NBC’s ‘Community’ season 5: A look at how Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs got animated

“Community” is getting very close now to wrapping up its fifth season, but before we look forward to Thursday night’s “Basic Story” (which is the penultimate episode of the year), let’s take another look back at “G.I. Jeff.”

As we said this our review last week, this was either an episode that you really loved (if you grew up watching the “G.I. Joe” cartoon), just loved (if you haven’t seen the cartoon), or loathed (if you have no soul and/or hate the show). This video below starts off featuring show creator Dan Harmon, who does a good job explaining just how this entire tale came together. You can hear the love of the show through them, and also how the purpose of this episode in many ways echoes some of what Harmon is going through in his real life now as a guy who just turned 40, and is still trying very hard to figure out just what that really means for his future.

Also in this preview, there’s a brief Q&A session that features Gillian Jacobs (Britta), Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley), and Ken Jeong (Chang) all talking about something that they’ve all felt the sting from at some point: The show’s lack of Emmy love. At least they’re all great sports about it! Seriously, at this point they really have to be, given that they have been far more deserving of something than some of the shows nominated. (Seriously. Remember that “Two and a Half Men” has won awards over the past several years, and that’s become a series of fart jokes.)

We’ll be back as always following the next “Community” episode with a full review of what happened. Also, be sure to sign up to get some more news and updates from us via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: NBC