Community: 10 Best Ben Chang Episodes

It is true that Greendale’s Community college is populated by adults. Yet Dan Harmon touches on the idea of stagnation frequently through the series run, and through this theme he allows his wide array of characters to often behave like children.

In “Asian Population Studies”, the study group realises they should welcome a new member into the fold, and Ben Chang is one of these candidates. It may put Ben Chang’s erratic nature under the microscope while he is scrutinized by the group, but the episode in-fact highlights the immaturity of the main cast. The concept of picking members for your friendship group is incredibly reminiscent of a clique. Jeff’s behaviour is that of a jealous teenager. And in general, the arrogance of passing judgement on whether someone will be socially included or excluded is straight out of secondary school.

What’s interesting is that one could argue that in season two, and only season two, Ben Chang is the one being mistreated by the study group. Ben Chang hadn’t done a lot to harm the study group by that point, besides being an irritating teacher. His exclusion from the study group, climaxing in “Asian Population Studies”, could be seen as the future lunatics origin story. The mid-season episode also brings the sub-plot of Shirley’s pregnancy to the forefront, but more on that later.

But what’s so funny? No Winger monologue was harder to pull off than the one in which he attempts to sell Chang to the group as a positive.