Community

Season 6

Ladders

1. On the wall of the underground bar, a picture of series creator Dan Harmon can be seen saying 'Don't serve this man.'
2. After NBC cancelled the show, Yahoo! Screen picked up Community for a sixth season of 13 episodes.
3. Production necessarily moved to a new studio for season 6, and the cafeteria set now had load bearing beams. The plot line of the cafeteria roof collapsing was created to explain the appearance of these beams.
4. The name plate on Jeff's desk reads "Next Window Please."
5. Nathan Fillion previously appeared as Bob Waite in the same episode where Paget Brewster played the I.T. lady. Brewster appears alongside Fillion here, but this time she is a new regular character.
6. After five seasons, Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley) would not return as a series regular in the sixth season due to her father's health.
7. After Leonard's frisbee, which crashed through the roof, disintegrates in his hands, he says "Like tears in rain". This is a nod to replicant Roy Batty from "Blade Runner" (1983) who says the same thing as he is dying on a rooftop.

Lawnmower Maintenance & Postnatal Care

1. Keith David, who joins Season 6 of Community as Elroy Patashnik, lent his voice as the narrator back in Season 3 Episode 14 Community: Pillows and Blankets (2012).
2. The trailer for "Portuguese Gremlins" features parodies of the names of crew members of the show: Alexandro Ruebens (Alex Rubens), Danielo Jarmon (Dan Harmon), Christian McKennous (Chris McKenna), Michele Greco, and Roberto Schrabriguez (Rob Schrab).
3. Martin Mull and Lesley Ann Warren also played husband and wife in Richie Rich's Christmas Wish (1998) and starred together in the movie Clue (1985).
4. Abed mentions Portuguese Gremlins, a bad spin-off of the original. Johnathan Banks, who plays Prof. Buzz Hickey, portrays Deputy Brent, in Gremlins (1984).
5. Abed is wearing the Harry Potter-inspired "House Brawl" shirt designed by Alice X. Zhang and Alex Solis.

Basic Crisis Room Decorum

1. This is the 100th episode of the series.
2. Frankie's cell phone contact list includes former Secretary of State Condolezza Rice. Annie's list includes "That Guy with the Abs," possible reference to Jeff's use of descriptions rather than names for the women he has listed on his cell phone.
3. Some of the entries in Dean Pelton's cell phone contact list are "Gobi Nadir" (Abed's father), a double entry for Ben Chang, "Richie or Carl" (the school board members), "Nurse Jackie" (possibly a reference to Nurse Jackie (2009)), "Britta (ugh)", and "Pierce-Deceased :(".
4. Vicki and Dave's dialogue as they enter the crisis center reflects their position as recurring characters with occasional dialogue. Dave mentions that he's being "called in to do more stuff," while Vicki laments that they'll be lucky to get three words out, just as she is cut off by the main cast.
5. This is the first time we see the season and episode reference in the "This is blank" whiteboard in the background of the study room, and it's a continuity error as it says "GC605."
6. The dog Ruffles shares the same name as a family pet from the show Dog World, which was pitched to Cartoon Network by Justin Roiland before he and Dan Harmon pitched Rick and Morty (2013).
7. The 3 D's Denial Discredit Destroy

Queer Studies & Advanced Waxing

1. Frankie complains that she cannot contact the IT lady to fix the campus Wi-Fi; Paget Brewster, who plays Frankie, also played the IT lady in Community: Analysis of Cork-Based Networking (2014). Frankie saying that her e-mails to the I.T. Lady bounce back in Aramaic and when she calls her all she gets is a high-pitched sound that makes her nose bleed reference the science fiction trope about the paradoxical dangers of running into oneself (notably the 2004 film The Butterfly Effect and the 2014 video game Bioshock: Infinite).
2. References Whiplash (2014): the director's abuse of Chang mirrors Fletcher's abuse of Neiman, including bizarre metaphors and the director's similar wardrobe to that of Fletcher.
3. At the play when Abed says that he lost a button this is in reference to when Paget Brewster (Frankie) was on Friends (1994) as an actress (Kathy) on stage and her costar loses a button that flies into the audience.
4. The Greendale school flag has a seal that reads E Pluribus Anus, which translates to "from many, anus."

Laws of Robotics & Party Rights

1. Brian Van Holt (Willy) previously starred in one of Abed's favorite shows, Cougar Town (2009). In Cougar Town's series finale, Van Holt appeared via iPad video chat.
2. When Abed is talking to Britta at his locker, you can see the fake beard worn by Evil Abed in previous episodes.
3. First episode where the Greendale Community College parking lot isn't in an open lot. It has now become a parking structure.
4. Instead of giving Jeff a pay raise , the Dean offers to make Jeff a Professor Emeritus. 'Emeritus' simply denotes 'retired'; it is not some indicator of higher status, not some special award, it just means you are a retired professor.
5. Elroy says "I have a brain the size of Jupiter" which is a paraphrased quote from Marvin, the paranoid android from the fifth book of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" book trilogy (yes, it's deliberately misnamed a "trilogy").
6. Willy's whistling in the parking garage is similar to the theme music for Zazie dans le Métro (1960).
7. In the opening scene Abed is wearing a "Space Clone" T-shirt. This references the "Space Clone" comic book he put up as the prize for his "Hot Lava" game in Community: Geothermal Escapism (2014).
8. The Dean references an anti-bullying rule that applies specifically to him. This rule was revealed in a newspaper clipping in Community: Queer Studies & Advanced Waxing (2015).
9. Elroy (Keith David) refers to himself as the fourth Ghostbuster. Ernie Hudson, who played the fourth Ghostbuster, was replaced on Psych (2007) by Keith David in the role of Mr. Guster.
10. When Frankie is explaining the iPad-robots, Chang walks over to the robot to have a closer look. When he does so, he mimics the moves of the autistic Raymond in Rain Man (1988), tilting his head/body.
11. The janitor who appears in the end tag and retains the signal of his tablet even when Abed takes all the other tablets over is played by Abed Gheith, Dan Harmon's original inspiration for the character of Abed.
12. The Dean taking Jeff's broom out of the room mimics the ending of "Officer And A Gentleman". (1982)

Basic Email Security

1. In a meta reference, Abed explains that this episode is the third part of a trilogy that divulges group secrets, which started with Annie losing her pen and capping off what he says is the "Golden Age." The other two episodes of the trilogy are Community: Cooperative Calligraphy (2010) (season 2) and Community: Cooperative Polygraphy (2014) (season 5). Abed purposely neglects to mention Community: Intro to Felt Surrogacy (2013) (Season 4), where the group again confronted their secrets, possibly due to creator Dan Harmon's absence that season after being fired. Harmon was rehired in season 5 after Joel McHale lobbied on his behalf.
2. The story is a spoof of the infamous 2014 Sony email hack. A group calling themselves "Guardians of Peace" was allegedly sponsored by North Korea government and asked that Sony not release the Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy film "The Interview". The movie dealt with the assassination of the Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The hack revealed, among other things, the negotiations between Yahoo and Sony Pictures Television regarding the sixth season of "Community." Joel McHale was also a victim of the hack, as emails between him and a Sony executive were among those made public. In one of those emails he was asking for a discount on a Sony 4K television.
3. Jay Chandrasekhar, who plays Gupta Gupti Gupta, directed this episode (and eight other episodes of Community).
4. Lunch Lady's emails reveal that Vicki may either be, or she knows, her daughter. Vicki's e-mail to Lunch Lady has the subject line, "your daughter misses you..."
5. It is revealed through the email hacking that Jeff writes to astronauts. Britta reads one he sent to Reid Wiseman congratulating him on his return to Earth. Astronaut Gregory Reid Wiseman flew on Expedition 40/41 aboard the International Space Station, returning to Earth on November 10, 2014.
6. The running gag of the group members questioning each other's sexual orientations is extended to Frankie, as the emails reveal that the group has a betting pool on the subject.
7. When Officer Cackowski (Craig Cackowski) says he sees a few new faces in the group he gestures at Frankie (Paget Brewster). Craig Cackowski and Paget Brewster worked together for many years on the podcast "The Thrilling Adventure Hour."
8. Buzz Hickey, a criminology professor in the fifth season played by Jonathan Banks, has probably passed away. This was revealed in the lunch lady's hacked emails as Dean Pelton's email for "Buzz Hickey Memorial Services." The email could also possibly allude to a new business he started.
9. This is recurring character Charley Koontz's, a.k.a Neil / Fat Neil, last episode. In the final scene, Abed reads an email from Neil stating that he will no longer be talking to the group because they were responsible for the hackers releasing Greendale's emails.
10. Joel McHale also starred in Assassination Nation (2018) which is also about a malicious data hack that exposes the secrets of the perpetually American town of Salem and both end with a young kid being reveled to be behind the hack.

Advanced Safety Features

1. Honda was the official sponsor of Community in Season Six.
2. Both Elroy and Frankie are compared to their predecessors, referencing the fan discussions and criticisms about the recent changes in the cast. Chang speculates that it is unclear whether Elroy is "Black Pierce", "Old Troy", or "Shirley without a big purse". Later, Elroy speculates that the song "Pillar of Garbage" is about him, echoing Pierce's reaction to the song "Pierce You're a B" that Vaughn sang in the first season. Similarly, Frankie asks what was so special about Troy, and immediately falls for Jeff's prankish answer by mistakenly learning to play the steel drums in order to fill Troy's place.
3. Jeff's line about Troy playing the steel drums is clearly dubbed. On his Twitter account, Community creator Dan Harmon admitted the line was originally "kettle drums" and only realized the object in question was actually steel drums after filming was done.
4. Britta, Rick and Todd discuss going antiquing in a Honda, which comes from a 2015 commercial for Honda Fit. It's one of the commercials shown when watching Community on Yahoo Screen.
5. When Elroy goes to the bar and finds Britta, there's a "Chavo del Ocho" figure in the corner at the back. El Chavo del Ocho (1972) was a Mexican TV show from the 1970s.
6. Martin Mull and Lesley Ann Warren, who guest star as George and Deb Perry, previously co-starred in Clue (1985).

Intro to Recycled Cinema

1. The Glipglop featured in the movie appears earlier in Dan Harmon's animated series Rick and Morty.
2. The movie Abed was filming with Chang is from the 'Police Justice' script Buzz Hickey offered to help him with the dialog. He comments that "real life former cops aren't great with dialogue," after Chang says one of Hickey's phrases ("I'm gonna punch you in the heart").
3. In Community: Ladders (2015), one of the police officers is in a carrot costume because they "ran out" of police uniforms. Magnitude can be seen wearing the same carrot costume in the space bar scene, presumably because they ran out of costumes again.
4. This is the only episode in the series in which Magnitude appears without saying his catchphrase, "Pop-pop!"
5. 'Maury', portrayed by Steve Guttenberg, asks "Why does it have to be a police movie?" and also "People like aliens." Guttenberg became a star in the 1980s starring in the first 4 films in the "Police Academy" franchise. He also starred in Cocoon (1985) and Cocoon: The Return (1988), both films about aliens.
6. Frankie playing the steel drums in the space bar scene is a reference to the previous episode. Jeff told Frankie that Troy had been a group favorite because he played the steel drums.
7. When Abed pops up from the frisbees he says 'bazinga.' This is just like Sheldon popping up from the ball pit in Big Bang Theory.
8. At the beginning of the episode, a reporter asks Chang how he went from community college professor to film star. In real life, Ken Jeong was a practicing physician who gave up medicine for acting.
9. Elroy mentions James Franco toward the end. Alison Brie (Annie) is married to James's brother, Dave Franco.
10. Maury the movie producer mentions Chris Pratt and the camera cuts to Annie. Alison Brie stars in The Five-Year Engagement with Pratt, where their characters are married and have a kid.
11. Magnitude's only appearance in Season Six and he doesn't even get to say his trademark POP POP!

Grifting 101

1. The telegram man is played by and named after Ryan Ridley, the writer of this episode.
2. Both Jeff and the Grifting 101 teacher say the phrase "Because the Internet" in the bar scene, which is a reference to Childish Gambino's (Donald Glover's) second solo album.
3. Professor DeSalvo is played by Matt Berry who starred in the English TV series The IT Crowd (2006) as Douglas Reynholm. Joel McHale, who plays Jeff, starred in the pilot episode of the American version of the series, which was canceled after the pilot.
4. When Professor DeSalvo opens the briefcase after meeting with Britta in the closet, you can see red tabs in the combination lock preventing the lock from being changed and indicating that this is a brand new briefcase. The first user usually removes these tabs before use.
5. In the bar scene, Frankie kicks everyone out of the teachers' lounge saying "You don't have to go teach a class but you can't stay here". This is a reference to the common English phrase, "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here." This phrase was also referenced in lyrics from "Closing time" by Semisonic.
6. The "TV show" at the end of the episode is a parody of "The Equalizer" (1985)

Basic RV Repair and Palmistry

1. The couple at the end are played by Matt Besser and Danielle Schneider, who are married in real life.
2. Last episode of the show directed by Jay Chandrasekhar who played Gupta Gupti Gupta earlier in the season.
3. Frankie states that it is Armed Forces Day, which was May 16 in 2015.

Modern Espionage

1. During the gala, the gang uses code names based on the names of actors who have played Batman: Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, Adam West, Val Kilmer, George Clooney and Voice of Diedrich Bader. The code they use to talk to the group at large is "Belfry", which is based on the phrase "bat in a belfry", meaning insanity. Britta is given the Batman themed codename of "Clooney" after the actor George Clooney who starred in the 1997 movie "Batman & Robin". The film is generally considered to be the worst in the Batman franchise.
2. The scene with Dean Pelton in the elevator is an homage to the elevator scene with Captain America in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). That movie was written and directed by the Russo brothers, who also wrote and directed many episodes of "Community".
3. Custodian Lapari, played by Kumail Nanjiani, calls Abed "the Indian guy". When Abed replies "I'm Arabic", he says "Gah. Okay, let's go with that." This is a reference to the fact that Danny Pudi is not Arabic, he's half Indian and half Polish. Iqbal Theba, who plays Abed's father, is also not Arabic, he's Pakistani.
4. Another episode focusing on a paintball game. The first one was Community: Modern Warfare (2010) in Season 1, which parodied action films such as Die Hard, 28 Days Later, and Battle Royale. The second one was the Season 2 two-parter finale Community: A Fistful of Paintballs (2011) and Community: For a Few Paintballs More (2011), which parodied spaghetti Western films, mostly the Dollars trilogy, and Star Wars. In Season 3 the contest was a brief flashback to a 1920s gangster inspired game in Community: Curriculum Unavailable (2012). In Season 4 the fourth instance occurred in a daydream Jeff had involving the Evil Study Group competing against the "Prime Timeline" study group in Community: Advanced Introduction to Finality (2013).
5. The episode number, 611, is written on the blackboard in the study room.
6. Frankie uses a popular quote from Joseph Campbell: "Follow your bliss". Dan Harmon has often spoken of Campbell's influence on his writing.
7. The following phrases are written on the whiteboard: A Crafted Narcs, Scare and Raft, Aced Narc Frat These are all anagrams of Frankie's name, Francesca Dart.
8. Second and final appearance of Koogler played by Mitchell Hurwitz

Wedding Videography

1. Garrett's wife, Stacy, is played by Erin McGathy, the then wife of co-showrunner and creator, Dan Harmon.
2. Several times through the episode, Abed calls out on the characters "Jimming" or "doing a Jim". This is a reference to The Office, where Jim Halpert would glance at the camera to express his emotions.
3. Abed does not appear on screen. This is because Danny Pudi was shooting the Strange Calls pilot while this episode was being shot. He later dubbed in his lines.
4. Garrett's Great Aunt Polly is Stacy's Meemaw (grandma). This makes them second cousins.

Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television

1. Annie and Jeff both criticize Marvel comics films, an inside joke at the expense of Anthony and Joe Russo, who worked on Community prior to directing films for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
2. The '#andamovie' tag at the end of the episode hints at the #sixseasonsandamovie fan theory coming true, but Joel McHale has said that there would only be a film if Dan Harmon wrote it.
3. When Abed says 'cool' six times, one for each season, Chang farts during the fourth cool, which is another "Gas leak" reference to the fourth season of the show having the lowest ratings, due to creator Dan Harmon being fired.
4. During Harmontown at SXSW 2015 a fan named Annie, who was suffering from a collapsing spine, complained that the character Annie Edison's more adult pants and silk shirts were too hot to cosplay. As a favor to this fan, Dan Harmon asked the fan how she would like Annie to be dressed in the finale since it hadn't filmed yet. The outfit (a purple cardigan and floral dress) was worn in the finale.
5. The biggest difference between the show's 5 seasons on NBC and its final year on Yahoo! Screen was that the streaming year allowed Dan Harmon to make episodes without specific lengths, and it became a Season 6 trademark to have extended "tag" scenes at the end of each episode. In the series finale, also, two of the main characters (Britta and the dean) used the word "fuck" for the first time.
6. Throughout the season, the whiteboard behind Annie and Elroy has featured an alphanumeric code relating to the production code of the episode; for example, this episode features "GC613," meaning "Greendale Community College Season 6 Episode 13." This episode, the whiteboard also features the IMDb name IDs for each lead actor's IMDb page. Elroy Patashnik played by Keith David is the most visible at the very bottom.
7. Jim Rash (Dean Pelton) said his "F bomb" was improvised.
8. The show ends on a family playing a Community board game. One of the game cards implies the entire show takes place in a snow globe. This is a reference to the series finale of St. Elsewhere (1982), where the entire series was revealed to take place in the mind of an autistic boy staring at a snow globe with a small version of the hospital in it.
9. After the 6th season had been completed, Yahoo! claimed that as a result of airing "Community" and 2 other original shows via Yahoo Screen, the company had lost $42 million.
10. When Chang is listing shows that peaked after season 6, he says, "Friends" and then looks at Frankie, whose actress, Paget Brewster, played Kathy in Friends.
11. In Season 6 Episode 8 Elroy pulls out a green number 3 pool ball as part of a joke. Right after the opening credits in this episode for a split second you can see Abed hitting the green number 3 pool ball.
12. Dan Harmon, who reads the voiceover in the end tag, compares his own voiceover to sitcom producer Chuck Lorre and his "rants", referring to Lorre's vanity cards at the end of shows he's produced, such as "The Big Bang Theory" and "Two and a Half Men".
13. The song "Ends of the Earth" by Lord Huron plays near the end of the "Community" series finale. It is also used in the series finale of the Netflix series Longmire (2012).
14. Chang's pitch for season 7 involves a CGI character named Ice Cube Head which talks and acts in a highly similar manner with characters from the Rick and Morty (2013) which was voiced by Justin Roiland, who created the show with Dan Harmon.
15. By the end of the series, only Jeff and Britta remain of the original study group formed in the pilot episode. This mirrors the start of the study group, where Jeff invented the study group for just him and Britta in an attempt to sleep with her.
16. Abed says he's going to Los Angeles to work on a show set at a video game company. In 2019, Abed's actor Daniel Pudi started featuring in the show Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet (2020) which takes place at a video game company.
17. It's strongly hinted in this episode that Annie was the Ass-Crack Bandit.
18. Seth Green makes a cameo as "Scrunch" during Jeff's pitch, wearing bunny ears. Seth Green previously starred in the half human/half puppet series Greg the Bunny (2002).
19. Annie gets the internship with the FBI. Paget Brewster was on "Criminal Minds" (2005) and played an FBI agent.