A Cartoon Christmas

Not sure if you’ve had the pleasure of seeing this special when it aired last week, but I highly recommend you do so before it disappears from Hulu for all eternity. Embedded video after the jump…

I’m a casual fan of Community, but I’ve never not enjoyed a single episode I’ve seen so far. However, “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” is a different beast altogether, and may very well have won me over as a fan for life.

I had assumed it’d be just another too-cool-for-the-room parody, yet it’s wonderfully so much more than that. Sure, it cleverly hits the beats of many of our favorite Xmas, but it’s the furthest thing from cynical. The special takes the show’s most likable character – Abed, the adorably autistic, pop culture savant – who sculpts a stop-motion fantasy world in order to deal with a painfully traumatic event in his life.

Can you tell exactly who the Christmased cast of Community is referencing? Because I’m too drunk to see

It’s warm, funny, and probably the most touching episode Community‘s likely to put on the air without killing one of its characters.  I’ll certainly be watching the series every week from here on out.