Community AND Queerness? Yeah thats gonna be a video essay alright. Links: My Patreon: / lilysimpson My Twitter: / lilysimpson1312 My Ko-fi: / lilysimpson
I love how the jokes with his costumes are never at the expense of his gender identity or expression; but the fact that he's putting on arbitrary costumes to deliver news.
The “good news/bad news” bank scene is one of my fav moments in any TV show. I love that the joke is just that Dean had a nice day and everyone celebrates. It’s so cute and wraps up the episode in a fun way while also being a funny moment
absolutely! dean expressing his fears "𝓘 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓰𝓸 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓫𝓪𝓷𝓴 𝓽𝓸𝓭𝓪𝔂" shows he is far more "out" in a relatively accepting place where he holds a position of power (greendale) than he is in his hour-to-hour life. "queer outfits are occasionally bizarre and often hilarious" could easily become a meanspirited joke on a different show. That they made the punchline essentially "the dean gets gender euphoria and then everyone clapped" is just so radically kind
I wanna say this actually was helpful for me. I am a trans woman that started transitioning at 30 y/o and have recently been feeling invalid because I never expressed a desire to be a girl when I was younger. This video helped remind me that sexuality and gender aren't always/don't have to be static. It's okay to have lived as a man and realize that my gender identity has changed. I am happy and being true to myself and that's all that should matter. Thank you
i feel similarly as a trans man who came out and transitioned in my late 20s and never had an "always known" narrative. it very much makes me question the legitimacy of my identity from time to time; but its nice to be reminded that gender and sexuality are fluid and theres no shame in living in the grey area of the two, even when you use more binary terms for the sake of simplicity.
@@everfluctuating trans masc here. i've heard sooo many other trans people express this same thing. i mean,, wouldn't it make more sense to trust what your adult self thinks about your identity than to trust what you thought about yourself when you were a literal child??
I feel your pain. I started off playing with dolls and being with the girls. Then was brainwashed and forced into what i' m not. Now i' m 33 years later, 39 in two weeks and i' m out since may. But atleast i' m me now. Like you are you. I really hope you get all the happiness you deserve. You sound hopeful and positive, that's nice to read... Stay strong! ❤🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
The best of luck wherever your journey takes you. I'm recently out as non-binary and, for me, it's like being a man and a woman in different measures. Little of both.
Yes! I've always felt an alignment with the Dean and enjoyed his silly character. I still long for more light hearted and comedic roles for trans and queer characters because in reality, many of us are living a fun and silly life. I find joy in expressing my gender and I wish THAT was seen more on tv.
Ooohhh yes! Trans and queer characters can be funny without being a butt of a joke or a caricature. As a Non-Binary person I feel that queer representation is usually "too dark and real" nowadays and is many times written by cis straight person who might not have a good insight into LGBTQ life and culture.
I love him! We need more queer comedy that laughs at the character for who they are not for their identity. Yeah I love how open they are about who he is and how he identifies and we def need more of that but the comedy focuses around just how much he is a weirdo as a person, not because his identity
Community was a truly great show for LGBT+ (and neurodivergent) depictions and definitely does deserve more detailed analysis of the whole show. One detail that I really appreciated when watching it is the way they handle homophobia as comedy. Certain characters, primarily Pierce, make homophobic remarks, but the context of the show makes it clear that the joke is always on them being homophobic rather than on the person they're being bigoted towards. I think part of why this works because the targets of Pierce's homophobia are exclusively straight characters, he's never homophobic to someone actually LGBT+, as illustrated by the fact that he never makes a comment towards the dean. You used clips of the episode Early 21st Century Romanticism (Season 2 E 15) which is an absolutely fantastic inversion of the homophobic trope of the "gay panic" storyline where normally a straight character is concerned about being associated with someone LGBT+. Britta spends the whole episode acting proud of herself for being friends with a girl she believes is a lesbian, and even takes her to a dance in an effort to show off how much of an ally she is. The twist is her friend is also straight and is trying to appear an ally because she thinks Britta is a lesbian.
@@jenm1 I think that was the only time Jeff was ever visibly uncomfortable about Pelton's advances towards him. Just goes to show how off the characterization got in that season when previously in season 2 there was literally a scene of the dean fawning over the image of Jeff as a dead catboy.
@@asteroidrules @jenmcco I find the way Pelton seems to think he can invade Jeff's personal space somewhat disturbing. It's weird how Jeff doesn't tell him not to do that when he's clearly uncomfortable with it, but maybe Jeff is too cool to care. I don't know.
@@oskarileikos my thoughts on that (in the non-gas-leak years) is that Jeff is vain enough to derive some validation from the Dean's words and actions.
Ironically enough Britta always treated being called "lesbian" as an insult, so between her, Pierce, Chang, and sometimes even Jeff contributing to veiled homophobia, this show never really felt particularly progressive to me in terms of gay representation, and the earlier episodes often really treated Dean Pelton as a joke or punchline.
i just love that community wasn’t afraid to have a clearly queer character who was an absolutely freaky lil guy but was also clearly positioned to be beloved by the audience - and not beloved because he was such a wAcKy GaY spectacle (aka to be laughed at, or funny as a concept), but beloved as a whole character and person, with that person being a wacky one. at the time it was quietly revolutionary for a complex queer character to exist wherein the overarching joke of that character didn’t simply boil down to “queer=other, other=funny” or otherwise suggesting that aspects of queerness are inherently wrong, annoying, misguided, etc. no writer would be upfront about that belief, but to this day many queer characters still exist just as that. and while the dean obviously could still be wrong, annoying, misguided, etc., it was clearly not as a symptom of his queerness, but as an expression of his emotions and personality through whatever situation he was in at the time. this is helped by the fact that every other character on the show could also be all those things at one time or another: they have all at different points been awful or commendable, ridiculous or grounded, have gone over the top or not done enough. i think it is a difficult task to write a complex minority character who is comedically charming yet effectively asserted as not a representative, summation, or caricature of their community, all while maintaining a light tone that doesn’t seem heavy-handed or overwritten. we all want good representation, and good representation means including flawed or weird characters of those identities, but that also means always having to consider an additional layer of subtext that must be clear enough pierce through the preconceptions of a more ignorant audience. just enough so that they can realize that the joke isn’t that a gay sissy is wearing a dress, but rather that he dressed impractically and didn’t consider earlier that he has to go to the bank today. though his queerness plays a role in how he presents himself day to day, it is not the subject of the joke or the scene. it’s just a part of who he is. sorry didn’t mean for this to be so long, but i fucking love dean pelton. and i would listen to you talk about him and community for hours. thanks for this video, didn’t know how much i needed it !!
A lot might be on the actor too whi if intrvies ar tio believed really card and loved that character an play him as fun, but not as a joke, an is so good and his imput, that it works. Whilth how isnt bad, the actor really made it that much of a characer that is fun but he takes very serious. Which lead to him being a genuine great character. The actor has definitly queer sensitivities too?! An good th riting ran with that genuine characte that is weird buit not afraid to let that top him being himself.
Personally at first I didn’t like the dean, because I’m not a big fan of ppl in positions of authority and specifically as a student I hate it when school events are pushed on me. But then again the dean is truly just a freaky lil guy and if that ain’t a mood then idk what is
Community fascinates me partly because the writers managed to hit on genuinely deep ideas about difficult topics and i swear half the time it was by accident. These were not people who, as far as I could tell, had many ties to communities they showed and sometimes caricatured or much knowledge about them. I frankly doubt that the Dean was intended to be so complex and certainly wasn't meant to say anything important. But somehow the writers stumbled ass-backwards into depictions of marginalized experiences that feel surprisingly real and sympathetic. Actually when talking about my gender I tend toward similar caveats as the Dean. Like how I don't mind people referring to me as a woman or by "she" and "her." It's not incorrect, just incomplete. I'm a woman....and also some other stuff.
"Good queer representation by accident" is the definition of Community, yeah. Troy and Abed's relationship and Annie's lesbian subtext being two other examples
I don't believe it's was a matter of accidents, i think it was genuine ideas some writers/actors/producers had for such characters but were not further explored or analysed because the show was a (beautiful, but) chaotic, random mess- both content- and production-wise.
Personally I’m just there like if you refer to me by certain pronouns, or use a specific name to address me, even if it’s not my legal name I’ll just go along with it honestly
I personally relate to Britta’s character a lot. I tend to have similar political thoughts, yet I do nothing to help or spread awareness about the issues as I am already dealing with my own issues just being alive.
I like Brita but the other characters do outshine her. Her character annoyingly bounces between easy butt of the joke and actually funny satire of forced “correct liberal” characters that many modern sitcoms have. I’m a raging liberal but being preached to is real annoying
she was never a real activist and as the show goes on she just accepted it and stopped pretending imo, her stupidity was a bit annoying but theres even a joke in the show about it
I love having queer characters who don't easily fit into labels. I mean obviously we need more labelled ones too (there is never too much queer) but I love having characters who have to describe what's going on with them like I do, in extended metaphor!
Agreed. I love seeing explicit representation for those who fall under clear labels, and I also love the representation for those who defy labels. The entire spectrum is fabulous and deserves to feel seen! :)
i think community deserves a 10 hour video! that the deans most enduring line is "this better not awaken anything in me" says a lot about how expansive they let his identity be on the show and their incorporation of so many great sources of inspiration. the abba playlist halloween special vis a personal fav
As I grow older, i really appreciate Dean and his sexuality more and more. I also am pretty uncomfortable labeling myself until I explore more and maybe not even then. On the flip side I don't really care much about anyone else's labels for me if it makes it easier because I know it doesn't matter much.
It’s characters like dean who led me to putting less importance on labels. Half the people in my life use he/him for me, but my BF calls me his girlfriend, and I’m mostly feminine/androgynous presenting, so when people ask at this point I can’t be bothered to explain.. I just am who I am and I find such great comfort in that way of thinking. I know labels are important to so many people and they were for me to at certain time in my life. But I truly feel the most myself now that I have stopped trying to label it or figure it out. I hope we continue to see more and more queer representation like this that pushes what straight/cis audiences think a gay person should be.
PLEASE TALK ABOUT DENISE. Lynch's literal self insert talking about people needing to change their hearts or die is one of the best things put on to tv (film?)
As a sexuality of "whatever", but a sadly binary trans woman (who isn't quite as binary as she lets on)... I'll take analysis of Twin Peaks anything! While I have about a dozen things that I say, "This was really important at making me come out," Dean Pelton is on that list... and so is Denise Bryson.
please make "a brief look at community" -- not one minute in and you've hit me with both the prestige tv intro and the perfect delivery of 'happy pansexual imp' this one's so good already! i'd pay for it tbh
Dean Pelton the never ending handkerchief will always hold a special place in my heart. He made me realize that most importantly I was trying to shove myself into a box I didn't really fit in. Dean Pelton modeled self acceptance for me, and the fact that I might not know what color of handkerchief might come out of the box next, but either way it'll still be a handkerchief. It's okay to not fully know everything about myself, and nothing will be scary to discover because they'll all be handkerchiefs, they'll all be a part of me, just different colors.
I truly love Dean. I feel like they're one of the many things that's aged surprisingly well in Community. I mean it's not perfect as a show (no show ever is or will be) and definitely has its problems and odd takes at times, but Dean could have very easily come off as a punchline and consistent jab at queerness, but they always managed to keep him an endearing character where his sheer overabundance of queer was just... a part of who he was. The laughter I had for them was always about the extroversion and performances of these displays, not at the 'gayness' itself, it never felt like "haha dean's in a dress, man in dress funny lol", it was "what costume and catchphrase is next?" Despite the fact I'm neither a white man, or a gay dude, I honestly find him to be one of the best representations for me personally. I'm at base born a cis woman, but when it comes to gender, sexuality and all that jazz, i just can't really be bothered with labels for myself. I feel like I'm just whatever, y'know? Sometimes I wanna wear a beard, sometimes I wanna be a scrawny little trash goblin, or a grizzled pirate, or a sexy buff lady orc, sometimes i wanna touch man pecs or lady tits or man tits and lady pecs and nb everything. Dean represents the queers who just wanna be themselves and there's still a lack of that in media. Nothing starts or ends with our queerness, we're the neverending handkerchiefs, not a one and done ta-dah, and i love him for saying that. Also PLEASE PLEASE DO TALK ABOUT COMMUNITY FOR 10HRS THANKS BYE
I really love this video! Community despite it's shortcomings and DH is a comfort show to me. And holds a lot of memories of me and my friend, watching the show through highschool. Despite being trans, I haven't actually been able to know how I feel about myself with sexuality. But I think Im comfortable now, just saying my sexuality can be the never ending handkerchief from the magic hat, than something definitive. And please make more community videos, I won't lie I'm very biased to Troy and Abeds dynamic. (I even gave myself the name Troy after coming out because he represents who I want myself to be) Okay that's it thanks again
I have a lot of thoughts about Dean Pelton (and Community) so I’m commenting more. The Queer Studies episode benefits from the knowledge that it’s in Season 6- a season where it seems like the thesis statement is “take all the whacky antics of the show and contextualize them for the real world.” That’s the reason behind Frankie’s character too- the straight man (ha) to react in a realistic way to the madness until she becomes a silly cartoon character like the rest of the cast. At that point in Season 6, we have seen all the jokes about Dean being “gay” or otherwise out there and Queer Studies is about exploring that. In 2015 when the episode aired, being gay was no longer subversive or a punchline on its own. The school board reduces Dean as “just gay” and the rest of the show’s world reacts to that as the Dean has to question his integrity and his comfort in his own ideantity.
As a young man in their 20's, Dean was such a liberation for me. Actually, all the characters were in some way. These were living Shadows existing raw in spite of how much that creates a detriment for them. It's not just the Dean who's "purely who they are", it's all the characters. Warts and all. That isn't to say that Dan Harmon isn't without his many criticisms. #fixyourheartordie
Not this video coming at the same time that I'm struggling with labeling myself and deciding who/what I am in the realm of gender 🥲 I literally just got out of a therapy session where, among other things, we talked at length about the fluidity of labels and identification 😮💨 Excellent video as always, truly, thank you for this ❤️❤️❤️
ive gone thru my own gender crisis, what helped me the most was when i stopped pressuring myself to try to figure everything out. like its ok not to know. itll take time to get to know yourself enough to articulate it and thats totally fine, it doesnt make you any less valid
you dont decide what gender you are if you have a dick you r a MALE a vagina a FEMALE simple as that. you can imagine your a beautiful canary bird all day but you will never be one. a kid will born with white shin who hangs around black people all his life will never be back as much as he or she may feel like it. learn to distinguish from reality and imagination and behavior picked up from your environment.
As one of the four people who love twin peaks I would in fact love a video on Denise!!! But your take on dean Pelton is so good!! I'm very genderweird myself, and this really resonates
Incredible video! Only thing I can say or allude to is Craig’s “Ideantity” line is also a very clear aspect of his character that integrally tie in to the fundamentals that make Craig who he is and how they use their occupation as an even further expression of self
Love your analysis! Love Community! LOVE the dean!!! I love that the dean is goofy and queer but his queerness itself isn't really the butt of the joke, it's his overeagerness mixed with his incompetence, first and foremost. When a friend starts watching Community, I always love hearing their reaction when I tell them that the dean has an Oscar! He cowrote The Descendants which I really loved and found moving (though a little iffy on the politics of Hawaii), and cowrote/codirected a very underrated film called The Way Way Back! While that one isn't gay/queer at all really, I find that a lot of queer people really relate to it and love it (myself included) and would definitely recommend it!
Fantastic how this came up less than a week after a friend and I had been talking about Community as a show. We too love it even with the flaws it has. There's something about the show that just feels incredibly human and I would absolutely spend the whole of a day sitting and watching a brief look at Community.
You have no idea how obsessed with this show I am. my life revolves around it. Addressing me as a Greendalian?? THEY/THEMMING THE DEAN???? This video makes me so so happy. If you want someone to collab with on the Community video, that is like, the best possible use of my time
I'm a cis ace dude and I loved this vid as it gave me a lot to think about + made me want to rewatch community for a seventh time. Thanks a lot, love your content, keep up the good work!
Yes, if you ever make it I would watch a 10 hour "brief" look at Community. Loved the show when it was on, but haven't gone back to it since it stopped airing.
I love how you approached this topic!! So often me and my other queer friends will have this discussion. I have said before that I like the term "queer" vs bisexual or pansexual because of all the baggage and discussion those terms currently have. And while that is very true, I also love the term because of its inherit ambiguity and that reflects how I feel about my sexualality and the attraction I feel towards people. I'm someone who cannot watch sad queer representations, I watched Brokeback Mountain as a child and can't handle stories where such vibrancy and love is mushed out. So I was in love with the dean in community, he was goofy and amazing and just 100% a person
Carter from Spin City was a good example of this. An initially well behaved mascot of the community that slowly became more flawed, funny and interesting as the writers became more confident.
Ok, first off, I'm so glad i found your channel again. Wasn't aware of the rebrand/coming out. So congrats on that. Now, yeah, i always did like Dean Pelton, and while watching Community, i always feared they were going to fuck things up with the character, and so glad they didn't. And as another Ace Trans woman, yeah, i completely get the "everything else" that lable doesn't portray. Also, yes pleaae on the Denise Bryaon video. That character was so ahead of it's time as like, the one positive peice of trans representation in the nightmare fuel that was 90's media that kept me so deeply in the closet.
I haven't commented on many of your videos, but this one really touched me and was so well done, I just had to say bravo! I adore community and hearing you speak about it is just an absolute treat. Honestly, a multi hour deep dive into the show would pretty much be one of my instant favourite comfort video that I would watch an ungodly amount of times!
I totally agree that the characters on Always Sunny feel like real people who reflect the worst of us all. But have you seen Peep Show? Same thing but with two emotionally repressed British people. It’s so good.
God i need that brief look at community. I just watched it all and my head is bursting, there's so much to talk about. The way Britta became just a punching bag at some point, Abed being surprisingly good autistic representation (while also fucking it up quite often), Pierce's behavior being simultaneously criticised and excused by the show... Even just the extremely mixed quality of the episodes. I love it and I hate it and I need an absurdly long breakdown of it. And Twin Peaks. There's probably more fans of it here than you think
A while ago now, like upwards of a year ago, I worked out that I didn't actually care for lables. They weren't for me, they were for other people who wanted to figure me out. "prefer not to answer" tends to be my answer for any online forms/documents
I recently found your channel and have since been binge watching all your content, you make such insightful and fun content! thank you for creating it!!
This is exactly why I've always loved the term Queer. It's liberation from the stifling heteronormativity that keeps many of us from just being ourselves. Nothing else matters. So that's all you need to get across in the word. Dean Pelton is iconic and that line about being a "never-ending handkerchief" explained so much of myself to myself.
Really enjoyed this. I've definitely had lots of feelings and thoughts about the character in a similar vein, and you put them very well. just a heads up for anyone who is thinking about watching the show after this, there is an episode in season 1 where they do use the T slur for a joke, but after that it never happens again, and any reference to the event after is referred to euphemistically.
thought your vid on hp was cool but no you are cool as well now because of this community video essay i'm very glad i subscribed (also if we all collectively ask nicely will you make a 10 hour 'brief' look at community, i would watch like a thousand times)
I love how the jokes with his costumes are never at the expense of his gender identity or expression; but the fact that he's putting on arbitrary costumes to deliver news.
The Payday Bar one is the best of all of them.
“The greendale music department is flat BAR-oque” is one of my favourites
@@salem-01I love this because I was expecting a musical "flat" joke but then it goes Baroque
he has to go to the bank... what does he tell them
Please take a 10 hour brief look at community I will watch it in one setting
i will riot if she doesn't
I will be writing my senators to make sure this happens
please!!!
Same here honestly
Me too! I would love to hear her take on it.
The “good news/bad news” bank scene is one of my fav moments in any TV show. I love that the joke is just that Dean had a nice day and everyone celebrates. It’s so cute and wraps up the episode in a fun way while also being a funny moment
absolutely! dean expressing his fears "𝓘 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓰𝓸 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓫𝓪𝓷𝓴 𝓽𝓸𝓭𝓪𝔂" shows he is far more "out" in a relatively accepting place where he holds a position of power (greendale) than he is in his hour-to-hour life.
"queer outfits are occasionally bizarre and often hilarious" could easily become a meanspirited joke on a different show. That they made the punchline essentially "the dean gets gender euphoria and then everyone clapped" is just so radically kind
I'm currently growing out my hair so I can show everyone the "dualidean" of man
@@gjits5307 "we went to lunch and i had the deepest conversation of my life"
it's a very just be yourself scene, i love it.
@@nopers1317 just in time for hallowdean!
@@gjits5307 that's the plan... I'll make sure I get it dean in time.
I wanna say this actually was helpful for me. I am a trans woman that started transitioning at 30 y/o and have recently been feeling invalid because I never expressed a desire to be a girl when I was younger. This video helped remind me that sexuality and gender aren't always/don't have to be static. It's okay to have lived as a man and realize that my gender identity has changed. I am happy and being true to myself and that's all that should matter. Thank you
i feel similarly as a trans man who came out and transitioned in my late 20s and never had an "always known" narrative. it very much makes me question the legitimacy of my identity from time to time; but its nice to be reminded that gender and sexuality are fluid and theres no shame in living in the grey area of the two, even when you use more binary terms for the sake of simplicity.
@@everfluctuating trans masc here. i've heard sooo many other trans people express this same thing. i mean,, wouldn't it make more sense to trust what your adult self thinks about your identity than to trust what you thought about yourself when you were a literal child??
I feel your pain. I started off playing with dolls and being with the girls.
Then was brainwashed and forced into what i' m not. Now i' m 33 years later, 39 in two weeks and i' m out since may.
But atleast i' m me now.
Like you are you.
I really hope you get all the happiness you deserve. You sound hopeful and positive, that's nice to read... Stay strong! ❤🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
The best of luck wherever your journey takes you. I'm recently out as non-binary and, for me, it's like being a man and a woman in different measures. Little of both.
Yes! I've always felt an alignment with the Dean and enjoyed his silly character. I still long for more light hearted and comedic roles for trans and queer characters because in reality, many of us are living a fun and silly life. I find joy in expressing my gender and I wish THAT was seen more on tv.
I'm a silly goose! Honk honk honk
Ooohhh yes! Trans and queer characters can be funny without being a butt of a joke or a caricature. As a Non-Binary person I feel that queer representation is usually "too dark and real" nowadays and is many times written by cis straight person who might not have a good insight into LGBTQ life and culture.
I love him! We need more queer comedy that laughs at the character for who they are not for their identity. Yeah I love how open they are about who he is and how he identifies and we def need more of that but the comedy focuses around just how much he is a weirdo as a person, not because his identity
as a fellow queer and community fan, i need your 10 hour community video. it’s necessary for my continued existence. i’m begging!
second this!
Community was a truly great show for LGBT+ (and neurodivergent) depictions and definitely does deserve more detailed analysis of the whole show. One detail that I really appreciated when watching it is the way they handle homophobia as comedy. Certain characters, primarily Pierce, make homophobic remarks, but the context of the show makes it clear that the joke is always on them being homophobic rather than on the person they're being bigoted towards. I think part of why this works because the targets of Pierce's homophobia are exclusively straight characters, he's never homophobic to someone actually LGBT+, as illustrated by the fact that he never makes a comment towards the dean. You used clips of the episode Early 21st Century Romanticism (Season 2 E 15) which is an absolutely fantastic inversion of the homophobic trope of the "gay panic" storyline where normally a straight character is concerned about being associated with someone LGBT+. Britta spends the whole episode acting proud of herself for being friends with a girl she believes is a lesbian, and even takes her to a dance in an effort to show off how much of an ally she is. The twist is her friend is also straight and is trying to appear an ally because she thinks Britta is a lesbian.
During the gas leak, there is a gay panic moment when the dean is increasingly obsessive w Jeff and moves in next to him. It's bizarre
@@jenm1 I think that was the only time Jeff was ever visibly uncomfortable about Pelton's advances towards him. Just goes to show how off the characterization got in that season when previously in season 2 there was literally a scene of the dean fawning over the image of Jeff as a dead catboy.
@@asteroidrules @jenmcco I find the way Pelton seems to think he can invade Jeff's personal space somewhat disturbing. It's weird how Jeff doesn't tell him not to do that when he's clearly uncomfortable with it, but maybe Jeff is too cool to care. I don't know.
@@oskarileikos my thoughts on that (in the non-gas-leak years) is that Jeff is vain enough to derive some validation from the Dean's words and actions.
Ironically enough Britta always treated being called "lesbian" as an insult, so between her, Pierce, Chang, and sometimes even Jeff contributing to veiled homophobia, this show never really felt particularly progressive to me in terms of gay representation, and the earlier episodes often really treated Dean Pelton as a joke or punchline.
i just love that community wasn’t afraid to have a clearly queer character who was an absolutely freaky lil guy but was also clearly positioned to be beloved by the audience - and not beloved because he was such a wAcKy GaY spectacle (aka to be laughed at, or funny as a concept), but beloved as a whole character and person, with that person being a wacky one. at the time it was quietly revolutionary for a complex queer character to exist wherein the overarching joke of that character didn’t simply boil down to “queer=other, other=funny” or otherwise suggesting that aspects of queerness are inherently wrong, annoying, misguided, etc. no writer would be upfront about that belief, but to this day many queer characters still exist just as that.
and while the dean obviously could still be wrong, annoying, misguided, etc., it was clearly not as a symptom of his queerness, but as an expression of his emotions and personality through whatever situation he was in at the time. this is helped by the fact that every other character on the show could also be all those things at one time or another: they have all at different points been awful or commendable, ridiculous or grounded, have gone over the top or not done enough.
i think it is a difficult task to write a complex minority character who is comedically charming yet effectively asserted as not a representative, summation, or caricature of their community, all while maintaining a light tone that doesn’t seem heavy-handed or overwritten. we all want good representation, and good representation means including flawed or weird characters of those identities, but that also means always having to consider an additional layer of subtext that must be clear enough pierce through the preconceptions of a more ignorant audience. just enough so that they can realize that the joke isn’t that a gay sissy is wearing a dress, but rather that he dressed impractically and didn’t consider earlier that he has to go to the bank today. though his queerness plays a role in how he presents himself day to day, it is not the subject of the joke or the scene. it’s just a part of who he is.
sorry didn’t mean for this to be so long, but i fucking love dean pelton. and i would listen to you talk about him and community for hours. thanks for this video, didn’t know how much i needed it !!
A lot might be on the actor too whi if intrvies ar tio believed really card and loved that character an play him as fun, but not as a joke, an is so good and his imput, that it works. Whilth how isnt bad, the actor really made it that much of a characer that is fun but he takes very serious. Which lead to him being a genuine great character.
The actor has definitly queer sensitivities too?! An good th riting ran with that genuine characte that is weird buit not afraid to let that top him being himself.
Personally at first I didn’t like the dean, because I’m not a big fan of ppl in positions of authority and specifically as a student I hate it when school events are pushed on me. But then again the dean is truly just a freaky lil guy and if that ain’t a mood then idk what is
Community fascinates me partly because the writers managed to hit on genuinely deep ideas about difficult topics and i swear half the time it was by accident. These were not people who, as far as I could tell, had many ties to communities they showed and sometimes caricatured or much knowledge about them. I frankly doubt that the Dean was intended to be so complex and certainly wasn't meant to say anything important. But somehow the writers stumbled ass-backwards into depictions of marginalized experiences that feel surprisingly real and sympathetic.
Actually when talking about my gender I tend toward similar caveats as the Dean. Like how I don't mind people referring to me as a woman or by "she" and "her." It's not incorrect, just incomplete. I'm a woman....and also some other stuff.
"Good queer representation by accident" is the definition of Community, yeah. Troy and Abed's relationship and Annie's lesbian subtext being two other examples
I don't believe it's was a matter of accidents, i think it was genuine ideas some writers/actors/producers had for such characters but were not further explored or analysed because the show was a (beautiful, but) chaotic, random mess- both content- and production-wise.
Personally I’m just there like if you refer to me by certain pronouns, or use a specific name to address me, even if it’s not my legal name I’ll just go along with it honestly
Imo Britta started out as a sincere activist whose character got Flanderized incredibly quickly
I feel like the change in character happened in season 2 so not really Flanderization more like Harmon trying to pin point the character
I personally relate to Britta’s character a lot. I tend to have similar political thoughts, yet I do nothing to help or spread awareness about the issues as I am already dealing with my own issues just being alive.
I like Brita but the other characters do outshine her. Her character annoyingly bounces between easy butt of the joke and actually funny satire of forced “correct liberal” characters that many modern sitcoms have. I’m a raging liberal but being preached to is real annoying
@@haroldasusus4684 I mean part of it is that Britta is increasingly ideologically incoherent as the show keeps going
she was never a real activist and as the show goes on she just accepted it and stopped pretending imo, her stupidity was a bit annoying but theres even a joke in the show about it
I love having queer characters who don't easily fit into labels. I mean obviously we need more labelled ones too (there is never too much queer) but I love having characters who have to describe what's going on with them like I do, in extended metaphor!
Agreed. I love seeing explicit representation for those who fall under clear labels, and I also love the representation for those who defy labels. The entire spectrum is fabulous and deserves to feel seen! :)
i think community deserves a 10 hour video! that the deans most enduring line is "this better not awaken anything in me" says a lot about how expansive they let his identity be on the show and their incorporation of so many great sources of inspiration. the abba playlist halloween special vis a personal fav
As I grow older, i really appreciate Dean and his sexuality more and more. I also am pretty uncomfortable labeling myself until I explore more and maybe not even then. On the flip side I don't really care much about anyone else's labels for me if it makes it easier because I know it doesn't matter much.
It’s characters like dean who led me to putting less importance on labels. Half the people in my life use he/him for me, but my BF calls me his girlfriend, and I’m mostly feminine/androgynous presenting, so when people ask at this point I can’t be bothered to explain.. I just am who I am and I find such great comfort in that way of thinking. I know labels are important to so many people and they were for me to at certain time in my life. But I truly feel the most myself now that I have stopped trying to label it or figure it out. I hope we continue to see more and more queer representation like this that pushes what straight/cis audiences think a gay person should be.
PLEASE TALK ABOUT DENISE. Lynch's literal self insert talking about people needing to change their hearts or die is one of the best things put on to tv (film?)
As a sexuality of "whatever", but a sadly binary trans woman (who isn't quite as binary as she lets on)... I'll take analysis of Twin Peaks anything!
While I have about a dozen things that I say, "This was really important at making me come out," Dean Pelton is on that list... and so is Denise Bryson.
Hilariously, I am a “whatever” sexuality but I am a trans man who is not as binary as he lets on. Cheers!
@@neothepenguin1257 High five!!
please make "a brief look at community" -- not one minute in and you've hit me with both the prestige tv intro and the perfect delivery of 'happy pansexual imp' this one's so good already! i'd pay for it tbh
please talk about community for 10 hours i want it so bad
shout out to the other three twin peaks fans watching
Yusss!! I relate so much more to Dean's magic handkerchief metaphor than David's wine metaphor on Schitt's Creek.
Dean Pelton the never ending handkerchief will always hold a special place in my heart. He made me realize that most importantly I was trying to shove myself into a box I didn't really fit in. Dean Pelton modeled self acceptance for me, and the fact that I might not know what color of handkerchief might come out of the box next, but either way it'll still be a handkerchief. It's okay to not fully know everything about myself, and nothing will be scary to discover because they'll all be handkerchiefs, they'll all be a part of me, just different colors.
I truly love Dean. I feel like they're one of the many things that's aged surprisingly well in Community. I mean it's not perfect as a show (no show ever is or will be) and definitely has its problems and odd takes at times, but Dean could have very easily come off as a punchline and consistent jab at queerness, but they always managed to keep him an endearing character where his sheer overabundance of queer was just... a part of who he was. The laughter I had for them was always about the extroversion and performances of these displays, not at the 'gayness' itself, it never felt like "haha dean's in a dress, man in dress funny lol", it was "what costume and catchphrase is next?" Despite the fact I'm neither a white man, or a gay dude, I honestly find him to be one of the best representations for me personally. I'm at base born a cis woman, but when it comes to gender, sexuality and all that jazz, i just can't really be bothered with labels for myself. I feel like I'm just whatever, y'know? Sometimes I wanna wear a beard, sometimes I wanna be a scrawny little trash goblin, or a grizzled pirate, or a sexy buff lady orc, sometimes i wanna touch man pecs or lady tits or man tits and lady pecs and nb everything. Dean represents the queers who just wanna be themselves and there's still a lack of that in media. Nothing starts or ends with our queerness, we're the neverending handkerchiefs, not a one and done ta-dah, and i love him for saying that.
Also PLEASE PLEASE DO TALK ABOUT COMMUNITY FOR 10HRS THANKS BYE
I really love this video! Community despite it's shortcomings and DH is a comfort show to me. And holds a lot of memories of me and my friend, watching the show through highschool.
Despite being trans, I haven't actually been able to know how I feel about myself with sexuality. But I think Im comfortable now, just saying my sexuality can be the never ending handkerchief from the magic hat, than something definitive.
And please make more community videos, I won't lie I'm very biased to Troy and Abeds dynamic. (I even gave myself the name Troy after coming out because he represents who I want myself to be)
Okay that's it thanks again
I have a lot of thoughts about Dean Pelton (and Community) so I’m commenting more. The Queer Studies episode benefits from the knowledge that it’s in Season 6- a season where it seems like the thesis statement is “take all the whacky antics of the show and contextualize them for the real world.” That’s the reason behind Frankie’s character too- the straight man (ha) to react in a realistic way to the madness until she becomes a silly cartoon character like the rest of the cast.
At that point in Season 6, we have seen all the jokes about Dean being “gay” or otherwise out there and Queer Studies is about exploring that. In 2015 when the episode aired, being gay was no longer subversive or a punchline on its own. The school board reduces Dean as “just gay” and the rest of the show’s world reacts to that as the Dean has to question his integrity and his comfort in his own ideantity.
I see what you Dean there
As a young man in their 20's, Dean was such a liberation for me. Actually, all the characters were in some way. These were living Shadows existing raw in spite of how much that creates a detriment for them. It's not just the Dean who's "purely who they are", it's all the characters. Warts and all.
That isn't to say that Dan Harmon isn't without his many criticisms. #fixyourheartordie
For the record I’m one of those four people who love twin peaks and would love your thoughts on Denise.
Me too!
same! Now, we just need the fourth person to show up, lol
Not this video coming at the same time that I'm struggling with labeling myself and deciding who/what I am in the realm of gender 🥲 I literally just got out of a therapy session where, among other things, we talked at length about the fluidity of labels and identification 😮💨
Excellent video as always, truly, thank you for this ❤️❤️❤️
ive gone thru my own gender crisis, what helped me the most was when i stopped pressuring myself to try to figure everything out. like its ok not to know. itll take time to get to know yourself enough to articulate it and thats totally fine, it doesnt make you any less valid
you dont decide what gender you are if you have a dick you r a MALE a vagina a FEMALE simple as that. you can imagine your a beautiful canary bird all day but you will never be one. a kid will born with white shin who hangs around black people all his life will never be back as much as he or she may feel like it. learn to distinguish from reality and imagination and behavior picked up from your environment.
As one of the four people who love twin peaks I would in fact love a video on Denise!!!
But your take on dean Pelton is so good!! I'm very genderweird myself, and this really resonates
Lol idk where you got the "four people" from but, i second your idea!
i like Denise a lot as well!
Dean Craig Pelton will only ever be one thing to me:
A Peanut Bar.
Incredible video!
Only thing I can say or allude to is Craig’s “Ideantity” line is also a very clear aspect of his character that integrally tie in to the fundamentals that make Craig who he is and how they use their occupation as an even further expression of self
I do think "dean" is the closest thing that Craig has to a solid gender
Love your analysis! Love Community! LOVE the dean!!! I love that the dean is goofy and queer but his queerness itself isn't really the butt of the joke, it's his overeagerness mixed with his incompetence, first and foremost.
When a friend starts watching Community, I always love hearing their reaction when I tell them that the dean has an Oscar! He cowrote The Descendants which I really loved and found moving (though a little iffy on the politics of Hawaii), and cowrote/codirected a very underrated film called The Way Way Back! While that one isn't gay/queer at all really, I find that a lot of queer people really relate to it and love it (myself included) and would definitely recommend it!
My favorite character, specifically because he does not adhere to any label, he likes what he likes and he does what he does.
Fantastic how this came up less than a week after a friend and I had been talking about Community as a show. We too love it even with the flaws it has. There's something about the show that just feels incredibly human and I would absolutely spend the whole of a day sitting and watching a brief look at Community.
"This better not awaken anything in me"-Everyone on the internet from 2008 to now
You have no idea how obsessed with this show I am. my life revolves around it.
Addressing me as a Greendalian?? THEY/THEMMING THE DEAN????
This video makes me so so happy. If you want someone to collab with on the Community video, that is like, the best possible use of my time
I'm a cis ace dude and I loved this vid as it gave me a lot to think about + made me want to rewatch community for a seventh time. Thanks a lot, love your content, keep up the good work!
Love this. I would actually love a video about the problematic way the show uses Britta as a strawman.
I would absolutely watch “a quick look at community”
Also 14:54 - damn i needed to hear that 😭
Yes, if you ever make it I would watch a 10 hour "brief" look at Community. Loved the show when it was on, but haven't gone back to it since it stopped airing.
I love how you approached this topic!! So often me and my other queer friends will have this discussion. I have said before that I like the term "queer" vs bisexual or pansexual because of all the baggage and discussion those terms currently have. And while that is very true, I also love the term because of its inherit ambiguity and that reflects how I feel about my sexualality and the attraction I feel towards people. I'm someone who cannot watch sad queer representations, I watched Brokeback Mountain as a child and can't handle stories where such vibrancy and love is mushed out. So I was in love with the dean in community, he was goofy and amazing and just 100% a person
Carter from Spin City was a good example of this. An initially well behaved mascot of the community that slowly became more flawed, funny and interesting as the writers became more confident.
The Dean was always my favorite part of the show.
Ok, first off, I'm so glad i found your channel again. Wasn't aware of the rebrand/coming out. So congrats on that.
Now, yeah, i always did like Dean Pelton, and while watching Community, i always feared they were going to fuck things up with the character, and so glad they didn't. And as another Ace Trans woman, yeah, i completely get the "everything else" that lable doesn't portray.
Also, yes pleaae on the Denise Bryaon video. That character was so ahead of it's time as like, the one positive peice of trans representation in the nightmare fuel that was 90's media that kept me so deeply in the closet.
okay this was an absolute banger and i need more community content. also, i fucking LOVE your poster
Loved this video, i wish it was longer and i hope you do a community deep dive 🙏
I haven't commented on many of your videos, but this one really touched me and was so well done, I just had to say bravo! I adore community and hearing you speak about it is just an absolute treat. Honestly, a multi hour deep dive into the show would pretty much be one of my instant favourite comfort video that I would watch an ungodly amount of times!
I totally agree that the characters on Always Sunny feel like real people who reflect the worst of us all. But have you seen Peep Show? Same thing but with two emotionally repressed British people. It’s so good.
Fantastic and persuasive! I'm so happy whenever I see people talking about Community, it's a show thats very near and dear to my heart.
i love community and i’d love to see a video essay on the whole show from you! :D
God i need that brief look at community. I just watched it all and my head is bursting, there's so much to talk about. The way Britta became just a punching bag at some point, Abed being surprisingly good autistic representation (while also fucking it up quite often), Pierce's behavior being simultaneously criticised and excused by the show... Even just the extremely mixed quality of the episodes. I love it and I hate it and I need an absurdly long breakdown of it.
And Twin Peaks. There's probably more fans of it here than you think
Excellent work as always!
Dean Pelton's ambiguity is a big part of what makes him so memorable. Great video!
Just found this video, but I need to put in my vote for a 10 hr long community video, it's one of my comfort shows I love it so much
Another amazing video!
yes please make a video about denise. me and the other 3 twin peaks fans would love to watch it
Love this video!! ps. i would DIE for a 10 + hour community video
Great analysis, thank you for posting!
Thank you so much for this ❤
amazing video as always! as one of the four twin peaks fans in ur audience, i would love a video about Denise!
Love this, I’ve wanted a video about this icon for years! Thank you ❤❤
Agreeing with 10 Hour Brief Look at Community. 10/10 hours would watch
A while ago now, like upwards of a year ago, I worked out that I didn't actually care for lables. They weren't for me, they were for other people who wanted to figure me out. "prefer not to answer" tends to be my answer for any online forms/documents
I love your media analysis. This and your Elden Ring videos are soothing to me. Thanks for your hard work.
Yess please a brief look at community. Love your videos 💕
i loved this video so much!
This video is fantastic!! ❤
So beautifully done Lily!!!
Please talk about Agent Denise from Twin Peaks! I loved seeing her in The Return and would appreciate an in depth analysis of her being on the show.
Great video!
I recently found your channel and have since been binge watching all your content, you make such insightful and fun content! thank you for creating it!!
Okay I'm leaving a like before even watching because it's about time Dean Pelton had his own video! Thanks for making it!
Love your videos!
WAIT WAIT oh my god.
Ace spectrum queen
Please make a brief look at Community! And the Denise from Twin Peaks video!
I’m so happy I found this channel. Thank you so much. And the expression of identity is the most important aspect of being human!
Thank you for this video, it lightened the load of my thoughts
Dean is the furry pup NB pan representation that I needed.
I've already organised my friends to come watch the 10 hour community deep dive, I can't wait
great video as always, but omg love the new hair!
Amazing video ❤
Amazing video.
this video is old but a 10 brief look at community would fix me
I would absolutely watch a 10 hour "brief" look at community
Nice video!
Loved this video :)) a lot of what u discussed speaks to my own experience and I'm glad there's fellow Dean Pelton Enjoyers out there
This is exactly why I've always loved the term Queer. It's liberation from the stifling heteronormativity that keeps many of us from just being ourselves. Nothing else matters. So that's all you need to get across in the word. Dean Pelton is iconic and that line about being a "never-ending handkerchief" explained so much of myself to myself.
Great video! Tbh I'd love more Community-related content
I love your videos SO MUCH!!❤
i am extremely here for a brief 10-hour look at community
I've just started watching community and I would love to hear your thoughts on it for 10 hours
I would love to watch you talking about community for how long you want
I would watch a 10 hour brief look at community in a heartbeat
I like this video, and Dean Pelton is one of my favorite characters in any series I've ever seen.
Really enjoyed this. I've definitely had lots of feelings and thoughts about the character in a similar vein, and you put them very well.
just a heads up for anyone who is thinking about watching the show after this, there is an episode in season 1 where they do use the T slur for a joke, but after that it never happens again, and any reference to the event after is referred to euphemistically.
i'd die for one more video about a brief look at community... that show is straight up genious
i love community sm its legit one of my comfort shows.
i am begging you to make a 10 hour community video i would watch that so many times community is literally my life
Love your hair!
thought your vid on hp was cool but no you are cool as well now because of this community video essay i'm very glad i subscribed (also if we all collectively ask nicely will you make a 10 hour 'brief' look at community, i would watch like a thousand times)
This was a nice video, thank you :)