By the 2000s, the airwaves seemed full of shows not just making reference to other pop culture images, but wholly based on pop culture. … Community regularly turned episodes into extended homages to M*A*S*H, Doctor Who, and Christmas Claymation specials. In Cooperative Calligraphy, the show presents a bottle episode, during which Abed repeatedly reminds everyone they are in a bottle episode, pointing out each characteristic of such episodes as it occurs.

Being here evokes long forgotten memories.

As long as I remember who's wearing the trousers / I hope he never lets me down again

I drew a deep breath, this time fortunately unmixed with gin and tonic. I was profoundly stirred. “You mean,” I said, my voice quavering like that of a coloratura soprano, “that I went through that soul-shattering experience all for nothing?”