Thursday night's episode, "Contemporary American Poultry", starts off innocently enough with the study group with less concern on studying, and everything to get to the cafeteria in time for the best chicken fingers ever. This is also more important than Brita's dying cat. This is a great bit of work to do in a take as everyone but Brita and Shirley dart off like madmen:
"If it was cool to eat God, He'd be a chicken finger."
But getting in line it turns out the chicken fingers run out too quickly, and the fry cook, Star-Burns, is hoarding some for his friends. It's nice to see Star-Burns get a bit more screentime as he's sort of the show's only recurring villain, at least until Anthony Michael Hall comes back for more blood. Suddenly, Jeff gets a plan, and this is where coal starts getting shoved post-haste into the pop-culture train. Freeze-frame, and Abed narration.
"As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be in a mafia movie."
From here's it's literally a direct Goodfellas parody. They get Star-Burns fired for hoarding chicken, and Abed gets the job. Abed makes a deal with Senor Chang, which the group doesn't like, but changes their minds quickly when the find out it was for a 10% bonus to everyone's tests. Everyone abandons Jeff and starts following Abed as the leader. The chicken operation starts to get serious now. Everything leading up to this point is masterfully orchestrated and shot so well that if it wasn't a socially awkward study group trying to create an empire based on chicken fingers, you might wonder what movie you were watching.
Everyone has a role in the chicken mafia. Abed makes the chicken, Troy smuggles it to Brita and Shirley for separation into individual boxes for their clients, then passes off to Annie. With this amount of power the group benefits insanely well. Pierce gets an entourage, Brita gets a hairdresser, Annie gets an expensive backpack, and Troy gets a pet monkey, named Annie's Boobs. But over time, Abed finds his team is starting to get unruly in that all their new amenities aren't good enough. In order to teach them a lesson, Abed takes away all their newfound toys, angering the group into seeking out Jeff and ending Abed's deep-fried reign of terror.
"He's gone from lovable Johnny 5 to evil HAL."
With the help of Star-Burns, Jeff gains a key to dismantle the fryer for good. He breaks into the kitchen at night, to see Abed frying up tater tots, and looking to find new ways to start the cycle of the mafia anew, since everyone is sick of chicken. While one-on-ones and inadvertent group hugs are the sort of thing that ends every episode, it's almost like Abed is trolling the characters by being able to easily drop whatever he's doing for something else. Jeff just wants to end it, Abed agrees, but only being allowed one movie reference at a time, Abed chooses to eat a final meal of chicken fingers in the style of 16 Candles.
This is the only episode so far that retained it's theme for almost the whole time. While the other episodes made movie or TV show references to tie the whole thing together at random intervals (usually the very beginning and the very end before the credits), this stayed the course of keeping all things mafia-related. When they are explaining how they smuggle chicken out of the cafeteria, it's mirroring a scene in Casino. When the group discovers their possessions are being destroyed, Layla plays loudly in the background to mirror Goodfellas. This episode knew what it set out for and rode the Absurdity Express to the bitter end, finishing it by going back to how life used to be, also known as Abed's standby of John Hughes.
The attention to detail is another element most people overlook. The board in the background with everyone's wants and needs is filled out for everyone and is hilarious if you pause and read it all. The main plot was set up perfectly, and nothing has changed with every element of the show, right down to the surroundings, being important and funny in their own way. Even the credit sequence was icing on the cake.
Troy attempts to make Abed look like the better fry cook candidate.
If you're a Goodfellas fan, this is probably going to be one of, if not your favorite episode this season. It's my #2, as nothing's topped Physical Education so far (like anything can top a naked Joel McHale). But each new episode amazes me with a different take on an old idea or sitcom cliche, and strives to fill a niche sense of humor possessed by us children of the 80s who spent the last 20 years filling their brain with TV and movies. If you're not watching it, you're missing out, plain and simple.
Link: Hulu: Community S1E21
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