'Community' Season 3, Episode 6 Recap - 'Advanced Gay'

Air conditioning. Pierce's dad. Gay dudes. Put them together, add a funny title, and you have last night's episode of "Community," entitled "Advanced Gay."

After a few weeks of crazy timeline stuff, Halloween stories, and the scariness inside Chang's brain, "Community" returned to a state of some normalcy with "Advanced Gay." The opener, and indeed the whole episode, was full of snappy dialogue with a joke-per-minute rate that rivals even "30 Rock."

And yet, even in returning to a more palatable form for non-fans (whose heads would explode at the timeline episode), there was still a lot to love about this episode. Why?

Because our beloved characters were written so solidly this episode that they practically folded in on themselves. Jeff and Britta's sarcasm unraveled itself to the point where Jeff was simply clueless, and don't even get me started on how brilliant the Abed acting like Troy bit was. I nearly peed myself.

The episode was also revealing for these characters, and moved them along. We met Pierce's dad, whose level of racism extended even to Swedes, and who wears a toupee made out of ivory since ordinary toupees are made of hair from "Orientals." Suddenly, Pierce's entire character makes perfect sense.

But we see Pierce evolve, if not for selfish reasons: his Hawthorne Wipes, upon which his vast fortune is based, are a sensation in the gay community thanks to a YouTube music video from transvestite Urbana Champaign (awesome name), played by D.J. Pierce of "RuPaul's Drag Race" fame. That leads him to become accepting of the gay community because of the increased profits and showered praise and attention.

That praise is clearly something he never got from his dad, who pulls the plug on Pierce's big party for the gay Community, the "Gay Bash" (ha!). Jeff, ignoring the I told you so's from Britta about Oedipal complexes, steps in and puts the party back on. And in the one dark but beautifully emotionally charged moments of the episode, Jeff gives a speech on behalf of "every son who had a crap dad," telling Pierce's father "I'm done with you. He's done with you. The world's done with you."

And with that, he gives him a heart attack and kills him. Pierce, luckily, is mostly unfazed and declares "I win. Suck it," during the eulogy. Good ol' Pierce.

We also saw advancement in a plotline that I bet you had forgotten all about: Troy's uncanny plumbing abilities. The Greendale janitor wants Troy to use his skills for good, but the imposing Vice Dean (the return of John Goodman!) has other plans: he wants Troy to be a student in the powerful air conditioning repair program. Troy turns it down, but it looks like Goodman will be back later to try to change his mind.

Oh, and we learned that Pierce's middle name is Anastasia?

Other notes:

-The astronaut in the corner making paninis and Black Hitler. Of course these guys just came up with one of the most tremendous non-sequiturs ever.

-The room temperature room: "I can't feel my pants."

-"Wika-pee-die-ah"

-"So edible." "You're the worst."

-"The question isn't how old we are, but when old we are."