Summary

• Both “Black Mirror” and “Community” explore dystopian worlds dominated by apps that rank people according to their social status.
• While “Community” uses the concept of a ranking app for comedy, “Black Mirror” offers a more informed and critical approach to social criticism.
• The episodes of both series focus on how people’s obsession with rank and recognition can have negative consequences for society.

The satirical sci-fi anthology show Black Mirror often takes a critical look at the culture of social media in the modern world. Season 3, Episode 1, 2016’s “Nosedive,” in particular, focuses on the negative way social media encourages people to act for the approval of others. Using an app that allows people to rate others in real time, the main character tries to improve her ranking in order to gain better social opportunities.

However, the idea is not really as original as the cult classic sitcom Community released an episode in 2014 with a nearly identical premise: Season 5, Episode 8, “App Development and Spices.” Both episodes focus on apps that rate people and the dystopias that result from them. While Black Mirror takes a more informed and critical approach, Community uses the idea mainly for comedic purposes and character development.

Both the Community and Black Mirror episodes depict a dystopian world

• In “Nosedive,” the characters have an eye implant that allows them to instantly see other people’s ranks.
• In “App Development and Spices”, Greendale is chosen to beta test the new interpersonal rating app MeowMeowBeenz.

While “App Development and Condiments” shows a world (or a community college) that quickly falls apart when the ranking app MeowMeowBeenz comes onto the market, “Nosedive” delivers sharp social criticism in an established world where people constantly rate each other. However, both use a ranking system from one to five (though “Nosedive” also has decimal ranks) and both show societies in which people’s social status is determined by their rank.Black Mirror plays this out more subtly and realistically; people with a higher rank receive special advantages, such as discounts on accommodation or special flights, while people with a lower rank are pushed out of their old jobs and despised by strangers. Community shows that “fives” have their own futuristic private group that controls all aspects of the school. “ones” are banned from the building.

In Community, Things like dress code and permitted places in the building are determined by rank. The “Three” have to work for the “Five” and bring them food from other areas of the building. Joel McHale’s leading actor Jeff reveals in his stand-up routine that Within a few days, stereotypes about the different ranks have already emerged, the “two-year-olds” are obsessed with apples (one of the three fruits provided to them by the “five-year-olds”) and the “four-year-olds” have a particular gait. In contrast, the stereotypes and prejudices are more based on Black Mirror, as People of a lower rank than themselves are largely excluded and no one associates with them. These people are usually viewed as untrustworthy or undesirable. As one woman in one section sarcastically notes, someone obviously has to be an “antisocial nutcase” to have such a low rank.

“Nosedive” and “App Development and Condiments” both focus on rank-obsessed characters

• “Nosedive” is characterized by a distinct visual style of soft pastel colors, especially pink, and soft, feminine clothing.
• “App Development and Condiments” offers several groupings of clothing styles, from gray overalls to colorful tunics and makeup to ethereal white robes.

The protagonist of Black Mirror “Nosedive,” Bryce Dallas Howard’s brilliant Lacie, spends most of the episode trying to increase her rank. Already status-obsessed, she adopted an overly peppy demeanor and rated everyone she came into contact with in the hopes of receiving a positive rating in return. When she tries to move into a new apartment in a gated community, She is increasingly interested in increasing her rank from 4.2 to 4.5, which would give her a 20% discount on her house payments. She continues to be obnoxiously friendly to everyone and even accepts a job as maid of honor at the wedding of her high-ranking childhood “friend,” even though, as her brother says, she was always cruel to her. However, she knows that a good speech will result in the audience, who will get 4.8 or more points, giving her a good grade. As the Community Consequence, The higher a character’s rank, the more his vote counts.

In “App Development and Condiments,” both Yvette Nicole Brown’s Shirley and Jeff try to improve their ranks. Shirley joins the app on the first day of its debut and quickly earns a five before the social stratification even takes place. As Lacie She earns this by being overly kind and sweet, compliments everyone she sees and bakes brownies to share. However, unlike Lacie, she also uses shame and passive aggression by publicly denouncing the character who only gives her three stars, which leads to that woman being socially shunned. Jeff, who wants to finish Shirley off from the inside, also works to raise his status. However, since he entered later, he has to by ingratiating himself into all social groups and finally achieving the status of “five” through a talent show.

• Community Shirley left the show after season five, so “App Development and Condiments” was the last episode to focus primarily on her.
• “Nosedive” is one of two episodes in Black Mirror Season 3, with a slightly happier ending, along with “San Junipero.” Both were previewed at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The two episodes ultimately differ in some key ways; in particular, their tone is very different. Black Mirror shows a possible world in the near future, as is often the case in the series, but with a more down-to-earth episode. “Nosedive” focuses heavily on Lacie to highlight the problems of the world. She is a superficial person and only agrees to be maid of honor at her friend’s wedding because it might affect her rank. She is also only kind to other people to increase her rank. When Lacie’s rank is lowered as punishment for a public disturbance she caused, she is shunned by other people.

Still,When a woman in area “one” offers Lacie a ride, she declines; she still sees herself as “four”, and doesn’t see how someone else can have a low rank just because of unfortunate circumstances (and not because they’re a bad person). She ends up getting disinvited from her friend’s wedding, but comes anyway, looking dirty and disheveled. She still tries desperately to improve her rank by giving a great speech, but fails and is arrested. In custody, she no longer has access to the rankings. Without technology, however, she can make more real connections, so it’s ultimately for the best. She meets a man in prison and the two of them insult each other and laugh the whole time; they finally feel free enough to be uncouth and confrontational, something they were never able to do in the ranking system.

Community Meanwhile, the cross-genre episode “App Development and Condiments” uses the ranking concept to explore the relationships between the characters that they have already established. Ultimately, it is an episode about Shirley feeling excludedwhen she wasn’t invited to dinner with her other friends, and uses MeowMeowBeenz as an opportunity to feel popular and loved again. Jeff sees that she is manipulating people and wants to defeat her. However, in doing so, he is also manipulating a lot of other people. This episode is mainly about how the two of them are equally driven to control and be the most popular person in the room.

The socially critical aspect of the Community episode comes from Britta’s story arc, which is the flattest part of the episode. Everyone inexplicably stays in Greendale despite the school culture becoming so dystopian. Britta doesn’t believe in the system, as is characteristic of her, and tries to lead a rebellion against it. Oddly, though, people only listen to her when she has mustard on her face because it makes her seem more approachable, in contrast to her intense personality. Once she gets everyone together, She declares that everyone is a “one,” in a clear allegory of communism. (She even wears a beret like Che Guevara.) Due to the comedic nature of the show and its consistent continuity rather than anthological nature, the episode ends with Jeff convincing everyone to delete the app from their phones and return to normal.

While both the Black Mirror episode and the Community Although the episodes cover similar worlds and themes, they ultimately tell different stories with different goals. It is noteworthy, however, that Community had the idea first, although he used it for comedic purposes and not as a commentary. With Black Mirror hailed as a science fiction series that is great at speculating about possible futures of the technological age, it is impressive that Community had a very similar idea for a single silly episode of the six-season sitcom.

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  Black Mirror

  An anthology series exploring a crazy, high-tech multiverse where humanity’s greatest innovations and darkest instincts collide.

  Release date

  4 December 2011

  Pour

  Michaela Coel, Hannah John-Kamen, Douglas Hodge, Brian Pettifer, Zazie Beetz, John Hamm, Aaron Paul

  Main genre

  Science fiction

  Seasons

  6

• 

  Community

  Release date

  17 September 2009

  Main genre

  comedy

  Seasons

  6