Chang gets a role in a commercial and becomes famous for his new catchphrase. The rest of the gang convinces Abed to try to finish a movie that he started with Chang, so that Greendale can cash in.
The Community episode Intro to Recycled Cinema provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: "Why does it have to be a police movie? People don't even like police now", says Carey Mahoney.
- Affectionate Parody: The film they're making a shameless rip-off of/homage to Star Wars: A New Hope.
- The scene in the faculty lounge is an homage to the famous cantina scene.
- The scene in the trash compactor is almost shot-for-shot.
- Leonard's character is based on the Emperor. He can't feel The Force, but instead he can feel "Dracula Force."
- They even threw in Incest Subtext, albeit father/daughter instead of brother/sister.
- Amateur Film-Making Plot: The Save Greendale Committee creates an Affectionate Parody of Star Wars in order to capitalize on Chang's success in a television commercial and future appearance in a movie made by Steven Spielberg.
- Antagonist in Mourning: Leonard’s character sheds a Single Tear after killing Chang’s character.
- As Himself: Randall Park (of Veep, Fresh Off the Boat, and The Interview fame) immediately steps in to replace Chang when the latter proves too egotistical for his own good.
- "Awkward Silence" Entrance: In the tag, after Chang's career as an actor ended before it even started, he tries coming back to the study room as if nothing happened. His quiet entry interrupts the animated discussion between the members of the Save Greendale Committee, leading to a long awkward silence.
- Brick Joke: At the start of the film, Jeff's character tells Chang's character "I'll see you in hell!" In the amended ending, Chang's character is killed off & meets Jeff's, who comments "I told you I'd see you in hell."
- Call-Back:
- To "Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality": Abed's "Police Justice" script, where a "real life former cop" helped him with the dialog — Professor Hickey agreed to help Abed on the script after they realized their own creative shortcomings.
- To "Advanced Advanced Dungeons and Dragons": Chang's character threatens to punch someone in the heart, Professor Hickey's preferred method of attack in the game of D&D.
- To "Advanced Safety Features": Frankie's steel drumming.
- To "Ladders": The frisbees that caused the cafeteria ceiling to collapse are used in the trash compactor scene.
- Clumsy Copyright Censorship: Leonard's "Dracula Force", because he can't just call it "the Force".
- Do a Barrel Roll: The spaceship does one, with Chang's question of "Are we rolling?" recycled out of context to get the passengers to brace for acceleration.
- Downer Ending: The film ends on one, initially with Chang's character being killed off immediately before the credits. The amended ending adds a scene where Chang literally sees Jeff and Glipglop in Hell.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: In-Universe, Glip Glop (the CG alien played by Garrett) is a fan favorite of everyone except Jeff, despite having a tangential role in the film at best.
- Fake Shemp: The entire premise of the episode is Greendale trying to cash in on Chang's new success, despite having only one take's worth of Stock Footage. The Dean plays the part of Chang-from-the-back.
- Family-Friendly Firearms: Inverted. Chang's phone is edited to appear to be a gun. Which still pretty much looks like a phone.
- Freudian Slip: Jeff just can't stop talking about Chris Pratt.
- Held Gaze: A brief one happens between Jeff and Annie during the improvised "I love you" scene.
- Hypocrite: The rest of the group agrees that Jeff's death scene should be cut, but reject Jeff's suggestions for other superfluous scenes to be cut, such as Frankie's steel drum solo.
- Incest Subtext: In-Universe — Annie and Jeff get a bit physical due to forgetting their characters are supposed to be father and daughter.
- Just Here for Godzilla: Invoked on two occasions.
- The entire film is just an attempt to cash in on Chang's sudden popularity as the "Haaaaaam, Girl!" guy.
- By Abed & Jeff, as they both note the film's utterly crap, but occasionally Annie reaches into her cleavage.
- Ms. Fanservice: In the latest signal that it's finally OK to sexualize her, Annie is totally cool with the fact that her Sci-Fi character is a former "pleasure droid" turned assassin, who (Annie improvised) can hide laser bombs in her cleavage. Her costume (that Britta says that she picked out herself) is basically a bustier top and hot pants.
- Noodle Incident: The leaked video of Chang apparently includes a hot air balloon and James Franco's balls. We never see any of it, only the cast's reactions.
- Padding: In-universe, the entire film is this to Chang's Stock Footage, but the group (except Jeff) all agree that Jeff's 6+ minute death scene is definitely this.
- Put on a Bus: Subverted. The episode seems like a clumsy way of writing Chang out of the show, but then he turns back up in the last scene and everything goes back to normal.
- Riddle for the Ages: What's the deal with the green three-ball that Elroy found in his RV?
- See You in Hell: Jeff's character delivers the stock line to Chang's character early in the movie. This gets taken literally as a Brick Joke when they realize they have 30 seconds to fill at the end.
- Ship Tease: To Jeff & Annie, with Jeff taking every opportunity to ogle Annie in her skimpy costume. The two also tell each other "I love you" in an improvised scene and quickly lose track of what they are supposed to be doing.
- Shout-Out:
- The big movie role Chang lands is the Color Blue in The Play-Doh Movie, a parody of The LEGO Movie, which Annie's actress Alison Brie had a major role in.
- Chris Pratt has apparently replaced Ryan Seacrest as the guy Jeff is most jealous of. Interestingly, Alison Brie played Pratt's wife in The Five-Year Engagement, which casts Jeff's jealousy of him in a very meta light given his and Annie's Ship Tease.
- A video was apparently leaked featuring Chang and James Franco's balls.
- Garret's alien character Glip Glop is a reference to Harmon's other show, where calling someone a glip glop is considered an intergalactic slur.
- The show's former timeslot rival, The Big Bang Theory, gets one when Abed pops out of the frisbees to surprise Jeff, referencing this scene
from "The Einstein Approximation". "Bazinga!" Might cross over to a Take That! when Jeff goes into a rage and tackles Abed... and unlike Leonard from the Big Bang Theory, immediately manages to grab him and pin him down.
- Single Tear: Leonard's character sheds a perfect, single tear when he kills Chang's.
- Small Name, Big Ego:
- Chang gets a viral meme to his name and immediately thinks he's the next best thing to happen to Hollywood, which results in his fall from grace.
- Garret tries to milk having a minor alien based on him.
- So Bad, It's Good: In-Universe, Abed's film (expanded from six minutes of test footage of Chang) is poorly-acted and has shoddy special effects but everyone at Greendale loves it.
- Status Quo Is God: Chang has fallen from grace and returned to the group by the end of the episode.
- Stock Footage: They only have one take's worth of it, but they somehow manage to stretch it into 87 minutes of film.
- Stylistic Suck: Their movie, much to Abed's dismay, is a poorly-acted and mostly-improvised rush job with crappy special effects.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Jeff continuously denies Chris Pratt's physique makes him insecure.
- Throw It In!: Invoked — the vast majority of the film is improvised, with Abed even using footage of Chang questioning his character's motivations as Chang's character having an existential crisis.
- Took the Bad Film Seriously: In-Universe. Abed is the only one who tries to make Greendale's obvious cash grab a halfway decent film. Despite being the most dismissive of Abed's ambition himself, Jeff eventually becomes attached to the one scene in the movie he put effort in and refuses to let the group cut it.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Invoked. Annie improvises a scene where she reaches into her cleavage and pulls out a laser bomb. Britta decries it as degrading and exploitative but later Abed and Jeff comment that it's one of the film's few pros.
- We Need a Distraction: Jeff pulls one of these on the group in order to steal the editing laptop. It's so overt and petty that they debate for a while whether he's just messing with them.
- You Wanna Get Sued?: Can't say "The Force", can say "Dracula Force".
