One of the earliest board gags comes in the show’s season 1 Christmas episode, when a poster advertising cookies declares, “Mr. Winter Wishes You A Happy Merry!” Two episodes later, a note about sign-up sheets features the sign-off “Welcome Back!” along with the name of a never-seen character named Kotter, a sly reference to the 1975 sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter.” Kotter isn’t the only character who seems to only exist on the study room boards. Other episodes include references to a Mrs. Crabtree, a C. Hawk Beard, an S. Clark, and a Ms. Drysdale, the latter of whom is apparently an admin who is about to sort through applications for her replacement without realizing it. “Leave applications with Ms. Drysdale,” the board reads after a job description, “but keep it on the low low, she doesn’t know.”
In the show’s second season, the board gags remain simple, as when a question about evolution in “Cooperative Calligraphy” has the word “monkeys” crossed out and replaced with the name “Pierce.” Two episodes later, the board simply says, “Illiterate? Write for help.” There wasn’t always an art or science to the “Community” whiteboards. Whoever was behind the bits didn’t choose to change things up every episode, like the “Bob’s Burgers” menu specials do, but littered in Easter eggs among the more mundane or nonsensical scrawlings (“Happy October 19th” is a favorite of mine). Jokes sometimes repeat, too; a bit about how “congress” is the opposite of “progress” appears twice, and the phrase “dry erase boards love chalkboard jokes” pops up on at least two occasions.