Hours before the early season three episode of Community, "Remedial Chaos Theory," aired, there were rumblings from television critics online that fans were about to witness one of the greatest episodes of a comedy series ever put to the small screen. It did not disappoint.
"Remedial Chaos Theory" is an intricate installment of Community that demands a ton from its audience. But what results is one of the most satisfying and stimulating experiments in all of television. The episode is equal parts hilarious and intelligent and there are many elements that went into it that fans might not be aware of.
The Darkest Timeline
Community is a show that always embraced the joys that could come from maintaining a strong sense of continuity across the run of the show. This included bringing back elements of "Remedial Chaos Theory" in the later episodes of Community.
From the felt goatees to the "Darkest Timeline" to the evil versions of every one in the study group, especially Evil Abed, "Remedial Chaos Theory" was so successful that it also laid the groundwork for a ton of jokes and story pay-offs that were set to come later in the show.
Does Anyone Actually Enjoy Yahtzee?
At the outset of the episode, Jeff Winger is clearly disinterested in playing Yahtzee or charades at the dinner party hosted by Troy and Abed in their new apartment. Jeff is a notorious downer, of course, but it does beg the question: did anyone in the cast actually enjoy playing the dice-based game?
As he claims it, Danny Pudi, who portrayed Abed Nadir, enjoys the game of Yahtzee in real life and plays it regularly. Perhaps that is why he had such dexterity when holding the die in the actual episode.
303 Or 304?
"Remedial Chaos Theory" begins with Britta and Annie questioning whether Troy and Abed's apartment was number 303 or number 304. It might seem like a bit of throwaway dialogue that was recorded after the episode was already in the can. But it actually has a meta-reference behind it.
Originally, "Remedial Chaos Theory" was set to be the third episode of the season, with the production code, 303. Instead, it was pushed back one, resulting in the 304 code. This helped alleviate Britta and Annie's confusion, as well as the uncertainty of any viewer who may have happened to notice.
Kick Puncher And Kick Splasher
Just as Community embraced continuity in the sense that it used episodes to set up future ones, so too did it call back to prior episodes in a satisfying fashion. "Remedial Chaos Theory" just so happens to contain a pretty fun reference to season one of the show.
With Abed finally moving off the campus of Greendale Community College, it only made sense that he would take some of his dorm room paraphernalia with him to his apartment. Props from season one can be seen in his apartment, including posters for "Kick Puncher" and "Kick Splasher." They are classics of cinema, to be sure.
Critical Ac-Claim To Fame
Community was always a critical darling and a cult show during its six-season run on television. It never quite reached the mainstream with its success, but "Remedial Chaos Theory" was one of the episodes that brought them the closest to doing so.
The episode still ranks among the favorites of both critics and fans. Per Vulture, "Remedial Chaos Theory" is the greatest sitcom episode of all-time. The episode was also one of the few to garner major Emmy attention for the show, as Chris McKenna's script was nominating for a comedy writing award at the 64th ceremony.
Pierce's Rum
Throughout the show, it often seemed like the meta jokes and thrillingly convoluted storylines were accessible to everyone in the cast, save for Chevy Chase. There were many scenes where it seemed clear that Chevy, who played Pierce Hawthorne, was oblivious to what was going on around him.
That's why many of Pierce's jokes were subtle visual gags, just like the label of the bottle of rum that he brought to Troy and Abed's party. It was Serbian rum that had a label written entirely in Cyrillic. For those who translated the label, they would be delighted to learn that it reads, "generic rum."
Influences For The Episode
As creative and original as "Remedial Chaos Theory" was, Dan Harmon, McKenna, and the show's writing staff still derived inspiration for the installment from a ton of other sources. One of the most obvious reference points is Star Trek, straight down to the dark goatees produced by Abed.
However, Harmon has also noted similarities that "Remedial Chaos Theory" has with films like Rashomon and Sliding Doors, as well as television shows like The X-Files and The Simpsons. One could definitely argue, however, that Community pulled it off with the highest-flying colors.
Story Circles
Speaking of that writing room, Community always had one of the most complex and story-driven systems for devising the contents of each installment of the show. The writers aimed to create clean, emotional story arcs for the characters to get from Point A to Point B in each episode. But for the intricately-plotted "Remedial Chaos Theory," they had to go to the next level.
This resulted in story circles, individualized to each character, being drawn and plotted on whiteboards in the Community writing offices. Fortunately, Harmon shared photos of the story circles on his own Tumblr page back in 2012.
Annie Get Your Gun
One of the most shocking moments of "Remedial Chaos Theory" comes when Troy, confirming that pregnancy tests look nothing like guns, retrieves a Smith and Wesson pistol from Annie's purse. The obvious joke to be made is that Annie is a regular Annie Oakley, but there's a factual error behind the shocking discharge of Annie's revolver.
According to the fact that Annie's gun is a Chief's Special from the aforementioned brand, it would not have the capacity to go off upon impact with another surface. This is good news for the characters, but confusing news for the members of the Darkest Timeline.
"Roxanne"
"Remedial Chaos Theory" takes a cue from Groundhog Day when it uses a song to signal to the audience that a timeline has reset. Instead of Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe," though, Community uses "Roxanne" by The Police in each timeline depicted.
According to DVD commentary for the episode, the acquisition of "Roxanne" for these moments sucked up the vast majority of the music budget for season three of the show. This was a blessing in disguise, though, because it forced Community to rely on recurring musical classics on the show, like Ludwig Göransson's charming score and "Daybreak" by Michael Haggins.