In post 3084, PenguinPower wrote:
You know, one thing that has perplexed me about this since the episode first came out is "why three pizzas?" I mean - think about it. There are seven members of the study group. Assuming that Shirley is a Big Eater while Annie and Britta are Small Eaters with the remainder of the group being Average eaters, and that they will order Large pizzas (which those appear to be), they should only need on average two slices of pizza per person (adjusted up or down for Big and Small eaters respectively). That would equal a total of two Large pizzas.
Where does the third pizza come from? Why introduce an entire other pizza? If someone in the average group was feeling extra peckish, why not just get an order of cheesy bread and marinara sauce? Or a small calzone? Ordering an extra Large pizza is wasteful, absurd, and it really takes away from the realism that the rest of that episode portrays. I'm ashamed and embarrassed for them.
Community is on netflix now and I will necro this to present my theory.
You will notice during the episode that of the six possible people who collect the pizza, only Abed actually requests everyone give him money to account for their fair share of the cost. The implication is that in all other cases, whoever went to the door to get the pizzas paid the full cost, not thinking in advance about it and considering it small enough potatoes not to ask to get reimbursed. Even when Abed asks for remuneration, the group seems somewhat surprised about it.
I suspect Jeff, who developed a scheme to ensure he was not the one to pick up the pizzas and might have expected the hosts to pick it up by default, is the one who actually placed the order. Knowing the financial cost would not strike him directly, he placed a wastefully excessive order. There are two ways he could benefit from the extra pizzas:
Getting a higher variety of flavors, so he could eat one pineapple, one olive, and one pepperoni slice
or
Guaranteeing very, very reliably that they do not run out of pizza and have a defensible excuse for not eating any of Shirley's pies, which was an important goal for the evening.
"Let us say that you are right and there are two worlds. How much, then, is this 'other world' worth to you? What do you have there that you do not have here? Money? Power? Something worth causing the prince so much pain for?'"
"Well, I..."
"What? Nothing? You would make the prince suffer over... nothing?"
