"Always scare, Daniel-san."
"Miyagi hate fighting."
Line?
"Yeah, but you like karate." Right, right.
Yeah, but you like karate, though.
So?
Line?
Chang, the audition's at 3:00.
Well, maybe I shouldn't go.
You know, maybe I'm a bad actor.
Being good is a fraction of acting.
It takes discipline and confidence!
Discipline, confidence.
Okay, from the top.
"Always scare, Daniel-san. Miyagi hate fighting."
Line.
I heard Karate Kid quotes.
Chang is auditioning for a stage adaptation
of Karate Kid downtown.
Yeah, and it's for the part of Daniel LaRusso.
You got a problem with that, racist?
No. You're acting now?
Yeah, um, you got a problem with that?
I'm clear.
They took my snake, and they turned it into a plumber.
They made the eggs into barrels.
The pine tree they made into a gorilla, but I recognize my design.
Donkey Kong, my ass.
That's Construction Snake.
I don't practice law anymore. But we have a case, right?
Isn't everyone you'd be suing dead?
That's not cool, man.
Why would a tree throw eggs at a snake?
Why would a plumber be fighting a monkey?
I don't know. I don't know.
The Wi-Fi is still broken.
What happened to "good morning"?
- It's a bad morning, no Wi-Fi. - Yeah.
We really need Wi-Fi.
Okay, let's not get carried away. We need oxygen.
We have oxygen. We need Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi!
Okay! Okay, enough!
Okay, look, what I'm doing.
Look, "fix."
"Wi-Fi."
Hmm, okay.
Boom and boom.
All right, I am trying to find the IT lady.
My emails to her get bounced back to me in Aramaic,
and when I call, I hear an undulating, high-pitched whistle
that makes my nose bleed.
Well, sounds like a bad IT lady,
Right? Frankie, hire a new IT lady.
I'm pretty handy with technology.
I'm assuming it's still the same,
smaller holes, more bytes?
What are we up to now, mega?
Tera. Tera.
They did it, those bastards. They finally did it.
Frankie, hire Elroy. Elroy, you're the IT lady.
Can I be his assistant? Not for money.
Can I be his friend? Elroy, Abed is your friend.
Now, the real reason I came by.
I'm dying.
Not really, but imagine how bad
you'd feel for complaining about the Wi-Fi.
Here's the real reason.
Too short?
It is too short?
It's not too short? Oh, you people are no help.
♪ Give me some rope Tie me to dream
♪ Give me the hope to run out of steam
♪ Somebody said it can be here
♪ We could be roped up tied up, dead in a year
♪ I can't count the reasons I should stay
♪ One by one they all just fade away ♪
School board coming!
Oh, God.
School board, you're surrounded.
If this is about the bonfire,
we'll put it out when the weather breaks.
We come in peace.
We've had our ups and downs,
but as of right now, we love this school
and love what you're doing with it.
What? Why?
What would you think about moving up?
You know, joining us on the board?
Me? I would love to be on the school board.
Awesome! Awesome.
One more thing,
you're, uh, gay, right?
I mean, like, openly gay?
Uh, I'm not openly anything,
and gay doesn't begin to cover it. No.
Oh.
Oh, I get it.
This is about the uproar over you guys
canceling the Pride Parade for a School Board Parade.
Those guys get to dress fancy all year!
We have one day to... No, no, no.
No, this isn't about that.
This is about adding a new face to the board.
But if that new face happened to be openly gay,
it would be because we're so tolerant.
And always were.
But that's for us to deal with.
The question you have to ask is,
am I openly gay?
Because if you are, that gayness could be a rocket
thrusting you to new gay heights.
And if you're not, well,
there's a lot of gay guys out there.
I assume that's a selling point of the lifestyle.
You know, I... I never thought about it that way.
Well, I have. Cutting women out of sex.
It's genius. Huh.
♪ Gay Dean, Gay Dean
♪ I'm begging you to be a gay dean
♪ Of the school board ♪
This should lead to the router.
Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up, back up, back up.
What... what's going on? What's going on?
There's a bird's nest in there with babies in it.
The mother must have built it there because of the heat.
The same reason my mom took my half brother to Arizona.
That's probably why the Wi-Fi is down.
We'll have to move it.
If you move them, the mother won't come back.
Those birds aren't the new IT lady, I am.
I'll move it carefully.
The mother won't come back.
Kid,
animals have been murdering each other for 3 billion years.
Birds have had their 15 million in the spotlight,
the same as lizards and plants.
And they all just use it to murder, eat, screw,
and not invent Wi-Fi.
Now, we may end up saving this world
or blowing it to hell or making a new one,
but we can't do any of it while scheduling our evolution
around the needs of the least lucky birds.
What are you, a demon? Did Clive Barker write you?
Anyone who finds that nest will come to the same decision.
And you don't have to get mean.
Mean?
You just did a baby bird murder monologue.
Maybe they're close to leaving the nest.
Until then, can't you just stall by doing what real IT people do?
What's that? Exactly.
I've got one year to make it all work.
And that's what I'm gonna do, make it work.
All of it.
This place is intimidating.
You're gonna do great.
Next up, Ben Chang for the role of Daniel LaRusso.
Thank you.
"Daniel-san, why you want learn karate?"
Hang on a second. Sorry, I can do better.
Zip it. Who are you?
Oh, I'm Annie, a friend of Chang's.
You mind coming up here and reading with your friend?
Okay, if it helps.
Um...
Daniel-san, why you want...
Okay. Oh, sorry. No.
You read Daniel-san. You read Miyagi.
Um...
We'll do scene seven, Miyagi's office.
Are you the repairman?
Aye.
Our faucet's really leaking there. Aye.
When you gonna fix it?
After. After what?
After after.
Tell everyone else to go home.
We got the parts!
Parts plural?
Well, yeah, Annie got my part, and I got the Asian part.
Chang, stop!
We were cast as Mr. Miyagi and the Karate Kid
because we're a good team.
We're a team, because one of us is so talented,
she got cast outside her gender
and the other one got cast because of eye shape.
I am not letting you sabotage yourself like this.
Let's say you're right,
and like Sidney Poitier or Meg Ryan before you,
you were cast for race.
It's what the actor does with the role they get that matters, all right?
You're right.
All right, IT lady, how goes it?
I found your problem. And?
I'll need a little time to fix it.
Wow, need time to fix it.
You sound just like you work in IT.
I've got some interesting news.
The school board offered me a position.
Ooh, great.
Congratulations.
Well, I got a part in a play,
and we were sort of talking about that,
so read the room, Pelton.
Are you gonna take the job?
I don't know.
There's a catch.
Jeffrey, Frankie, could I see you in my office, please?
They want you to be a token homosexual?
It's a form of progress.
Thirty years ago, the most power
the openly gay could achieve was the center square.
But I'm not just gay.
What does that mean?
If coming out is a magic show
and gayness is a rabbit out of a hat,
I'm one of those never-ending handkerchiefs.
The sad truth, Craig,
anything other than straight
is plenty gay for a school board.
The most important point is,
are you prepared to make your sexuality,
which is nobody's business,
an aspect of your role in society?
I know I'm not, so I don't.
Oh.
When a person becomes symbolic, they gain symbolic power
at the price of independent power.
Yep, that's an excellent point.
It could be good for Greendale
for one of our own to be on the school board.
I mean, the fact that you'd be leaving a few items
off your list of turn-ons, I mean...
The goal in politics isn't transparency.
It's winning.
That's why the politicians always win.
They do always win, don't they?
But now I get a chance to win.
I could change the system
from the inside out.
And all I have to do is pare down my sexuality
to simple gayness, which is heavily in the mix.
There you go.
Get ready, America.
Dean Pelton is coming out
as approximately two-sevenths of what he is.
Come on, don't leave me hanging.
There we go.
I am so curious. Oh?
Intellectually. Oh.
All right, this is a pretty basic scene.
No real subtext. Let's just get it up on its feet.
There's no wrong answers, okay?
Great, go.
Hey, come fix faucet.
Ooh, karate.
Learn from book? Yeah.
And a few classes back at the Y in Jersey, where I'm from.
What happen eye?
Okay, I'm gonna stop you right there.
I guess there are wrong answers.
- Quick adjustment, Ben. - Yeah.
Act better. Act better. Thanks.
Annie, you're doing great. Keep doing what you're doing.
Oh. Can I ask about my motivation?
Keep me from puking is your motivation.
Stop making me want to quit the theater and kill myself.
Go, after "what happen eye?"
Okay.
Hey, I fell off my bike.
Hmm. Lucky no hurt hand.
Okay. Can I see this toolbox?
Ah, great. This is good. Got it.
I got distracted 'cause the tools
were doing a better job than you.
"What happen eye?" Say it!
What happen eye? Liar!
Stop lying to me. Say it!
What happen eye? What happen actor?
You crying?
You cry when I tell you to cry.
So reabsorb that disgusting droplet of salt
and bad choices back into your doughy body
and then call your mother
to see if you can be reabsorbed back into her doughy body,
or so help me God, I will take that tear,
I will freeze it, and I will stab you in the eye with it,
you waste of a soul-shaped hole forgotten by God.
Okay. What should I...
Annie, don't change a thing. You're prefect.
Unless you want to.
Okay.
All right. I'm Rich Countee. This is my man Carl.
We work on the school board. Yeah, we do!
We have some exciting news for you.
Your own Dean Craig Pelton has been selected
to join the board of Colorado Community Colleges.
I'll just go... Go ahead, Dean.
Talk.
Hello, Greendale.
As you know, this is something I've wanted
for a very long time.
And I wanted to thank all the people at Greendale
that helped me achieve this
and my partner, Domingo.
Very proud of my Craig. Aw, that's...
Oh.
And now, let's open it up to some questions.
As a gay dean,
what is your opinion about the recent controversy
surrounding the canceled Pride Parade?
And do you think you were selected to join the board
because of your sexual preferences?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, I would just like to say
that we are very proud to have Mr. Pelton on the board,
whatever his lifestyle may be.
Which happens to be gay,
which is great but irrelevant.
It's doesn't... Hey, it gets better!
Oh, oh, oh. Oh, good.
We're so happy.
I feel like scum. Gay people are scum?
Okay, don't play that card with me, young man.
I make gayness look like Mormonism, okay?
I don't like being this dishonest.
Dean, I want to say thanks for doing this.
I never knew.
I mean, people talk, but I wasn't sure.
Well, it really doesn't have anything to do with my work.
Yeah, but it's helpful to me, you know?
And to a lot of us, so thank you.
Hmm.
Confine yourself to your role, Domingo.
And lose the attitude.
♪ Gay Dean, Gay Dean, Gay Dean
♪ I'm begging you to be gay dean for the school board
♪ Your lifestyle is alternative
♪ Your influence is positive
♪ You represent the changing of the tide
♪ Gay Dean
♪ Gay Dean ♪
♪ Hare Krishna
♪ Krishna Krishna ♪
Oh, Daniel-san, you much humor.
Okay. Let's stop there.
I'm not gonna hit you,
and it's not because it's illegal,
and it's certainly not because I'm afraid you know karate,
because there is nothing about your performance that is believable.
See, we only hit things that affect us.
I don't hit water or old mayonnaise
or the air after a fart has dissipated,
and I'm not hitting you!
You are the worst actor I've ever directed!
And I directed both Wahlbergs!
From the top!
Danny does a bit with the floor sanders!
Miyagi is amused!
And Kenny gets me another
goddamn cup of coffee
with six Splendas in it.
♪ Hare Krishna ♪
He's so mean to Chang. I don't know what to do.
You could just drop out of the play.
Well, you know, I could,
or Chang could.
I mean, the director's not being mean to me.
But you talked Chang into auditioning,
and then you got his part, and now he's suffering.
You're right. I should threaten to quit.
Or just quit.
Well, if I threaten to quit,
maybe that will be enough for him to stop abusing Chang.
I was kind of born to act, Britta.
When I do it,
I can feel it pleasing the universe.
That's dramatic.
See?
The internet says if they're sparrows,
they'll be flying in less than 12 days.
If they're albatrosses, we're in trouble.
Albatrosses have a 270-day fledging period.
Thanks for guarding the nest with me.
Uh-oh.
This is what you do when you're working?
Must be nice.
All right, look, there's a bird's nest in the router.
If you want to fire me, fire me.
Either way, until those birds are gone,
nobody gets any closer.
Well, of course not.
If you move them, the mother won't come back.
Keep up the good work.
Hmm.
Show me wax on.
This is the worst acting I've ever seen in my life.
Show me wax off.
The ghost of your father just turned his back on you.
Your ancestors are clawing their way
deeper into the earth to get away from you.
You make me embarrassed to have thumbs.
I can see air quotes around you.
Show me paint fence.
Knock, knock, knock. Anybody home?
Oh, look, there's nobody here. Oh, it's so dusty.
It's almost like nobody's been here in years.
There's a note.
Never let me act!
Mr. Lundergard, I'm sorry,
but I cannot stand by while you do this.
That's fine. You can go.
I'm not bluffing.
You can't make an actor more talented by yelling at them.
And if you don't stop,
your lead character is gonna walk.
Lead?
You play Danny LaRusso.
Well, I'm the Karate Kid.
The Karate Kid is about Kesuke Miyagi,
an immigrant who fought against his own people
in World War II, while his wife lost a child
in an internment camp.
Noriyuki Morita was nominated
for an Academy Award for his performance!
Ralph Macchio showed up.
I cast you because your measurements allow me
to use the same wardrobe as last year.
I cast Ben because he has the sadness and talent
that could make this show great
if I have to physically drill into his chest
and suck it out with a straw!
So you can take a flying kick and a rolling doughnut.
You're fired.
But I'm talented too, right?
What? No. Really?
Really? Oh, my God.
You're, like, doing a terrible Vinnie Barbarino up here.
But, like, I know you're not capable of anything better,
so that's why I've been so nice to you.
Take care, Annie.
Yikes, right?
Ooh, what a diva.
Thanks for sticking up for me.
No problem?
From now on, she's dead to us.
Hey, Gay Dean, we've got a problem here.
You reading the local papers?
You've shut down the campus Wi-Fi
until a nest of baby birds can grow?
That's a little too gay.
I didn't do it because I'm gay.
Wait, I'm not gay.
Oh! That did not just get said to us.
You are gay. You are openly gay, and we love it.
But now we're dealing with more flak
from conservatives for appointing you
than we ever did from gays from not having one of you.
Yeah, and the gays aren't coming to your side.
You know why? Because the whole point
is to get a job by being gay
and then to do as good a job as the normals.
That's what the gays want.
They don't want a gay dean
who acts like a weird gay monster.
I'm not a gay dean.
Whoa, not cool, man!
Don't bring us into your web of lies.
Well, now what do you want me to do?
Figure it out, Gay Dean.
Figure it out!
Hey, Domingo. Hey, what's up?
Guys, the school needs Wi-Fi,
and my job is to run the school.
The school doesn't need baby birds.
The nest needs to be moved.
You are not crossing this line.
I'm taping this. This is on video.
Guys.
This is two white security guards versus one unarmed black man
and two baby birds.
Your move.
Stand down. Stand down!
No security, no weapons,
just one unarmed black man versus one unarmed
openly gay dean.
Now, move that nest, please.
Just a hair back, Domingo.
It's like you're breathing for me.
♪ Your lifestyle is alternative
♪ Your influence is positive
♪ You represent the changing of the tide
♪ Inspiring to young gay men
♪ You'll never be ashamed again
♪ But there's another secret locked inside
♪ Gay Dean, Gay Dean Gay Dean
♪ Gay Dean
♪ I'm begging you to be gay dean for the school board
♪ Gay Dean, Gay Dean Gay Dean, Gay Dean
Thank you so much.
You are an inspiration.
♪ Ahh ♪
I have called this press conference,
because I have been less than honest with the public.
You know me as the openly gay dean
of Greendale Community College,
but that doesn't even begin to describe
what I really am.
I belong to one of the most marginalized
and least openly honest groups in America.
I am
a politician.
Now, what does that mean?
Are politicians like you? Well, we look like you.
But we will say and do whatever we have to
in order to acquire and keep our jobs.
It means nothing I say
and very few of the things I think can be trusted.
I am tired of being in this particular closet,
so I am coming out now.
I only hope that you can accept
an openly political person on your board.
If not, I understand.
Thank you.
It's just faster if I get to my office this way.
We don't need pictures of this.
I can't believe the dean got kicked off the school board
just for admitting he's political.
Yeah, some groups take longer than others to gain acceptance.
We like our politicians in the closet because we're afraid.
Deep down, we're all a little political.
Any of you guys smell a bird murderer?
I came here to apologize.
I hope your apology comes with a beak and hollow bones
and a special magnet in its head it uses to migrate.
You skipped wings. Insects have wings!
- I'm sorry. - I'm sorry, Abed.
I lost myself in a role. It won't happen again.
Two of them died. There's one left.
He's hanging on, but I'm worried
he's turning into a symbol of my own innocence.
Aw.
Isn't Chang's play tonight?
If any of you go, you're supporting abuse.
Oh, dial it back, Annie. Oh!
Well, I'm definitely in.
It'll be interesting to see how his fake crying
is different from his real crying.
Well, I'm a big fan of the performing arts,
but I'll go to Chang's play anyway.
Karate Kid adaptation? Karate Kid adaptation?
Karate Kid adaptation? Okay.
Ah, I'm coming. I'm catching up.
Directors have a saying.
Actors are worthless,
empty-headed homunculi.
But the right one in the right role
can change the world.
I have found the right one.
He's found the right role.
And tonight, your world changes.
You're welcome.
He replaced me with Annie Kim? Shh.
Ow! Sorry. You okay?
You must be the new people in apartment 20.
What was that? Karate?
Yeah, you know.
Hey, me and some of my friends are gonna have a party at the beach later.
You should come.
Hey, are you the repairman?
Aye. KIM: Faucet's really leaking there.
Aye.
When are you gonna fix it?
After.
After what?
After after.
Come ask leave boy alone. To train.
You got a lot of nerve, old man.
But I like that. I like that.
Name a place.
Tournament.
"Sergeant Miyagi." Yes, sir.
Regret to inform wife, sir!
Complication at birth, sir.
No doctor at camp.
What she...
What she do...
Please forgive me. Shh.
No need fight anymore.
You proved point.
What, that I can take a beating?
Every time I see those guys,
they'll know they got the best of me.
Close eye.
Get up, Daniel.
Get up.
You're all right, LaRusso.
We did it, Mr. Miyagi. We did it!
I'm speechless.
- I forgot Chang was up there. - Me too.
It's such a relief to be able to support him
out of something other than fear.
I guess all that suffering Chang endured paid off.
It's not what the play suggests, but you have to wonder
if it wouldn't have been better for Daniel to get beat up even more.
I am at a total loss
about what lesson I'll learn from any of this.
Maybe that's the lesson.
Hmm.
I lost a button. Maybe we all lost a button.
Hey. Hey, guys.
- You were so wonderful. - Thank you so much.
Hey, thank you for making me do this.
You're welcome. Congratulations.
I'm jealous. Oh, no, no, don't be.
Believe me, I sit in my dressing room, and all I dream about
is a white picket fence and the dog.
I don't have those either.
Chang, let's go.
I guess all the actors go to some sort of actor bar together.
So I'll see you guys in school.
Bye.
Hey, I know this great bar for people that don't hate themselves.
What do you say?
Milady?
Milord.
We are gathered here today
to celebrate the release of this bird into these skies,
that its now fully formed wings
may find purchase upon the four winds.
If anyone would like to say something, now is the time.
Oh, uh, I'll always remember
how you kept me from getting email for a week.
And that chirp you do when you want more bread.
Yeah, that one.
And now, everyone, please put on your cat masks and finger wings.
With these cat masks, we remind you
that this place can no longer be your home.
But with the fluttering of these wings,
we symbolically join your flight into the natural world.
Wings, everyone.
Okay, you can go now. Go.
Time to go, little bird. That's just the way it is.
Then it's done. BRITTA: You did the right thing, Abed.
Thanks to you, that bird has his whole bird life ahead of him
to fly, meet lady birds, even start a bird family. You made a difference.
Aw. Abed.