The Community Character You Probably Forgot Jack Black Played

The first half of “Community” season 1 was all about the show finding its balance. It constantly tested different character dynamics to see what worked best before eventually striking gold with Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed (Danny Pudi). By the time the first “Community” Halloween episode came along, it seemed like the show had fully hit its groove. The study group was now a perfectly tight-knit, codependent body with a comfortable repertoire the series’ writers could always rely on. Maybe that’s why, when season 1 returned from winter break with “Investigative Journalism,” the writers decided to throw a massive wrench into the study group’s dynamics and see what happened. That wrench was, of course, Jack Black.

Advertisement

Black’s character was named Buddy (no last name given), and his main thing was that he was annoying. He spent the episode trying and failing to become a part of the group, incapable of picking up that they didn’t particularly like him. Most viewers felt a little bad for him at first, given that it’s tough being an outsider. But Black’s character was so oblivious and obnoxious that our sympathy for him ran dry fast.

The final nail in the coffin for Buddy’s likability was the episode’s concluding twist, which revealed that Buddy had begged another, cooler study group to let him in. (This study group was inexplicably led by Owen Wilson.) When the cooler study group accepts Buddy as one of their own, Buddy bails on our main characters. Joining the gang’s study group was a way for Buddy to boost his social status, nothing more.

Advertisement

Buddy wasn’t all bad. His attempts to fit in with the gang led to Jeff’s (Joel McHale) patently-false, oft-quoted line in the fandom, “Annie’s pretty young, we try not to sexualize her.” It also feels pretty whimsical and meta for him to reveal he’s been in the group’s Spanish class this entire time. It’s like when “Scrubs” gave that nonsense reveal that Kim (Elizabeth Banks) had been in the background of the show since the beginning; nobody’s buying it, and the series knows we’re not buying it, but it’s fun to play along with it anyway.

Advertisement

The most important part of the Jack Black episode of “Community” is the way it gives us a glimpse into how the study group is viewed by other students. Later episodes in the series, like season 3’s “Competitive Ecology” or season 4’s “Alternative History of the German Invasion,” revealed that the study group is viewed by the rest of the school as a bunch of self-important jerks. The other students are annoyed that the study group thinks the entire school revolves around them and even more annoyed by the growing evidence that the study group is correct to come to this conclusion. (I mean, how else could they have won all those paintball games?)

But in this early season 1 episode, the show is not yet willing to go so meta. The world of “Community” is still somewhat grounded here, which we can see in how the Dean (Jim Rash) hasn’t started regularly waltzing into the study room with an eccentric outfit yet. In “Investigative Journalism,” the study group still go to a school where they are just regular students amongst many. They may feel like they’ve got an exclusive club going on, but that Owen Wilson reveal at the end serves to humble them. Black’s episode of “Community” brings the study group back down to earth, but by the time we reach season 3, the study group’s long left reality altogether.

Advertisement