I'm not openly anything, and gay doesn't begin to cover it #SixSeasonsAndAMovie All rights belong to NBC, Yahoo!, and Sony Show: Community Actor: Jim Rash
I don’t think I even realized the background stuff. I feel like dean has a whole background of Easter eggs season after season I never realized they kept adding to.
I was just thinking today how underrated this episode is and how well they did an episode about someone who could "come out" but still doesn't even know how to put into words what they would come out as
Honestly, I don't think that the Deans sexuality even has a name. It is beyond the realm of your ordinary, garden variety sexualities. His is a new species.
@@ewwpoorpeople5684 ironically I’m also asexual (this is a quote I saw on tiktok) but I’m also biromantic and very kinky. Basically I’m a mixed signal.
@@devinxoxo8350 a couple things: 1) there are non-sexual forms of BDSM (e.g. spanking) which are still considered kinks but aren’t inherently sexual. 2) someone can have a sex drive, sexual preferences, and enjoy sex and still be asexual. Asexuality is a lack of sexual attraction, not a lack of pleasure from sex. Some asexual people are sex favorable, meaning they enjoy sex but don’t feel sexual attraction to specific individuals. Personally, I’m sex averse, meaning I don’t want to have sex.
I loved this show for giving me permission to not categorise myself and pointing out the fact that categorising oneself within a group limits your individual freedom of expression by making you responsible for how that group is perceived. It’s way easier to like what you like when you don’t take labels. Thanks, Dean. You taught me the most important lesson I’ve ever learned.
@@Mugruncher always remember: labels are descriptive, not proscriptive! They describe, they don't define. You can be whatever you want to be, and labels are nothing more than a convenient way to summarize that. As for "making you responsible for how that group is perceived", like Troy said to Shirley in the first paintball fight, "I am not an ambassador." The responsibility for how a group is perceived is on those doing the perceiving.
Of course he's being ironic. Everybody knows the Dean has a crush on Jeff, just as much as every normal human being is an empath. If you don't feel empathy, that's the literal definition of a psychopath
The way Rash plays this character...it's uniquely tasteful. It's shamelessly over the top and yet every second is artfully crafted and nuanced. First watching the show I dismissed him as a "haha, because gay" type character. Maybe that's how it started. But he really is talented.
And the proof of the pudding: the Dean / Rash at the end of S5E2, pressed against the study room window, thinking that ridiculously, wonderfully poignant homemade French torch-song: "like the sailors who smoke cigarettes by the canal..."
Yeah I’ve been thinking about this recently and it’s interesting. He has elements of stereotypical gay characters in sitcoms but he’s given more layers that make him feel fleshed out. He also has some amazing lines and his character is really likable
I loved when Jeff and The Dean had moments like that, they actually had a lot of fun together and despite Jeff pretending otherwise he obviously did care about him, along with everyone else at Greendale❤
@@AlessandroPioltelli I love them both and i find them equally funny, but i think Holt is a better queer character because he turns every queer character stereotype on its ass and has better character development.
Only one I believe you forgot: “And yes, this is a ladies Uncle Sam outfit, it’s my sisters, it was last minute” “I wonder if that’s the same sister who emails me to ask if I think her brother is cute”
I'm convinced the olives thing is so that Jeff always relates olives to The Dean for the rest of his life. It's basicaly Dean making sure he lives just as rent free in Jeffs head as Jeff does his.
You know this the first time that I noticed that the "vision board" was a running gag or that after he watched that dalmatian video his office progressively got more dalmatian decorations throughout the show lol amazing little details by the crew
I love that Dean Pelton was representation for the "weird" side of sexuality and gender expression. The fact that his identity doesn't get covered by traditional labels, consistently confuses everyone around him, seems to ebb and flow and change AND is never presented as "wrong" or "silly" but instead as 100% OK is marvelous representation for those of us in the LGBT community who have similarly hard-to-define identities or struggle with labels and explanations. Truly A+ queer rep, we need more characters like Dean Pelton.
Personally I felt like it was trying to make queerness a joke like the homophobic/transphobic trope where the LGBT character is there to be made fun of,, but I still like the character anyway lmao.
@@thebuilder5271 his queerness itself isn't the joke (I think the gay dean episode best shows this point ) tho certain things somewhat related to it is like his weird kinks and obsession with Jeff are tho those same traits could very well be applied to straight characters and it could still be applied as a joke....
@@thebuilder5271 He's a character who has jokes made at his expense, but that's literally everyone in Community. He's never singled out, never MORE joked about or at than literally anyone else in the show, but also never LESS. So his sexuality is not the joke, but it also isn't exempt from the same level of fun-poking as everyone else. Pitch-perfect representation: equality.
@@bigdongkong1854 I wouldn't say we look up to him but when this show was made this character would of been one of the first characters that represent a person with gender expression like this. The Dean isn't actually the greatest person as he sexual harassed jeff in a way, like if he was straight and Jeff was a woman it would be viewed very differently, also the Dean has been shown to be racist many times in the show. God this is a long comment sorry
“None of your business and barely the whole truth” is also how I respond whenever others assume my sexuality 😂😂 I love Dean and by extension Jim Rash for all the ambiguous queer representation he’s given us
They also have props representing the different episodes. Like the RC on the table is referencing the trampoline episode, or more accurately the few days before it happened when Troy and Jeff were really into RC cars
So, was the portrayal of the dean's sexual harassment of Jeffery as humorous deeply troubling or is he a fantastic character who brings life to the series? Possibly both!
Yeah that's exactly what I thought watching this lol, it's like a lot of his personality is the tired trope of the depraved gay character played as a joke, but there's also so much about him that's fantastic, so I'm kinda conflicted.
Whether is it harassment or not depends on how it makes the other person feel and in the case of Jeffrey he's at best annoyed by it not even in a serious way and just shrugs it off it has zero effect on him psychologically so harassment is an overstatement. However, let's say the dean does the same thing to another person and this other person happens to be vulnerable to this sort of advances it makes him uncomfortable, uneasy and afraid if said person expresses these feelings in any shape or form and the dean does not care and continue then it would harassment point is not all actions affect everyone in the same way humans are pretty compex creatures to simply put them under one label.
@@yanieelidrissi2562 That may add up in real life, but this is fiction. And it may not be harassment, but it is behaviours deeply associated with harassment. The dean invades Jeff's privacy by going into his emails, blackmails Jeff to spend time with him, constantly touches him, and all this while he has power over Jeff--first as his dean then as an employer. Jeff may not react significantly--so maybe it isn't harassment--but I'd argue this is more an issue of how the dean as framed as not a threat (probably relating to his being a LGBT+ man) and Jeff as the a male protagonist, who traditionally shouldn't be swayed by his advances. This unintentionally normalizes these behaviours and may even contribute to a culture were men are not comfortable coming forward with harassment.
It's so interesting the way you can tell that all of the touching of Jeff was super choreographed and he was trying to play it off as casual Incredible acting
One of my favorite bits is Jeff and the Dean silently talking while Frankie is speaking because as much as Jeff doesn't want to be friends with the Dean, they are lowkey besties
Dean is ridiculous, mellow dramatic, and often a control freak, but he's also legitimately hardworking and genuinely cares for Greendale with all his heart.
Three things. One, Dean Pelton liberates us all. Two, I have a theory Jeff hated Mr.Rad so much because he was jealous. Three, Dean's obsession with dalmatians stems from his love of firefighters.
its funny how the characterization just builds up over the quick jokes and screentime. like the dalmation thing slowly developing over the first season and then the finale he invited two people in dalmation costumes 😂 hilarious
I'm 5 minutes into this and I'm predicting that half of this video is him thirsting over Jeff. Edit: After finishing the video I'm thinking at least 60%.
@@supermelon928 It was about the dangers of turning a person into a symbolic icon for a group of people, not about representing people who can't find labels that fit them. It's the same reason that Abed was never given a specific diagnosis. Giving characters specific identity labels allows for fans and non-fans to project their own biases about those identities onto that character. For people who identify with that character, any step outside of that label can feel alienating and misrepresented. For people who are bigoted against that character's identity, they'll look for any excuse to demonize it. Both completely dismiss the nuances and complexity of...being a human being. It's dangerous in fiction but even more dangerous when it happens in real life and it happens with race, gender, sexuality, neurodivergence, etc. It is forced representation, not HOLISTIC representation. Dean being forced to identify as just gay in that episode shows how turning yourself in to a public symbol for "representation" strips one of one's autonomy. Everyone, both gay and non-gay, thought they had a say in how he lived his life and the choices he made. And yes, it really is that deep. Frankie explicitly states it and she's right. Sexuality labels are also hard for me like both you and OP have stated. But the reason they're so hard because people are so god damn obsessed with over-taxonomy. They treat labels like boxes that one must fit into exactly to be allowed in, but the size of the box is different for everyone trying to gatekeep it so no one can truly fit inside. So, they over do it with subcategory after subcategory so everyone can fit into their own little alienating boxes. They should fit like badges that anyone can wear anywhere on their body without it being the only defining thing about their identity. They should be allowed to wear any badge that fits them by their own understood definitions and lived experiences without feeling like an unworthy imposter for not fitting in the box the "right" way. If I tell you and someone else to imagine a tree and to then draw it, you won't draw the exact same tree as them. And tomorrow you will not draw the same tree you drew yesterday. The word "tree" runs through the filters of your specific personality and your life experience. Forcing someone to draw a tree the exact same way as you is forcing them to ignore their own thoughts and experiences in favor of your own. That is the issue with forced representation, it allows for no difference or complexity; it creates stereotypes, not human beings. So yes, Dean Pelton and Abed do represent me in some ways but they're not made for me and me alone. They don't wear all the same badges as me. They don't draw the same trees as me and I shouldn't expect them to. If they were labeled as "just gay" or " just autistic" other people could gatekeep them and shut me out and the parts of me that belong with them would feel severed off and detached. Sorry for going on a rant. I feel very powerfully about the show and that episode in particular and I get triggered when people over-simplfy it to fit their comfortable narrative.
