Moment(s) of Goodness: The Entire “Basic Rocket Science” Episode of Community 

There are no words that can adequately express the sheer awesomeness of this week’s Community. It’s impossible to highlight just one lone memorable Moment of Goodness; there are a million of them. Consider Greendale’s quest to enter the world of flight simulation one great big ball of goodness. Some of the hilarity that is “Basic Rocket Science”:

• The Apollo 13/Armageddon/The Right Stuff instrumental serenade to the cast slo-mo walking in the parking lot: it was no special effect; the cast was actually walking slowly.

• The flight simulator Winnebago: this isn’t so much a moment but I have to say this vessel totally reminded me of the Spaceballs ship that belonged to Lone Starr and his trusty companion Barf.

• Dean Pelton’s man crush on Jeff Winger continues to bless us with one hilarious moment after another.

• The E Pluribus Anus flag

• Abed continuing to treat everything like it’s a movie makes me smile. You’d have thought he would have kicked himself for missing the voyage with the rest of his study group but he was clearly destined for something greater. He headed up Mission Control and helped bring his crew back safely. He even did the inspirational monologue that’s requisite in every space/astronaut thriller. I think there were a couple inspirational speeches/pep talks made in this episode actually.

• “I worked out a way for them to re-route the power from the auxiliary battery!” “Re-route to what?”

• Poor Pierce got space madness. For a second I thought something was going to come out of his stomach à la Alien.

• The plethora of KFC product placement moments

• The somewhat convoluted reason why they were all in the mess in the first place comes courtesy of Annie.

• The map that had all the rest stops and truck stops marked; of course Dean Pelton had to hide the reason why they were all marked. “Here, next to the truck stop with three thumbs.” “Those aren’t thumbs.”

• I thoroughly enjoyed Troy being captain and Jeff eventually deferring to Troy’s position at the controls. That has to take a lot for Jeff to do. He’s kind of a control freak.

• “There is a time and a place for subtlety and that time was before Scary Movie.”

•  Abed’s orange Armageddon jump suit. Glorious.

• The writers even snuck in the required romantic interlude and surprisingly I kind of bought Troy and Britta’s moment. Pierce and Jeff’s too.

• New word: Greenstronauts

• The study group making it back in time to help Greendale defeat City College’s plan for world domination. OK, maybe not world domination. But you get my drift.

The ratings perked up a little bit for “Basic Rocket Science” but it’s criminal that a show this funny isn’t watched by more of the masses. When I was describing how funny this episode was I told my friend it was Arrested Development funny. And that’s about as funny as a show can get. Kudos to the cast, the writers and the rest of the crew on this stellar 1/2 hour of television.