Community is the NBC cult hit whose literal fanbase helped keep the series afloat as long as it did and may very well bring the beloved series a film in the future. However, until then, there's still plenty to reflect on the sitcom's six long years to enjoy. Utilizing Dan Harmon's iconic wit and pop culture knowledge, Community uses it core cast and the inherent struggles and absurdity of its low-budget community college to create one of the best, character-driven narratives in comedy.
At the core of that cast is the center of attention himself, Jeff Winger. An ex-lawyer who tries to skirt his way to a law degree, Jeff has had a transformative tenure at Greendale Community College. And while he's grown to love the school and the fans have grown to love him, he's only garnered the depth that he has because of an inherent sadness in his character that the series kept building on.
10 His History With Foosball
Sports can be a traumatic thing for kids for a variety of reasons. The brutal and competitive nature can try at both a kid's body and soul. Not making a certain team can deal some significant damage to a child's self-esteem. With all of that, it's strange to see that the sport that's been traumatizing Jeff since childhood is none other than the table-based, party game, foosball.
When Jeff was a kid, he unwittingly went into a foosball game with a younger Shirley, who was going through her own hormonal changes at the time. Said changes made Shirley really competitive, and she outright bullied Jeff at the game, to the point that she made him wet himself. While foosball is just a game, this event would come to define both of their characters but more so with Jeff.
9 His Most Terrible Secret
"Intro to Felt Surrogacy" was from Community's infamous "Gas Leak Year," but it did do its best at driving some much-needed character work during the season, and it did come with plenty of heartfelt revelations. While puppet antics and songs may have seemed like the name of the game, the most defining scene from this episode came when each member of the study group began sharing their most terrible secrets to date.
In Jeff's case, he revealed that he once met the love of his life years ago. However, he got scared off when he met her child; and instead of staying with a woman that he clearly loved, he left her and her child, essentially becoming like his own father who abandoned him.
8 His Body Image Issues
As much flack as the series may give Abed Nadir for his emotional state, Abed is far from being as emotionally fragile as Jeff, especially when it comes to body image issues. Appropriate to his own superficial and egotistical sensibilities, Jeff has developed a veil for himself disguising himself in this gilded image while simultaneously obscuring reality as this never-ending, always cheering space in his favor.
However, Jeff quickly breaks down when his body image comes into question, such as when he realized that he had high cholesterol, Troy and Abed made fun of him for comparing himself to an egg, and his change in priorities when the handsome, Black Rider joined paintball.
7 His Constant Need For Approval
Akin to his body image issues, Jeff's ego requires that he constantly be showered with praise. Tying back to his already rough upbringing from his mother, Jeff has always, desperately needed people's approval. This is evident in his personal rivalry with Rich, which cost him an easy A in a pottery class.
This made him go berserk during a kid's bar mitzvah when he became jealous over a fake award for being handsome. He even cut himself with a pair of scissors when he was little to make other kids think that he had surgery for appendicitis. Jeff has gone to great lengths to protect his ego, and it's fortunate that, of all things, Britta hasn't Britta'd helping him.
6 His Abandonment Issues
Jeff Winger may have come into the series with plenty of character flaws, but all of his problems and key character traits have always tied back to the fact that his father abandoned him and his mother in childhood. This became shockingly apparent in the episode "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking," where just the thought of meeting his father made him panic.
Jeff would get a chance for some closure in the Thanksgiving episode, "Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations," when he finally got to confront his father, but it simply yet cathartically ended with a thorough breakdown of how losing his father ruined his life.
5 His Relationship With His Mother
While the absence of Jeff's father has clearly left a negative impact on his life, the presence of his mother didn't do him that many more favors. Jeff's mom, for the most part, is left a mystery for the entire series, but the series at least gives small snippets of her involvement every now and then. She's the one who helped foster his ego by constantly showering with arbitrary praise in his childhood.
It was later revealed in the series' parody of My Dinner With Andre that his mom dressed him up as Pocahontas for one Halloween and made him trick r' treat regardless of his protests.
4 His Time As A Lawyer
Jeff's most glowing achievement to date has been the fact that he used to work for a big law firm and was considered good even among the den of sharks. However, his career as a lawyer wasn't as bright as he may even see now.
The career robbed him of his morals and surrounded him by people that couldn't care less about him, with his supposed best friend at the time being the same person who infamously sold him out. When he finally graduated from Greendale and dedicated himself to becoming a "good guy" lawyer, he didn't find much work and ended up running a failing business.
3 His Time As A Professor
Jeff was far from being the best critic of Greendale Community College. Having always believed that he was better than a school he only enrolled in to get an easy degree, Jeff has always been quick to criticize Greendale's staff, low standards, and rundown facilities. As much hate as he may have given the establishment, he always praised the school as a transformative place that accepted broken people.
Unfortunately for him, it rarely lets them go. After failing to become a better lawyer, Jeff would reluctantly return to the place that he hated for so long and become a low paid, drunken professor.
2 His Co-Dependency With The Study Group
The study group as a whole does have their fair share of co-dependency issues. However, as emotional as the rest of the group has gotten over their new family, it's Jeff who always needed them the most, for better or worse. Having lived a tumultuous life filled with abandonment and competition, Jeff has rarely felt the warmth of a genuine human connection; and when he got it, he could barely let it go when it started to slip through his fingers.
This was evident in the Season 3 premiere where a slight change in schedules drove Jeff into becoming an axe-wielding maniac and the series' finale where he tried to write a "Season 7" where everyone stays together.
1 His Constant, Fake Texting
Far from being the most apparent running gag but certainly a consistent one, Jeff is always on his phone across the series and seems to be constantly texting...someone. This is most obviously called out in the episode, "Competitive Ecology," where Annie frustratingly remarks, "Who the hell are you always texting? Everyone you know is already here!"
The character trait is finally given pay off in the Thanksgiving episode where Jeff reveals that, despite always texting, there isn't actually anyone on the other side. Jeff is simply fake texting all the time to avoid direct intimacy with his new friends.
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