Hacker Cinema
Community
2009 · TV series · 6 seasons
Created by Dan Harmon
Follow the lives of a group of students at what is possibly the world’s worst community college in the fictional locale of Greendale, Colorado.
55 positive6 negative3 mixed94 neutralfrom 158 commenters
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180 comments on Hacker News
It got a lot of use in comedy screenwriting. How many shows have you seen where someone says "don't touch that, that's a load-bearing [object that should never be load bearing]"
The fort episode of community springs to mind but there are plenty others
Thank you. I once asked Claude the same. It reminded me of the flag from the tv show community
> The first example that comes to my mind is the show Community, which I really enjoy, and which doesn't make me sad at all.
"Yeah. This is a bottle episode."
Not OP, but there is a wide chasm between what Community does and what OP was referring to.
Community's thing is that it is a meta show. It uses the meta it references to get a point across, make a joke, or provide a spectacle (a good example of spectacle are the Paintball episodes)
What OP referred to, and what I've noticed, was that media nowadays is just a mashup of what came before with little to say about it. Or to put it in other words: not transformative. The creator likes something, and they put it in their work because it's cool. There's nothing wrong with doing just that, but when you start seeing the same thing over and over again in different works, it gets tiresome.
We're so obsessed with filling every waking moment with something that we don't allow ourselves to have the "a-ha!" moment any more, so we default to "what if X and Y?" where X and Y are thoughts on the surface of our mind rather than two unrelated things that somehow click when the default mode network activates. For example: what do archways in a Shinto shrine have to do with a fox piloting a starship around? Absolutely nothing, and yet for Miyamoto that thought made sense.
Unfortunately many people read Accelerando maybe not as a utopia, but at least as an excuse to ignore many pressing modern-day problems, for the simple reason that they would soon be obviated by technological progress. That is, why worry about climate change or cancer when nanotechnology will solve both problems without side-effects? Or, in one episode of Community when Troy and Abed object to saving money for a jacket since by the time they can afford it they'll be living on a moon base.
This, I've come to realize, is the problem with science fiction - it discourages us from caring about the human problems we have today because we want to believe things will be so different tomorrow that our efforts today would be wasted. It becomes a convenient excuse to avoid doing anything, adopting a wait-and-see approach that is only distinguishable from solipsism via subjective self-regard. The accelerationists have a dishonest, disrespectful attitude about subjects like the biosphere in which we live (science fiction having taught them it is easily reproduced), access to fresh water (sf rarely speaking about this, the exception being Paulo Bacalupi), and real living standards (sf's favorite victim; the singularity is fascism's greatest ally, a soporific that helps otherwise intelligent people sleep-walk into chains). We all want the Star Trek magic-bullet solution that scales and doesn't require anyone to dedicate their lives to teaching villages how to avoid dysentery or why educating your kids might be a good idea. We all want laser guns that don't need ammunition and don't overheat, and flying machines that have no moving parts, and all the other marvels that finally (finally!) let us have the power of tools without requiring any knowledge.
So, yes, Accelerando is definitely techno-optimistic because whole classes of problems go away once you simulate humans. If you intended this to be a dystopian scenario you might have added something to give the reader the impression that these simulations were imperfect or degraded. Instead, you just gave yet another incredibly potent rationalization for rich people to not give a fuck about reality. Fun story though.
This is just the pros having more tact than amateurs, and actual writers. I do see some “influencers” that do more of a pure product placement. They just happen to be drinking a specific energy drink in every video where it sits perfectly with the label out. I see some YouTubers trying to get better at integrating the ad into the video, but most of them can’t be bothered to write and record a custom script.
That said, Subway often seemed to get pretty heavy with its product placement. The last season of Chuck had a good amount of this, even what was essentially an ad read right in the middle of an episode by Big Mike. On Community they personified Subway and based a whole episode on him. In the Office they brought in Ryan Howard to say “eat fresh” over and over again, and even called out that it was for Subway to make sure it didn’t go over anyone’s head. Subway was big on sponsoring the last seasons of struggling shows with loyal fanbases, and littering the episodes with Subway product placement to the point where it became a plot point. I remember Zachary Levi (Chuck) tweeting out to ask everyone to go buy some Subway before the finale. It sounded like if Subway saw enough of a spike in buying from the sponsorship, they might fund yet another season.
God I wish community college would be subsidized. Some states now cover it for your first degree which is a great start and some also are now starting to subsidize courses for retirees but man I would so love to just go and do like random courses I have no intention of pursuing a career in.
European universities are not resorts like in the US and community college keep that small footprint mentality as well. They have done it right. Focus on the education and keep costs lower. I have friends in Europe that work for a few years then just take time off and study something that interests them in their subsidized universities and I am so jealous because their costs are so low.
When I went to community college (and then university) there were a few moments where I actually wasn't treading water in my CS degree and I was able to take a wide variety of classes. They were some of the happiest moments of my life.
Recently visited LA and walked around LACC during the evening. The campus is enormous (and famously was the scene for the TV show Community). I just thought of the enormous variety of subjects being taught, imagine if that was accessible to anyone when they desired.
I have both Blu-ray and DVDs and I've found its the content that determines which is good enough. Kids in care not one bit about image quality. Obviously: people still like retro games, too. But then other movies, like anything by Villenueve or Nolan, or Baraka, really want to be on 4K Blu-ray. But kids movies on DVD are perfectly fine, and sitcoms like Community. (Personally I'd pay extra to NOT see Pierce in 4k).
I recently purchased the Firefly Blu-ray and it was an interesting case because it's image quality isn't that much better than the DVD (but definitely better) however it's sound quality was astonishingly better than the DVD. I imagine this has a lot to do with the source material, how it was mastered, etc. I still stream, but I like that I have a core collection that will never disappear without warning, or be edited behind my back (which happens all the time, without notice, especially on YouTube and on Amazon Prime).
Anyone who is a fan of the TV Show Community MUST try out the recreation of the 8 bit video game episode(Digital Estate Planning) called Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne.
[1]: https://projecthawkthorne.com/
It is now available to play straight in the browser(I guess using LÖVE Web Builder?).
[1]:https://schellingb.github.io/LoveWebBuilder/
This engine has really come a long way and enabled such a memorable game for me.
> I mainly attended group study sessions in order to spend more time with the attractive singles
This is the plot of the brilliant tv show _Community_
I assume you mean it's not really worth watching if it's currently on broadcast TV?
Surely there's a huge list of old broadcast TV network shows that are worth watching, and that still suffer from the ad-break problem to various degrees.
Obviously I'm pulling from a wide time-period, and I'll probably get some of these wrong because I'm not in the the US and don't quite grok the network/cable divide, but off the top of my head, I think these are/were all worth watching: Seinfeld, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Freaks and Geeks, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Community, Schitt's Creek, The Office, The X-Files, various Star Trek series, Cheers
That list could be easily improved on, but I assume it's missing your point anyway if you were only talking about current broadcast network TV (if it exists :) )
especially when Advanced DnD is like the best Community episode
One minor issue I've noticed with streaming is the quality. I went to watch A Bridge on the River Kwai the other day. I could borrow it from my library on Kanopy for free, but the audio was only in stereo. The $4 iTunes rental supported Dolby Atmos, which took advantage of my speaker system, and the video quality was comparably better. I ended up paying despite the library having it because iTunes offered a better experience that was easy to access.
iTunes movie rentals seem to almost always win out when it comes to streaming specifically. I don't know why I would want to watch something on Prime Video at a lower quality and sit through ads. I've also encountered a number of services such as Peacock that absolutely refused to run on my Linux laptop even though I was a paying customer.
Further, the iTunes versions of movies often come with special features (e.g. The making of the Lord of the Rings). They also earned a lot of goodwill from me when they upgraded a number of my HD movies to 4k for free.
I do maintain a Jellyfin server with movies and shows I have legally purchased because I didn't like how the digital version of my James Bond movies had the final movie on a different streaming app. It's really hard to beat that setup if you know how to configure it. My Jellyfin server contains an episode of community from the DVD I own that was removed from streaming services, and that's where it really shines. I also have higher quality versions of Star Wars than the VHS copies I own.
Nonetheless, I think iTunes proves what an effective model is in a similar vain as Steam is to gaming. Shame that unlike Steam's relationship with Linux, iTunes is much more tied to Apple. At least the Apple TV is genuinely a good streaming box.
The DnD episode from Community (S2E14) can't be seen on any streaming services because one Asian character wears black makeup while cosplaying as a drow.
To quote a TV show Community character Jeff Winger:
> What makes humans different from other animals? We're the only species on earth that observes Shark Week. Sharks don't even observe Shark Week, but we do. For the same reason I can pick up this pencil, tell you its name is Steve and go like this... [breaks pencil. Abed reacts in shock] Jeff Winger: and part of you dies just a little bit on the inside. Because people can connect with anything.
I watched so many reruns of Community I could recite the episodes by heart. I don't think that made the rest of my memory any better.
Do you have a YouTube video demonstrating this? My only experience with debate is from the TV show Community.
It's not about excess.
Look at some of the most famous success stories in comedy, art, music, theatre, film, etc.
A good number of them did their best work when they were poor.
"Community" is a great example. Best show ever made, hands down. Yet they were all relatively broke and overworked during the whole thing.
It's because they believed in the vision.
Small correction: The meow meow beans episode of Community aired in 2014 and the Nosedive episode of Black Mirror aired 2016. So the Community episode came first.
> Even if someone today builds a better version of what Netflix used to be, it wouldn't matter. They won’t have the rights and licenses to the shows and movies. That’s what keeps people from switching.
What, apart from Stranger Things and Squid Game, has been enough of a cultural touchstone that it keeps people on Netflix? Those aren't things you keep coming back to again and again.
Netflix doesn't own Friends, Seinfeld, The Office, Community, Parks and Rec, etc.
I'd argue Max (nee HBO) has better legacy titles and franchises. They have both enduring IP as well as the reputation of being "destination television".
The thing that keeps people from cancelling Netflix is that they have a better content slate of licensed classics paired with new originals. And they do it in the greatest volume of all the streamers, so there will be "something" on, even if it isn't particularly good.
I re-watched Community probably 5 times by now. It's one of my favourite television series in spite of it's flaws.
Sometimes I feel like Community is a more subtle Black Mirror than what we give it credit for. The writers came up with the weirdest ideas, and they just threw these at this world they created in Community to see what came out. /Everyone/ in that story finds themselves at Greendale because of some less-than-optimal circumstance, and the only thing they can do is react to the circumstances given to them.
Meow meow beans is a stand-out episode because it takes the absurdity of a social credit system all they way beyond the vale and straight to it's natural conclusion, where common sense failed to step in and take control.
Meow Meow Beans episode in Community predated the Black Mirror episode by a couple of years.
But yes, agreed about Black Mirror feeling hollow with its lack of nuance in its pessimism.
However I don't think Nosedive is the right episode to make this point as we see the protagonist getting assistance from the truck driver lady as well as the people protagonist ends up being held with are able to share a laughter in the freedom of losing it all.
I don't feel my social circle is like that. I mean, you're right that there are plenty of people as you describe, but I like to think that I surround myself with people for which that does not match (not always successfully when I was younger, but you learn as you grow older).
As such, bawolff's point resonates with me. And even if that wasn't the case, they still have a good point. If you pick terrible protagonists to begin with, it undermines the morale of the episode a little. Showing how "reasonable" people are affected is stronger, and I indeed feel that both Community and Orville did that really well.
Huh, i guess i both agree and disagree with this article.
I disagree that black mirror has to save the world. Art doesn't have to literally save the world to be useful, it just has to add to the conversation. The fact we are talking about it proves that it has.
On the other hand, i've never really liked black mirror that much. It feels polemical to me. Its unrelenting pessimism robs it of nuance, which makes it feel flat to me. To be clear it doesn't have to be happy, it can still be grim and dark, but when every character is a terrible character, it undermines the story
Take the episode "nosedive" where everyone is obsessed with social media ratings. Compare it to other people who copied it (meow meow beans in community, or majority rule in the orvile). I think the other tv shows did it better and honestly made technology look worse, because they had characters that weren't cartoon villians.
Maybe the part i don't like about black mirror is not that it showd technology stripping people of their hummanity but that all its characters already lack humanity so there is nothing to strip, which is kind of boring.
That is far more than I expected. Although my mental model for VR is that Community episode[0], which is perhaps not a great benchmark.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawnmower_Maintenance_and_Postnatal_Care
Background info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_(Community)#Removal_from_streaming_services
It's a great episode. And the dark-elf-face joke is not at the expense of any demographic.
I’ve switched to buying everything on DVD or Blu-ray. It’s the only way to be sure I can watch, for example, Community Season 2 Episode 14 (one of the funniest episodes ever). If you don’t own the physical medium, you’re just renting a stream. No thanks.
It's also a joke in the TV show "Community": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP1Atb8nAGY
Yeah I tend to take it more as satire or wild exaggeration than real investigative reporting.
When his buddy Joel McHale, who also acted on the fictional TV show "Community" along with John Oliver, tried making his own hot take comedy news show, it really put things in perspective for me.
Now I watch it for the comedy aspect as much as anything I see on other news media these days. Take what I see with John Oliver amped up to a solid 9 or 10, divide it by 10, and that's probably how serious or impactful the thing actually is that he is reporting on.
Reminds me of the Community VR episode. JESUS WEPT!!! https://youtu.be/z4FGzE4endQ
Watch the Remedial Chaos Theory episode of Community to see why it is a bad idea to play around with making decisions that can spawn alternative worlds and timelines based off a single unnatural random event. (also probably one of the best episodes ever)
I remember reading a long time ago about how slowly and deliberately the royal family moves. It also matches how characters like James Bond or Don Draper are nonreactive, never startled, always moving correctly. On the other hand, nerdy and anxious characters are always fidgety and clumsy. The main character in Silicon Valley is the best example.
I love how much you can learn about body language from movies, even if the scenes are written around the characters. I don’t Like YouTube PUA types, but Charisma on Command had a really good deconstruction of Don Draper and his demeanour.
Another film favourite of mine is a scene where Clark Kent removes his glasses while talking to Lois Lane who is off camera. His entire body language turns from Clark Kent to Superman.
Abed in Community also does it a lot when he becomes Han Solo or the guy from My Dinner With Andre. You can really see the differences because the same actor is playing different people.
Folks here probably know Community, but for those that don't or haven't watch this episode here's the IMDB sinopsis:
> Jeff and Frankie ask an inventor for help extracting Dean Pelton from his virtual reality world.
Any parallelism with the Vision Pro or other headsets is mere coincidence.
lol. OK, that's hilarious. Is that Community TV show any good?
I lost it when they removed the DnD episode of 'Community'. Then Boondocks. It is woke BS and I'm tired of the revisionist BS too
It's far worse in anime/video games. A lot of localizer stories running rampant over it- understandably the original authors weren't happy about Western pandering and DEI/political views were being shunted into their stories.
There's a reason the fansub community abhors anything from funimation et al.
Canceled all subscriptions now, and I'm much happier.
I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but Subway used to be big on doing product placements with shows on their last leg. They probably got it for a steal, and they made it really, really obvious. For example, the episode of Community where Subway is a person. Chuck did a lot of obvious Subway stuff at the end too. I remember Zachary Levi (Chuck) posting on Twitter to buy Subway for the finale in hopes that it would boost Subway sales enough to get them to pay to renew it for another season.
I’ve actually been surprised the more subtle product placement isn’t more common. There are always prop bags of chips, boxes of cereal, etc. you’d think it would cost basically nothing to swap it out for a similar soundless bag with a Lays label on it and get some money. Everyone knows what Lets chips are really trying to be. Maybe syndication presents issues. Does the company pay every time the episode runs, in perpetuity, or just once to get the episode made? With a one time payment, getting a spot in a show like The Office would be like winning the advertising lottery. If they have to pay for each viewing, it could turn into a real problem.
I've read over 2000 years of western philosophy and you sir are no Socrates. What you're doing is more like the tactic Jeff Winger uses to outsmarts Annie Edison in that later episode of Community when he's teaching law. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcuOGkgtj-k
> he's not wrong. I heard they cut entire episodes of community
Did you mean "continuity"?
he's not wrong. I heard they cut entire episodes of community
Along similar lines, Season 1 Episode 7 of The Orville, "Majority Rule", had a similar theme. Summarized here by ChatGPT who helped me remember which show this was:
"In this episode, the crew visits a society where social media influence and approval ratings dictate every aspect of people's lives. Citizens can upvote or downvote each other, and if someone's approval rating falls too low, they face severe consequences. The episode explores themes of social media, public opinion, and the potential dangers of a society driven by constant judgment."
Miss Chatty, as I affectionately call her, also mentioned Black Mirror Season 3 Episode 1, "Nosedive":
"People in a society rate each other on a social media platform, and these ratings have significant consequences on their social status and privileges. The protagonist's life unravels as her ratings start to plummet."
And Community Season 3 Episode 1 (a common theme here?), "Biology 101":
"The characters participate in a social experiment called the 'MeowMeowBeenz' system. In this system, people can rate each other from 1 to 5 'MeowMeowBeenz,' affecting their social standing and privileges within the community."
https://chat.openai.com/share/d2ac7651-4ab3-4504-9369-7ea4dbdbad0d
For me personally, a lot of the "urban" set designs feel very amateur. It feels and looks like the set in the Community Ham Girl episode.
#WhoIsGlipGlop
But you are left with the issue of "curated" incomplete and edited versions.
In June 2020, when the initial run of The Boondocks was uploaded to HBO Max, the Season 3 episode "The Story of Jimmy Rebel" was intentionally excluded due to perceived racial insensitivities over the episode's portrayal of a racist country singer named Jimmy Rebel (a parody of real-life white supremacist country singer Johnny Rebel).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boondocks_(2005_TV_series)
Sure, the episode had some seriously racist historic material reanimated in a black american cartoon series by black creators for primarily black audiences .. and committed the sin of portraying southern white supremacists exactly as they recorded themselves on film and in the studio.
I'm not a culture warrior, I'm not even from the US - I do however spend a few hours every week curating meta data and subtitles - and a great many episodes of things yo may other wise not expect have been altered between original aired versions and versions later streamed.
There's a slew of edits between Community episodes and one of the pirate packs from a major streamer and I've yet to fathom why so much material was cut for streaming, it's not like they have time constraints.
Oh Man I haven't heard of this framework in years!
There was this amazing fan game made to mimic an episode of this tv show called Community. The show is about a group of community college students getting into all sorts of hijinks and one episode had all of them go into this video 8 bit video game world....so LÖVE was used to recreate the game exactly as you see in the show.
Unfortunately it is running on a very old version at this point and I hear due to how the framework has changed upgrading is not straightforward. It interesting to see how software changes and grows over time. Fortunately the last version released still seems to work fine on modern machines. (at least it runs on my M1 Mac)
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzhuvOqfmC4
[2]: http://projecthawkthorne.com/
[3]: gameplay footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imv6J8dqLyE
What blew me away 10 years ago was the complexity of the game that you could produce in LÖVE. its astounding!
Community has an episode at the end where they trash a camper. It seemed comedy driven at first but the longer I looked at it and campers the more plausible that scene seemed. It’s foam and plywood.
Community seasons 1-3 were effectively “trope driven development.”
What's my incentive to host someone's 5TB of pirated Community episodes?
I can agree with that in principle. The problem, though, is that all the mega corporations (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc.) seem to have a singular hive mind and follow each other on things like this. As soon as Netflix eliminated the "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" episode of Community, Hulu followed suit and did the same.
Example: https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2020/07/dd-netflix-and-hulu-pulled-communitys-advanced-dungeons-dragons-episode.html
All of this erodes your actual freedom to "look elsewhere" as the places you have to look become fewer and harder to find, and are sometimes actively shut out by other platforms like EBay and Amazon.
NBC’s Thursday lineup around 2010 basically.
New episodes of Community, 30 Rock, The Office, and Parks and Recreation.
And things associated with it all, like The Good Place.
Your last example is basically the Meow Meow Beans episode of Community.
It's already happened. Netflix and Hulu both removed the episode of Community where someone was cosplaying a dark elf because it looked too much like blackface. Never mind the fact the person doing it is insane, its resemblance to blackface is the joke, and his character dies and is removed from the show after less than a minute of screen time.
Same for "elf blackface" in the Community episode about D&D. An excellent episode airbrushed out of history because of ELF blackface. Unbelievable.
This is a joke from Community about open ended TV shows typically having enough narrative steam to get a compelling run of six seasons and a movie at best. Not a financial thing.
Community has crawled through the trenches to get its six seasons and now finally a movie and I wish them the best.
That’s honestly the best course of action imo. You can’t just block everything from the internet and some things are products of their times. However, seeing it and understanding why it’s bad seems best especially for kids. I don’t think it’s enough to know that something is bad, one should know why it is.
There’s this Community episode that has “black face” (a character paints himself black to be a dark elf) and was called out for doing a hate crime by everyone in the room; this episode was pulled off of Netflix and I don’t understand why. It’s not like it was portraying it as something okay to do. In fact, it was very clear that it’s something you shouldn’t.
I asked it what season of Community is referred to as “the year of the gas leak”. It answered season 2. I said “that’s incorrect”. It apologized and said that it’s really season 3. “Still wrong”. “I apologize, the year of the gas leak is season 4. Multiple episodes in season four refer to the gas leak”. I pointed out that it was part right, and it confidently corrected itself, now the year of the gas leak is season 5.
Fans of the show know that the correct answer is season 4, but it’s a joke starting in season 5 about Dan Harmon not being the show runner for a year and whatever happened in season 4 can be ignored. I’m pretty sure I found the Reddit thread that would have created the confusion.
Community is very funny, but god, every single episode has the same layout, the same emotional conflict, the same heartfelt speech 3/4 of the way in...
> unless you stretch it beyond all reasonableness).
Im gonna give you a spoiler, he does.
Dan Harmon's sotry circle is how he wrote most of the episodes of Community and Rick and Morty, and tbh he uses it to great effect even when he tells anecdotes and stories (he famously played a DnD campaign where he would meta roleplay to add necessary steps to the circle to make the stories more compelling even if they were not the best strategy at the moment).
Due to his adherance to his own method, he sees it everywhere, to the point where most of us would be squinting to see what he even means.
Its just a framework and he really likes it. Essentially the same as a dude who really likes one programming language and uses it out of place, in a terribly complicated place because he just really likes it.
yeah i kind of thought the entire point was that dan harmon has a very particular view on what fiction is and how it works. He then deconstructs this in every episode. In season 3 he starts deconstructing what television is. In season 4 he starts deconstructing his own theory of story telling. In season 5 he deconstructs the universe he created. the cleverness of the show comes from it's constant deconstruction of storytelling and each iteration doing it in a different way is what makes it work. And i would say the difference between this show and Community is that nobody seems to tone down this deconstruction in any way.
I would say it's more a deconstruction of fiction, generally, rather than subversion of sitcoms. Most plots are decidedly non-sitcommy.
I would also say Dan Harmon's previous work on Community is so filled to the brim with meta-analyses, parodies, homages, and self reflection that it's probably more him than Justin on the writing side.
I'd ALSO say that I don't think Rick and Morty suggests Rick's behaviors or beliefs are praiseworthy. The dude is super depressed and toxic. Including of course the episode in which his toxicity become manifest.
That episode of Community also explicitly referred to the black face as a "hate crime." I don't think it's so much a matter of interpretation as that was the direct gag they were going for.
Do we know who actually pulled the content? Netflix clearly doesn't have a policy against streaming partial amount of content when they can't get it all from a provider but it's not clear to me if Netflix pulled a single episode of Community or if the licensers maybe refused to license that episode. I think I read that Sony was supportive of the episode being pulled.
I think most of this content will come back once the industry as a whole sort of figures out the positioning. There are something the creators are embarrassed by and it might never come back but I expect there to be a new rating or something similar (Disney+ does this already) where they'll indicate before the media plays that it may be offensive or insensitive. News shows do this when covering certain types of crimes.
There are already incidences of this:
The TV show Community is missing an episode on Netflix for some reason (edit: reason was Ken Jeong in what could be interpreted as blackface).
The IT Crowd is missing one in some geos because it was considered anti-Trans by some - that episode also has the unrelated and hilarious plot where Roy and Moss convince Jen that they're loaning her a "black box that holds the entire internet".
This happens in physical media release as well, mostly i've seen music replaced with cheaper licensed music, I think the most recent physical releases of 'Community' still contain the episode that includes the 'Advanced Dungeons and Dragons' episode, that has been removed from netflix due to the use of Blackface (One character arrives at the game in blackface (actually jet black with a white wig) because his character is a Drow (dark elf), other characters call him out for being racist but he explains his character's backstory)
Not precisely the same mechanisms, I'm sure, but the A plot in this Community episode is illustrative: https://community-sitcom.fandom.com/wiki/Analysis_of_Cork-Based_Networking
I saw this movie recently. There’s a scene where he just openly ogles at a woman’s breasts for a very long time in store as a gag.
It’s pretty wild that when you look at one of his later character’s, Pierce Hawthorne in Community; an old inappropriate white guy, you still don’t see such behaviors played for gags to mock the inappropriateness of it in modern times to such an extent.
The mockeries of that era are tamer than the reality even in light hearted comedy.
I've heard of famous writers re-writing their favorite authors works by hand and I've fantasized about having more time to do that with my favorite tv shows/movies. For me I'd probably start with "Community" and see if I can absorb/train my neural net to be an iota as clever.
Agreed. Now if I have a TV show I haven't seen, I check if I've already downloaded it years back and watch the downloaded version rather than stream it. I can't trust streaming services to show me anything as it is, ever since Netflix removed the Community episode with blackface (it was parodying blackface, that was the point).
Glad to see Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) here. That said Joel McHale stars in another show called Community. It was created by Dan Harmon (Rick and Morty). It is a highly underrated show. Has a lot of existential and meta commentary on show itself. Highly recommend if you are looking for a new sitcom.
I believe it led to him directing episodes of Community and potentially helped lead to him directing his movies. So he probably has great things to say about the experience.
I also don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. It feels like many of the examples given are the more extreme cases where it goes too far, but looking at the pilots of most TV shows (especially sitcoms), the characters are fairly generic and uninteresting, and they slowly build up their personas over time as writers write to the actor and to what works.
Community is a good example of that, all the characters definitely developed a lot, though some maybe went too far like Britta. Parks & Recreation is another one, some of the characters were actually just background extras like Retta and Jerry. The whole woodworking part of Ron also came from Nick's own background and built into the character.
The solution to this is, of course, piracy. I'm glad people like those on /r/DataHoarder preserve media in their complete forms so I don't have to watch them censored.
A recent example is Community which has an episode of a character dressing as a dark elf, and the joke is that another character assumes it's blackface, even though it's not. Well, networks and streaming services now removed it and unless you have the original discs, you simply can't watch that episode.
Unless, of course, you pirate it, which is how I watched it.
Bullshit.
Sorry, this "we're the same" retort is exhausting. The United States government does not employ censors to remove portions of shows before allowing them to air (or stream, whatever). The closest thing I can think of is DoD not giving access to a movie unless it paints Navy pilots in a certain light. Okay, fine. Not nearly the same as what this site is showing us.
Yes, we have cultural taboos, like any culture. Studios have more trouble presenting some viewpoints over others. Chappelle gets protested, that one episode of Community was memory-holed on Hulu (but not on Amazon!). We ban pornography on public airwaves (but not on streaming or cable or satellite, or Blueray).
If you compare and contrast the pervasiveness of censorship between China and the United States, the difference is huge.
When it comes to artistic freedom, the US is way better than China. Maybe you can say we can improve even more, sure. But that's a long way off from our censorship being "honestly no better".
I always think of the quote from the potter episode of Community, as the main character imagines what his mom's words of advice are: "Jeff, you're a normal person. There's nothing very special about you at all. You're going to be great at a few things, but really crappy at more. And that takes a lot of the pressure off, so you can live a full, happy life. "
It’s a comedy trope. Seinfeld is probably most famous for the formula with back-references throughout the series. Arrested Development dabbled in it, and Community took it to the extreme of whole story arcs. Brooklyn 99 and New Girl revel in it. A less comedy-specific example, Buffy, created a role for the throw away character (Spike) because he was so well received, then went on to do several more episodes along a similar theme (Zeppo, the one about Jonathan being a superhero, the musical, come to mind).
Movies are less susceptible to being described as formulaic, but an iconic movie, The Big Lebowski, could reasonably be summarized this way (albeit the series is serialized into one piece). Coffee and Cigarettes doesn’t satisfy the “nobodies” in the literal sense, but it’s almost entirely this formula.
I’m just citing examples I can think of, I haven’t watched most of what people have watched. And I don’t mean in any way to dismiss the actual work, or the concept, or your finding novelty in it. It’s a really cool device for storytelling, but it’s definitely not a unique device.
Some American comedy (Parks and Rec, Brooklyn 99, Cheers, Community, etc) is amazing. Most of it is crap (2 1/2 Men, Big Bang, 90% of SNL, 100% of "middle aged dude with a family and a wife that's way too good looking" sitcoms).
Some British comedy (Fawlty Towers, Black Books, Fleabag) is amazing. Most of it is crap (Mr Bean, Keeping Up Appearances, One Foot in the grave).
There are some terrible British bands, and some great French cars.
Generalising about culture is pointless.
I have a hard time not imagining the shoe Community (season 5 episode 8) where the college starts using an app that rates every interaction between people.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/App_Development_and_Condiments
And the "meowmeowbeenz" episode of Community. Also does not end well, but is very funny.
Hearing Ray Dalio talk about the Bridgewater app always made me think of the episode of the show Community where the school starts beta testing a very similar app called MeowMeowBeanz and it turns what were informal social hierarchies into a Brave New World style caste system.
A couple of games, films and music I loved are lost or hard to come by these days. It's out of print or no one cares (b-track on singles for example) Sometimes the artist changes "the original" (star wars for example). The companies don't want to sell the original (GTA for example) or can't sell it for legal reasons. And of course there is always someone offended (Community - Advanced Dungeons and Dragons for example)
I have had 4 different shows have content cut from them that I noticed this year, for a variety of woke factors.
- Peep Show (Jeremy & Nancy "taboo" breaking episode)
- 30 Rock (Jenna & Tracy "role reversal" episode)
- Community (Chang D&D)
- Always Sunny
In these instances, the character that is doing the "deplorable" act is the villian or idiot. It's not like these shows are promoting those views, they're actually doing the opposite.
It's so bizarre.
not the OP and not so much politics but I found it decidedly weird how Sex Education which is set in a fictional town in the UK, is filmed in Wales, with an almost exclusively British cast is completely Americanized.
As far as politics goes Bridgerton is probably the best example which has American racial and gender politics bolted onto some weird fairy tale version of the British aristocracy in the worst way imaginable.
edit: another thing I just remembered, Netflix removed what is probably the best episode of Community from its catalog because of a blackface character, despite the fact that the character is explicitly used to address racism in the fantasy genre.
I was hoping for a new episode of Community...
It remains pretty crazy that he made the defenses he did given Netflix have previously pulled episodes of Community for having a joke about how blackface is bad.
Doesn't exactly seem consistent other than "we spent a lot" on this mess.
Am I misremembering or was the community blackface episode actually blueface.
There are other problems. I personally encountered this issue with Netflix: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/community-netflix-and-hulu-remove-advanced-dungeons-and-dragons-episode/
reference joke to the tv show Community
Not to mention the marketing in the tv show Community! This was a very good episode too, surprisingly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcjW6maPJko
> Bezos and especially Branson's ventures feel much more like personal vanity projects than something that will actually push space exploration.
I'm not sure why people feel this need to draw this weird line in the sand and say that SpaceX is okay because Musk built a business, but Blue Origin and Virgin are bad because... reasons?
Technology advances for all sorts of reasons. Lamborghinis exist because a farmer was pissed at Ferrari. Motorolla made the first cellphone to steal the thunder from AT&T. Hell, the first space race back in the 60s was basically done to flex on the USSR.
If this is all a massive dick measuring contest, I honestly couldn't care less. It's advancing space exploration and providing competition in the space. Even Bezos and Branson stopped right now, they've still proven that it's possible for a company other than SpaceX to put a man in orbit and dumped billions of dollars back into the economy.
When I hear people complain about this being a vanity project like that somehow taints the accomplishment, all I can think about is a particularly on the nose quote from the TV show Community. "Who cares if Troy thinks he's all that? Maybe he is. You think astronauts go to the moon because they hate oxygen? No, they're trying to impress their high school's prom king."
And Community.
An episode was focused on a D&D game, and one character was cosplaying as a drow elf, with facepaint. Removed because of 'blackface'.
> They need to buy better old movies.
I believe it's much more in their interest to buy old TV shows. A good movie will keep you occupied for what, two hours? Seinfeld: almost 19 days of watch time. Friends: over 5 days. Community was barely ever popular before Netflix bought it, now there's plenty of people that enjoyed it for 2 days and 7 hours of watch time (its subreddit went from 266k on April 2020 to 482k right now).
I believe it's also in their interest to spread out stories that are realistically one-movie-long into 5-6 slightly drawn out 40-50 min episodes.
I just wish they fucking stick to them instead of cancelling them after like two seasons. Orange Is The New Black is the only original of theirs I know of that goes above two days of airtime.
I didn't downvote you, but the office was very much censored and there were articles about it[1]. The same article discusses Community having one of its best episodes ever yanked over black face that was explicitly explained in the episode. People have lost their collective minds.
[1] https://tvline.com/2020/06/26/the-office-community-blackface-cut-removed-streaming/amp/
Pretty sure they were being sarcastic. I also don't find your arguments persuasive in the slightest, and I find myself being skeptical of these recent moral outcries. I'm skeptical of its sincerity, and I don't buy it. "Master" has an etmylogical background far more diverse than the dichotomy to "slave". I can wholeheartedly say that I've not once thought to make that association. It's been a title for centuries. Master blacksmith, etc. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master for a list)
Another example of what seems like a fake moral outcry is "blackface". And, I mean what it is being referred to now, and not the actual meaning. The racist ridicule by stereotyping ethnicity. That was "Blackface". Yet, for some reason, context doesn't matter anymore, and we end up with removing episodes of Community because someone painted their face in a cosplay of an dark elf, in exact commentary of this.
There is a significan systemic racism in the US that affects almost everything. In order to deal with those things, the very first thing would be to properly be able to identify racism. Context matters. Renaming "Master" branches is not progress. Ostracising a kid for dressing up as Michael Jackson isn't it.
Whenever I see outrage over such things I cynically think that the person is probably white, and probably doing it for attention. One thing is for sure, it only serves to detract from the real issues.
This was a joke on the TV show Community, but it was exactly what you picture.
Indeed. I started rewatching Community on Netflix some months ago, and I noticed the general synopsis said "(One episode of Season 2 is not available.)". I assumed that with so many brands and cultural references that are parodied there may be some weird legal reason why they couldn't distribute a specific episode, either in Spain or in general.
When eventually I got to Season 2 I compared their episode listing with that on Wikipedia, and saw that the unavailable episode was S02E14, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. At first I thought it had to be some weird copyright challenge from D&D... but no. It was because the comedically unlikeable character of Ben Chang obliviously and with no bad intent makes what is a cultural faux-pas in the USA, for which he is criticised, as a minor side joke in the episode [0]! And of course Netflix, in their infinite cultural sensitivity, decided to make the episode unavailable worldwide, as if Netflix users in Spain should even give a damn about a minor American cultural taboo being played for laughs.
Thank God that file sharing of copyrighted files is not illegal in Spain [1], so I was able to carelessly download such an objectionable and immoral episode via The Pirate Bay! Hello Torrent my old friend...
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_(Community)#Removal_from_streaming_services
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_aspects_of_file_sharing#Spain
I do Netflix-pomodoro. Put on a show and work for one episode, break for the next. Repeat. I’m ridiculously productive this way.
Note that I aim for shows with episodes that last less than 30 minutes. The office was a great show to use but sadly was removed. Now using community.
I agree with your core sentiment on movies - but I couldn't disagree more on the topic of TV having reverted to the mean.
It may not all be "Sopranos", but I've seen so many TV shows in the past decade that have pushed boundaries and delivered experiences that frankly, have hit me much harder than almost any movie - and certainly much harder than pre-netflix era TV.
I know everyone has different taste, but I think we've seen a lot of maturation in the past decade specifically in the form of more interesting TV anthology series / single-season narratives (True Detective, Fargo, Watchmen) and dark-ish comedies (Rick and Morty, Barry, American Vandal, Succession). I think networks in general are giving show-runners more space and budget for trying weird stuff, because even if they end up with a show that's too niche for a general timeslot - there's at least the possibility of selling it to a streaming service later (like Arrested Development, The Expanse, and Community did).
> What niches would those be?
I can't enumerate all niches that exist in a large back catalog of media. My point wasn't that HBO should cater to 1,000 different "I wanna see the racist stuff" niches. Rather, there are a thousand different subsets of their subscriber base that all have an outsized interest in something otherwise obscure. Or largely unpopular. I was responding the to general point about the tradeoff between serving those small subsets vs. avoiding the ire of the wider subscriber base.
> Why is HBO Max responsible for all of them
I didn't say they were. Just reframing it as a business decision that they could make. The long tail is a thing that has been traditionally hard to cater to, but is easier with the technology we have today. (i.e. Physical video stores don't have 1/10th the floorspace that would be required, but online streaming does. Once a title has been tagged and categorized, you let your software take care of the curation with 0 marginal cost)
> I don't even know why OP and yourself are going after HBO for this.
I'm not "going after them". I was responding to the parent's comment with my own ideas how the situation could be navigated. If HBO decides that, no, they'd rather just sidestep the whole issue, I don't blame them! Their math might work out different than mine. (Okay, maybe I "blame" them, but I get it. Can't say I'd be Mr. Principled Archivist in the same situation)
As for OP, I figure he really loves Tom and Jerry, and would love to see all the episodes.
> Almost seems like a dog whistle if I had more evidence.
No. The "I'm a sensible adult" is fine by me on its own merits. I don't need to whistle. Like I said, mark these episodes "TV-MA".
I guess I'm frustrated because I wish streaming services weren't so ephemeral. The one that really got me was the episode of Community where the group played D&D for the first time. It's one of the best episodes of that show, but it's no longer available to watch. But it's reasonable for me—a non-bigot—to like that episode, right?
Hahah this reminded me of the Community episode where they use a KFC space simulator
- One hour of walking (I walk fast). - Two to three episodes of Community, Seinfeld, IT Crowd, The Office, Parks and Recreation or Brooklyn 99 (I bought them online so I can do this anywhere I have internet). - A nap of at least 30 mins.
Sometimes I do two of those options.
Am I the only one who immediately thought of this episode of community (Digital Estate Planning)?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 1fgR7oeIXFA
In the UK, Doctor Who is clearly an outlier. The other really long-running shows are soap operas like Eastenders or comedy panel shows.
But in the US, there seem to be an awful lot of outliers, and it's on the strength of those series that Netflix initially established their following: Friends, The Office, Park and Rec, Seinfeld, Community, The Walking Dead, The Blacklist, Gilmore Girls, Grey's Anatomy, West Wing, That 70's Show, Supernatural, Criminal Minds, and I could keep going, honestly, for quite a while.
So yes, there's an extent to which 5 or 8 seasons is less common, but the goal for US shows has been 100 episodes for decades now, which is usually 5 seasons of 20+ episodes each.
If Netflix is adopting a more UK-like approach, that might result in better TV eventually, but it would be nice for creators to know they have to tell their story in 16 episodes rather than 100.
Having only seen the first two, Parks and Rec and Community definitely suffered towards their later seasons, although I would say they were still good towards the end.
Parks and Rec season 1 was just six episodes. Yeah it improved a lot in quality, but viewership appears to have actually declined over time according to wikipedia.
With regard to Game of Thrones, I don't think the article argues that it necessarily got better in quality season by season but that it took a couple of seasons to find a massive viewership and become a cultural phenomenon. That said, I think the quality did improve between season 1 and 5.
And I vehemently disagree with the notion that "almost all shows get significantly worse". There are definitely many shows that do jump the shark at some point and significantly drop in quality. On the flip side, there are many examples of shows that needed a couple of seasons to find their tone and really hit their stride which they most likely never would have had the chance to do at Netflix. E.g: Parks and Recreation, Community, Justified, even Breaking Bad imho.
No I had not! It seems like what I was thinking.
Take the same idea and put it into Unreal Engine. Add further OS interactions like files, maybe a floating virtual window for web browsing etc.
The UX has to be done very well though otherwise you are a prediction by TV show Community:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4FGzE4endQ&ab
Currently watching the sitcom "Community" which I missed the first time around. Good stuff.
I agree that there's a real push-and-pull between people trying to be responsive to content that is in some way damaging to other people (props up stereotypes, promotes some kind of violence, false information that sounds plausible but could get someone hurt, etc.) and those who would prefer leave content as it is and turn up the volume on some other type of corrective measure, like annotating clearly untrue content or information that has been proven false.
That said, I'm not convinced that one side is winning such that we'll end up losing primary sources. I was disappointed see episodes of "Community" pulled from Netflix and Hulu (one recent example) but the episode remains on DVD, saving it from the proverbial "memory hole".
I don't think anyone should be convinced of the veracity of information simply from seeing it linked to another page. Surely we have to click the link and then judge the source for ourselves.
I'm extremely convinced the "anti-cancel-culture"-culture has to be the most thriving white collar subscription industry of our times. For people being cancelled I can't really tell how many dozens of blog posts with thousands of likes like this I see of people publicly talking about not being able to publicly talk.
Following the obligatory comparisons to 1984 for being cancelled out of the network-tv drag queen tv show community, comparisons to the Soviet Union followed promptly.
As someone who had family in East Germany let me tell you what Soviet cancel culture was. Being thrown into a dungeon where the light doesn't shine or someone being shot in the head by a Stasi agent.
Extremely bored people being cancelled out of some community by other extremely bored people on the noise generating machine that is social media is about as much Soviet Union as Trump fearing STDs was his Vietnam.
This reminds me of the valiant defenders of the intellectual dark web, which is so dark that it seems to occupy the permanent topspot on every podcasting service on the internet
"Advanced DnD" is probably one of the best episodes out there, shame they pulled it.
Also, to echo some other comments here, Community gets plenty of its humour from racism towards black people.
* Pierce thinks Shirley is Troy's mum because they're both black
* Shirley thinks Troy can't swim to which he replies "uh, I can swim, racist"
* Pierce's Halloween story where Troy + Abed play some stereotypical hood characters which Pierce defeats by punching them with his penis.
* Pierce assumes Shirley's ex-husband is a waiter because he's black.
Community also makes fun of other races:
* It implies there's no difference between Chinese and Koreans (Chang goes "Oh, like there's a difference?")
* Pierce's dad wears a wig made out of pure ivory due to wanting to maintain "true follicular purity". Regular wigs are "made from the hair of godless Orientals".
* "Swedish dogs! Your blood is tainted by generations of race-mixing with Laplanders. You're basically Finns".
* Shirley casually says about Arabs: "They're not as understanding as Christians. You could get your head cut off with a salami sword."
* https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/iubycnhccu0it3wa9yoc.mp4
Community also has (plenty of) gay jokes. They also make fun of Fat Neil and body shame him to the point of tears. They also have a romantic subplot involving Jeff a 40yo lawyer and Annie an 18yo student. They also constantly make fun of the Dean's sexuality.
Community makes fun of so many minorities and has lots of racy jokes, why is Chang cosplaying a Dark Elf reason to pull an episode?
I mean, I get Netflix are trying to cover their ass, but it seems counterproductive and sends the wrong message.
If you have tons of money and aren't obsessive about your spending, then this is a fun and funny way to spend some cash and entertain your friends.
If you're taking out loans and piling up credit card debt so the Soup Nazi can wish you a scripted "happy birthday", you may have a problem.
It reminds me of the episode of Community where Abed kept compulsively hiring celebrity look-a-likes for his own entertainment.
EDIT: After browsing the site, I totally see the appeal. Most of the actors cost around $100 or less and there are pages full of familiar faces, including some personal favorites. There is a 50% chance I end up buying this as a gift for someone!
A lot of good series have this "open sandbox" format where the context of the show is just a vessel for whatever story the writer wants to tell.
Examples:
* Star Trek Holodeck * The various worlds in Sliders * The infinite worlds in Rick and Morty means there are no limits to what can be written in. * In Community, in a lot of episodes Greendale magically transforms in whatever setting is needed for the story: a court room where the murder of a yam is debated, a western/space battlefield where players duke it out for a grand prize, an entire city made of pillows and blankets, a zombie infested Halloween party etc.
The upside is anything goes, the downside is the perceived lack of consequences (especially in the extreme case of Rick and Morty).
I'm not sure about complete series but there are definitely some episodes. One I would say is the ST:TNG episode "Relics" where they rescue Scotty from a ship crashed on a Dyson Sphere. They even had the original captain's chair from the original series in it. And it was a pretty great episode too!
I think another example are the D&D or paintball episodes of Community. They even reference the other episodes and make fun of how fan service-y it is at points.
So close! Enticing checkerboard pattern and some unshaded wood texturing then a hard crash for Firefox Android 68.5.0. Evokes the early 90s which reminds me that anyone who hasn't seen the "Community" episode with the VR parody must watch it immediately: https://youtu.be/z4FGzE4endQ (this seems to be a super-cut which will annoy the writers, bit still)
Something that worked for me was playing a TV show that I've watched to death (Archer, Community, Rick and Morty.) on my phone. Listening to a story that I already know occupies my brain just enough to let go of my own worries, and since I know the end of them all, I don't have the need to sit up and wonder what's going to happen next.
Kind of the opposite of what they recommend (completely silent and dark room) for so-called "sleep hygiene", which, when I practiced it, only served to keep me awake longer.
This sounds like the title to a Community episode.
I'm just wondering, are there many casual D&D groups for non-geeks? (like the Adrian family featured in the article)
My only exposure to D&D was the episode of the "Community", and it looked pretty fun. I wonder if the demographics of that group is normal.
I only ask because most of my friends have this perception that D&D personalities are a little "awkward" and would not give it a chance, but have no issues going to board-game nights.
I think it's more about the generation who were kids in the 1st edition days getting to the point in their careers where they have influence and a platform.
So you get Stephen Colbert making D&D references, and Dan Harmon writing it into Community, Vin Diesel talking about getting Judi Dench to play while making a film, etc. And for every high-profile person like Colbert or Harmon there are probably a few people on their writing staff with a similar gaming background.
Or, a more light-hearted take, a few years before Nosedive: http://community-sitcom.wikia.com/wiki/MeowMeowBeenz
I can't imagine working at a company with this kind of system. Sounds a little too much like MeowMeowBeenz (http://community-sitcom.wikia.com/wiki/MeowMeowBeenz) from the TV show Community. ("MeowMeowBeenz™ takes everything subjective and unspoken about human interaction and reduces it to explicit, objective numbers.")
How do you feel bonusly avoids this potentially awkward gamification/popularity contest? I feel like most people I know would just give 30 bonusly to a random person on the last day of the month, but maybe your colleagues are a little more disciplined :)
My wife and I are watching the TV show Community together, and Donald Glover is great in it. Fantastic timing. It's not a challenging role he's playing, but he's so charming and fun. (Plus, the show-runner on Community was Dan Harmon, co-creator of Rick & Morty, so the humor has that dark, meta, highly creative edge to it.)
And before that on Community episode "App Development and Condiments"
Something as mass-market as Big Bang Theory did a D&D episode years before Stranger Things existed. It's been a much longer process than that.
Something more niche but still network TV (Community) did one a few years before that, even. That's around the same time I started noticing it popping up in more stores in suburban TX.
For myself and a number of friends, Community's D&D episodes were the cause. But the episodes, like Stranger Things, were probably a symptom of larger trends.
In other words, the "Greendale Human Being"[1][2] effect.
[1] http://community-sitcom.wikia.com/wiki/Greendale_Human_Being
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr-F40mnul8
> people have come to associate the circle head with masculinity, and because of this association, we felt that it was important to explore alternate head shapes. […] As a result of these iterations, we ended with a more gender-balanced figure. We chose grays because they feel temporary, generic, and universal.
This approach reminds me of the Greendale mascot, the "Human Being”.[1] The egg was better imo, it treated identity in a more light, not-so-serious manner; no need to think of genders, and you could even see it as a symbol of possibilities waiting to happen.
[1] http://community-sitcom.wikia.com/wiki/Greendale_Human_Being
I'm always amazed how Community episodes work, after reading about the Harmon story circle (he wrote Community) I'd assume that I would have the same issue - that you could spot the structure, but somehow it always sneaks up on you.
The line "Stop trying to make 'streets ahead' a thing" is a joke from the TV show Community.
It is from the TV show, Community.
I believe you'd like this Community episode. It's the same subject, but with a better view
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3278596/
And really, Fifteen Million Merits wasn't all that great either --- it was kind of all over the place narratively, and once you get the intrusive ranking trope, there's really not much more interesting about it. It felt sort of like badly plotted Vonnegut.
Again: if you haven't seen the MeowMeowBeenz episode of Community: it's a pretty good chaser to either of those episodes.
Don't forget Community!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3278596/
> Fox has set up numerous shows for failure, including Arrested Development, which was aired against Monday Night Football and wasn't aired during sweeps week. How does a show succeed, no matter how good, when it's never given a chance to develop an audience?
This is revisionist history. Fox pushed AD hard during season 1 and discovered that it was the ultimate cult show, with a small but devoted audience and no reach chance to expand it's base. Fox pushed it into the dead zones of the schedule because they knew the audience would follow it anywhere. Internally, AD had huge champions which is why it got far more episodes than it would have rationally deserved if you just looked at ratings.
There's no real way Fox could have turned it into a viable hit if only it had treated it better. Like later critically adored darlings like Community of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, there was a natural ceiling to its viewership that was never going to fit into the business model of an early 21st century network channel.
My favorite podcast is Harmontown. It is an incredibly brilliant improv comedy by Dan Harmon(creator of the tv shows Community and Rick and Morty). This guy is a genius, I highly recommend to listen to this show.
I thought that Rick and Morty was free on Adult Swim's website? That's where I ended up watching at least the first season (that might have changed).
However, from the same creator, there was Dan Harmon's Community. Season 6 was funded by Yahoo, and they put it up on Yahoo Screen. For free! Great! Except they had big issues with buffering, and region locked the show to America. In the end that whole operation was shut down.
I'm not. When they picked up Community for season 6, they did such a bungling of release that most die-hard fans never even saw the 6th season (despite it being great). Yahoo's problem is that they throw too much at the wall and dont have enough bandwidth to follow through appropriately.
If you watch Community, there's a whole episode about this. Except instead of "whuffie", it's "meow meow beenz".
(This came out the year before Peeple launched, I just noticed).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI4kiPaKfAE
Spoilers: The result is a Communist revolution against meow meow beenz.
I love the show Community. I watched like three episodes of the new season and stopped. The weekly release model is just dumb. They made it nearly impossible to watch via Chromecast as well. At some point I lost interest in getting past their obstacles and just stopped watching.
Yahoo reminds me of Apple in the mid 90's. Even good ideas are just terribly executed. They hired the wrong leader to try and fix their problems.
There is this: https://projecthawkthorne.com/ which is based on an episode of the TV show Community.
It is open-source and based on community effort. https://www.reddit.com/r/hawkthorne https://github.com/hawkthorne/hawkthorne-journey
It didn't really help that no one outside of the US could easily watch season 6. I'm a huge Community fan, but Yahoo Screen just didn't work for us. In the end, season 6 was on TV, but a lot of people had just pirated it.
Yahoo Screen could've worked, but in terms of execution it was terrible. It seems that Yahoo really haven't improved in that regard.
Yahoo! Screen revived NBC's Community sitcom for a sixth season, but lost a lot of money:
https://www.yahoo.com/tv/bp/community-season-6-yahoo-204612640.html
Community Season 6 was actually pretty good. Especially compared to "The Gas Leak Year." It was designed to close the series gracefully, after actors were already exiting.
I watched a few episodes of Community from the new season. Yahoo butchered it. That show suffered multiple bad decisions and quality went up and down like a yo-yo, but Yahoo's attempt at reviving it is by far the worst. If this is representative of the majority of their attempts at content creation, I can see why they would want to step away from that.
You could also get the other edge of the sword like with the social popularity ratings satirized in the TV show Community's "MeowMeowBeenz" app episode -- of which the real-life example, the recently released app "Peeple", was lambasted in the media recently.
Harmontown - a podcast by the creator of the brilliant tv shows Community and Rick and Morty. I'm not sure it will make sense on it's own, but if you really love Community, think that Dan is a genius, and want to understand how he thinks - it's awesome. Also very funny.
I've noticed this in a few BBC shows vs. American shows. In a British TV show there will be characters that just happen to be black, but in an American show it's going to get talked about eventually. Admittedly they aren't the same genres, but the shows that immediately come to mind for me like this are Sherlock and Dr. Who vs. say 30 Rock or Community.
Hey, friend, no. Just don't. I have no idea what's going on in your life, but don't. I have been there, just trust me, it will pass. Just focus on taking it step by step, living day by day, just survive and wait, it will be worth it. I guarantee you there will be time you will be glad you've waited, even if everything is shit now.
Future will be very interesting, you'll want to see it, you'll just need to be there to see it. For now just focus on surviving and waiting and find any reason to go forward.
Even simple/silly ones, like watching the next episode of Sherlock that comes out in 2016, or finishing a good book.
Watch some comedy. Watch Louis CK, watch Bill Burr, watch Community. To me it really helps, even when things are really bad.
Elon Musk will put people on freaking Mars. Self driving cars and robots will be everywhere. Medicine will make amazing progress to fix our health problems. You'll just need to be there to see it, to be a part of it.
Computers will kick ass, scientists will make crazy discoveries. You will find things worth caring about. You will have cool people in your life too, just hold on.
There are people like you, there is a place where you belong, there are things worth living for.
Also when things are bad your brain just gets into a bad place, and a lot of these thoughts are caused by chemicals. Things may seem hopeless but after some time your brain chemistry changes and you look at the same situation very differently, even if it doesn't seem real to you now.
You will find your way, it will get better. Right now - don't be hard on yourself. Just wait and hold on.
Email me at raymestalez@gmail.com if you'll need to talk.
Yeah, it bothers me too and I think about it a lot. I've tried reading eastern philosophy and various opinions on that, but they all seem like rationalozations of people trying to comfort themselves.
One thing I want to tell you - don't think that there's something wrong with you because you are afraid of death. Many people cope by trying to convince themselves that "death is okay, and may, in fact, be a good thing", and it all sounds deep and wise, but it doesn't really make any sense. It's okay to be scared/frustrated/angry when thinking about it.
From everything that I've read and thought about, I've concluded, that if we cut the shit and ignore all the pretentious philosophy and rationalizations, all it comes down to is "try not to think about it and enjoy living your life right now".
When you are a kid you don't think about death, but once you comprehend it it is shocking and depressing, but over time I guess you just get used to the thought, and learn to focus on work/friends/etc and enjoy the life that you have.
I think that humans will cure death eventually, and it makes sense to do everything in our power to fight it. I suggest you check out Eliezer Yudkowsky and the transhumanist community for a lot of interesting ideas on that(like cryonics).
Once you have done everything in your powers to avoid dying(healthy lifestyle, wise choices, etc, etc) - there's no rational reason to keep thinking depressing thoughts, so you just learn to control your thoughts better, so that you wouldn't ruminate on it pointlessly. It's not a solution, but it's the best you can do at this point.
I suggest learning meditation, so that you can learn to stop the scary and pointless thought patterns, and avoid upsetting yourself for no reason.
Find great books, fun hobbies, cool friends to have something fun to do instead of obsessing about depressing stuff.
Watch stand up comedy and great sitcoms, comedy is an amazing solution to this. Check out Louis CK and tv show Community. There's something incredibly beautiful about comedy, if things get bad it really saves my sanity, can't recommend it highly enough. If you are really down - watch a few episodes of Community, laugh your ass off, and it will get better =)
Also, I very much recommend you to read HPMOR. It has a lot of very interesting thoughts on the topic, it is just very bright and beautiful and interesting book. It won't solve the problem but I feel like it really helps.
Isn't part of the problem that words such as average, mediocre and adequate is mostly used to refer to bad things?
My favourite joke from Community is in an episode where they are shooting a commercial for the University and how this gets completely out of hand.
In the end, when the review commite sees the final result one guy says "It's good" and the other chimes in "It's better than good, it's good enough"
This is funny because "Good enough" is usually not considered to be good.
And Community Season 6!
Comedy. I love comedy. Stand up and sitcoms. Works every time.
Try watching Louis CK, Bill Burr, or TV shows like Community, HIMYM or Rick and Morty. Or read some xkcd =)
I think it's been mocked a bit in Community. One character was utterly fond of short British TV shows that would end abruptly after 6 episodes, while American shows would be milked seasons after seasons.
Dan Harmon, creator of Community and some other great stuff, refers to this as a "Story Circle":
http://channel101.wikia.com/wiki/Story_Structure_101:_Super_Basic_Shit
He's become somewhat famous for this, having produced several "how-to" videos of varying levels of seriousness about sitcom writing. His writers on Community have even slipped references to this into the background of episodes, where set decorations (e.g., drawings on the study room whiteboard) sometimes subtly acknowledge which part of a character's story circle a scene depicts.
Didn't any of you wonder why season 4 of Community was so bad? Wake up, sheeple!
Very good - the KAG trailer[1] reminds me a lot of the graphics and gameplay of the video game episode of Community[2].
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6Eom7IGLRw
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEr8sO6auIA
This was done satirically in an episode of Community (Season 5 MeowMeowBeanz). Where people interact with one another to gain "MeowMeowBeanz" a score, in a phone app.
Also within a 2 days society starts to look like something out of running man or hunger games.
So kinda like exactly what Community portrayed in their MeowMeowBeanz episode
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3278596/?ref_=tt_ep_ep9
All true, but the main point is that the subject of BBT isn't "geeks", which explains the misguided haterade. For example, Raj seeking research/grant funding from Sheldon and their university office sharing hijinx hits home for a segment of nerds who aren't the type to frequent reddit or HN where the "laugh at geeks" narrative became popular.
This is esp. cogent if Community is supposed to be a "proper" nerdy show. The reality is a single-camera format is more conducive to a more subtle script (eg 30 rock, which geeks similarly like) than a cheap/quick multi-cam sitcom. The love seems to stem from the nature of the material, which is conflated with the material itself.
Big Bang Theory isn't made for geeks; it's made for people who want to laugh at geeks. Mostly, it's made to sitcom conventions and happens to use geekery as the punchline to conventional setups, situations, and timing. It's a show on rails, with ostensible 'nerds' as set dressing. Provided you watch it as a formulaic, mildly entertaining sitcom, it serves that purpose. Occasionally you can nod knowingly at catching Sheldon's obscure-to-the-general-public science references. But if you're the kind of person who catches Sheldon's references, the show's not for you. (In the aggregate, at least. Personally speaking, I enjoy Sheldon, even though I recognize him as a caricature.)
There have been some great commentaries over the last few years about shows for nerds vs. shows about nerds. Compare, for example, Big Bang Theory and Community. The former has more putatively 'nerdy' characters, but it's by no means a nerdy show. The latter revels in its obscurity, geekery, and absurdity, even though only one of the characters is supposed to be a 'nerd' in the vein of BBT's Sheldon. General Population watches BBT for entertainment, but also for a sort of paradoxical validation: to feel 'in' on the nerdery, but mostly to place a safe distance between itself and nerdery. Nerds, meanwhile, watch shows like Community, which make no bones about their nerdery.
Traditionally, the gulf between content 'for nerds' and 'about nerds' has been pretty wide. That's because the non-nerdy public finds the genuine article to be unfamiliar and vaguely threatening. If Judge's take on Silicon Valley succeeds, it will be the first time in years that someone's bridged this gap.
Both me and my girlfriend work in tech and she wasn't offended by the name 'bropages'. Furthermore, she disagreed with your comment completely. She doesn't feel excluded or discriminated from the name 'bropages'. Hell, I even call her dude all the time and it doesn't bother her in the slightest.
There as an episode of a tv show called community where they tried to make a mascot that wasn't offensive to anyone. It ended up being a "human" that had no face and the letter H on the front. I don't think anyone that shows off a project here should be attacked for it being offensive to some subset of people here unless it explicitly encourages hate.
I quite like this writeup. I've seen a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory, and could never quite put my finger on why I didn't enjoy it, when I knew people who claimed it was the cleverest thing on TV and absolutely hilarious.
Clearly, though, I need to check out Community.
I haven't watched Community, but that is a long form version of my description to others (when asked) of why I don't watch The Big Bang Theory. I gave it a few episodes, I caught more when others watched it. It never clicked for me why I would be considered a part of the target audience when you often don't laugh with the characters, but at them. Thanks for the link.
I watched most of Breaking Bad for the first time this summer (all but the final eight episodes), and while I really like Walt at the beginning, these last few episodes (really starting with Say My Name, the second to last episode in the first half of season five) my like started to wane. I still like the character, but not as much...
I think Abed Nadir from Community is more my type of nerd. Probably because I find the character similar to myself.
This was posted on Tumblr, which is generally known for its short attention span, and the blogger has a large contingent of younger fans, who may not be interested in reading about Youtube and would prefer to continue viewing cute cat gifs.
That being said, I didn't realize that YouTube was funding original channels! I'm reminded of the talk Dan Harmon (creator of the television series "Community") gave regarding the death of television/the Internet as a new platform for stories [1]. The majority of people already consume television shows on the internet, I'd love to see a larger shift towards an internet-only tv series model.
[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ej_aFOnT04g
My biggest fear is that Community will get cancelled and that their fans will turn to Kickstarter in order to get Dan Harmon back on board to get their six seasons and a movie.
TBBT makes fun of being a nerd (or a geek) at the expense of nerds and geeks. The audience is never the nerd or geek themself; it's everyone else. TBBT does not intend for you to emphathise with the nerds, they are there for your enjoyment. Essentially, TBBT makes nerds into the new samba blacks.
There is nothing smart about the jokes; the punchline (and frequently, the entire joke) is usually [something vaguely nerdy sounding that most people don't know]. Basically, TBBT just randomly says "quantom superstring theory" and you are expected to laugh at it because the phrase sounds ridiculous; there usually isn't any more context to it than the utterance of the nerdy-sounding thing.
In contrast, Community takes the concept and builds into something substantial. They'll take "quantum superstring theory" and, for example, turn it into an episode where the vibrations of silly string perfectly predict events going on elsewhere on campus.
That's why the show is so popular. It's not taboo to admit you play WoW or consider yourself a 'geek' these days. The moniker has been appropriated and means many different things now.
However nothing about being a geek is considered normal by popular opinion. If there was no geek shaming going on then inviting someone you just met out to a game of D&D on Friday night would be as normal and banal as going down to the pub for a drink or catching the new Seth Rogan flick. However it's not and as someone who enjoys the role-playing hobby, I am careful to get to know someone first before I ask them to join us on a quest to slay the terrible wizard, Mordrak.
Instead of using satire to say anything interesting about why that is, TBBT just exploits these social norms. It's about as hilarious as any other Chuck Lorre show these days. The same formula is used for Two and a Half Men and is equally as vapid in my mind.
So when I do watch an episode of TBBT, I don't really identify with any of the characters and feel like I am being laughed at for the most part. The jokes are predictable and not funny for me. These kinds of shows are typically the most fun for the people who are not being made fun of.
Shows like Community, Journey Quest, and movies like Dorkness Rising are funny. They pander to the sub-culture I most identify with and lack any condescending stereotypes. I can laugh at myself in these sorts of contexts because they're written from a perspective that is sympathetic and jovial. It makes fun of the stereotypes in our own sub-culture without laughing at them because they're weird and unconventional and not like us, the people doing the laughing.
I wish more people understood this. All mainstream sitcoms are just window dressing for the same tired joke machine of setup + punchline. Even Community follows this formula more often than not and let's face it, Community for all its excellence is very hit or miss. Shows like Friends or TBBT more or less follow this formula at the cost of character development and plot, but the people watching them don't care about those things.
If you want realistic drama then try watching a realistic drama. I like TBBT. Its easy chuckles and its fun to see the exaggerated high school version of me getting roasted. There's a lot of comedy to mine in the overly serious and socially clueless nerd stereotypes. The show really is about the hilarity of manboys trying to make their way in the modern world and less about geekdom or 'smart people.' It would be trivial to retool the script to be about obsessed sports fans instead of obsessed nerds.
Geeks like Community because it requires use of your brain and rewards you for having knowledge. This is a typical joke, never explained in the episode, which would be over the head of most viewers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGd56epac5c
Here is the most complete and eloquent explanation of Big Bang Theory hate that I have read:
http://butmyopinionisright.tumblr.com/post/31079561065/the-problem-with-the-big-bang-theory
I recommend reading the whole thing. The snippet that pulled me in was the perfect comparison to Community:
"There’s a saying which made its rounds in geekdom recently – “Real nerds watch Community”. Now I take issue with the idea of “real nerds” but the sentiment still stands. Whereas The Big Bang Theory sees nerd culture as an object of ridicule, Community celebrates it. Community’s laughing with you whereas Big Bang is giving you a wedgie and laughing at you. When TBBT makes a pop culture reference it uses it as a punchline, it names a show like Firefly and asks you to laugh at it. When Community makes a pop culture reference it commits. Community makes a whole episode based on a trope or a genre, it doesn’t just use paintball as a plot device it takes paintball seriously and bases two season finales around epic battles of paint. Community doesn’t laugh at the idea of playing D&D it bases an episode on it. Parallels can be drawn between the characters of Sheldon in Big Bang and Abed in Community. Abed too has trouble reading sarcasm and emotion, he has obsessions with routine and structure as well and disruptions in routine cause him considerable distress. Abed sees everything in terms of television and film tropes. This is how he understands the world around him and how he figures out how best to react. Unlike Sheldon, it is often confirmed that Abed does have mental difficulties, most likely Asperger’s Syndrome. But, crucially, the main difference between Sheldon and Abed is that Abed is treated as a hero. In the pilot episode Jeff Winger, arguably the most conventionally “cool” member of the group says this: “Abed is a shaman. You ask for bread and Abed gives you soup because soup is better. Abed is better”. In one episode Abed is literally treated as a god. Yes, his neuroses do at times inconvenience the rest of the group but his belief that they see him as a nuisance is dismissed as his own insecurity rather than the truth. Community positions us, its audience, as Abed. It knows that we are knowledgeable about the things we love, it knows that we understand tropes and genre conventions, it gives us the benefit of the doubt and treats us as intelligent human beings who will not only understand the meta pop culture references, but will find them funny and love the show for it. Community tells us it’s cool to be a nerd. If Abed is better then we are better. Community is a warm hug of acceptance whereas The Big Bang Theory is a pantsing and a punch in the face."
A categorization in "running", "on hiatus" (e.g.: Community) or "finished" (e.g.: House) would be nice.
Also: a calendar and feature to semi-personalize it, by simply using cookies to store series "to watch". Merge both for a semi-personalized calendar.
Speaking of "Episodes", this series is missing ;-)
Felt compelled to post because I hadn't seen Suits mentioned. Modern Family continues to be reliable for laughs and hasn't been added yet. The League is the other show which I find myself laughing out loud at least a few times every episode.
Hell on Wheels surprised me by having a strong second season.
I had high hopes for Copper, but it hasn't really grabbed me in the 1st handful of episodes.
Agree with all the obvious ones:
Homeland, Louie, Newsroom, Sherlock, Game of Thrones, Community.
My wife is addicted to Castle and I've come to really enjoy it too. Since we've caught up to date with that we've now switched over to Person of Interest, which I'm really enjoying.
I've fallen behind with the following and plan to catch up ASAP:
Dexter, Sons of Anarchy, 30 Rock, Breaking Bad.
PS: yeah, I watch a lot of TV :)
You know, sometimes there just needs to be a match to light the fire. Supposedly (but indeterminately) Clark Gable wearing no undershirt drove undershirt sales down 75%[0]
I reckon an episode Modern Family or Community where this type of toilet/bidet is a positive driver of the comedy would bring in a lot of sales for bidets.
[0] http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/gable1.asp
I think you are going the wrong way with this. I mean who cares, right? It's just a television program that viewers happen to enjoy. In fact, that's how ALL tv shows are nowadays, including Community.
As some would say, "Life isn't tv!"
Television has already changed. If you look toward the UK, already there's low budget comedy shows like Mid-Morning Matters with Alan Partridge, which is a continuation of a rather famous comedy character spanning radio, multiple television series and soon to be film -- which was recently produced for peanuts with modest corporate sponsorship from Fosters, dumped online as web episodes -- and now is being picked up for broadcast television after the fact.
Arrested Development may be news to some folks here, but the age of producing shows for internet distribution has been our path for quite some time. Not only are shows being produced in this fashion for the internet now, but we're increasingly recruiting new talent via the internet. Just look at the star of Community, Donald Glover. This is a brilliant comedic actor who first got his major break by producing a set of YouTube videos that went viral with the other comedians in the Derrick comedy group, a group which was later picked up by College Humor and several of which, including Donald, have been tapped by mainstream American television now.
I could only see Arrested Development 'changing everything' if you weren't already aware that things have already changed.
I'll give you an example. A friend was over a few days ago and wanted to watch a particular episode of Community. One quick google search and we found the name of the episode. One quick search on iTunes, a couple clicks and it's downloading. A moment later and iTunes suggests that we can start watching immediately while it finishes downloading.
No worrying about when it shows, or if I'd remembered to set something to record it or even managing local storage. Also, once you've bought a tv show it looks like iTunes now lets you redownload it whenever you want.
There's still some work to be done to bridge that experience onto the TV smoothly, but the experience is already much better than any cable experience for me.
I did something similar with TV watching. I'm always lamenting the fact that I don't read enough, don't do enough coding side projects, etc. So with the exception of new Mad Men and Community episodes [0], I've cut out TV.
So now whenever I want to watch TV, I just think "what's something else I could do?" Mostly I've filled that time with exercise and reading: a net positive.
[0] On Amazon Instant and Hulu, respectively
"Today, customers are paying a premium for channels they may or may not watch. By offering streaming for a fee, content owner could open up a dialogue with end customers that lets the free market decide which channels live and which ones die. But today, those same companies are using near-monopoly franchises in one field (distribution) to subsidize another… and internet live streaming of their stations could threaten that monopoly."
So, over time they'll lose out to piracy and go bust. If they can't see the handwriting on the wall, then they deserve it. I'll just have to find other ways to get money to the people that produce the content (buying episodes of Community on Amazon, for example).
I don't understand how you can think this is a valid argument against piracy. Community is available on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, netflix, hulu and NBC.com. Plenty of perfectly legal places to watch it not on broadcast TV. Some of which are even free. In this day and age, that's very similar to asking college students how many of them bought Community Season 1 on VHS.
I agree with you so much. To this person and all the others you don't have some God given right to the content they produce/deliver. Instead of pirating go without.
Will life stop if you don't watch the latest episode of Community? Probably. Give it a go. If you die I have dibs on your $2000 Macbook Pro, $800 iPhone, $250 Sennheiser headphones, etc. The very phrase 'Because you are messing with my life' in this context shows how much is wrong with the current culture.
These companies are destroying civilisation? I've asked this question before: If I create a piece of software and ask you to not use it without purchasing it, will you do that? Very few people seem to be able to answer yes. The people who can't answer yes are those who are ruining civilisation. There is so much hyperbole in this article ("Messing with my life was not enough. You are even trying to destroy one of the pillar of our society: education.") I'm not quite sure if it's satirical or not, hah.
Steve Jobs mentioned that in the end it comes down to the person knowing they've done something wrong after they've tried to rationalise their way out of it ("BUT IT'S NOT STEALING" or whatever the latest fad is).
During high school I pirated a hell of a lot of software, videogames, music, movies—everything. I still bought more video games than most people will in their life times but that in no way balances what I pirated. I've stopped (All I have left is to make a list of the music I have and listen to in order to delete it all and slowly purchase it, which I've started doing). I either pay for something, borrow it or go without.
The funny thing is, I don't like these big corporations either. I wish people would stop treating them as large, mythical and faceless entities but talk to the people behind the door. Until both sides come to understand each other and seek that communication they [we] will forever be at war.
I don't support SOPA nor do I support blatant pirates.
its from the TV show, Community. I was hoping the Senor Chang preface was enough of a clue that it was a pop/geek culture reference...
Yikes, sorry about that.
These are the things I use daily that I find the most useful:
Lots of nice zero-click goodies:
* StackOverflow integration: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=remove+directory+symlink (can also search directly with !so)
* IP Address: http://duckduckgo.com/?q=ip
* Common symbol tables: http://duckduckgo.com/?q=ascii+table http://duckduckgo.com/?q=html+entities
* Wolfram Alpha integration: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=d%28cos%28x^2%29%2F%28e^x%29%29+dx
Disambiguation (great for software with a common word/term as a name), e.g. homebrew: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=homebrew
Favicons in the results. This lets me easily focus in on the sites that I think will be most useful.
Direct search of many programming references with bang-syntax:
* Ruby: http://duckduckgo.com/?q=!ruby+IO
* JQuery: http://duckduckgo.com/?q=!jquery+fadeIn
* Clojure: http://duckduckgo.com/?q=!clojure+deref
There are many more goodies I keep discovering (one nice surprise the other day was that searching for "Community" (a TV show) gave me the air date of the next episode). The best feature of DDG is the extensive integration with domain-specific information sources or search tools that often give me the information I'm looking for with no clicks at all.
These are the things I use daily that I find the most useful:
Lots of nice zero-click goodies: * StackOverflow integration: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=remove+directory+symlink (can also search directly with !so) * IP Address: http://duckduckgo.com/?q=ip * Common symbol tables: http://duckduckgo.com/?q=ascii+table http://duckduckgo.com/?q=html+entities * Wolfram Alpha integration: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=d%28cos%28x^2%29%2F%28e^x%29%29+dx
Disambiguation (great for software with a common word/term as a name), e.g. homebrew: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=homebrew
Favicons in the results. This lets me easily focus in on the sites that I think will be most useful.
Direct search of many programming references with bang-syntax: * Ruby: http://duckduckgo.com/?q=!ruby+IO * JQuery: http://duckduckgo.com/?q=!jquery+fadeIn * Clojure: http://duckduckgo.com/?q=!clojure+deref
There are many more goodies I keep discovering (one nice surprise the other day was that searching for "Community" (a TV show) gave me the air date of the next episode). The best feature of DDG is the extensive integration with domain-specific information sources or search tools that often give me the information I'm looking for with no clicks at all.
I've been a Netflix customer since 2002. Every time I attempt to use Hulu for anything other than the handful of current TV shows I watch (Fringe, Community, Chuck) I'm woefully disappointed in their offerings.
But more than that I'm frustrated by the UI and search. I don't know if that's why Hulu lost its place in a Netflix world, but it's certainly why its losing its place in mine.