No,no, not you. Sorry, didn't mean to upset you. It's just this thing I saw that, well... Have you ever watched a TV show where one of the characters is so terrible (self-involved or horribly inept or just plain mean) that you just can't understand why the other characters would want anything to do with him/her?
I had this experience not long ago, when Chris exposed me to the Dungeons and Dragons episode of Community. I'm not a regular watcher of Community - it's not one of the shows that I religiously record and watch as soon as possible. I do enjoy the show though, and I've seen most of the episodes. I am, on the other hand, a fan of gaming (although not specifically D&D), and any reference to tabletop gaming reminds me of one of the best low budget movies EVER - The Gamers: Dorkness Rising. Seriously - if you haven't seen it, stop reading, go find it and watch it right now.
Meandering back to the topic at hand, I was very excited about this episode of Community, and it really did include a number of great moments. Abed was a great dungeon master (and who didn't expect him to be awesome...), the scene involving Annie and the elf was hysterical, and Chang's dark elf... I would venture to say that this was one of the best episodes of Community that I've seen, so why did I come away from it so unsettled? Two words: Pierce Hawthorne. Pierce is a raging dickhead most of the time. He's selfish. He's rude. He's bigoted. He's mean. Yet his behavior, while obnoxious, is usually amusing and often accompanied by some piece of information that makes it believable (and on occasion even acceptable) that he would act that way. I felt like he crossed a line in this episode - there was no way to rationalize his behavior, it was just too much.
Pierce has demonstrated in the past that he doesn't like to be excluded. (I'm thinking of the episode with the secret trampoline.) He reminds us, from his first appearance in this episode, how badly he reacts to being snubbed. The rest of the group is playing D&D with Fat Neil, trying to make him feel warm and fuzzy so he won't kill himself. Pierce was not invited because he's an insensitive jerk, but he finds them all in the study room and immediately lashes out at Fat Neil for taking his chair/his place in the group. This is classic Pierce and is funny while at the same time making you shake your head at his behavior. At this point he's taken aside and the purpose of the game is explained.
Now, I recognize that the study group as a whole is not the most sensitive or considerate group of people. They often seem to have no concern for people outside of their group, and no awareness of how their actions affect others. However, when they become aware that they have hurt someone (as Jeff did Fat Neil in this episode) they always express remorse and try to make things better. Granted, this doesn't generally extend to Pierce, but I've also never seen him push something so far that it lost the humor for me... until this episode.
Even after being told that the purpose of the D&D game is to prevent Fat Neil from killing himself, Pierce continues to insult and attack Neil, both verbally and through the game. His lack of concern for this obviously emotionally fragile person, and the fact that striking out at the group and at Neil to retaliate for his hurt feelings is more important than another person's life is offensive to me, leading me to my earlier question. Pierce is frequently the foil, often the butt of the joke, and regularly offensive. He is sometimes amusing and occasionally redeems himself with some sort of positive behavior, but it seems like the bad usually outweighs the good. So why does the group tolerate him? Is it just because they feel sorry for him? Granted, by the end of the show, Pierce is displayed in a slightly better light. It's very clear, though, that anything positive that came from his actions was incidental. My question is, how offensive or mean-spirited does a friend have to be before you decide that their behavior is intolerable? Shouldn't the rest of the group be trying to convince Pierce that he's a raving asshat? Shouldn't they be encouraging better behavior? And, failing at that, why would they want to keep this guy around?
In conclusion - and waaaaaay off topic - let me say that I'm watching Julie & Julia, and Julia Child was a rock star.
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