Trivia / Community S2 E11: Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas

• The Cast Showoff: Somewhat averted; Alison Brie, who sings a bit in real life, was asked to tone down her performances because people would find it unrealistic that Annie is a good singer. Played straight with Yvette Nicole Brown, who belts her section of the song.
• Fake Brit: Duncan's not technically a Fake Brit but you wouldn't know it from the way he talks about "52nd Street in Islington".
• What Could Have Been: This episode could've been much darker. From this AV Club article:
  Dan Harmon: I remember there was this little elf girl. There was a visit to Duncan’s office where you actually meet all the broken toys outside the hallway. Christmas is a booming time for Duncan because of all the suicide attempts and thoughts and things, and there’s this little redhead elf girl out in the hallway who Abed befriends, and he indoctrinates her into the ability to willfully deny reality and just engage in this fascination. It just got too fucking dark. [Laughs.] Because she ended up killing herself again or attempting it. And it was like, "Oh my God, there was no way. I can’t even watch this."