When I was watching this week’s Community, I was on Team Shirley all the way. I was watching it alone on my couch, but I still yelled out, “THANK YOU!” Why? Because Shirley spoke the truth when Britta kept on yammering on and on about her bullshit birth theories at the beginning of the episode: Even if having an orgasmic birth were possible, that is not something you want to be doing on your baby’s head. Seriously? Do we have no sense of decorum any more?
For those of you who don’t know about “orgasmic births,” consider yourselves blessed. However, if you’re curious, here’s a video (there’s no way I’m embedding that nonsense).
This conversation also reminded me about something else: when Shirley said that having an epidural was the only way for a good Christian woman to let loose (it’s not, by the way; it doesn’t affect your head at all), it made me remember that we never really learned anything else about Shirley’s apparent drinking problem. After we saw those posters in the bar at Troy’s party, I really thought we were going to get a storyline about it, but it’s almost the end of the season, and we haven’t gotten anything yet.
In any case, it was nice to see Shirley get more of a storyline than she usually does. Even though she still didn’t get a ton of dialogue, she was at least the center of attention (sorry Neal and his maybe love). One of my biggest complaints about Community is that they do not take nearly enough advantage of Yvette Nicole Brown. She can be hilarious, but unfortunately, she’s often relegated to sassy reactions.
Speaking of her reactions, I completely understand her not wanting to have abed look at her hoo-ha, because who would? However, if I were having a child in front of a group of people in a community college classroom anyway, I’d want the dude who had already helped a lady give birth in the back of an SUV to be helping me. I certainly wouldn’t let Britta anywhere near my business, because she’s so bad at everything.
I didn’t think they could possibly make Shirley’s baby Chang’s, because that would be an abomination (and would also apparently have a tail). It was nice to see Chang actually be human for a little while though and help Shirley through her labor. That dude is probably redeemed less than anyone else on the show, so I enjoyed seeing him help in his own twisted little way.
It struck me as weird that everyone kept on calling Chang “Ben” throughout the episode, since they never do that. But of course it all made sense at the end when we got to meet little Ben Bennett. I loved that.
excellent post. I’m Team Shirley as well and I couldn’t have written a better recap :D Cheers!