History Recap / CommunityS1E17PhysicalEducation

* AnAesop: Abed's self-confidence and willingness to change who he is so his friends can learn the lesson that he's okay as he is and superficial things don't matter inspires Jeff to kick ass at pool. In ''[[MundaneMadeAwesome shorts]]''.

'''Jeff:''' ...''Zack Braff?''\\

* UnEntendre: Pierce mistakes Jeff's comment about beating a man in pool while wearing shorts as code for something naughty.

* MundaneMadeAwesome: Jeff Winger kicking an old man's ass at pool. In shorts. [[UpToEleven Then in his underwear.]] [[SerialEscalation Then naked]].

* FanDisservice: Coach Bogner is an ageing, not particularly attractive guy. He strips naked to play a pool game.

* IdenticalStranger: Joey looks exactly like Abed except he's Caucasian. The gang call him the White Abed.

* LoveDoodles: The study group discover a doodle of Abed in one of their textbooks and they go about tracking down the previous owner. They help Abed build up his confidence to ask her out. He does and gets accosted by her boyfriend who looks just like him, only Caucasian.

** When Abed is told the group want to help him act like someone else, he compares it to ''Film/CantBuyMeLove''. Troy then tells Shirley that it's ''Film/LoveDontCostAThing'' "remade for white audiences" (though actually, the former was made in 1987 and the latter in 2003).

* AwesomeByAnalysis: Abed plays pool at the end, and earlier he performs an impeccable impersonation of Jeff.

* FanService: Jeff strips naked to win a pool game.

* TheRainman: Abed demonstrated early in the episode when he intuitively knows the number of bagels in a bag. It should be noted that he was giving the number of bagels in a bag, and his answer was a baker's dozen. Not an unreasonable guess.

Has a [[YMMV/CommunityS1E17PhysicalEducation YMMV page.]]

* AlmostKiss: Abed and Annie, when he shows off his [[Series/MadMen Don Draper]] impression, only interrupted by the horrified reactions of everyone else.

* BlatantLies: Shirly's reaction to seeing the girl who drew the doodle of Abed with hearts. "Whoa! That's her?! She's pretty! Which... is not... a surprise at all." Her trying to take it back is not very convincing.

** Also, Abed is half-Polish, half-Arab, similar to his actor, half-Polish, half-Indian.

** Played straight in regards to the gang learning to let Abed be himself. Parodied everytime Britta tries to pronounce "Bagel." The group mocks her mercilessly.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: This episode is the start of Britta's evolution into the show's ButtMonkey, as everyone makes fun of her for mispronouncing the word "bagel", as well as the first use of the phrase "you're the worst".

* ColdReading: Played for fun with Chang mimicking a MagicalAsian, guessing the name of the female book owner via psychic powers. Then he reveals the name was written on the first page.

* EatingTheEyeCandy: Annie & the Dean are clearly enjoying Jeff's increasing lack of clothes. The Dean also takes pictures.

* MakeoverMontage: Suggested by Abed when the group wants to get him to impress a girl.

* OlderThanTheyThink: In-universe; Troy and Shirley believe ''Film/CantBuyMeLove'' to be a remake of ''Film/LoveDontCostAThing'' when it's actually the other way around. Nudged into HypocriticalHumor territory when Shirley expresses outrage at the movie being "remade for white audiences."
-->'''Shirley:''' That's so offensive when they do that, I can't believe they didn't offend anyone!

-->''"You know what, Jeff, one of us is about to win this game. But years from now when the story's retold all they're gonna remember that one of us loved clothes and the other loved the game."''

** When Jeff plays against the coach, the song "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon is playing, just like a scene in ''Film/TheColorOfMoney'' when [[Creator/TomCruise Tom Cruise's]] character plays pool.

** In the tag, Troy and Abed play Ernie & Bert from ''Series/SesameStreet''.
* TakeThat: Abed portrays Jeff as "10% Creator/DickVanDyke, 20% [[Series/{{Cheers}} Sam Malone]], 40% Creator/ZachBraff from ''{{Series/Scrubs}}'', and 30% Hillary Swank in ''Film/BoysDontCry''". Jeff doesn't mention Hillary Swank (in a movie where she plays a trans man), [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne but he is insulted by]] the notion of Zach Braff.

* BaitAndSwitch: [[spoiler:Courtney, the girl who asks Jeff to introduce her to Abed after the pool game with Coach Bogner, is seen throughout the episode, sharing flirty glances with Jeff.]]

** Parodied when the group advises Abed to do this to woo Jenny, and Abed rationalizes that he wouldn't go over there, only to do so when asked if there's a version of himself that ''would'' go over there, and they actively stop Abed from going over there. [[spoiler:That version is a [[LargeHam vampire]]. Or at least Abed thinks it might be.]]
* BlatantLies: "Whoa! That's her?! She's pretty! Which... is not... a surprise at all."

** FanDisservice: So does Coach Bogner.

** Shirley refers to Joey as [[spoiler: "White Abed"]] but says that referring to Abed as [[spoiler: "Brown Joey"]] is racist.

* IdenticalStranger: [[spoiler:Joey, the White Abed.]]

* PaletteSwap: The one difference between [[spoiler:Abed]] and his IdenticalStranger.

* SeriousBusiness

** This is also the first of several occasions on which Annie finds herself drawn to Abed while he's taking on a persona ([[Series/MadMen Don Draper]], [[Franchise/StarWars Han Solo]], Comics/{{Batman}}, Jeff...), though this has more to do with him knowing her type and how to imitate it ''extremely'' well than any particular attraction existing between them.

* RaceLift: Regarding the white Abed, Pierce says, "He's like Abed, but employable!" Ah, RacistGrandpa.
** Considering Pierce is a businessman who has probably hired (and not hired) a lot of people, this slips into FridgeHorror. How many Abeds has he turned down because they were non-white?
*** Later episodes suggests that Pierce was in practical terms all but completely powerless in the company and his dad called all the shots. Of course, considering his father was an even more virulent racist, the FridgeHorror remains, but it's probable that Pierce himself wasn't personally involved.
* TheRainman: Abed demonstrated early in the episode when he intuitively knows the number of bagels in a bag.
** It should be noted that he was giving the number of bagels in a bag, and his answer was a baker's dozen. Not an unreasonable guess.

* NakedPeopleAreFunny: basically the plot of the episode.

* UpToEleven: See MundaneMadeAwesome.
* YouSayTomato[=/=]ItsPronouncedTroPAY: Britta pronounces the word "bagel" as "baggel". According to the Harmontown podcast, creator Dan Harmon (a native of Wisconsin) has the same habit.

* MrFanservice: Jeff, even more so than usual.

!The ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Physical Education" provides examples of:

* IdiotBall: Señor Chang comments on this when everybody, including Annie, forgets to check the front cover of a schoolbook to see who owned it last. (She blames Britta's pronunciation of the word "bagel" as "baggel", saying it was distracting.)

* YouSayTomato[=/=]ItsPronouncedTroPAY: Britta pronounces the word "bagel" as "baggel".

->'''Jeff''': ''"Are you gonna talk about clothes like girls or are you gonna use tapered sticks to hit colored balls around a cushioned table, like a man?"''
->'''Bogner''': ''"Balls, like a man!"''