2009 saw the premiere of two TV shows on NBC that would go onto be some of the best things to ever hit television and laptop screens: Community and Parks and Recreation.
While the shows are very similar – both were ensemble comedies, aired on NBC and had a diverse cast – Parks and Recreation prided itself on main characters who have a seemingly never-ending amount of endless optimism while Community… didn’t.
In fact, you could argue that Community has one of – if not the – most messed up cast of characters on TV.
Sure we’ve had seriously cooked TV characters like Walter White and Hannibal Lector (puns intended) who easily qualify as messed up.
But what makes Community‘s main cast stand out among TV’s pantheon of twisted characters is not only does each character have a super dark backstory, all of them are incredibly relatable when the layers of pop-culture references are stripped away and we’re left with the person underneath.
Being a high school teacher dying from cancer who cooks meth or a brilliant cannibal doesn’t strike the same, grounded chord as, say, a college student with severe daddy and body image issues.
Seriously, just think about it for each member of Community‘s (OG) study group.
Jeff Winger
A ridiculously vain and egotistical chap thanks to an over-coddling mother (which resulted in body image issues), Jeff Winger also has an unhealthy dose of emotional detachment and some serious daddy issues with everyone in his life due to his father abandoning him when he was young.
To make up for his fear of abandonment, he tries to be cool and aloof at all times. He was also an ex-lawyer, which automatically makes him even more of an arsehole.
Abed Nadir
Implied to have Asperger’s syndrome due to his inability to pick up on social and emotional cues, Abed Nadir uses TV and movies as a way to draw connections to real life situations.
Besides struggling to understand emotions and establishing connections with others, Abed also comes from a broken family as his mother left when he was young and this resulted in a strained relationship with his father.
Britta Perry
Britta dropped out of high school to “impress Radiohead,” joined the peace corps, dated some anarchists, did some foot modeling, traveled the world (but doesn’t get it according to Jeff), enrolled in Greendale Community College, and really hates her parents – who by all accounts seem like normal, nice people.
So what caused Britta to have such disdain for her parents and the “establishment?” It’s likely due to her getting molested by a person in a dinosaur costume when she was young.
Suddenly, it all comes into focus: she’s angry at her parents for failing to protect her and the all-over-the-place sense of social justice is repressed anger from the trauma. Holy crap.
Annie Edison
Annie was pushed incredibly hard to succeed academically by her overbearing mother, which resulted in an addiction to Adderall. This led to the loss of her college scholarship (and her virginity) and her dropping out of high school.
Her drug abuse resulted in a nervous breakdown that culminated with her jumping through a plate glass window, causing some serious injuries. While her mother wanted to ignore everything that happened, Annie chose to go to rehab instead. This estranged Annie from her family and she started living on her own prior to enrolling at Greendale.
Annie’s also still pretty young so try not to sexualise her.
Troy Barnes
Raised as a Jehovah’s Witness by his parents (who are implied to be separated, which is a big no no if they’re Jehovah’s Witnesses), Troy was the stereotypical high school footy jock who is overly concerned with popularity.
But he was unable to handle the pressure of the spotlight and other people’s expectations so he intentionally injured himself doing a keg flip the night before a big game.
Due to the injury, his college hopes evaporated and Greendale Community College was his only option. As Troy puts it, “I was gonna be the first person in my family to graduate from community college. Everyone else graduated from normal college.”
Shirley Bennett
A devout Baptist and easily the most religious member of the study group, Shirley’s good-natured personality masks some not-so-subtle rage issues and an old drinking problem.
She is proud to be an African-American woman and a mother but faces a struggle to not be defined by just those characteristics. She also likes baking (one might argue a bit too much) but that isn’t an identity either according to Jeff.
Despite Shirley’s seemingly nice exterior, she has trouble with relationships of all sorts. She divorced (though later reconciled before separating again) with her husband due to his adultery and her bad financial decisions, and confessed to hurting past friendships by being a massive gossip.
Throw in a struggle with tolerating other faiths outside of Christianity – she tried to covertly baptise Annie (who is Jewish) and suggested baptising Abed (who is Muslim) – and Shirley isn’t quite the upstanding, God-loving citizen she likes to think she is.
Pierce Hawthorne
Pierce is incredibly abrasive due to an insulated and incredibly spoiled upbringing, resulting in a struggle to understand typical social norms and a level of gullibility that would make you weep.
The crux of Pierce’s boorish personality can be pinpointed to his emotionally-abusive father, who constantly undercut him as a child. This led to a tendency to over-exaggerate his masculinity and abilities in his adulthood. Oh, and Pierce is also quite racist and bigoted but that is also due to the influence of his father, who passed on those beliefs.
But despite all his flaws, Pierce never stops trying and does deliver some nuggets of wisdom from time to time when he’s not accidentally offending anyone.
