'Community' cast reunite for table read and Pedro Pascal filling in for Walton Goggins cannot stop laughing
On the ‘Community’ cast reunion which saw a table reading for season 5 episode 4, ‘Cooperative Polygraphy’, Pedro Pascal of ‘Narcos’ fame, filling in for Walton Goggins' Mr. Stone, absolutely lost his s*** and ended up laughing for way too long. He was reading the final bequeathments of Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase). The shock and subsequent laughter were obvious. Pierce’s bequeathments to everyone included an obligatory cylinder of his “hyper-virile” sperm (along with other stuff).
The cast reunion and table read for ‘Community’, Dan Harmon’s meta-comedy series that promised “six seasons and a movie” but has delivered only on the first half of the promise, was held on May 18 and was for charity (José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen and Frontline Foods, both of which are involved in relief efforts). Fans could donate in real-time, and Sony Pictures Television also promised to contribute to the charities on behalf of the ‘Community’ family.
‘Cooperative Polygraphy’ was a special episode in the series that aired first on January 16, 2014. It marked one, the funeral of Pierce (and the ouster of Chase from the show), and two, it was the penultimate episode that featured Donald Glover (also known by his stage name Childish Gambino).
Thankfully, Glover was present for the table read. As were the rest of the cast members in the episode: Jeff Winger (Joel McHale), Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs), Troy Barnes (Donald Glover) Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi), Shirley Bennett (Yvette Nicole Brown), Annie Edison (Alison Brie), Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) and Ben Chang (Ken Jeong). Harmon too was present, doing the narrations. Rash had also taken over as “Lie-detector lady”. And of course, the special guest, Pascal.
The cast was also joined by singer-songwriter Keith Slettedahl of the Los Angeles pop-rock group The 88, whose song ‘At Least It Was Here’ was the opening theme song of ‘Community’. Slettedahl playing and singing the theme song at the opportune moment in the table read was a touch no one expected and it was fantastic!
The table read was an exercise in nostalgia for fans of the cult-popular comedy series. Brie, Brown, McHale, Jacobs, and Glover were so in their character, this may as well have been the actual episode. Pudi’s performance as Abed Nadir was mildly jarring, considering he did not emulate the robotic coldness of the Polish-Arabic film student in Greendale Community college. Aside from that, the rest of the session went off without a hitch. Barring, of course, Pascal's outburst of laughter when saying “sperm” over and over again.
Fans of ‘Community’ on Twitter could not help but feel nostalgic and happy about this. Hundred cheered for Slettedahl’s performance of the theme song, calling it beautiful. No one was surprised that Pascal couldn’t stop laughing at that one bit. A fan wrote on Twitter: “The Community charity script read was class. It was hilarious seeing Pedro Pascal losing his s*** over some of the dialogue. I love this show, this cast, and these characters so much.” And also for saying “SHOTS” in the end.
Amid the reading, however, one fan noticed something suspicious: “OH WAIT THAT WAS NOT THE LINE WHEN IT AIRED. Annie’s secret copy of Jeff’s apartment key?!?!” And it wasn’t. In the version of the script that aired, Annie’s secret was, “When Annie is with other females, she calls Jeff her uncle.” Wonder why that was changed?
All in all, fans of the show could not have been happier. As Megan Ganz, a former writer at ‘Community’ tweeted: “My emotions! That #Community table read was so good. Can you guys do it again? Just start at the pilot and work your way through. That’s what we’re all doing. #EPluribusAnus.”
So, Six Seasons and a Zoom table read? As Abed would say it, “Cool. Cool cool cool.”