In describing Community, the new NBC comedy on NBC starring Joel McHale, I must define the comedy space. Comedy space is two-dimensional. Along the x-axis is humor. More funny to the right, less funny to the left. We'll define the y-axis as the sincerity axis; the opposite of sincerity is sarcasm. A comedy may be funny and sarcastic (30 Rock); it may be unfunny and sarcastic (Parks and Recreation). Community, while not lacking moments of biting humor, is on the whole funny and sincere.
Joel McHale stars as Jeff, a lawyer with a law degree from Columbia who goes back to community college so that he can get one from America. As an effort to get a pretty girl on a date, he invites her to his Spanish study group, which doesn't exist until the moment the invitation is extended. Instead of the intimate one-on-one time Jeff expected, word gets around and we are introduced to the cast of characters.
If the laugh track-free, edgy sitcoms of the late aughts had a baby with the classic audience sitcoms of the late eighties, that baby would be Community. While it adopts the style of the former, it has the heart of the latter. Even thought last week's episode found the laughs coming a little less frequently than I would usually tolerate, I enjoyed the show from beginning to end. Its just fun to spend time with these guys.
