'Community' Hiatus Begins After Gleeful Closing Number

The upcoming "Community" hiatus has sparked Internet outrage for about a month, although that doesn't always translate to ratings. But now that the hiatus has actually started, fans of the NBC cult comedy will try to keep the pressure going until Season 3 eventually resumes and a Season 4 becomes a possibility.

Yet in between making fake beards and making "Six seasons and a movie" Twitter tags, "Community" nation will also spend the holidays rewatching - and singing along - with the show's latest Christmas musical epic. As one of TV's most acclaimed little shows that could goes off the air, it left by setting fire to a former little show that is now a highly divisive giant.

Warning: Spoilers follow

"Glee" always advertises itself as an underdog story, although the series itself is one of the bigger Goliaths on television. Its rabid fan base actually drives up ratings and seems to get more powerful the more critics turn on it. Those same critics likely took some "Glee" of their own watching the Greendale crew tear its formula to shreds, as the study group got seduced into putting on a Christmas musical.

By now, it may be old hat to bash the show for all its various clichés and problems, although "Community" did start taking potshots at it two years ago before it became trendy. This time they were more thorough at it with original musical tunes, a deranged Will Schuster knockoff, the "reverse bullying" of "Glee" fanatics, characters literally getting dumbed-down while singing, and constant potshots at the concept of regionals - which fittingly aired two days after the New Directions won sectionals.

In addition, "Community" fans got one more round of their old favorite bits before the hiatus. Troy and Abed combined on two musical parodies, while Britta's tendency to ruin everything actually came in handy, and Annie/Alison Brie set the Internet ablaze with a sexy Santa outfit - albeit during an intentionally unsexy Betty Boop impersonation. For good measure, they even included more out of left field parodies of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "Doctor Who."

This "midseason" finale served as catnip for those dying to save their beloved show and those who have far less devotion to this episode's much more successful, lambasted target. But McKinley High will still go on to keep winning regionals - whatever they are - while Greendale Community College has to close its doors due to a "tiny attendance problem" as their recent College Humor video parody explained.

It may be weeks or months before NBC reveals when the "Community" hiatus will end, although Season 3's 12 remaining episodes are set to air at some point in 2012. When they do, anxious fans may be tempted to sing their own tunes of glee after all their worrying. They will now have a lot of time on their hands to write some original songs of their own, in between singing along to last night's parodies.

Sources

Hulu - "Community: Regional Holiday Music"

College Humor - "Save Greendale (with the cast of Community)"