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.
@@olz33 just tell them you have good news and bad news! also i just realised i think the "good news" side was the pretty dress and the "bad news" side was the boring school administrator outfit
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.
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 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 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
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 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 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 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 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.
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 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 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
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
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
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!
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
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
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.
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 love that his character is just a weird comical joke in the show but not because of his sexuality or gender presentation, just because he himself is weird and comical. Yes his costumes are often a joke but not because he’s in dresses or heels but because of just how over the top he is. They perfectly show that lgbtq+ characters can be “joke characters” without the jokes being about their sexuality and gender presentation. THIS is how you do queer comedy.
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
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
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.
Imo Dean pelton is such a good example of the complexities of queer identities. In so many other shows with less than ideal representation offensive characters are often dismissed as “not actually trans” or “not actually gay” because a lot of the time identity isn’t that rigid, but the Dean isn’t like that. He’s specifically written to be unspecific, and I love that about him. His identity isn’t undefined because the writers couldn’t be bothered to define it, it’s because they purposefully chose not to.
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 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!!
I second the 10 hour brief look at community, I love this show more than I probably should. Also can you please do The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Shock Treatment.
Community is probably in my top five comedies. What you're saying here is not what I expected to hear. As a straight cis gen x dude my perception of the character was that he was generally played for the dumb laugh. The 'oh look it's a man but he wear dress har har' laugh. Since then I've found that I have dozens of trans friends and coworkers. (game industry is like a magnet for them I guess) And I've never gone back to re-examine the character in light of now having real relationships with multiple trans people. So thanks for this prompt to look closer next time I watch through the series. Also please make that 10 hour video! :)
Ooof the “you tell someone you’re gay and they assume you have an encyclopaedic knowledge of ru paul’s drag race” hits so hard as someone who just never got into it, this is….such a brilliant video! definitely subscribing :) the dean is one of my favourite characters and definitely allowed me to explore my own relationship with labels and gender in a far more nuanced way! I’d never seen anyone like the dean on the telly before, sure some gays, lesbians and bisexuals had popped up and I’d seen plenty of transphobic trans women depicted in films before but I’d never seen anything so…nebulous. It was something really special to see.
its kind of ironic that i started watching community recovering from top surgery. maybe ill jump back into it to prep for that short look at the show? 👀
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)
