Part of the beauty of Community was the specific role that each character played in the makeshift family unit. Annie was the one who tried to inject common sense, Troy was the heart, and Abed was the odd one who sometimes needed protecting. Britta takes it upon herself to be the study group’s conscience, but unfortunately, she’s terrible at it. While Britta (played by Gillian Jacobs) almost always means well, her lack of self-awareness is often her downfall. She can’t help it. She’s the opposite of Batman.
Despite her misguided self-righteousness, fans couldn’t help but root for her to succeed, even when she pompously tried to diagnose all of her friends during her psychology studies. Still, “britta’d” didn’t become a synonym for “messing up everything” for no reason, so let’s take a look at (and rank) some of Britta’s most hilarious failures.
10. Britta Has No Idea What An Analogy Is
Britta’s misunderstanding of analogies is one of the best running jokes on Community, culminating in the magnificent description of the phrase “hoisted by your own petard.” While, yes, you could call it “a thought with another thought’s hat on,” her fundamental misunderstanding of phrases is one of the more endearing ways that she is the worst.
9. Her Hilarious Drug Song
Any attempts at being cool were shot to hell with this strange pizza song. Yes, we’ve all been excited enough about pizza to compose a weird little tune, but it’s usually better for them to stay on the inside. When everyone visited Troy and Abed’s new place in season three’s “Remedial Chaos Theory,” Britta decided to get high in the bathroom. Whether it was her impaired judgement or just general tendency towards being the worst, Britta’s song easily makes it into the top 10 most britta’d things she’s ever done.
8. The Hipster Bar Insistence
People can get awfully douchy about their bar habits, and Jeff and Britta spend the entirety of “Mixology Certification” arguing over which bar is best, only to realize that it is the same one, just with different names. This insistence on knowing what is really cool is a hallmark of Britta’s character, especially because The Red Door doesn’t sound that great anyway.
7. Being The Ultimate Dungeons & Dragons Buzzkill
There is a time for caring about the welfare of gnomes, and that time is not in the middle of a game of D&D. By channeling her inner Hermione Granger in season two’s “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons,” Britta brought the game to a screeching halt by being more caught up in gnome rights than defeating Pierce and the dragon, Draconis. While her concern for the downtrodden is certainly admirable, maybe she should have worried about it after she won the game.
6. Reconciling Her Selfishness With Her Fiscal Irresponsibility
Honestly, Britta’s initial reluctance to give away money is understandable. She’s in a tough spot, and when Pierce offered her ten grand in “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking” to either donate to charity or pay off her personal debts, it was a truly cruel play. However, when Britta decided that her stupidity with money was an admirable quality, she retained her title as the worst.
5. Falling For Her Subway Mark
All she had to do was seduce the human embodiment of Subway to gain information to overthrow them and institute Shirley’s Sandwiches in the cafeteria instead. But alas, Subway was kind of hot in a manufactured way, and Britta was drawn to his interest in feminist theory and Orwell’s 1984. Instead of helping Shirley get her foot in the door to start her business, Britta threw friendship aside for a handsome face and a Veggie Delight.
4. The “Save The Pelicans” Disaster
Not only does Britta get caught up in the notion of doing good instead of actually doing good, but she’s a stickler for doing things “the right way.” While Britta and Annie disagree on personal femininity a number of times, it all comes to a head in season two’s “The Psychology of Letting Go.” Instead of just being happy that the plight of the pelicans is being addressed, Britta and Annie fought it out over who is the most effective and sincere. It’s not a good look for either of them.
3. Saving The Day From Glee Club
This was one of the times Britta managed to use her penchant for ruining everything for the greater good. In “Regional Holiday Music,” Britta must deploy her own special brand of awkwardness to free the others from the clutches of the glee club. Not only does this give us a Christmas remix on the gloriously awful pizza song, Britta even gets a cold shout out from the Dean, a fellow ruiner.
2. Bagel
Ugh, just the worst.
1. The Symbiotic Relationship With Chang The Security Guard
It can be a beautiful thing when two people find what they need in each other. However, this is not one of those beautiful times. Chang needed a mark to feel like a real security guard, and Britta needed The Man to come down hard on her to make her feel like a real protestor. With her tendencies to be the AT&T of people, Britta proved that it was more about how she was perceived than what she actually accomplished. The ultimate armchair crusader, this was the greatest example of Britta’s desire to be seen clashing with her desire to do good.
All six seasons of Community are available on DVD right now.