The Art of Discourse

"The Art of Discourse" is the twenty-second episode of the first season of Community and originally premiered on April 29, 2010 on NBC. In the episode, Shirley gets Pierce kicked out of the study group after he humiliates her in front of them, Jeff and Britta have to deal with 3 high school students who make fun of them for being at Greendale and Troy helps Abed complete his list of movie-clichéd college goals.
The episode was written by Chris McKenna and directed by Adam Davidson.
Plot
Jeff and Britta are in the cafeteria when they are asked by three high school students to tell them what they did to end up at Greendale, so they wouldn't make the same mistakes. They call them "schmitty," another way of calling them a loser. Though neither want to admit it yet, they were both affected by what they said. They head to the study room where Pierce is readying to play a song on guitar, because he believes it will give him more of a chance with women. Abed takes and destroys his guitar like in National Lampoon's Animal House, which leads to him revealing his quintessential college experience list, which is a list of all the things movies had taught him about having a good first year at college, which include "bond with a lovable group of misfits" and "take on the school bully." Troy agrees to help him finish his list, and the first thing Abed does is pull down his pants, which leads Troy to do the same to him, crossing two things off his list. Everybody is laughing when Shirley comes in, questioning why everybody is laughing. Pierce responds by saying "this" and pulls down her pants.
An angered Shirley goes to the bathroom to vent, while Pierce believes she should apologize to him for ruining his joke. The high school students show up again and make fun of Jeff, Britta, and Pierce, causing Jeff and Britta to become more angry with them. Shirley then returns from the bathroom to make an announcement to the group. She says that she can no longer stay in the same study group as Pierce, because of his bigotry. The group gives examples such as him calling Britta a lesbian, thinking Troy and Shirley are cousins, and Abed being a terrorist. They then proceed to kick Pierce out of the group.
The next day, Jeff and Britta are waiting for the high school students to show up at the school, and they see the leader with his mom, Chantel (guest star Lisa Rinna). They plan on using the fact that his parents are divorced against him, however he just repeats what they say and says "Duh," unmoved by any of their words. In the study room, Troy and Abed show up with a goat, because they have stolen the mascot from another school. Jeff and Britta make fun of Troy for bringing the goat to the group, leading Abed to infer that the group will all diss each other because Pierce, the scapegoat from before, is no longer there. After arguing about who would be the new Pierce, everyone in the group other than Shirley agrees that they need Pierce back.
They convince Pierce to apologize to Shirley though he doesn't mean it, but the plan backfires when he sits next to the wrong woman on a park bench. Shirley, even more mad at him now, is eventually told by Pierce that it was everyone else's plan for him to apologize in the first place, which leads to Shirley leaving the study group because she is fed up with how everyone else treats her. The high school students walk by and make fun of everyone, and are picked up by Chantel, which gives Britta the idea that Jeff needs to sleep with Chantel in order to gain the upper hand against the students.
The following morning, Jeff woos Chantel in the cafeteria. Shirley and Pierce talk in the library about how they don't get any respect in the group, leading Pierce to say that he respected Shirley more than anyone else, and the two of them finally make peace with one another and agree to come back to the group. In the cafeteria, Jeff's plan is ruined when the high school kid and Chantel see through his act and, insulted, Jeff and Britta finally get in a "Duh" fight with the high schoolers which goes on for over twelve minutes until both sides are nearly exhausted. Jeff and Britta finally win when Pierce and Shirley pants two of the three high schoolers, finally embarrassing them enough to make them lose concentration. The episode ends with a food fight in the cafeteria, with captions telling the viewer what each character does in the future.
Production
The episode was written by Chris McKenna, his second writing credit for the series, and directed by Adam Davidson, his third directing credit for the series.

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