Alright, I'll admit up front that my opinion of tonight's episode of Community is heavily influenced, at least in retrospect, by the excellent episode of The Office that followed it. Community is a good show that's a lot more clever than it looks, but it's nothing revolutionary. The greatest weakness of this young series is how closely it follows sitcom conventions. Only when it deviates from the overly familiar material that makes up its foundation does Community really shine.

As has been the purpose of every episode after the pilot, "Social Psychology" concentrates on testing out various cast pairings to see which ones work the best. This week the couples were as follows: Jeff/Shirley and Abed/Annie. The former was surprisingly entertaining, but I came to same conclusion as the episode itself. Jeff and Shirley are interesting together in some unexpected ways, but not in any way that I want to see each week. As for Abed and Annie, eh, they have potential but they could have used a better premise, preferably one that allowed them to interact more.

Jeff and Shirley bond over their shared love of snark and gossip, making fun of the people they see on their way to class or sitting in the cafeteria. Their quips are funny, but honestly they would actually be funnier if they weren't scripted. If I had a friend like Jeff or Shirley, I wouldn't be able to keep a straight face when they made fun of some hippie's tiny nipples. On TV? Only mildly amusing.

The crux of Jeff and Shirley's private roast is Jeff's jealousy over Britta's new boyfriend, the aforementioned tiny-nippled hippie. Jeff gets friend-zoned and uses Shirley's willingness to tear people down as comic relief for his envy. The whole thing erupts in a typically sitcom-y way that makes for a total reset by the end of the episode. So much for character development.

In B-plot purgatory, Annie uses Abed and Troy as human subjects in one of Professor Jon Oliver of The Daily Show's psychology experiments. The experiment tested a normal person's capacity to wait, with the intention of making each of them lose their temper. It was only fleetingly funny, the best part being Professor Jon Oliver of The Daily Show's high-speed description of different kinds of tantrums. And yes, I am going to call him that as long as I cover this show.

The issue, of course, is that Abed isn't a normal person. He sits quietly for 26 hours, ruining (or maybe proving) the principle behind the experiment. This was meant to somehow improve Annie and Abed's friendship, but it just felt a little flat.

Honestly, the best part of any given episode of Community is usually the end credit sequences, most of which feature Troy and Abed goofing off in the library. The Spanish rap from the second episode was awesome and tonight's snark-a-thon was funnier than most of the actual episode. Seriously, I'd watch a series about Troy and Abed alone.

Best Moment: Senor Chang calling Annie out for her negative teacher evaluation. He's a hilarious character and I kinda hate to see such a talented actor wasted on a middling show.

Biggest Laugh: Troy's experimental freak-out. The limp-legged crawl at the end really put it over the top for me.

Episode Rating: 3.5/5- Chuckle-worthy, if entirely predictable. Tonight's episode of Community was like an unsatisfying meal. It's not that it wasn't good, it just didn't do anything for me.