Community's Dan Harmon Says One Episode Theme Felt 'Cursed' During Production

Although season 2 of "Community" is filled with classic episodes, "Intro to Political Science" rarely makes it into any fan's top rankings. It's not that it's a bad episode — in fact, it has a bunch of the funniest moments in the entire show — it's just a somewhat hollow one. The A-plot follows the conflict between Annie (Alison Brie) and Jeff (Joel McHale) during their bids for student body president, but their entire rivalry — and the solution to it — feels a little half-baked.

As silly as "Community" often is, most episodes do tend to explore some serious aspect of one of the main characters, at least to some extent. But for "Intro to Political Science," things are silly from start to finish. Never at any point does it feel like any of this matters in the grand scheme of things. Luckily, in 2011, showrunner Dan Harmon shed some light on how the episode ended up this way in a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread. If Harmon is to be believed, it's a miracle this episode even aired at all. Describing its creative development, Harmon said that it seemed "cursed."

It turns out that their first attempt at the episode was in season 1. "We tried to do a very similar one last season, in which Jeff becomes the puppetmaster behind Troy's new political career — one which is brought on by a chicken finger shortage — and the table read for the script was so s***ty that we threw the entire thing out," Dan Harmon explained. The episode was rewritten to become "Contemporary American Poultry," taking the same chicken finger shortage storyline and centering it around Jeff and Abed, not Jeff and Troy.

That episode's one of the highlights of the first season, mainly because in addition to having one of the funniest and sharpest scripts, it also features a genuinely interesting look at both Abed and Jeff and the unique relationship the two share. We're not used to seeing Jeff without his control over the group, nor are we used to seeing Abed having everyone wrapped around his finger.

In the end, Jeff and Abed talk about how they benefit from each other: Jeff teaches Abed how to be more sociable, and Abed stops Jeff from getting too manipulative with his social prowess. "Contemporary American Poultry" understands that if you're going to make your A-plot around two characters' relationship, you have to tell us something new and interesting about them.

A season later, the writers took another shot at a political-themed episode, and in Harmon's own words, "It was a fricking catastrophe. We ended up pulling together a decent episode in the edit bay, but if you were there for the process leading up to it, you would say, 'Holy crap, this story does not want to be told.'"

The problem with "Intro to Political Science" is that there's really nothing about Jeff and Annie's conflict that tells us anything new about them. We already know Annie's a driven, idealistic person with a bit of a ruthless side, and we know that Jeff's a cynical, smooth-talking jerk. So the moment the election for student body president is announced, it's easy to tell exactly where this is all going. We know Jeff's going to take things too far in proving his point to Annie, and we know Annie's going to take things too far in getting back at him.

The only real surprise here is the content of Annie's revenge, which features an embarrassing video of 19-year-old Jeff auditioning for "The Real World." It's a funny moment, but unlike with "Contemporary American Poultry," there's no substance here.

The episode itself understands that it makes no sense for Annie to have gotten hold of that tape, and the contents of the tape — while embarrassing for Jeff — don't meaningfully change anyone's view of him afterward. The tape is a lot like those "most terrible secrets" the gang shares in the season 4 puppet episode: the episode tries to treat it like it's a big deal, but it's very easy to move past.

The episode ends with "South Park" winning the election somehow, and with Joe Biden — announced at the beginning to be visiting the school — never actually showing up, which all just further reinforces how meaningless all of this was. It's easy to believe Dan Harmon when he said, "We basically bailed, filled [the episode] with jokes, and ran for our damn lives."

But while the episode is too silly and all over the place to be an all-time great, it's still a solid entry to the show's golden era, with so many good jokes in it that it's still an enjoyable time. The episode features Pierce's bizarre feud with Vicky, Troy turning into a diva during his news anchor gig, and plenty of fun little digs at contemporary political discourse. The satire isn't particularly biting or anything, but it's still a fun time.

Maybe the standout joke for me is the cold open, with the running gag revealing that every character is carving notches into their corner of the table. Abed's keeping track of every time Jeff makes a classic "winger," Jeff keeps track of every time someone mentions his abs, and Troy... well, Troy just wants to fit in. The scenes where all the characters are simply bouncing off each other in the study room are always dependably funny, and this one's even better than usual.

There's also the romantic subplot with Abed and the Secret Service guard, which is funny and also has an emotional undercurrent that you'd typically expect the A-plot to have. Their strange, sweet love story only gets a minute or two of screen time, but it's likely the most enduring memory most people have from this episode. So yes, the production for "Intro to Political Science" might have been a little cursed, and it's definitely not as focused as the show's best episodes, but there's still a ton here that makes it worth watching.