It's Family Day at Greendale. Slater has dumped Jeff, so he tries to score with a girl named Amber, who turns out to be Pierce's ex-stepdaughter. Britta tries to prove her tolerance by befriending Troy's ornery grandma. Abed and Shirley are visited by his cousin and her sons.
The Community episode "Basic Genealogy" provides examples of:
- Ass Shove: It's implied this happens to Troy in the Stinger; he and Abed are stuck in the vending machine because they thought it looked fun and can't call for help. Abed tells Troy to hit G-14, because the action of the machine will push his phone out of his pocket. Troy hits G-13 instead, and based on his strained voice and facial expression, it's pretty clear what happened.
- Big Brother Instinct: Inverted; Chang punches out Pierce for drawing what is clearly a swastika (it's supposed to be a windmill) in front of his older brother, Rabbi Chang.
- Both Sides Have a Point: About whether or not Abed's cousin should be allowed to go into the bouncy house. Abed's dad says that her dad will kill him if she gets hurt, and that can happen anywhere. She retorts that it's just a bouncy house and she wants to have fun.
- Buy Them Off: Pierce's solution to getting a family involves writing checks.
- Character Development: Jeff wouldn't have hesitated to sleep with Pierce's ex-stepdaughter on day one. He also admits his relationship was serious and he misses it.
- Chewing the Scenery: Troy and Britta in the spanking scene.
- Comedic Spanking: Britta gets a whupping from Troy's Nana. It's Played for Laughs, and Britta goes into it intending to laugh it off, but it turns out it really hurts.
- Compliment Backfire:
- Pierce compares Amber's appearance to those of the call girls he frequents. It goes over about as well as you'd expect.
- Britta's comment about the attractiveness of Troy's grandmother ends in her being spanked.Nana: Oh? Tell me, how many men do you think I have laid with?
- Con Man: Pierce's stepdaughter Amber is scamming him for money by letting him think they have a genuine familial connection. Subverted in that she's not trying particularly hard, Pierce pretty much guessed right away, and in his estimation she earned it (whether because he's just that rich, was just that bad a stepfather, or both).
- The Conscience:Annie: Well, sounds like you've got it all figured out so why are you talking to me about it?
Jeff: Because you’re, y’know...
Annie: A decent person?
Jeff: Maybe.
Annie: And you knew that talking to me about it would make you feel like a bad friend? And you wanted to feel like a bad friend because you want to be a good friend?
Jeff: You really suck, you know that? - Derailing Love Interests: Jeff gets dumped in the Cold Opening and doesn't even know why. It's implied that Slater got bored of him.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Britta offers to take a beating from Nana to show Troy how to cherish her. She realizes when she's trapped on the lady's lap that it was a bad idea and can barely move afterward.
- Abed and Troy try to sneak into the vending machine in The Stinger. They quickly get stuck.
- Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off!: Trying to teach Troy a lesson about respecting and "cherishing" family, Britta says something she would consider complimentary but which "Nana" considers offensive. Nana orders her to get a switch, which Britta does. Britta seems to think that the switch was for smacking her on the knuckles. Nana quickly corrects her ("I ain't no nun!"). She bends over — even though Troy tells her she doesn't have to — and pulls down her pants. She realizes very quickly she doesn't know what she's gotten herself into.[Britta crying from the spanking]
Troy: [crying] I don't understand you, Britta! I don't understand you at all! She's had enough! SHE'S HAD ENOUGH! - Dueling Shows: Jeff finally admits his breakup with Slater was serious, but the part of their relationship that gets to him in the moment was having to watch all that Glee for nothing.Jeff: [in tears, hugging Pierce] We always used to watch the shows [voice breaking] she wanted to watch! I hate Glee...
Pierce: [patting Jeff on the back, beginning to tear up too] Yeah, I'm not crazy about Glee either.
Jeff: I hate Glee! [sobs, sniffles] I don't understand the appeal at all! - Family of Choice: Jeff acknowledges that the study group is turning into one when Pierce laments that he's missed his chance to have a family of his own.Jeff: Pierce, who did you call last week after you farted on Vaughn?
Pierce: [chuckles] You.
Jeff: And who did Abed call after that squirrel stole his hot dog?
Pierce: Me.
Jeff: That's sharing your life. If you have friends, you have family. - Fight Unscene: We only get to see the aftermath of the fight between Chang and Pierce.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences:Abed: I hope they're not twins. Twins freak me out. They always know what the other one is...
Troy: Thinking.
Abed: Yeah. And they're always finishing each other’s...
Troy: Pie.
Abed: It's creepy. - Foreshadowing: Chang's brother calling him out on how ridiculous "Señor Chang" sounds. At first it looks like just another joke about the oddity of a Chinese-American man teaching Spanish, until one watches "English As A Second Language" and realizes that Rabbi Chang is probably aware of the fact that his brother is lying like a rug about his teaching credentials.
- Generation Gap: Star-burns is shown to have a yuppie-looking son. note
- Girl of the Week: Pierce's ex-stepdaughter Amber serves as a Temporary Love Interest for Jeff this episode.
- Hollywood Board Games: Pierce and co. play a game of Pictionary, with the cue being "windmill". Matching the sitcom's customary Black Comedy and in a justified case for it, Pierce's drawing resembles a swastika. This derails into a fistfight with a rabbi who gets understandably offended by it. The cop that arrests them thinks Pictionary should ban the abovementioned cue.
- Hypocrite: When Jeff tells Amber that he promised Pierce he wouldn't go after her, she points out that Pierce left her mother for their housekeeper and therefore has no business dictating anything about her sex life.
- Hypocritical Humor: Rabbi Chang pointing out how ridiculous "Señor Chang" sounds.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Invoked. Britta unsuccessfully attempts to flatter Troy's grandmother's looks to get on her good side.
- Insistent Terminology: Whenever Pierce introduces Amber as his daughter, she's quick to clarify that she's actually his stepdaughter."Technically, ex-stepdaughter."
- Jerkass: Troy's grandma. Britta calls her pretty; she takes it to mean Britta thinks she's a whore and finds this sufficient excuse to deliver a brutal spanking. This seems to be her standard response to any conversation.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Shirley's boys are introduced as being somewhat out of control and a liiiittle bit racist (introducing themselves by pointing blaster guns at Abed's father and yelling "Freeze! Homeland Security!"). But then they disguise themselves as Abed's cousin (by putting on her burkha) so she can go have fun. Shirley thought it was Abed's idea, but it was theirs.
- Knuckle Cracking: Chang cracks his neck badass-style before taking on Pierce.
- Metaphorgotten: Overlapping with Seinfeldian Conversation. Shirley says Jeff is the Booty-nator, who feels no love, just sex. Everyone else is just confused.Shirley: You know, "I'll be back" — but with booty.
Troy: Why would the Booty-nator be back with booty? Wouldn't he just try and... kill it?
Abed: Maybe he kills it and then brings it back as a trophy.
Annie: Why would you want dead booty?
Troy: I want pirate's booty.note - Mistaken for Racist: To be fair, Pierce actually is pretty racist, but for once he makes an innocent mistake with his attempt to draw a windmill while playing Pictionary. And apparently he's not the first person to do it, according to Officer Cackowski. Obviously, he'd never seen the Old Dutch potato chips
◊ logo in his life... - Morality Pet: Annie, to Jeff. This episode takes it up to eleven.
- Never Mess with Granny: Britta learns this the hard way, handing Troy's Nana the switch she needs to whup Britta with herself.
- Offscreen Breakup: Jeff and Professor Slater.
- Pet the Dog: Pierce reveals that he knew all along that his step daughter was scamming him, shares a moment with Jeff, then helps Jeff realize that he cared more for Michelle than he let on.
- Despite Chang's clear hatred of his older brother, he still defends him against anti-Semitism (even if it's accidental) .
- Playing Pictionary: With actual Pictionary. Apparently, people drawing accidental swastikas has come up on campus before. Officer Cackowski says it won't stop until Pictionary bans the clue "windmill" from the game.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes:Jeff: You're becoming dangerous, Annie. It's those doe-eyes. Disappointing you is like choking the Little Mermaid with a bike chain.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The cop (Officer, previously Security Guard Cackowski) that the dean has to call to handle the fight is apologetic to both men. He says it was obviously a misunderstanding thanks to Pictionary and just needs to take their statements.
- Right Behind Me: Britta admits that Troy was right and his Nana is a monster...just as someone wheels her up behind them. Nana immediately orders Troy to go get a switch.
- Ship Tease: Troy and Britta are paired up again in this episode, and once again Jeff finds himself gravitating towards Annie as he's undergoing his moral dilemmas.
- Sore Loser: Pierce is petulant during Pictionary when he's not the one to come up with the right answer... even though his team still won the points.Amber: Pierce, you're up!
Pierce: Eat my dust, Winger.
Jeff: You do know we're on the same team...? - Sorry to Interrupt: Jeff and Amber, in the middle of making out, walk in on Britta being spanked by Nana, while Troy is bawling his eyes out:[Jeff and Amber watch the scene in confusion and horror]
Jeff: ...You know what? Totally wrong room. You get the door?
Amber: Uh-huh.
[they quickly walk back out again] - Spotting the Thread: Jeff realizes that Amber is lying to Pierce when she claims that the check he gave her is for fashion school, even though Pierce had been led to believe it was for photography school.
- Stereotype Flip: Exaggerated. It is revealed that Spanish teacher Señor Chang has an older brother who is a rabbi. This is lampshaded by Dean Pelton, although he also makes the mistake of somehow thinking that the Changs are Japanese.Dean: Well, it was wonderful meeting your brother. Adios Señor Chang, Shalom Rabbi Chang, and to both of you, Sayonara.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Apparently, a lot of people make the same mistake as Pierce when drawing a windmill in Pictionary. So much that the cops say it's been happening since the beginning of Pictionary.
- Symbology Research Failure: Rabbi Chang is wearing a tallit (prayer shawl) out in public for some reason. They are meant to be used during services. Which is probably the joke — there are tallises that are worn in everyday life, but they're generally worn under the clothes and look rather different.
- Take That!: To Glee, as mentioned under Dueling Shows. Jeff absolutely hated the show, but had to watch it while he was with Slater.
- Team Mom: Shirley plays this role with her usual gusto, but only within her subplot with her kids and Abed's family. Notably, she sets aside religious issues, and is more concerned with Abra having opportunities to have fun and be a kid.
- Totem Pole Trench: How Shirley's sons disguise themselves so Abed's cousin can go play: they sit on each other's shoulders wearing Abra's burqa so she can go jump in the bouncy castle.
- True Companions:
- Jeff reassures Pierce that he doesn't need to rely on greedy family members to get what he wants.Jeff: As long as you have friends you have family.
- Troy willingly takes a beating from his Nana to make Britta feel better. Isn't friendship grand?
- Jeff reassures Pierce that he doesn't need to rely on greedy family members to get what he wants.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Discussed.Annie: [about Abed's female cousin] Does she look like you but with a wig and lipstick?
Abed: No, that's Halle Berry. - Wall Bang Her: Downplayed. Jeff gently presses Amber against a cupboard in the storage room.
- When Elders Attack: Troy's Nana delivers a not-so-Comedic Spanking to Britta, then later Troy.
