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DR. IAN DUNCAN
PORTRAYED BY: John Oliver
BIRTHDATE: UNKNOWN
HOMETOWN: BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, UK
DEPARTMENT: PSYCHOLOGY
POSITION: PROFESSOR
FIRST APPEARANCE: "Pilot"
QUOTE: "My name is Professor Ian Duncan and I would like to rap for you. Drop a beat! My name is Ian Duncan and I'm here to say, I'm going to rap to the beat in a rapping way! I've got a real big penis and I drink lots of tea..."
- Professor Duncan, "Pascal's Triangle Revisited"

Dr. Ian Duncan is a psychology professor at Greendale Community College. He was once represented by Jeff Winger back when he was a practicing attorney and since then they have become good friends. He is portrayed by John Oliver. Seen on a recurring basis in Season One and Season Two, Dr. Duncan didn't appear in Season Three and was only briefly referenced in with his name appearing on the cover of a psychology text Britta had.

CareerEdit

Ian has only been at Greendale a couple of years, but he believes it is a fine institution. As a professor of psychology, he often thinks of the human mind. At Greendale, he considers himself solely responsible for the success of the campus "Green Initiative," in which the faculty lounge in the human sciences building was painted a calming shade of green instead of the previous shade of beige. ("[[1]]")

Ian frequently attempts to use the students of Greendale to further his psychology career. He uses several students, notably Troy Barnes and Abed Nadir, to help prove "The Duncan Principle" which posited that the longer a subject was left in a waiting room, the more dramatic the person's subsequent breakdown would be. On the last day of classes for the 2010 fall semester, Duncan took advantage of Abed Nadir's psychotic breakdown that caused him to see the world as though it were in claymation in an attempt to get an article published in a notable psychology magazine.

After June Bauer's dismissal from Greendale, Ian Duncan took over teaching her Anthropology 101 class despite knowing next to nothing about the subject. His teaching style included showing the class various YouTube videos, exploiting his restraining order against Ben Chang, and assigning dozens of dioramas.

During her freshman year, Duncan was assigned to give a year's worth of therapy sessions to Britta Perry. At the end of the year, Britta left disgusted with him, feeling that he had wasted her time.

Personal lifeEdit

Ian was born in London, England but currently lives in Greendale, CO. It is alluded to that he left England after his parents divorced and came to America with his grandfather when he was very young. A couple of years prior to Jeff enrolling at Greendale, Ian ran into some legal problems after driving drunk and trying to order a chalupa from an emergency call box on a highway. Jeff got him off the hook, claiming it was because he loved America and thereafter believed that Ian owed him a favor. He tried to get Ian to give him the Spanish exam answers, but Ian fooled him by giving him blank pieces of paper instead. Jeff appears to be Ian's only friend, and Duncan frequently provides him with cutting psychological insights. ("Pilot") While the two share a rather prickly friendship, Jeff does not actively fight Duncan coming over his house to watch a soccer game and Duncan, though intoxicated, gets the crowd at the Transfer Dance to back off a clearly conflicted and embarrassed Jeff.

Duncan appears to be very lonely. Perhaps as a consequence of this, he has developed an on-again, off-again drinking problem. This first manifests itself during the Spring 2010 Transfer Dance when he drunkenly takes the microphone and begins rapping about the size of his penis, leading to a temporary suspension. He frequently shows up to class inebriated, and when he temporarily stops drinking, alludes to not knowing how to find his way to Greendale while sober.

Ian has a long standing rivalry with Ben Chang. This rivalry began at the trial of Britta Perry, in which they fought over Señor Chang's status as either a professor or a teacher. Their feud came to a head during the transfer dance when Chang took advantage of Duncan's suspension to sock him in the face with a roll of quarters. Duncan subsequently took out a restraining order on Chang. He quickly abused the order, chasing Chang around the campus; as a result, his behavior caused Chang to file a restraining order against him. The two appear to have reconciled, joking with each other at Jeff Winger's party during the Valentine's Day Dance.

Duncan played piano for the Study Group-led Glee Club after the original Glee Club died in a bus accident.