"The Politics of Human Sexuality" is the eleventh episode of the
first season of the American comedy television series ''
Community
A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...
''. It originally aired in the United States on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
on December 3, 2009.
Dean Pelton and Annie host an
STD awareness fair at Greendale as Troy and Abed compete against each other to see who is the better athlete.
Plot
Dean Pelton (
Jim Rash
James Rash (born July 15, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He portrayed the role of Dean Craig Pelton on the NBC sitcom ''Community'' (2009–2015), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Bes ...
) and Annie (
Alison Brie
Alison Brie Schermerhorn (born December 29, 1982) is an American actress. Her breakthrough came with the role of Trudy Campbell in the drama series '' Mad Men'' (2007–2015), which won her a Screen Actors Guild Award. She gained recognition fo ...
) are promoting Greendale's upcoming STD fair, handing out fortune cookies and flyers. Troy (
Donald Glover
Donald McKinley Glover Jr. (; born September 25, 1983), also known by his stage name Childish Gambino (), is an American entertainer, writer, director, and producer. After working in Derrick Comedy while studying at New York University, Glove ...
) is handed a flyer, but misses the trash can when throwing it away. Abed (
Danny Pudi
Daniel Mark Pudi (born March 10, 1979) is an American actor. His roles include Abed Nadir on the NBC sitcom ''Community'' (2009–2015), for which he received three nominations for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor i ...
) does the same but makes the shot. Fearing Abed is better at sports, Troy challenges him to prove who is the better athlete.
Pierce (
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He became a key cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'', where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment became a staple of the ...
) asks Jeff to double date with him and his new girlfriend, Doreen (
Sharon Lawrence
Sharon Elizabeth Lawrence (born June 29, 1961) is an American actress who played Sylvia Costas Sipowicz in the ABC drama series '' NYPD Blue''. The role garnered her three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in ...
), an escort, to the fair later that night. Pierce taunts Jeff that he can't get a date in time. Irritated, Jeff accepts his challenge. He calls a few women asking them accompany him on the date, but is brutally rebuffed. When Britta looks through his phone and finds no names, but descriptions such as "Hot Blonde Spanish Class" as contacts, she suggests his shallow approach to dating is perhaps why he can't find a date.
Dean Pelton decides that Annie should conduct a condom demonstration on an anatomically correct model of a penis center stage at the fair. Annie panics, having never seen an actual penis in her life. Worried she'll mess up the demonstration, she asks Britta and Shirley (
Yvette Nicole Brown
Yvette Nicole Brown (born August 12, 1971) is an American actress, comedian, writer and host. She starred as Shirley Bennett on the NBC sitcom ''Community'', as Dani in the 2015 version of '' The Odd Couple'' on CBS and as Dina Rose on the AB ...
) for help. Annie admits to not being a virgin but realises with Britta and Shirley's help that her ex-boyfriend was gay. Annie suggests they break into the Dean's office to get the actual model to practice with; Britta and Shirley agree.
At the fair, Pierce tries to comfort Jeff, reassuring him that in his experience, dry spells with women only last 12 to 13 years. Jeff immediately turns his focus to Sabrina (
Sara Erikson
Sara Erikson is an American television and film actress.
Career
Erikson is known for her recurring role as Robyn Marquette, Vince's scheming ex-girlfriend and co-worker in '' What I Like About You'', and various characters in the Jeff Foxwor ...
), the Dean's shallow new assistant and asks the Dean for information about her. Annie, Shirley and Britta try to break into the Dean's office, but as they look at the model penis through the keyhole, campus security walk in and detain the three. They are brought to Dean Pelton and the school counselor to discuss the incident; Annie accepts that she prefers being uncomfortable talking about sexuality.
During the double date, Doreen tells Jeff that he could do a lot better than Sabrina, and that as men become older, they prefer conversational companionship over sex. Jeff leaves with Sabrina anyway. Doreen tells Pierce that if he wants to continue to hang out for the night it will cost him $200. Meanwhile, Abed easily beats Troy at basketball, a carnival game and at arm wrestling. When the two race across campus, Abed lets Troy win.
Back inside the fair, Dean Pelton observes that the alcohol served has caused many of the students to be highly sexually aroused. When students decide to make water balloons, they discover holes from the text printed on the condoms. Panicking, the Dean asks Troy to run to his office to make an announcement to not to use the distributed condoms. Troy, however, bestows the responsibility to Abed, the faster of the two. Abed mistakenly warns students not to use condoms at all.
While having sex inside Jeff's car, Sabrina reveals that she thought he was a professor, and Jeff realises he must be more mature in his romantic endeavours. Jeff ends things with Sabrina and returns to the fair to chat with Pierce. Jeff privately changes "Hot Blonde Spanish Class" to "Britta" in his phone.
Reception
In its original U.S. broadcast it was viewed by 5.42 million.
Emily VanDerWerff of
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
rated the episode positively with a B+ and that it was "another fine and funny episode of a show that's rapidly turned into one of my favorites."
Sean Gandert of
Paste noted the struggle of trying to fit 40 minutes of ideas into 22 minutes and that "The strange level of Orwellian doublespeak and strange standards are a magically weird affair and Community captured the essence of just how odd these things really are. That being said, I wanted more of it."
Jonah Krakow of
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
was negative and not hopeful on the quality of future episodes, stating, "
..nor was this the worst episode in the history of television. But I'm done making excuses or holding out hope that it will eventually improve."
References
External links
"The Politics of Human Sexuality"at
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
.com
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Politics Of Human Sexuality, The
Community (season 1) episodes
2009 American television episodes