"Comparative Religion"
◄   Season One, Episode Twelve  ►
Air date	December 10, 2009 on
Written by	Liz Cackowski
Directed by	Adam Davidson

“	You realize there's no other way for me to take this than as a giant middle finger to the most important day of the year.	”
–Shirley

“	December tenth?	”
–Jeff

Summary: Shirley throws a Christmas party, but to her surprise, the rest of the study group all come from different religious backgrounds. Meanwhile, Jeff is off to fight against the school bully.

Contents 1 Plot 2 End tag 3 Recurring themes 3.1 Continuity: 3.2 Running gags: 3.3 Pop culture references: 3.4 Meta references: 4 Quotes 5 Comments

PlotEdit

It's almost winter break as the students at Greendale prepare for their final exams of the semester. In the cafeteria, Shirley hands out presents to the rest of study group. She made them all bracelets with the letters WWBJD which she explains is short for "What would baby Jesus do?". Elsewhere in the cafeteria, Abed is grabbing free cookies for the group when he is accosted by another student for taking the last of the winter doodles. After he shoves Abed, Jeff steps in to defend him. His snarky attitude does little to defuse the situation and instead ends up making the other student angrier. The arrival of the Dean dressed as "Mister Winter"puts an end to the confrontation temporarily, but the student warns Jeff that this isn't over.

Later in the study room, Abed excitedly tells everyone how Jeff stood up for him in the cafeteria. Pierce wonders why Jeff didn't fight the guy while Shirley says she's proud of Jeff for turning the other cheek. Pierce argues that fighting is something men need to do. Britta counters that it's just a way for them to relieve their pent-up gayness. Jeff tries to get everyone back to studying for the finals as he is going to fail unless he passes the last exam. Shirley interrupts and asks when everyone is coming to her Christmas party. She then discovers that each of them have different faiths. Annie is Jewish, Abed is Muslim, Troy is a Jehovah's Witness, Britta's an atheist, Jeff is agnostic, and Pierce is a born again Buddhist. Despite her initial concerns, she decides to open the party to all faiths.

Mike & Co. burst in on the Spanish exam to harass Jeff who is finally fed up enough to challenge Mike to fight. While discussing the pending confrontation with the guys Jeff reveals he has never been in a fight so the others agree to coach him. When she hears about the fight, Shirley interrupts their training session to plead with Jeff not to fight saying that he can't attend her Christmas party if he fights Mike.

At Shirley's party, she tries to welcome everyone but has difficulty concealing her discomfort with the others' beliefs. As tempers begin to flare Shirley proclaims that she wants her new family, the study group, to be together because her old family is falling apart due to her husband's unfaithfulness. Britta points out that Shirley needs to accept everyone, faults and all, if she wants to grow close. With that everyone leaves to watch Jeff's fight.

In the quad, Jeff approaches Mike but realizes that Shirley's friendship is more important than his own pride and refuses to fight. Shirley watches as Jeff stands down only to be sucker punched by Mike. She quickly joins the fray with the rest of the study group. Later, the party is continued and Shirley sings modified and non-denominational lyrics to Silent Night as we see everyone bloodied and bandaged from the fight. Señor Chang walks in announcing everyone passed the exam and Jeff toasts everyone to the upcoming semester.

End tagEdit

Abed sings O Christmas Troy while piling decorations on Troy when Jeff walk in and asks why they do this kind of thing. Troy replies that it's fun so Jeff joins in the festivities.

Recurring themesEdit

Continuity:Edit

• First appearance: Mike is introduced in this episode. He later has a cameo in the Season Two episode A Fistful of Paintballs. Pierce's religion, Reformed Neo Buddhism, makes it's debut.
• Familiar face: The Greendale Human Being returns dressed as a reindeer and pulling Mr. Winter's sleigh with a bike.
• Mad skillz: Shirley sings a lot in this episode and Pierce accompanies her on the keyboard for one of those songs.
• This must be the place: Group Study Room F, the administrations office, the cafeteria, the spanish classroom, the storage room, and the campus quad in front of the library are all featured prominently in this episode.

Running gags:Edit

• Attention students!: Dean Pelton makes an announcement about winter break, the Winter Wonderland display in the quad which has catalogs for next semester's classes, and the appearance of "Mr. Winter" later in the student lounge.
• Nice outfit: Dean dresses up as "Mr. Winter", the non-denominational representation of Christmas.
• Double entendre: Shirley says she is tired of the Dean shoving his P.C.ness (political correctness) down her throat. Troy and Pierce eventually notice that P.C. sounds like penis but miss the more obvious fellatio parallel.
• WWBJD?: Shirley hands out bracelets inscribed with the acronym and is upset when she finds out that the study group follow different faiths from hers. She also pleads with Jeff not to fight Mike and instead turn the other cheek in keeping with her beliefs.
• Gay, he's so gay!: Britta teases Jeff about the homosexual undertones in the fight he has with Mike.
• NOOOOOO!: Annie screams this when she thinks Chang is about to tell Jeff that he failed Spanish 101.

Pop culture references:Edit

• Shout out: Pierce insults Billy Joel and does a role call of nerds who turned into bullies mentioning Mike Tyson, Lou Ferrigno and Rosie O'Donnell. Jeff calls Mike "Chuck Norris", and Troy introduces Jeff to the "Forrest Whitaker eye".
• TV Guide: Abed mentions the TV Show Entourage and Britta mentions the MTV show Punk'd.
• IMDB: Abed mentions the movies My Bodyguard, Meatballs and Full Metal Jacket when trying to describe Jeff's initial confrontation with Mike.
• Name that tune:
  • Shirley sings Joy to the World, Silent Night and Jesus is a Friend of Mine.
  • Kiss with a Fist by Florence and the Machines plays during the fight between the study group and Mike's gang.
  • Troy, Abed and Jeff sing a modified version of O Christmas Tree.

Meta references:Edit

• Use your allusion: Shirley's bracelets are an allusion to the popular 1990's phrase "What would Jesus do?" that was used to promote Christian values. The phrase was merchandised and sold in various forms, particularly bracelets.
• Résumé: Mike is played by Anthony Michael Hall who starred with Chevy Chase in the 1983 comedy National Lampoon's Vacation. Pierce says he knows guys like Mike who "used to be nerds and now are meatheads". This is referencing Hall's transition from nerdy, wimpy roles in teenage movies like the The Breakfast Club to the more mature and antagonistic roles he later had such as the bully in Edward Scissorhands.
• IRL: The religions Annie, Troy, Abed and Shirley practice all correspond to the religions of their respective actors: Alison Brie is Jewish, Donald Glover was once a practicing Jehovah's Witness, Danny Pudi is Muslim, and Yvette Nicole Brown is Christian.

QuotesEdit

“You're a funny man. Wanna hear something funny, funny man? Knock-knock. My fist up your balls.”— Mike

“Who's there?”— Jeff

“What religion are you, Jeff?”— Abed

“I'm agnostic.”— Jeff

[Everyone boos]

“Agnostic. Lazy man's atheist.”— Pierce

“Sup!”— Jeff

“No it's a question.”— Troy

“Sup?”— Jeff

“Not a real question, a rhetorical one. You have the answer he does not.”— Troy

“Then you look straight through his eyes, and deep into his soul.”— Troy

“And then you move to Vermont.”— Britta

“I am sick and tired of you saying that fighting is gay.”— Troy

“She's got a point. You know, in boxing you fight for the purse and the belt.”— Abed

“I've got to write a paper about that.”— Britta

“There's an old Buddhist saying in my vision group-”— Pierce

“You are not a Buddhist, you are in a cult.”— Britta

“Suck it, Nietzsche.”— Pierce

Season One Episodes
1. "Pilot" 2. "Spanish 101" 3. "Introduction to Film" 4. "Social Psychology" 5. "Advanced Criminal Law" 6. "Football, Feminism and You" 7. "Introduction to Statistics" 8. "Home Economics" 9. "Debate 109"	10. "Environmental Science" 11. "The Politics of Human Sexuality" 12. "Comparative Religion" 13. "Investigative Journalism" 14. "Interpretive Dance" 15. "Romantic Expressionism" 16. "Communication Studies" 17. "Physical Education" 18. "Basic Genealogy"	19. "Beginner Pottery" 20. "The Science of Illusion" 21. "Contemporary American Poultry" 22. "The Art of Discourse" 23. "Modern Warfare" 24. "English as a Second Language" 25. "Pascal's Triangle Revisited"
Season One • Season Two • Season Three • Season Four • Season Five

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