Reviews in Pop Culture: Leonard Likes Pizza (Community)
Ah, Leonard. If you didn’t already know, that’s Leonard. He’s on the show Community. And importantly, Leonard Likes Pizza.
Like many sitcoms, Community is focused on a core of characters, just like your Friends, the How I Met Yours, and the glorious, spectacular Seinfelds. The events of every episode happen to/with those characters, and while they can act irrational at times, the world around them is often portrayed even crazier, giving them plenty to bounce off of and react to,
But something that Community does better than most of these shows is its treatment of its side characters. They are odd, unhinged, and people you probably wouldn’t want to associate with (this is a low-level community college, after all), but at the same time, they are all respected. They get screen time, they get backstories, and they get understood, bit by bit, instead of just being human props for the core cast to pick up when they need some crazy.
A standout of these side characters is Leonard, old, yet immature, craggly, yet whimsical, offensive, yet adorable. And what makes Leonard so enjoyable is how he clearly shouldn’t fit into the community college environment, but nonetheless manages to get along.
One way Leonard does this is by running a food review YouTube channel, Leonardlikespizza. Is he an expert? No. Does he take his time and analyze the food? Not that we’ve seen. Is it still entertaining? Absolutely. As Leonard himself says, when asked why he has a channel: “You’re talking about it.”
In the series, Leonard first reviews Eugenio’s Four Cheese Pizza, which he rates as a buy. Later, Let’s Potato Chips get the Leonard treatment, and these generic TV show chips also get a Buy. And while two reviews over the course of six seasons isn’t a lot, we do get some insight into what else Leonard got to tasting, thanks to the related videos on his page.
They include Eugenio’s Supreme - It’s ok; Some Crusts are Worth Eating; When is it Okay to Fold Your Pizza?; Do’s and Don’ts of Street Pizza; A Discourse on Sauce Consistency; Necropolis Pizza: Box too hard to open; Poll Results: Best way to open Bag of Chips; and Cardboard Rounds do Catch Fire!!! And that’s not all. But it’s all I’ll list here.
Now are these pertinent to the show? Do they advance plot? Not really. They’re like Leonard himself, some extra flavor added here and there, and it makes the whole dish richer for it. Because it adds dimension to the character and to the world for this to exist.
And in a wonderful nod to the show, someone has taken it upon themselves to create a YouTube channel leonardlikespizza, with his two reviews prominently featured, as well as links to accounts owned by Abed Nadir (with his student films represented), and others of the Community cast of characters.
We recommend the show and the reviews. Even though this is the age of streaming, Community (and Leonard) is a buy. And here, we’ll close with Leonard’s vanity card.
