Community: 5 Times Pierce Was The Worst Person in the Study Group (& 5 Times It Was Jeff)
After its arrival on Netflix (although with some changes), NBC's beloved cult-classic sitcom, Community, has started getting the due attention it truly deserves. Even though it was canceled after just six seasons (with many fans still waiting for the #Movie), Community is still one of the smartest and funniest TV shows ever written.
Although every character is deeply flawed but redeemable (along with being hilarious), Jeff and Pierce are often portrayed as the "bad guys" of the study group, as their actions have hurt the study group the most. Here are 5 times Pierce was the "villain" of the show, and 5 times it was Jeff.
10 Pierce - Tries to Take Over Shirley's Sandwiches
In the season 3 finale, "Introduction to Finality", Shirley and Pierce finally establish their own Sandwich Shop in the Greendale Cafetaria. However, Pierce insists he is the sole owner of the franchise because he financed it, despite it being Shirley's idea and efforts.
He threatens to sue Shirley and files a case against her with the Dean, going so far as to hire Jeff's rival lawyer to throw Jeff off his game. While season 3 tried to introduce a "better" Pierce than season 2, this was definitely one of the worst things he has done in the show.
9 Jeff - Coined the Name "Fat Neil"
In "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons", Jeff sees Neil has been depressed for quite some time due to people calling him fat, and tries to strike up a friendship with him. He organizes a game of DnD for Fat Neil, who had started showing signs of being suicidal.
Pierce, however, reveals that it was actually Jeff who coined the name "Fat Neil", and he was only trying to make himself feel less guilty by organizing the Dungeons and Dragons game. This was one of the worst things he ever did, almost bringing Neil to tears by fat-shaming him.
8 Pierce - Ruins Dungeons and Dragons
In "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons", Pierce has apparently reached his lowest point - offended that he wasn't invited for the Dungeons and Dragons game, he tries to bully everyone and ruin the game. He inserts himself into the game and tries to disrupt it.
He fat shames Neil and bullies him constantly throughout the episode, and even after Jeff reveals that Neil might be suicidal, Pierce shrugs it off and says that was "probably something he has been saying for years to get an extra slice of pie".
7 Jeff - Kisses Annie After Britta Confesses her Feelings
In the season 1 finale, after Britta publicly tells Jeff she loves him, he walks out on her. He runs into Annie and kisses her, mere moments after the girl he tried to get with all year said she loved him.
Even worse, viewers find out in the season 2 premiere that Jeff told her to keep quiet about it, and throughout the episode, he keeps trying to get Britta to admit she didn't actually love him but did it for publicity.
6 Pierce - Told Everyone About the "Illegal" Trampoline
In season 2 Pierce started to become one of the most hated characters in the show, as it seemed the showrunners only wanted him to be a villain throughout the season. In "Aerodynamics of Gender", one of the weirdest yet funniest episodes in the show, Jeff and Troy discover a secret trampoline, which Pierce finds out about.
He threatens to tell everyone about it unless Troy "double bounces" him (which was forbidden), and when he ends up with his legs broken, he tells everyone about the trampoline anyway.
5 Jeff - Tries to Get the Study Group to Sue Greendale
In the season 5 premiere, "Repilot", Jeff's career is dead. His law business has failed, and he ends up broke and alone - again. In an act of desperation, he agrees to help his former lawyer friend sue Greendale.
However, when he fails to do so, he tries to convince the newly re-assembled Study Group to sue Greendale Community College. And even though he ends up taking a job there, he initially manipulates and guilts everyone into suing the school and betraying the Dean.
4 Pierce - Faked Dying to Torment the Study Group
After Pierce overdoses on painkillers, he is admitted to the hospital in "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking", he lies to the study group and tells them he was dying.
Pierce uses his deathbed to carry out revenge on his friends, by manipulating them and torturing them psychologically. He even pushes Jeff too far, and when Jeff finally snaps and attacks him, he brags about his plan to the documentary crew.
3 Jeff - Makes Fun of Britta's Boyfriend
In the season 1 episode, "Social Psychology" Britta starts dating Vaughn, a hippie. However, Jeff gets extremely jealous and makes fun of him with Shirley. When Vaughn writes her a poem, he takes a picture of it and makes fun of it in front of everyone.
Vaughn catches them making fun of his poem and thinks Britta showed it to them and dumps her. Even though Jeff apologizes, Britta is less-than-ready to forgive him, and rightly so.
2 Pierce - Betrayed Jeff During Paintball II
In "A Fistful of Paintballs", the second year iteration of paintball, every Greendale student is competing for the grand prize of a campus-wide paintball game - $100,000. Pierce starts his own faction of students, and when he invites Jeff and the others to team up, he betrays Jeff by loading his gun with blanks.
When Annie confronts him about it, he says Jeff got the chance to win last year. He goes on to betray the entire study group when he learns they wanted to kick him out of the group for his terrible behavior the entire year.
1 Jeff - Tries to Get Pierce Kicked from the Study Group
In the season 3 premiere, Pierce returns to the study group, looking to rejoin after he says he's changed. Jeff, however, does everything he can to prevent him from rejoining, and when he's kicked out of Biology and replaced by Pierce, he tries to prove him getting kicked out was Pierce's doing.
When this turns out to be a misunderstanding, however, he goes a little crazy and attacks the study group table with an ax, saying the table "controls their lives". He is not only rude to Annie, but to Shirley and Troy as well, besides being downright scary.