Community Episode 5.08 App Development and Condiments

At the Save Greendale Committee meeting, Dean Pelton introduces two tech entrepreneurs who are testing their new social networking app, MeowMeowBeenz, on the students of Greendale. The app's premise is simple: users rate their friends and acquaintances using an easy five-star rating system. What could possibly go wrong?

After a few days of beta testing MeowMeowBeenz, the social hierarchy of Greendale's student body is already showing signs of transformation. So far, Jeff has refused to use the app. He's always benefited from the old social system, in which the cool people get more stuff. Now the rules have changed. Chang walks with a fake limp because it gets him more MeowMeowBeenz, and Professor Hickey sports a ridiculous birthday hat to get higher ratings.

It seems everyone on campus is completely obsessed with the MeowMeowBeenz app. Britta attempts to organize a revolt against the app, but her efforts result in a drastically lower MeowMeowBeenz rating. Jeff and Annie inform Britta that, for some strange reason, she's much more persuasive when she has mustard on her face.

Shirley enters the cafeteria sporting a 5-MeowMeowBean rating, and the power has already gone to her head. Jeff decides to tackle the problem the Winger way: he'll join MeowMeowBeenz, become a Five and bring the whole system down.

After eight days of beta testing, the Fives are practically running the campus, which has been transformed into a dystopian bizarro world. Fives are separated from their underlings and showered with lavish snacks and amenities while lower-rated students are relegated to slave class status.

In order to improve morale and avoid a revolt in the lower class, Shirley (the leader of the Fives) decides to hold a talent show in which students have a chance to improve their ranking. Jeff, now a Four, is still pursuing his plan to derail the system, but he can't get higher than a four rating. The talent show is his ticket into the Fives, and Britta is fully on board, even though she's only a Two.

At the talent show, Shirley expels an untalented juggler to the outlands with a poor rating. Jeff takes the stage next and presents a stand-up comedy routine, easily winning the crowd over by poking fun at the ratings system. He secures a Five rating with the routine and heads to the Fives Only area to participate in a bizarre, Logan's Run-inspired futuristic dance number with Shirley, Chang, Hickey, Annie and the other Fives.

Britta continues her efforts to motivate the underclass students, but she's only persuasive when she has mustard on her face. Back in the Fives area, Jeff finally confronts Shirley about her efforts to use the MeowMeowBeenz system to her advantage. The other Fives banish both of them to the outlands, but the new regime doesn't last for long. The Ones and Twos raid the Fives' designated area, and the revolution is on!

With Britta's One Revolution underway, she organizes a militia court to judge and re-rate the Fives. During the tribunal, Jeff confronts Britta with an impassioned speech that puts the MeowMeowBeenz app itself on trial. His speech convinces the students to delete the app from their phones, and by the next day, the social hierarchy of Greendale is back to normal... except that Starburns refuses to take of his Zed costume.