Today in TV History: ‘Community’ Traveled Down a Rabbit Hole To Find The Darkest Timeline

Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone. 

IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: October 13, 2011

PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Community, “Remedial Chaos Theory” (season 3, episode 4). [Stream on Hulu.]

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: By its third season, Community had figured itself out quite well. It knew its audience was more than onboard for its most out-there gimmicks and flights of fancy. Once it became clear that Community wasn’t ever going to attract a bigger audience than it had, creator Dan Harmon was free to follow his weird, self-referential, secretly-not-secret emo streak down a rabbit hole that increasingly seemed that it has no end.

With “Remedial Chaos Theory,” Community fandom found one of their beloved and oft-referenced episodes, with the whole gang gathering at Troy and Abed’s apartment for a party, only for a game of Yahtzee to lead to a roll of the dice whose outcome results in six potential timelines for the rest of the evening. The differences start out as trivial — Shirley’s pies get burned; Britta gets caught smoking — but they eventually start getting more and more extreme. And more and more, the variable of which character leaves the group to fetch the pizza begins to say something about their place in the group. Without Troy’s sweet, optimistic presence, things quickly devolve into violence and fire. Without Jeff’s sarcastic bullying, the group has a fun dance party. It’s that classic Dan Harmon “comedy that reminds you that you’re actually sad” that proved irresistible to his fans.

And, of course, if you’ve ever heard anyone make a joke about “the darkest timeline,” you have Community to thank.

Or blame.

[You can stream Community‘s “Remedial Chaos Theory” on Hulu.]