This
friendship is such a no-brainer, it’s taken me this long to get around to
it. Like so many Community fans, I was won over by these two during their Spanish rap
in the show’s second episode. After that
scene, they only grow in awesomeness and awwwsomeness
(“homing pigeon” still makes me think of them,) earning a well-deserved claim
to one of my favorite TV friendships of all time.
The
basic building blocks of the Troy-Abed friendship is not unlike many memorable
sitcom friendships between men; Abed is geeky and neurotic while Troy is much
more obviously cool. This is the same
general template from which J.D. and Turk from Scrubs, Cory and Shawn from Boy
Meets World, and Chandler and Joey from Friends,
among others, are cut. As with the other
examples, Abed is somewhat more prominent a character than Troy, which makes
sense. A lot of TV writers and, let’s
face, a large portion of many fandoms, probably identify more with the geeky,
neurotic character than the cool one (plus, such characters are easier to write
conflict for.)
Troy
and Abed take a different tack, though.
While all these relationships place the primary focus on the geekier characters,
with most of them, there’s a sense that the cooler character is there partially
to show him the ropes – to coach him on talking to women, being more masculine,
fitting in with the “guys,” etc. Though
it’s obvious that both care deeply about each other, there’s this slight power
imbalance, this idea that the geekier character should be grateful to the
cooler character for being friends with him.
But with Troy and Abed, Abed is the clear instigator in almost everything
they do. He spearheads a lot of their
silly and/or nerdy pursuits, like Kickpuncher marathons or extended sessions in
the Dreamatorium. Troy frequently defers
to Abed – when the study group is being wooed by Greendale’s glee club coach in
season 3, Troy even tells Abed, “You know I’d do anything you did” – and, after
some reluctance in the early episodes, begins to embrace his own geeky side.
And so,
they have fun. They enjoy being weird and goofy, building
forts, making costumes, and watching Inspector Spacetime. They’re not without drama, most noticeably in
season 3 when Abed stops being his and Troy’s natural leader and starts dictating what they do, but for the most
part, they’re a blast. They’re also
entirely in each other’s corner. Troy looks
out for Abed when his aspie-ish tendencies are causing him distress, and to the
extent that Abed expresses his feelings, he expresses them for Troy.
Something
else that I really like about Troy and Abed is that the show usually avoids the
bromance jokes that are often so plentiful in guy-guy sitcom friendships. They’re incredibly, at times almost ludicrously,
close, but the show doesn’t frame it from a “ha, ha, they’re acting like a couple!” way. I’m not a fan of excessive bromance jokes,
partially because it suggests that male intimacy is inherently hilarious, and
partially because there are already enough romances on television, and there’s
no reason to use romance tropes to convey friendship. So, I really appreciate that Troy and Abed’s
relationship is tight and incredibly important to both of them while still
being written distinctly as a friendship.
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