Dan Harmon’s Community, which starts off NBC’s Thursday night comedy block at eight, features a lovable cast of standard sitcom misfits, in equal parts reverence and mockery of hackneyed primetime fare.  Community has all the stereotypes of traditional laugh-tracked drivel: the lovably overbearing, middle-aged black woman, the handsome fish out of water, the brainless jock, plus, some modern twists with a hyper-liberal blonde, a formerly behavioral-med-addicted schoolgirl and a gangling sage who relates all their mishaps to a pop culture happening.  Oh, and there’s Chevy Chase as a way-too-old twit trying to keep up with the kids on the interwebs. The unlikely gang meets at Greendale Community College, where every microcosm of loser culture has a home, from star-bearded slackers to shoeless free spirits with hacky-sacks for brains.

This week, in an unusually Winger-free episode, Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), inspired by her Youtube crazed classmates, solicits the filmmaking skills of Abed (Danny Pudi) to lay down some holy beats and beatitudes and go viral.  Abed agrees, because he thinks Jesus is as cool as a combination of “E.T., Edward Scissorhands and Marty McFly.”  Shirley bails, however when Abed goes too meta and wants to make a terribly convulated movie in a movie in a movie where the filmmaker is Jesus, the camera is God and the audience is appropriately confused.  Poor Shirley must make a lame video with unenthused converts, while (holy plot twist!) Abed becomes a quasi-messiah for Greendale’s scum of the earth.  Sporting leather pants and flowing locks (it’s a pretty sweet look), Abed preaches to his apostles his gospel of pretentious  first-year film school philosophy.  As Abed’s following grow in number in fervor, Shirley is viewed more and more as a Judas, denouncing Abed’s hollow teachings for the words of a more traditional lord.  When Abed fears crucifixion when his film sucks way worse than its hype suggests, however, only Shirley can resurrect his career.

Meanwhile, Pierce (Chevy Chase) joins a gang of geriatric hipsters, acting out against his downer mother and father figures, roles amusingly adopted by Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) and Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs).  Theses seniors in revolt stay out late, drive Priuses dangerously slowly, pop (blood pressure) pills like they’re tic-tacs and thumb their noses at their totally buzz-harshing grandkids.  Pierce runs with the rebels to the disapproval of his concerned study group, until he realizes who his real friends are and comes home batter and bruised to his dysfunctional Greendale family.