos. These reveal that Troy’s birthday is coming up, an event that takes place three episodes later. Other memos read “Get Rudolph for Xmas” and “Confirm Mom for Xmas,” nodding to that season’s Christmas special, in which Abed’s mom misses their annual viewing of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” A memo reading “Make blanket fort” foreshadows “Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design,” “Sell study group on paintball sequel” teases the Season 2 finale, and “Book Starburns for T&A in the AM?” sets up this episode’s end credits stinger, in which Starburns appears on “Troy and Abed in the Morning.”

This is one of the better-known Easter eggs among “Community” fans, but it remains one of the series’ most emotional; it may also be the Easter egg with the longest wait between setup and payoff. In the Season 1 episode “Debate 109,” the study group are shocked to learn that the films Abed has been making in film class are not only based on them, but appear to predict their future. At one point, Troy sees the version of himself in one of Abed’s films crying. “Why am I crying?” Troy asks. “Will I accidentally listen to ‘Come Sail Away’ by Styx again?”

Over the course of the next few seasons, it becomes clear that there are many, many, many things that will make Troy cry — whether it’s his fear of disappointing LeVar Burton or trying to understand “Inception” — but the show’s creators clearly kept “Come Sail Away” in mind. When Troy leaves Greendale at the end of Season 5’s “Geothermal Escapism,” his final scene is scored with a cover of “Come Sail Away” by Aimee Mann. Following an elaborate game of Hot Lava, though, Troy now finds himself more emotionally equipped to deal with the difficult journey ahead. As a result, it’s not Troy who cries this time — it’s every fan watching at home.