Community’s "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" Episode: Is it Racist?

If you’re not a fan of the long-cancelled TV series Community you won’t have heard the news that Hulu, Sony, and Netflix pulled the episode Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

Here’s a basic summary of the sub-plot which resulted in its disappearance from streaming services.

• Chang wears blackface while cosplaying as a D&D character.

• Shirley calls him out about it, but he brushes it off by saying he’s a dark elf or “drow”.

• Chang’s D&D character is killed off during the game.

I think we can all agree that:

1. Blackface is wrong.

2. Racism is wrong.

3. Black Lives Matter is an important movement trying to bring an end to endemic racism and police injustice.

So, at first glance, Sony, Hulu, and Netflix made the right decision.

However, here’s the problem…  Community is not a ‘first glance’ show. By ‘first glance’ I mean a show that you watch with your brain turned off. I mean, yeah, you can just sit there and absorb the jokes and be done with it, but Community was never just about that. The characters learn things, and they experience growth, whether it’s for good or bad.

The main cast of characters are shown as flawed individuals with quirks. They’re also a diverse bunch. Abed is clearly on the autism spectrum, and he’s a non-practicing Muslim. Shirley is a single Mom just trying to do right by her kids and live her dream. She’s also a devout Christian. Troy is a young man trying to figure out his place in the world and fiercely protective of Abed. Pierce is older than the rest of the group, and he’s constantly trying to win their approval but goes about it in all the wrong ways. Annie is young and impressionable, and an ex-addict. And Britta is, well, Britta. Finally, there is Jeff Winger, a former lawyer who lied his way into a law firm. He’s found out, and forced to leave the firm to get a real law degree. He’s a man, he’s white, he’s good looking, and he’s all privilege. Attending a community college is his worst nightmare.

The characters feel fresh even now. There hasn’t been a character like Abed on TV before or after Community. This doesn’t feel like a show that has a racism or a religion problem.

However, let’s switch the conversation back to the sub-plot. The other thing to note is that Chang is a terrible human being. He gets a sort of redemption near the end of the series, but he’s a guy focused exclusively on obtaining power. He has few positive character traits and starts his own child army of security guards (the Changlorious Bastards) for the express purpose of assuming control of the college. (You’ll need to watch Community to understand that weird plot point.)

Chang is kicked out of the D&D game with his character’s death. This seems to emphasize the point that blackface is wrong, and Chang’s excuse that he’s a ‘dark elf’ is also wrong (and a comment on the racism bubbling along in D&D). You could argue that its a cheap joke and shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but it could also be argued that the writers were emphasizing what a turd of a human being Chang actually is. Chang is a narcissist, has issues with authority (he wants it and is prepared to do anything to get it), and is just generally awful. The character of Pierce is also awful, but in other ways.

Turning up in blackface and then claiming to be a dark elf, while making everyone angry, is exactly what a person like Chang would do. It’s all about being outrageous to get a reaction, and then gaslighting everyone by saying that it’s a joke, or it’s not what it seems. So, yes, the writers could have have decided not to write that scene, but at the same time, it’s in line with Chang’s character and a good commentary on how some people will do anything to get a reaction from others.

The YouTube channel Gamer Greg breaks down this issue, along with the issue of fantasy races in D&D.

Now that we’ve talked about Chang, let’s talk about the episode’s main plot line.

What this episode is actually about is that fact that a character nicknamed Fat Neil is prepared to kill himself. This is an episode about bullying and depression. The D&D game is a plot mechanism to talk about the issue.

In the episode, Neil is harassed at the community college. Jeff Winger isn’t always the most self-aware, but he realizes that Neil is depressed and pretends to like Dungeons and Dragons as a way to befriend Neil.

Jeff realizes what's at stake when Neil gives his much-prized D&D books to Jeff, and says he won’t need them anymore. Jeff, along with Annie, enlists the aid of the study group to find a way to help Neil.

The study group rally to Neil’s aid. They plan to invite Neil to a D&D game that Neil will win and hopefully regain his self-confidence and self-esteem during the campaign.

During the campaign Chang’s dark elf character is killed and replaced with an even more terrible human being: Pierce Hawthorne. Who proceeds to wreck the game by bullying Neil and reading ahead in the D&D guide so he can figure out how to win.

Pierce is straight out evil in this episode. He belittles and humiliates Neil, and then tells Neil that Jeff was the one that coined the phrase ‘Fat Neil’.  Pierce is so awful that viewers can only cringe at Pierce’s rampant displays of cruelty. However, in a twist on the entire setup, Peirce is revealed as the most pitiful one in the room. He’s a bully, and he wants to exert control over the group. Neil defeats him in the game, reducing Pierce to what he really is: a sad old man.

With Pierce’s ego shattered, Neil, a kind soul, invites Pierce to play another game the following week.

In the episode Neil must find his path to inner peace, stand up to bullies (Pierce), and realize that there are people out there who care about him.

Which brings me back to the first glance thing. At first glance this episode features blackface. But the episode is actually about depression. In a culture that still doesn’t like to discuss these things, or marginalizes people with mental health issues this is one of the few shows that addresses it in a meaningful way. Neil remains a complete person with multiple facets to his personality, rather than being reduced to a helpless child in need of rescuing by more well-adjusted people.

Sony, Hulu and Netflix have essentially said: bullying, and depression don’t actually matter. We don’t want to talk about it, and we’re prepared to sweep it under the rug.

Pulling an episode because a character appears in blackface should be weighed up against a corporation saying an episode about depression is of no consequence.  

Like I said, ‘first glance’ doesn’t work with Community. You need to view the episode through multiple lenses.

Personally, I think a good compromise for this episode would involve placing a warning on the front. This would allow the episode to be available while acknowledging the issue of Chang appearing in blackface. Viewers could make up their own minds whether to watch it or not.

Fargo Explains The Origins of Crime

If you’ve watched shows like Criminal Minds, or NCIS: (insert city name here), you’ll know that the criminals on those shows are creepy bastards. Usually they’re not arrested until the end of the show, just in time to wrap things up for the end credits. The criminals are smart, and somehow able to cover their tracks, even when they’re leaving clues. Absolutely none of them have anything that could be defined as a character. They exist to commit terrible crimes, twitch a lot and stare menacingly into the middle distance until such time as they’re caught.

It makes for a good crime show, but there’s nothing really ground breaking when it comes to defining how a bad guy/gal actually ticks.

However, Fargo (the TV show) is firmly embedded in the theory that people who commit a crime are, for the most part, more than capable of recognizing that they’ve done something horrific, but in the spirit of keeping their self-image intact, they ignore it, or justify it.  For these characters denial really is a river in Egypt. Which is a great lesson for any writer trying to create a memorable villain for their story. Don’t think of these characters as villains. Think of them as people who are still convinced that they’re pleasant enough, even when they’re shooting people in the face.

In Fargo’s world, the reasons for murder are straight forward. Fargo’s murderers are nice, ordinary, law-abiding folk from Minnesota. But just under their façade of normal lurks a character flaw. They hate their wife but won’t get a divorce, and they hate their brother but won’t break off contact. They love their wife just a little bit too much, to the point where they’ll do anything for her, even bad things. They envy their brother but won’t broker a peace and fester with resentment about how they’ve been done wrong.

Once the flaw reveals itself, usually in a moment of impulsiveness, the person–rather than own up and admit what they did–digs themselves into a deeper hole, all the while thinking that their scheme to climb out of the hole will eventually solve their problem.

The worst thing for all of these supposedly normal people is that in their attempts to fix their little problem, they inevitably run into people who are capable of doing truly monstrous things. While justifying it to themselves. Psychopathic contract killer for hire? Just a man who is honest with himself about how the world functions. Crime family orchestrating shake downs and drug running for money? Why, they’re just a family trying to protect their own. Mysterious Russian dude with an eating disorder, bad teeth and a penchant for executing anyone who stands in his way? A put-upon middle manager who can’t understand why people aren’t enamored with the thought of becoming rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Let’s review our ‘bad guys/gals’ from Fargo.

(Spoilers Ahead)

Season 1. Lester Nygaard is an insurance salesman. He lives an ordinary lower middle class life. Lester seems to be a mild-mannered guy. He doesn’t fight back when his childhood bully hits him. He puts up with his wife constantly belittling him. At any moment, Lester’s rage might erupt but he tamps it down. Lester is finally pushed over the edge by a washing machine that has an awful spin cycle and the unkind comments from his ever pushy spouse. Lester has a brief moment in which he could step away, but doesn’t. Next thing you know, he hits his wife on the head with a hammer. Having already unknowingly made a deal with the devil in the form of a psychopathic contract killer, Lester attempts to cover up his crime, and the contract killer is happy to oblige. In the interim, Lester denies his involvement with the murder, and keeps up his façade of being a nice guy, even as it becomes increasingly clear that Lester might just be a psychopath himself. And of course, just when Lester thinks he may have managed to get away with it, karma ensures that he doesn’t.

Season 2. Peggy Blumquist is a beautician who dreams of having… well, of having some sort of amazing life somewhere else. She reads magazines (lots of them), while trying to get the money together to attend a seminar so she can ‘self actualize’. Her husband, Ed Blumquist, is a butcher by trade. Their lives are again, lower middle class. Ed dreams of owning the place where he works so he can progress up the ladder of the American dream. Unfortunately for both of them Peggy manages to run into another human being on the road. The human being ends up with his head through the car’s windshield. Rather than call for help, Peggy drives home in complete denial. She parks the car and goes about her evening. Ed later investigates the garage and finds said human alive, but Ed, somewhat startled, kills the guy. What they don’t know is that the dead human being is the son of a crime family. And again, rather than admit what they’ve done, the couple proceed to double down and try to clean up their mess, only to make the mess even bigger. Ed loves Peggy enough to do anything she asks, and Peggy knows enough to manipulate Ed to go further than he should. Ed is too devoted to Peggy to tell her to stop and Peggy is in total denial about what she’s done. Their paths inevitably cross with people who are true killers, and Peggy’s capacity for murder comes to the fore.

Season 3.  Ray Stussy is a probation officer who resents Emmit, his wealthy twin brother. Ray’s resentment soon crystallizes into a plan to obtain what he thinks is rightfully his and he blackmails an addled parolee to steal from Emmit. This goes horribly wrong when the parolee goes to the wrong address and murders an innocent man. Meanwhile, Emmit has his own issues to deal with when he realizes that he’s inadvertently managed to form a partnership with a shady corporation. Both men try to dig their way out, until their paths intersect, and only one brother is left standing. But not for long. Inevitably karma catches up to the remaining brother. Both of them fail to acknowledge the fact that they willingly got themselves into their situations in the first place by refusing to deal with their reality. Emmit fails to perform due diligence on the company he borrows money from, and Ray refuses to grow up and get on with his life.

As most writers know, the art of writing a truly compelling ‘bad guy/gal’ is to ensure that the bad guy/gal is unaware that they are bad. Bad people should always believe they’re doing the right thing. Or, if they have the capacity to realize that they might be doing the wrong thing, they’re able to dismiss this thought and maintain their self-image. In Fargo, all of the characters are desperate to survive, desperate to keep their lifestyles intact and more importantly, desperate that in the end, they can still think of themselves as okay people who just made one tiny mistake that happened to be murder. Which they didn’t intend to do. It just sort of happened.

If you need a master class in how to write fully rounded ‘bad’ people, you should watch Fargo.

Dan Harmon raps about writing and drawing cartoons

One of the funniest things I’ve found on the Interwebs this year. Dan Harmon raps about Rick and Morty’s third season at a Harmontown session. (Wipes tears of laughter from eyes.)