Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas
Encyclopedia
"Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" is the 11th episode of the second season
of the American comedy television series, Community
and the 36th episode overall. The episode originally aired on NBC
on December 9, 2010 as a stop motion
Christmas
-themed episode.
by campus security in the parking lot while jumping on top of cars.
In a meeting with Professor Duncan alongside Britta and Jeff, Abed rejects Duncan's proposal for extensive therapy sessions to discover the cause of his delusion in favor in searching for the meaning of Christmas. While Britta and Jeff worry about Abed potentially being expelled from school, Duncan is more interested having his work on Abed's case published. After working on a snowman
outside, who is revealed to be Señor Chang, Abed is tricked into a group therapy session in the library study room with Duncan, Jeff, Britta, Annie, Shirley, Troy and Pierce. He agrees to allow Duncan to use "Christmas-nosis
" to transport him to the Planet Abed with the entire group.
Upon arriving on the Christmas-themed planet, Abed sets out with the group to find the meaning of Christmas at the North Pole
, but Duncan insists that they first visit the Cave of Frozen Memories. Along the way, Duncan ejects Shirley from the fantasy with a remote-controlled Christmas pterodactyl after she insists that she already knows the meaning of Christmas, while Jeff is eaten alive by a swarm of humbug
s attracted to his sarcasm. Arriving at the Cave of Frozen Memories, Duncan asks Abed to access his repressed memories, but in the process of demonstrating the technique, Duncan reveals that his father was absent from his childhood Christmases and leaves the fantasy distressed. Abed initiates a self-destruct sequence and leaves the cave with Pierce, Troy and Annie, but asks Britta to stay behind in the crumbling cave (i.e. leave the fantasy) because she tricked him into therapy.
Arriving on a train to the North Pole, Pierce leaves the fantasy after having eaten all of the cookies in the study room. Abed talks about how his mother comes to visit on December 9 every year and watches Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
with him. However, he is confused when Troy reminds him that the date is December 9. Duncan arrives on the train and tells Abed that he knows the reason for his delusion, but Abed climbs to the top of the train and races to the front of the car, with Annie and Troy stopping Duncan from chasing after him. Pierce returns to Abed's fantasy, saying that the Christmas season is depressing at home by himself.
The two arrive at Santa's workshop
at the North Pole, where Abed finds a package that he believes to contain the meaning of Christmas, but actually contains a DVD set of the first season of Lost
, which he says symbolizes lack of payoff. Duncan returns and shows Abed a Christmas card from his mother that he found in his dorm room, in which his mother tells him that she won't be visiting him for Christmas this year in order to spend the holiday with her new family. Upon hearing this, Abed is frozen in a block of ice. However, the entire group returns and shoots their Christmas guns at Duncan while singing a song before ejecting him from the fantasy with the Christmas pterodactyl, which subsequently explodes. An unfrozen Abed says that he realizes, "The meaning of Christmas is the idea that Christmas has meaning. And it can mean whatever we want."
The group leaves the fantasy and returns to the study room, where they agree to keep the stop-motion fantasy going through the holiday. They later watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer together in Abed's dorm room, and a reflection of the real-life characters is seen in the television.
During the final scene, Abed and Troy sit in the study room still stop-motion. While Abed is worried since it isn't him this time, Troy assures him that he wanted it this time. The two then decide to switch heads with one another.
and Dino Stamatopoulos
who portrays Star-Burns in the series and is also the creator of the stop-motion animated series Moral Orel
and Mary Shelley's Frankenhole
. The episode was directed by Duke Johnson. The episode was made in the style of Rankin/Bass
' stop motion
Christmas
specials, such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
. Dan Harmon stated in an interview with TV Guide
saying "There's a reason for it to be stop-motion animated, but it's not a dream. It still exists within the reality of the show."
The production of the episode was overseen by owners of 23D Films, James Fino and Joe Russo (not to be confused with Joe Russo
, a director and executive producer on Community). The animation process was completed in four months, less than half the time it takes to produce an episode of The Simpsons
. Fino said animators of the films Coraline
and The Nightmare Before Christmas
also contributed to the animation. On August 1, 2010, creator Dan Harmon informed Dino Stamatopoulos and Joe Russo that NBC
had approved the idea of an animated episode. Two weeks later, Harmon and Stamatopoulos finished the script, and the art department began production on the sets and puppets. Animation began on October 18, though a week later they discovered Pierce is in a wheelchair, and had to add a stop motion wheelchair. One day prior to airing, the completed shots were handed in by 23D Films. Russo said about the project, "We wondered if we could do it. But we knew we'd regret it down the road if we weren't part of this, producing a special episode of a really cool show."
, while serving as an homage to stop motion
Christmas
specials such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
. Abed finds the meaning of Christmas in a Christmas gift with the first season of Lost
on DVD, saying the metaphor means "lack of payoff."
The episode received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club
rated the episode with an A, commenting that "What "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" gets that very, very few Christmas specials or episodes have gotten in the history of the medium is the fact that, ultimately, this holiday, more than any other, is intensely personal." TV Squad writer Maggie Furlong called the episode "as touching and poignant as this show has ever been".
Community (season 2)
The second season of the television comedy series Community premiered on September 23, 2010 and concluded on May 12, 2011, on NBC and aired on Thursdays at 8:00 pm ET as part of Comedy Night Done Right.-Starring:*Joel McHale as Jeff Winger...
of the American comedy television series, Community
Community (TV series)
Community is an American television comedy series created by Dan Harmon that airs on NBC. The series is about a group of students at a community college in the fictional locale of Greendale, Colorado. The series heavily uses meta-humor and pop culture references, often parodying film and television...
and the 36th episode overall. The episode originally aired on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
on December 9, 2010 as a stop motion
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
-themed episode.
Plot
At lunch on the final day of classes, Abed believes that the upcoming Christmas is the most important Christmas ever due to his perception of the entire group as stop-motion animated. While the group is worried about Abed's mental health, he decides to commit to the format, singing along to a Christmas version of the show's theme song until he is taseredTaser
A Taser is an electroshock weapon that uses electrical current to disrupt voluntary control of muscles. Its manufacturer, Taser International, calls the effects "neuromuscular incapacitation" and the devices' mechanism "Electro-Muscular Disruption technology"...
by campus security in the parking lot while jumping on top of cars.
In a meeting with Professor Duncan alongside Britta and Jeff, Abed rejects Duncan's proposal for extensive therapy sessions to discover the cause of his delusion in favor in searching for the meaning of Christmas. While Britta and Jeff worry about Abed potentially being expelled from school, Duncan is more interested having his work on Abed's case published. After working on a snowman
Snowman
A snowman is an anthropomorphic snow sculpture. They are customarily built by children as part of a family project in celebration of winter. In some cases, participants in winter festivals will build large numbers of snowmen...
outside, who is revealed to be Señor Chang, Abed is tricked into a group therapy session in the library study room with Duncan, Jeff, Britta, Annie, Shirley, Troy and Pierce. He agrees to allow Duncan to use "Christmas-nosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
" to transport him to the Planet Abed with the entire group.
Upon arriving on the Christmas-themed planet, Abed sets out with the group to find the meaning of Christmas at the North Pole
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...
, but Duncan insists that they first visit the Cave of Frozen Memories. Along the way, Duncan ejects Shirley from the fantasy with a remote-controlled Christmas pterodactyl after she insists that she already knows the meaning of Christmas, while Jeff is eaten alive by a swarm of humbug
Humbug
Humbug is an old term meaning hoax or jest. While the term was first described in 1751 as student slang, its etymology is unknown. Its present meaning as an exclamation is closer to 'nonsense' or 'gibberish', while as a noun, a humbug refers to a fraud or impostor, implying an element of...
s attracted to his sarcasm. Arriving at the Cave of Frozen Memories, Duncan asks Abed to access his repressed memories, but in the process of demonstrating the technique, Duncan reveals that his father was absent from his childhood Christmases and leaves the fantasy distressed. Abed initiates a self-destruct sequence and leaves the cave with Pierce, Troy and Annie, but asks Britta to stay behind in the crumbling cave (i.e. leave the fantasy) because she tricked him into therapy.
Arriving on a train to the North Pole, Pierce leaves the fantasy after having eaten all of the cookies in the study room. Abed talks about how his mother comes to visit on December 9 every year and watches Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV special)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a Christmas television special produced in stop motion animation by Rankin/Bass. It first aired Sunday, December 6, 1964, on the NBC television network in the USA, and was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour...
with him. However, he is confused when Troy reminds him that the date is December 9. Duncan arrives on the train and tells Abed that he knows the reason for his delusion, but Abed climbs to the top of the train and races to the front of the car, with Annie and Troy stopping Duncan from chasing after him. Pierce returns to Abed's fantasy, saying that the Christmas season is depressing at home by himself.
The two arrive at Santa's workshop
Santa's Workshop
Santa's workshop may refer to:*Santa's workshop, the mythological workshop at the North Pole*Santa's Workshop , Wilmington, New York, USA*Santa's Workshop , an 1932 animated short by Disney...
at the North Pole, where Abed finds a package that he believes to contain the meaning of Christmas, but actually contains a DVD set of the first season of Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
, which he says symbolizes lack of payoff. Duncan returns and shows Abed a Christmas card from his mother that he found in his dorm room, in which his mother tells him that she won't be visiting him for Christmas this year in order to spend the holiday with her new family. Upon hearing this, Abed is frozen in a block of ice. However, the entire group returns and shoots their Christmas guns at Duncan while singing a song before ejecting him from the fantasy with the Christmas pterodactyl, which subsequently explodes. An unfrozen Abed says that he realizes, "The meaning of Christmas is the idea that Christmas has meaning. And it can mean whatever we want."
The group leaves the fantasy and returns to the study room, where they agree to keep the stop-motion fantasy going through the holiday. They later watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer together in Abed's dorm room, and a reflection of the real-life characters is seen in the television.
During the final scene, Abed and Troy sit in the study room still stop-motion. While Abed is worried since it isn't him this time, Troy assures him that he wanted it this time. The two then decide to switch heads with one another.
Production
The episode was written by series creator Dan HarmonDan Harmon
Dan Harmon is a writer and performer. He is the creator and an executive producer for the NBC television comedy series Community, and, along with Rob Schrab, a founder of the alternative television network/website Channel 101....
and Dino Stamatopoulos
Dino Stamatopoulos
Dino Stamatopoulos is an American television comedy writer, actor and producer who has worked on Mr. Show, TV Funhouse, Mad TV, The Dana Carvey Show, Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien...
who portrays Star-Burns in the series and is also the creator of the stop-motion animated series Moral Orel
Moral Orel
Moral Orel is an American stop-motion animated television show, which originally aired on Adult Swim from December 13, 2005 to December 18, 2008...
and Mary Shelley's Frankenhole
Mary Shelley's Frankenhole
Mary Shelley's Frankenhole is a stop-motion animated TV series by Dino Stamatopoulos, creator of Moral Orel. Nine of ten 15-minute episodes have aired on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim. Frankenhole premiered on June 27, 2010.-Premise:Dr...
. The episode was directed by Duke Johnson. The episode was made in the style of Rankin/Bass
Rankin/Bass
Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc. , also known as Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment, was an American production company, known for its seasonal television specials, particularly its work in stop-motion animation. The pre-1974 library is currently owned by Classic Media,while the post-1974 library is...
' stop motion
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
specials, such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV special)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a Christmas television special produced in stop motion animation by Rankin/Bass. It first aired Sunday, December 6, 1964, on the NBC television network in the USA, and was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour...
and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (TV special)
Santa Claus is Comin' to Town is a 1970 stop motion television special, made by Rankin-Bass with models carved from wood . The film stars actor Fred Astaire as S.D. Kluger, the narrator, and Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle/Santa Claus...
. Dan Harmon stated in an interview with TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
saying "There's a reason for it to be stop-motion animated, but it's not a dream. It still exists within the reality of the show."
The production of the episode was overseen by owners of 23D Films, James Fino and Joe Russo (not to be confused with Joe Russo
Russo brothers
Anthony and Joe Russo, known together professionally as the Russo brothers, are Emmy Award-winning American film and television directors. The brothers direct most of their work jointly, and they also occasionally work as producers, actors, and editors. The Russos are from Cleveland, Ohio, and were...
, a director and executive producer on Community). The animation process was completed in four months, less than half the time it takes to produce an episode of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
. Fino said animators of the films Coraline
Coraline (film)
Coraline is a 2009 stop-motion 3D fantasy/horror children's film based on Neil Gaiman's 2002 novel of the same name. It was produced by Laika and distributed by Focus Features. Written and directed by Henry Selick, it was released widely in US theaters on February 6, 2009, after a world premiere at...
and The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to...
also contributed to the animation. On August 1, 2010, creator Dan Harmon informed Dino Stamatopoulos and Joe Russo that NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
had approved the idea of an animated episode. Two weeks later, Harmon and Stamatopoulos finished the script, and the art department began production on the sets and puppets. Animation began on October 18, though a week later they discovered Pierce is in a wheelchair, and had to add a stop motion wheelchair. One day prior to airing, the completed shots were handed in by 23D Films. Russo said about the project, "We wondered if we could do it. But we knew we'd regret it down the road if we weren't part of this, producing a special episode of a really cool show."
Cultural references
The episode loosely follows the plot of The Polar ExpressThe Polar Express (film)
The Polar Express is a 2004 motion capture computer-animated film based on the children's book of the same title by Chris Van Allsburg. Written, produced, and directed by Robert Zemeckis, the human characters in the film were animated using live action performance capture technique, with the...
, while serving as an homage to stop motion
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
specials such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV special)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a Christmas television special produced in stop motion animation by Rankin/Bass. It first aired Sunday, December 6, 1964, on the NBC television network in the USA, and was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour...
and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (TV special)
Santa Claus is Comin' to Town is a 1970 stop motion television special, made by Rankin-Bass with models carved from wood . The film stars actor Fred Astaire as S.D. Kluger, the narrator, and Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle/Santa Claus...
. Abed finds the meaning of Christmas in a Christmas gift with the first season of Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
on DVD, saying the metaphor means "lack of payoff."
Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" was viewed by an estimated 4.295 million viewers receiving a 1.9 rating/6% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. The overall viewership was adjusted down for NBC due to NFL game local broadcasts in Indianapolis and Nashville. The episode tied with the rating from the previous episode, "Mixology Certification".The episode received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
rated the episode with an A, commenting that "What "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" gets that very, very few Christmas specials or episodes have gotten in the history of the medium is the fact that, ultimately, this holiday, more than any other, is intensely personal." TV Squad writer Maggie Furlong called the episode "as touching and poignant as this show has ever been".