Is the Jeff and Annie relationship on Community creepy? – Quibbling Siblings

Bob:

As Deb is stuck in the dark this week (more than usual) still recovering from the freak snow storm from the weekend, I figured I would take you on, Julia. I know one show that we both adore is NBC’s Community. I wanted to ask you about one of the hot button issues on the show: the relationship between Jeff and Annie. It seems like a lot of folks are totally creeped out that there might be a romantic pairing there. I just don’t get it. I think part of it is because I have a really hard time seeing Alison Brie as a 20 year old. My frame of reference for her before Community was her portraying a mature homemaker in the 60s on Mad Men, talking about having a family and taking care of her husband. Because of Mad Men, the character always seems older in my brain, so I’ve never been creeped out by the idea of her and Jeff together.

So tell me, what’s the big deal?

Julia:

Oh, man, where do I even begin. There are so many reasons I just cannot stand Jeff and Annie together, but age isn’t one of them. Or, well, I should say that age in the traditional sense isn’t one of them.

I’m someone who’s always been pretty mature for their age, I tend to go for guys who are older than me, so it would be pretty hypocritical of me to have an issue with that part. I am a big believer in Age Ain’t Nothin’ But A Number, but there are things like maturity and experience and where you are in your life that are related to what age you are. In Jeff and Annie’s case, Annie puts on a good show, but when it comes down to it, she’s shown time and time again that she’s a little kid at heart. She’s smart, but she’s exceedingly petty. As her horror story shows, she doesn’t seem to view her relationship with Jeff in a light more mature than casting herself as Belle in Beauty and the Beast. (Though, to be fair, I do that too sometimes, but it’s only so I can twirl and sing and stuff.) She’s at a point in her life where she still has no idea who she is, and Jeff’s at a point where he knows exactly who he is and isn’t willing to change much of anything. Jeff’s lived a lot of life, she’s lived barely any. And this might be okay if Jeff made her into a more mature person or brought out the best in her, but instead she and Jeff constantly compete and snipe like little kids and bring out the absolute worst in each other. (See: the election episode, among others.)

Between Jeff and Annie being at such different points in their life and the dynamics of what they bring out in each other, it makes their relationship creepy and paternalistic. And it really has nothing to do with age, when you get down to it, because they could be the same age and have this same dynamic play out. It’s the differences in the ages they act that totally creeps me out and turns me off.

Bob:

Yeah, I was referring to maturity level when I was talking about the Mad Men preconceived notions. I’m too used to watching Alison Brie talk about babies and where to “summer.” I fully admit that this might be skewing my perception.

With that being said, I have to point out two things: Jeff is a creep and Annie has a type. Yes, the dynamic can be a bit paternal at times, as they both have admitted this season, but do you really believe that would stop Jeff? While he is at a different point in his life (though one could argue that they are both in college, a huge stage of life, at the same time), I don’t think Jeff is very mature. As for Annie, she has shown on a number of occasions that she is attracted to older men. First there was her relationship with Vaughn, who was quite a bit older, then there was Dr. Rich, who she had a crush on. Jeff certainly is in the same ballpark as those guys age/maturity/stage of life-wise. Let’s not forget that Annie has shown an attraction to the “bad boy” type before too. Remember last year’s paintball episode when she fell for Han Solo Abed?

At the end of the day, I’m okay with the relationship as long as it stays funny. This is a comedy show, and if the writers can keep mining the flirtation and awkwardness of the attraction for laughs, I’m good with it. Besides, at this point, isn’t it sort of a joke that nearly every pairing has been explored on this show — including Britta and Chang?!?

Julia:

Okay, for the sake of this argument, let’s say maturity isn’t an issue – that still doesn’t negate the fact that Jeff and Annie bring out the absolute worst in each other. They make each other pettier and more righteous, and even if they were the exact same age, that’s a terrible basis for a relationship. I’m generally not fond of anyone in the study group doing anything more than having random hook ups with each other, to be honest, and if they are going to, I’d rather it be like Jeff and Britta having secret sex all of last year, or Annie and Abed making out during paintball, or basically anthing that’s not some long, drawn-out relationship. Those can be written off as jokes, but when there’s a consistent awkward sexual tension thing like there is with Jeff and Annie, it feels less like a joke and more like the writers are trying to make it into an actual thing. (I have a lot of theories as to why they’re doing this, but it involves my personal belief that finished products say more about the creator than anything else, paired with unqualified psychological analysis based on episode commentaries. It boils down to my feelings that Annie is an avatar that (male) Community writers live out fantasies through with Jeff, but I’m tired and that’s heading into the murky waters of zero evidence, so let’s just leave it at the fact that I feel that way and it just endears me to the relationship even less.)

I’m all for joke relationships – in fact, that’s what I largely think of Britta and Troy as – but I think what keeps me from taking this as a joke is the heartfelt tone the show plays this with. Britta and Troy or Britta and Chang is clearly a joke, whereas Jeff and Annie always has the moments of emotional music and them telling each other how much they really care, blah blah blah, whatever. There’s only so long you can play a relationship as a joke before it stops being a joke and starts becoming something real. If Jeff and Annie had remained a joke the way all the other relationships on this show had been, similar to what it was in the debate episode, I’d be all for it. I think that’s part of why I liked Jeff and Britta together; their relationship was always inherently funny and awkward, no matter how heartfelt they were being. In fact, the more heartfelt they were, the more funny it was. (See also, the season 2 opener.) If a relationship is just comedic, I can forgive any flaws that make the characters bad for each other and just go “that’s hilarious and I approve!” (See: Shirley and Chang.)

I feel like Jeff and Annie’s relationship is like a weird attempt to be serious in a situation where any sort of seriousness just feels off. Them being the only couple on the show that isn’t played off as a entirely as comedic conduit. There’s a pretty healthy tradition of having that one couple in sitcoms, like Jim and Pam of The Office, or any of the couples from Parks and Recreation, or Jules and Grayson from Cougar Town, or Burt and Virginia from Raising Hope, etc, etc, etc. But with any of those couples it works as both something you’re emotionally invested in and something that makes you laugh because you ultimately can look at them and think that they work and you’re rooting for them. That’s a purposeful construction, because if you couldn’t do that, you couldn’t feel emotional about the couple in the first place. Jeff and Annie is like a half-assed attempt to have that dynamic without laying the fundamental groundwork needed to make that work, which is that the couples need to be functional couples in the first place.

Bob:

We’re totally just looking at this from different directions. I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t think the show has, or is going to, be treating the Jeff and Annie relationship seriously. Frankly, I would be against any serious relationship on this show. The constantly shifting desires of the group is part of what I love!

Clacked by Bob Degon
on Nov 03, 2011 @ 13:00 EST5EDT