5 Best Episodes of Community

Community , a sitcom about a group of second-chancers attending community college is possibly NBC's best bet for its next long-running comedy hit. Despite recent rumors the show was on the bubble, NBC has ordered two more shows for Season 2, showing confidence in Community and giving the show a chance to increase its ratings.

In Community, Joel McHale plays Jeff Winger, a lawyer revoked of his license for having faked his bachelor's degree. Forced to return to community college to complete his education, Jeff forms a study group with six other oddball students-Britta, Shirley, Annie, Abed, Troy, and Pierce. With a cast including veteran comedy actor Chevy Chase, Community consistently delivers hilarious episodes, including these five best episodes so far:

"Debate 109" The appeal of Community is how it can be laugh-out-loud silly while still presenting ideas of substance. "Debate 109" was the first episode to show that aspect, as the debate team argues whether human beings are inherently good or evil. For the first time, Abed provides meta-commentary of his fellow students as characters in movies or TV shows, which has since becoming an important recurring device in the show. And Annie and Jeff, as the opposing debate team captains, realize their attraction to each other, which plays out later in the season.

"Physical Education" Danny Pudi as socially-awkward Abed really begins to shine in this episode as Britta, Shirley, and Annie try to help him win the heart of a girl who may have a crush on him. Abed tries out different personalities to win the girl's favor, including a vampire version of himself and a Don Draper from Mad Men persona. The episode ends with the best game of strip pool every played between Jeff and the P.E. teacher. Plus, Troy and Abed channel Bert and Ernie in their closing credits gag.

"Contemporary American Poultry" Arguably, the episodes for which Community is best known and loved are the ones which parody popular TV or film genres. Here, we have the first of those great episodes, a parody of Goodfellas, in which the study group gang starts an underground chicken fingers racket (after getting tired of the cafeteria always running out of chicken fingers) which corrupts the members of the group and knocks Jeff from his leadership position.

"Modern Warfare" The epitome of Season 1 and possibly the most talked-about episode, "Modern Warfare" is an action movie parody that pits the student body of Greendale Community College against one another in a paintball competition to determine who wins priority registration. Every action movie cliché is presented here, from slow-motion shooting to the Die Hard ending, with hilarious effect.

"Epidemiology" The best episode of Season 2 and a great stand-alone episode, "Epidemiology" is a parody of zombie movies which first aired as the 2010 Halloween episode. Even viewers who have never seen one episode of Community will be able to watch and enjoy "Epidemiology," a half-hour mini zombie movie set to the soundtrack of ABBA's greatest hits.

Community airs Thursdays at 8 pm on NBC.