Abed Nadir

Mind

Clever, imaginative

Personality

Confident, does not hesitate. Has a good self esteem, but can recognise his flaws and shortcomings if they are pointed out. Has problems recognising social cues, autistic, might come off as cold or rude, but doesn't mean to be; loves movie references and uses character tropes to understand other people (can even describe real people and situations as characters); plans things in advance, rigid with his routines, feels alienated from other people, but values those who truly get him; deadpan, doesn't understand sarcasm, always direct and says what he means to say; clever. He can even pick a certain character and assume his role for a purpose, but it won't really be the real him, and he wouldn't consider it as such.

Likes

Movies, TV shows, games that involve imagination, pillow forts, blanket forts, buttered noodles, hanging out in the Dreamatorium (a room where he imagines various scenarios, ranging from mundane real life things to unlikely things); his best friend Troy, hanging out with the study group, playing out scenarios.

Dislikes

When plans change, analogue clocks, when people hate things that he loves, bad TV tropes, people pitying him, tying shoelaces; forced scenarios, overdone tropes.

Habits

Saying "Cool. Cool, cool, cool." (Occasionally). Doesn't hold eye contact. When things go very very wrong, he can freeze in place and go to an imaginary place in his head; or he emits a high-pitched whine.

Appearance

Half Arabic, brown skin, brown eyes, tall and scrawny, wears jeans and shirts, usually has long sleeves; short black hair. Dresses casually, like a college student normally would.

Generał information

Abed is a student at Greendale Community College and one of the first members of the show's central study group. A pop culture enthusiast, his extensive knowledge of TV shows and movies, as well as his passion for filmmaking, often lead the study group to reference or attempt to recreate famous media properties. Abed serves as the main link between Community and the real world, often pointing out motifs and tropes present within the show's events. Abed's unusual social behavior and special interests imply that he is on the autism spectrum, as suggested by Harmon and stated by other characters on the show. Despite what some perceive as a lack of social skills, he is generally beloved by members of the study group and enjoys a close bond with Troy Barnes. Abed Gubi Nadir was born to a Palestinian father from Gaza and a Polish American mother. His mother left his family when he was six years old, which Abed assumes his father blames him for. After his mother left, Abed submerged himself in American pop culture, resulting in his extensive knowledge of film and television. Abed's father permits him to take classes at Greendale so that Abed can help take over the family's falafel restaurant one day. Abed later convinces his father to allow him to study film instead.

Perosnality traits

Abed's defining trait is his pop culture knowledge, resulting in his frequent references to film and television. Though seemingly lacking social skills to the extent that other characters suspect he is autistic, Abed is able to expertly morph his personality to reflect fictional characters such as Batman, Don Draper, and Han Solo. His encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture makes him highly observant and analytical, such that he is able to predict what fellow members of the study group will say and do (as shown in "Debate 109"). In "Aerodynamics of Gender", Abed uses these skills to fend off a group of mean girls; encouraged by Britta, Shirley, and Annie, he adopts a RoboCop-like ability to point out exactly what women on campus are insecure about. Abed is the primary source of the show's meta-references: he warns the study group in "Cooperative Calligraphy" that their argument will lead to a bottle episode, is the only member of the group to notice that they are being portrayed via stop motion animation in "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas", and occasionally breaks the fourth wall.

Hobbies

Abed's passion for filmmaking often leads him to recreate or pay homage to his favorite films. In the season 1 episode "Contemporary American Poultry", Abed contextualizes the study group's efforts to own the campus cafeteria's chicken finger supply within the scope of a mafia movie, and narrates the episode in the style of Henry Hill from Goodfellas. In "Critical Film Studies", he invites Jeff to a dinner under the guise of having a "real conversation" free from pop culture references, when in reality the dinner itself is Abed's attempt to reenact My Dinner With Andre. Abed also regularly takes the opportunity to turn events into documentaries, such as in "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking" where Pierce's near-death experience becomes the basis of a documentary. In the season 3 episode "Documentary Filmmaking: Redux", he attempts to recreate Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse while capturing Dean Pelton's efforts to film a new commercial for Greendale. Aside from his own projects, Abed shows interest in several media franchises: the fictional British sci-fi show Inspector Spacetime (which is a parody of Doctor Who), the short-lived superhero drama The Cape, and Cougar Town. The show's references to Cougar Town resulted in Pudi making a cameo appearance on the season 2 episode "Something Good Coming, Part 1". In the series finale "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television", Abed reveals he is moving to Los Angeles to work as a production assistant for a TV show.

Relationship with others

Abed's struggling social skills often frustrate other members of the cast, though the study group is generally accepting of him and comes to embrace his personality. Some of his less favorable actions include tracking the female members of the groups' menstrual cycles (a habit which he insists began accidentally) and installing tracking devices onto all members of the study group. Abed gets asked out by a lot of girls, although he doesn't brag about it. He's not inexperienced, he gets a lot of action behind the scenes. Abed forms a close friendship with Troy; their relationship is characterized by their joint willingness to engage in hijinks, such as building a campus-wide blanket fort and hosting a mock morning news program titled Troy and Abed in the Morning. The two move in together in season 3, and later invite Annie to join them in their apartment. The bounds of Troy and Abed's friendship are most notably explored in the season 3 episode "Pillows and Blankets", in which their conflicting philosophies regarding blanket forts results in a campus war, as well as in Troy's final episode "Geothermal Escapism", in which Abed must come to terms with Troy's departure from Greendale. In the season 4 episode "Herstory of Dance", Abed meets and develops feelings for a coat check girl named Rachel (Brie Larson). They date during season 5, though after the season's 9th episode, Rachel never appears again. Abed references her sudden disappearance in the season 6 episode "Ladders", remarking, "What happened to that girl I was dating?"

Characteristics

It is hinted that Abed is autistic, reflected in his inability to pick up on social or emotional cues ("Pilot"). Abed is quite intelligent, fluent in three languages (English, Polish and Arabic) and possesses keen observational skills. He often accurately predicts other people's behaviors ("Debate 109") although it's shown he is not infallible ("Virtual Systems Analysis"). He'll draw connections to real life situations through pop culture and meta references gained after years of watching TV and movies ("Pilot"). However, he has problems understanding emotions and has a particular difficulty with grasping sarcasm ("Accounting for Lawyers"). He is surprisingly athletic ("The Politics of Human Sexuality"), a skilled dancer ("Interpretive Dance"), and a good singer and rapper ("Somewhere Out There"), ("Spanish Rap"). Besides his love of filmmaking, Abed also likes to indulge in role-play and often assumes different characters from various genres of entertainment. Occasionally he'll go too far in these roles which has threatened his friendship with Troy ("Contemporary Impressionists") and the rest of the study group ("Contemporary American Poultry"). He states his religion to be Islam ("Comparative Religion") although he doesn't follow the strict tenets of his faith ("Mixology Certification"). Abed has been shown to be very attractive to women ("Physical Education"), ("The Art of Discourse") and claims to have made out with the prettiest girl on campus ("The Art of Discourse"). After Britta has him and the study group take a personality test ("Competitive Ecology"), the results suggested that he is the sanest member of the group.

Example dialogue

Annie: I found you by turning into you, how cool is that? Abed: Cool. Cool, cool, cool. Annie: Tell me where we are so I can pretend to see it. Abed: We're inside a locker. It's where I spent a lot of time in junior high. Annie: You think this is where we'd put you? You know that's absurd, right? Abed: Well, I'm not stupid. You can see I've increased the square footage. It's a metaphorical locker. It's a place where people like me get put when everyone's finally fed up with us. Annie: Abed, so maudlin. If you start turning into a vampire... Abed: I've run the simulations, Annie. I don't get married, I don't invent a billion dollar website that helps people have sex. I don't make in into Sundance, Slamdance or Dance Pants. Troy invents Dance Pants in 2019. Don't tell him, he needs to stumble onto it.