We’re counting down the days until Christmas by looking back at Christmas episodes from a variety of TV shows. Tonight we’re talking about “Regional Holiday Music” from Community. What Christmas episode tropes did this episode use? Let’s take a look.
Basic Info
Directed by: Tristram Shapeero
Written by: Steve Basilone & Annie Mebane
Episode Number: Season 3, Episode 10
Where to Watch It: Hulu
Christmas Songs
Early in the episode, Jeff is delighted to sabotage the glee club by reporting them for using licensed music. He says, “Glee club, meet ASCAP, protecting music copyright since 1914. It seems they recieved an anonymous tip that someone was performing unlicensed material without the composer’s consent. Merry Christmas, everybody. Glee club has become history club.”
After all the club members have breakdowns, Greendale’s glee club director Mr. Rad decides to recruit the study group to sub for the glee club in this year’s Christmas pageant. We see them being recruited through a series of original songs.
First, Mr. Rad sings a song with Abed about how great glee is. Next, Abed convinces Troy that he can go undercover and be a Jehova’s Witness “infiltrating” Christmas and they rap about this plan. They pander to Pierce by singing a song about “Baby Boomer Santa.” They tell him that his generation “invented music” and he joins in the musical number, singing, “You’re welcome for everything in the world.” Then, Annie puts on a sexy Santa dress and sings a song about not understanding Christmas to try to seduce Jeff into joining. Finally, Pierce uses a choir of children asking about what the true meaning of Christmas is in order to get Shirley to join.
At the pageant, Abed sees how tyrannical Mr. Rad is and starts to regret joining. He decides to sabotage the pageant by asking Britta to improvise her own incredibly awkward song.
