Worlds within worlds...
The Dean invests in an interactive VR computer platform that is "cutting-edge"... for the '90s. Jeff and Frankie are left trying to unplug him and return the expensive hardware when he becomes addicted. Meanwhile, Britta's move-in day to Abed and Annie's apartment is marred by some secrets of the study group's past.The Community episode Lawnmower Maintenance And Postnatal Care provides examples of:
- Anti-Escapism Aesop: Dean Pelton gets unhealthily immersed in virtual reality because his real life isn't too great.
- Beam Me Up, Scotty!: The Dean mashes up two famous quotes when exclaiming his astonishment at the dated interface. "And Jesus wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer!" He repeats the Biblical part so often that Jeff yells at him to stop saying it.
- Blatant Lies: Jeff's usual excuse to get out of helping people move? Claim he's a veteran, and that it's Veteran 's Day.
- Casting Gag: Lesley Ann Warren and Martin Mull both starred in Clue.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Overprotective pet parent variant — Britta brings her cat to school before moving in with Annie and Abed to introduce them on "neutral ground".
- Easily Forgiven / Karma Houdini: Britta's parents. They were unreasonably strict and cruel, doing things like siding with the man who sexually assaulted her as a child (see Retcon below), forcing her to take a drug test at age 11 because she was "laughing too much," and letting her pet cat run away as a punishment for her having tasted alcohol. Even in the present day, they laugh in her face when she brings all of these incidents up, stating that they "don't remember" and making a joke about Woodstock instead of acknowledging their wrongs. In spite of all this, however, Abed and Annie side with Britta's parents from the beginning, saying that they've changed, and after talking to Frankie, Britta simply lets all of this go without so much as a proper apology from her parents.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Parodied with Jeff and Elroy.
- Extreme Graphical Representation: One of the main problems with the VR terminal's holographic interface is how overdone and needlessly complicated even the simplest tasks are.[after completing several complex maneuvers]
Dean Pelton: The time is now... 2:39!
Frankie: That was the time. Twenty minutes ago, when you started. - Fauxlosophic Narration: Parodied with the Dean's narration about "change" at the end of the episode.
- Heel–Face Turn: Britta's parents were apparently very oppressive and dismissive of her individualistic tendencies when she was growing up, but have mellowed considerably and want to make amends.
- Hypocrite: Britta is indignant that her friends have been accepting money on her behalf from her parents, viewing it as condescending and paternalistic of them. They in-turn point out that, since she's been happy to sponge off them for years without showing any intention of ever paying them back, she's clearly not that adverse to surviving on the charity of others.
- Hypocritical Humor: Britta demanding her parents stop "infantilizing" her, before stealing a child's bike & running away. She also chastises Annie and Abed for showing up at her parents' house unannounced, when she did the exact same to Jeff in Season 4.
- Jeff yells at Britta to stop overreacting because there are bigger problems in the world, then turns around and sees Chang with a massively swollen hand and no idea how to get to the nurse and immediately dismisses it.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: The Dean gets addicted to a glorified office operating system. That mostly involves him tinkering with the file settings.
- Informed Flaw: The only real evidence in this episode that Britta's parents were overly controlling and oppressive comes from Britta herself.
- Zig-Zagged as, while the episode seems to treat Britta's hatred for her parents as juvenile and borne of an adolescent opposition to authority, earlier episodes implied something much darker that would certainly justify her anger toward both them and her friends. See Retcon below.
- Inside a Computer System: Elroy's VR system, which allows users to do mundane tasks in immersive yet convoluted ways.
- Internal Reveal: Britta discovers that her parents have actually been helping her for years unbeknownst to her knowledge, thanks to them being on good terms with Britta's friends.
- Jar Potty: The Dean jokes about wanting one, but it's gradually becoming less of a joke.
- Large Ham: The Dean becomes one when he uses the VR terminal.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Jeff tells Frankie "you're not the New Annie... you're the New Abed!" with a tone of frustration, but Frankie dismisses his comment by saying she hasn't been around long enough to know what that means yet.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Chang is extremely calm about his injury, an infected cat bite which was apparently severe enough to reach the bone and is gradually causing his hand so swell grotesquely.
- Named After Someone Famous: Britta named one of her cats after linguist and political philosopher Noam Chomsky.
- Older Than They Look: When Jeff finds Elroy Patashnik, he calls him a "clever young man" Jeff cheerfully replies "I'm forty!"
- Recursive Translation: The Portuguese Gremlins rip-off is called Joelho Alto Prejuízo Moral, recursively translated from "Knee-High Mischief". As is often the case, the result is a mess. "Joelho alto" actually means "tall knee", "prejuízo moral" means something like "moral damages", indicating the translator used the criminal definition of "mischief".
- Retcon: Earlier seasons of the show and tie-in material implied that Britta was molested as a child by a man in a dinosaur costume and her controlling parents never believed her. In this episode, while her parents were apparently still very controlling in the backstory the dinosaur incident never comes up, despite everyone liking Britta's parents and wondering why she has a problem with them and it being a logical thing to bring up in response. This suggests that it was either forgotten about or just quietly waved away.
- In addition to this, while Annie's confusion is understandable as she has no context, Abed also knows about the incident, as Evil Abed manipulates Britta into telling him about it in Introduction to Finality. In spite of that, he seems to not even think of it as a possible explanation for Britta's behavior, which is bizarre as Abed is shown multiple times to have an excellent memory, and has had his own issues with an emotionally absent father that Britta helped him through.
- There is of course, the third option that Britta's parent's bring up themselves: They're both remembering the same events very differently and Britta is ascribing motivations to events (like her cat running away) that were never actually there because of how upset she was and looking for someone to blame.
- Running Gag: Chang just randomly appearing, with his right hand increasingly swollen.
- Shout-Out: The title, the extremely dated 1990s VR graphical interface and the plot of trying to extract a (not incredibly bright) person from a VR world they've become addicted to using is a reference to The Lawnmower Man.
- Plus, several obligatory references to The Matrix: Jeff refers to the Dean as 'the white Morpheus' and the Dean greets Elroy as 'the Architect'.
- Stylistic Suck:
- Elroy's VR system.
- The trailer for "Knee-High Mischief", a Portuguese rip-off of Gremlins.
- The Tag: A Real Trailer, Fake Movie for the Portuguese Gremlins mockbuster : "Joelho-Alto Prejuizo Moral"(Knee-High Mischief).
- Take That!: When Britta complains that her friends think her parents are adorable "because they didn't know them when they sucked", Frankie calls it "Jimmy Fallon syndrome".
- Technology Marches On: As even Elroy Patashnik himself has to admit, some of the things that killed VR were convenience and simplicity winning out over immersion and graphics (even though those still exist).
- Too Kinky to Torture: The Dean, of course.Jeff: Dean, I'm coming over, and I'm pulling you out of there.
Dean Pelton: I'll bite you.
Jeff: I'll beat you up.
Dean Pelton: I'll like it, and then I'll fire you, and then I'll get right back in! - "Well Done, Son" Guy: Turns out Britta is an aversion - she doesn't want her parents approval, or even their financial support & has gone to great lengths to keep them out of her life.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Lampshaded by Abed, when he questions what happened to the child's tricycle that Britta stole earlier in the episode:Annie: Britta, we were so worried!
Abed: What happened to the kid's Green Machine?
Britta: What? I don't know, I ditched it.
Abed: Where, and how long ago? - What the Hell, Hero?: A back-and-forth example. Britta lays into her friends for going behind her back and secretly accepting charity on her behalf from her parents. However, they in turn point out that she's been happy to sponge off them for years without paying them back, they're hardly wealthier than she is, and she's too proud to mend bridges with her family, so they had to find some way of covering her costs.
- And Jesus wept, for there were no more tropes left to post.
