Cooperative Calligraphy

"Cooperative Calligraphy"
Community episode
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 8
Directed by	Joe Russo
Written by	Megan Ganz
Production code	208
Original air date	November 11, 2010 (2010-11-11)
Episode chronology
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List of Community episodes

"Cooperative Calligraphy" is the eighth episode of the second season of the American comedy television series Community, and the 33rd episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on NBC on November 11, 2010.

Plot

The group is working on a project for Professor Duncan in the study room when the dean walks in carrying a puppy and invites them all to a puppy parade hosted by the local shelter. The study group (with the exception of Jeff, who has a date) decides to go, but Annie loses her pen and demands that the group find it, saying, "I'm afraid, I am putting my foot down".^[1]

To find the pen, the whole group searches the study room. Abed points out that things are starting to look like a bottle episode.

Britta tries to go, but is stopped short because of Annie, who asks her to empty her bag before she leaves. Britta empties it indignantly, but the group does not find the pen in her bag. Just as others are about to leave, Britta stops them from going, saying that since she had to go through the humiliation of getting her bag searched, everyone else would too.

Annie demands Jeff to "deal with the situation". Jeff says that the thief, whoever he/she is, is not letting go of the pen because they feel terrible, as they waited too long to come out and accept that they have the pen. He decides that the pen thief should relinquish the pen at his count of three, and he/she will not be judged. Pierce then proposes that Jeff took the pen. This infuriates Jeff, and he carries forward a lockdown and cancels his date, determined to find the pen.

Jeff sets up a bag-searching station and goes through everyone's bags in search for the pen. They get to Abed's bag and find a chart in his bag. It turns out he's been charting their menstrual cycles of the ladies so that he can better know how to speak to them on a daily basis. With that, Shirley is the only one left to search and she's refusing to cooperate. Pierce fakes a sudden pain so he can steal Shirley's bag, and when Jeff opens it, they find a pregnancy test. Shirley explains she rekindled her relationship with her ex-husband, but Abed uses his chart show that she wasn't ovulating over the weekend. Her ongoing fight with Britta over religious rules about sex comes to a boiling point just before Jeff finally loses it, tearing the library apart to find the pen.

Annie yells for them to stop because it's just a pen, but this just makes Jeff turn on her and accuse her of finding the pen and keeping it secret since she's the reason the whole thing started. They start strip searching themselves in anger, but Abed proposes that they divide the room by gender and have everyone strip searched. They do it, but no one finds the pen, so the guys cut off Pierce's casts in hopes of finding it in there. However, they do not find the pen.

The group sits defeated; feeling that the person who stole the pen is inconsiderate. Jeff says that it's more likely that ghost took it than it is that one of the people in the study group doesn't belong there. Satisfied, the group leaves the study room.

In the end, however, it turns out that Annie's Boobs (the monkey) is the one who stole all the pens – and whole slew of other study group things.

Reception

In its original broadcast, "Cooperative Calligraphy" reached approximately 5.635 million households with a 2.0 rating/6% share in the 18-49 demographic.^[2]

The episode received positive reviews from critics, with Michelle St. James of Daemon's TV writing, "From Annie’s primal scream to almost every single Troy line ('Do they find thoughts in our butts? I knew I should have read that book.'), “Cooperative Calligraphy” is packed with hilarity, character development, and puppies."^[3]

Cory Barker of TVsurveillance wrote, "'Cooperative Calligraphy' is both the culmination of the last 15 episodes and the catalyst for a number of surely-awesome plots and episodes to come. It’s a reminder that Community can be just as hilarious when telling intensely personal and small-scale stories as it is when riffing on pop culture’s biggest genres and formats. And that’s why it is television’s best comedy."^[4]

References

1. ^ http://www.hollywood.com/news/Community_Recap_Cooperative_Calligraphy/7729134
2. ^ http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2010/11/12/thursday-final-ratings-fringe-community-30-rock-outsourced-the-office-adjusted-down-bones-my-dad-says-adjusted-up/71871
3. ^ http://www.daemonstv.com/2010/11/11/community-cooperative-calligraphy-review/
4. ^ http://tvsurveillance.com/2010/11/13/community-cooperative-calligraphy/

External links

• "Cooperative Calligraphy" at NBC.com
• "Cooperative Calligraphy" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Cooperative Calligraphy" at TV.com
• "Cooperative Calligraphy" at TV Tropes