"The Art of Discourse"
◄   Season One, Episode Twenty-Two  ►
Air date	April 29, 2010 on
Written by	Chris McKenna
Directed by	Adam Davidson

Summary: Pierce gets kicked out of the study group while Jeff and Britta plot revenge on a group of high-schoolers. Troy helps Abed complete his checklist of college cliches.

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

Jeff and Britta meet in the Cafeteria before their study session and catch up. Jeff is celebrating a B in Nutrition while Britta is knitting an eye-patch for the cat she recently adopted. Three high-schoolers, taking classes at Greendale, ask for advice. Jeff and Britta assume the trio is looking for tips on succeeding at college but instead the teenagers insult them by facetiously asking how they ended up at a community college in order to avoid the same fate. They walk to the study room, Britta still incensed about the encounter, Jeff claiming to not be bothered at all. However, he blows up at Pierce, who is annoyingly tuning a guitar, showing that the youngsters really got to him. Pierce begins to croon a sappy love song when Abed grabs the guitar and smashes it on the table.

He explains that he's trying to fulfill his Quintessential College Experience List, filled with what movies taught him make a successful college life. Troy offers to assist so Abed quickly pantses him. Troy returns the favor and Abed explains that both actions were on his List. Pierce gets into the spirit of things and pantses Shirley when she enters the room. While Annie tries to comfort Shirley in the bathroom Pierce obstinately refuses to admit he was wrong, going so far as to expect an apology from Shirley for ruining his joke. The Shmitty teens appear and step up their insult attack on Jeff and Britta, including Pierce this time. Jeff continues to be frustrated by his inability to retort. After a brief discussion of Pierce's offensive behavior, Shirley calls a meeting and lays out an ultimatum: either Pierce leaves the group or she does. The group quickly votes and Pierce is out.

Jeff and Britta decide to go on the offensive and lie in wait for Mark, Kelly and Scott to appear. Jeff confronts them with a stinging insult but Mark brushes it off by mimicking Jeff and ending with "Duh!" The three teens continue to play the mocking game until Jeff and Britta run away in defeat. They arrive at the study room just as Troy and Abed show up with a goat they kidnapped as part of Abed's List. Britta releases some of her anger by dissing Troy and the study session quickly descends into chaos as they realized that Pierce was the scapegoat for much of the group's frustration. As Shirley leaves, the remaining members decide they need to get Pierce back in order to restore balance.

The group advises Pierce that he can return by making amends with Shirley. Reluctantly, he agrees. However, he approaches and begins to apologize to another black woman he mistakes for Shirley, who is sitting nearby. Shirley furiously yells at Pierce who maintains his innocence, telling her that the group made him apologize. She confronts the group, telling them she understands where she stands with them and storms off, quitting the group. Right on cue, the Shmitty teens reappear to kick the group while it's down. They walk off to meet their ride, Mark's mother Chantel, when Britta has an epiphany on how to take down the teens: Jeff needs to bang Mark's mom. Annie refocuses their attention on helping Shirley but Jeff and Britta cannot contain their enthusiasm over the new plan.

As the school day begins, Shirley and Pierce park their cars and glare at each other. Chantel drops off the teens and Jeff makes his move. Pretending to be out running, he asks Chantel for a sports drink and quickly charms her. Troy and Abed wheel their robot, Boob-A-Tron 4000, through the parking lot towards a group of coeds running a car wash. Troy gets cold feet, worried that the fallout from the prank could be too severe for him. But when Abed explicitly over-dramatizes the moment by appealing to friendship, Troy rejoins the escapade. Shirley and Pierce both arrive at the library to study on their own. When Pierce learns that Shirley quit the group because they wanted him back, they both commiserate over how they are ignored and disrespected by the group. Shirley is unconvinced when Pierce claims to be the only one who respected her. Pierce explains that he pantsed Shirley because he respected her, knowing it wouldn't diminish her entitlement to respect. Though unimpressed, Shirley accepts this reasoning. Pierce misreads Shirley's approval and moves in to kiss her with predictable results.

Britta watches Jeff and Chantel get along affectionately in the cafeteria when the Shmitty teens arrive. Mark walks up and exposes Jeff's ulterior motives and Chantel quickly turns on Jeff. After noting how terribly Mark has been raised, Jeff starts to leave but Chantel asserts that she raises winners who crush losers like Jeff and Britta. This is the last straw and Jeff, Mark, Mark's friends and Britta are all soon embroiled in an epic 12-minute DUH-off. As Jeff and Britta's resolve wanes, Abed comments that losing the battle will destroy Jeff's and Britta's fragile egos. The Shmitty teens move in for the kill but Pierce and Shirley sneak up and pants them. Momentarily distracted, the teens neglect to maintain their verbal assault. Jeff and Britta rise, victorious, and Chantel berates Mark for getting "pwned" and hustles him away.

Pierce and Shirley tell the others that they would both like to rejoin the group. Troy tells Abed that the List is feeling too forced. Abed agrees, lamenting that classic college experiences never happen organically. At that moment Troy, then Abed, get hit in the face by flying pieces of cake thrown by the Shmitty teens. The cafeteria erupts in a massive food fight as captioned freeze-frames tell us the future of Kelly Cortlandt (Professor of Sociology; Yale University, 2021), Scott Waugh (Michigan Supreme Court Justice; 2045), Annie (Remained Jewish despite ingestion of airborne pork), Shirley and Pierce (Never wed), Britta (Proud owner, used iPod Nano, 2014), Mark Cahill (Medical License Revoked; Whereabouts Unknown), Jeff (Banged Mark's mother. Twice.), and Troy and Abed (will be back in College Cut-Ups 2: Panty Raid Academy).

End tagEdit

Troy and Abed are in the student lounge, discussing their "porn names" which they derived from their grade school and their favorite soft drink, but things get awkward when a pizza delivery guy arrives with an extra sausage pizza.

Recurring themes:Edit

Continuity:Edit

• That just happened: Britta's cat Susie B just died; she mentions her cat was sick in the previous episode Contemporary American Poultry.
• Double take: Jeff yells at Pierce the same insulting question the Shmitty teens asked him and Britta earlier.
• Previously: Abed lists some of his accomplishments during the school year including "bond with a group of lovable misfits" and "take on the school bully."

Running gags:Edit

• Bag-ul: Troy mispronounces and misunderstands the word "scapegoat", thinking it's escapegoat. After being mocked by Britta, he brings up the fact that she mispronounces the word "bagel".
• Bon Appetit!: "If the wallet chain fits... I'm just trying to help you find yourself." - Pierce
• Gasp: Britta causes Annie to gasp and then mimics that gasp. This elicits a more pronounced gasp from Annie and an echo of mocking gasps from others in the group.
• Screw you guys: Pierce gets kicked out of the group for pantsing Shirley. Shirley then quits when the other group members want her to forgive Pierce.
• Butt stuff: Troy and Abed have to walk around with pretzels in their butts, and Troy put mustard on his.
• Zzzzz: Troy pretends to sleep as Shirley realizes that the group were the ones who sent Pierce to apologize.

Pop culture references:Edit

• Shout out:
  • Britta asserts that Winona Ryder knits.
  • Britta claims to have met Sting at a Cracker Barrel.
  • Troy mentions Morgan Freeman.
• Product placement: Mark & Co. ridicule Britta for having a Discman instead of an iPod.
• IMDB:
  • Jeff appreciates Abed's Animal House reenactment.
  • Abed mentions the 2007 film The Bucket List.
• TV Guide:
  • Abed brings up several examples of scapegoat characters from television shows including: Cliff Clavin from Cheers, George Costanza from Seinfeld as well as E, Johnny Drama, and Turtle, three characters from the TV show Entourage.
  • Jeff implies that Mark's mother belongs on a Greendale version of The Real Housewives.

Meta references:Edit

• Homage: Abed reenacts Animal House scene by smashing Pierce's guitar.
• Use your allusion:
  • Abed and Troy engage in numerous escapades reminiscent of famous movie scenes about life in college. The end titles mimic the closing credits style of such college comedy films.
  • Troy and Abed discuss their hypothetical porn names in the study room when a bass riff begins in the background and a pizza delivery guy appears, two well-known tropes of porn movies.
• Up against the wall:
  • Abed comments throughout the episode about various characters, particularly Jeff and Britta and their battles with the Shmitty teens.
  • Pierce and Shirley both note that they aren't often included in the activities of the younger group members.

QuotesEdit

“Excuse me. Hi. We're in high school but we're here taking some classes for college credit.”— Mark

“All right, way to be go-getters.”— Britta

“Thanks. So we were just wondering can you tell us exactly what you did in your lives to end up here so that we don't make the same mistakes? Because if I end up thirty-five and celebrating a B in nutrition in community college, I'll kill myself.”— Mark

“I have done things with my life. Awesome things. I've been to fourteen countries. I helped build a school in Kenya. I once met Sting at a Cracker Barrel.”— Britta

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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