8. Shirley Bennet (Yvette Nicole Brown)

Shirley's comedic value may be hampered by her sweet, caring nature. But that sweetness just makes her darker side that much more fun — and I’m not just talking about her fits of rage. (Though watching her beat a man with a giant candy cane or threaten to "make a pie" with a pumpkin-costumed Leonard is great.) No, truly her best moments are the most passive-aggressive, when we can see her desperately trying to cling to her ultra-nice persona and failing. Her Christmas party is a study in barely contained outrage, but best of all is when she takes Annie's menorah and sweetly hides it in the bowels of her Christmas tree.

7. Dean Pelton (Jim Rash)

There is a lot I could write about Dean Pelton — about his ongoing crush on Jeff, for instance, or his fetish for people dressed as dalmatians — but honestly, the only thing you need in order to understand why he's one of the best characters is the montage of his ridiculous costumes in "Paradigms of Human Memory." You just can't beat a grown man in a Catwoman costume announcing "Feline AIDS Awareness Day." Go watch it. Now.

6. Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs)

Clearly created to be the Rachel to Jeff's Ross, Britta was really only able to come into her own as a character when the writers followed the natural rhythm of the show and eased off that relationship. It's the pull between the jaded activist Britta wants to be and the vulnerable phony she worries she is that makes her character great — just watch how quickly she goes from proudly announcing she hasn't done laundry in weeks to gloating about winning a contest "for being hot" in "Pascal's Triangle Revisited." And out of the whole group, no one can go toe-to-toe with Jeff in an insult-off like she can.

5. Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase)

In the second season, Pierce became a bit of a villain, as the show itself noted. He was mean (well, more than usual), he was sad (well, more than usual), and the lightness the character had in the first season was slowly stripped away. Some might say that made the character less funny, and I could see that. But there is one thing that will always, always save this character: pratfalls. Chevy Chase is a master at the physical comedy of falling down — over drum kits, into dumpsters, off tables... Truly, I could watch it forever.

4. Jeff Winger (Joel McHale)

The main character has a tough job, especially when he needs to strike a delicate balance between being a good guy and being a total dick. And while there's certainly no straight man on Community, Jeff is sometimes there for the other characters to bounce off of. He's still wildly funny of course: vain, too smart for his own good, and eternally over it, Jeff is so fun to watch because he's so eager to prove he doesn't care. (Spoiler: he does.) His funniest moments (that aren't zingers) are when he's at his weakest: when he admits to Abed that his mother dressed him in a girl's costume for Halloween or when he attacks a romantic rival and inadvertently reenacts a scene from Ghost.

3. Annie Edison (Alison Brie)

Is it because Alison Brie looks like a Disney princess that Annie caught us so off-guard? The good girl (and recovering pill addict) of the group, Annie is secretly competitive and conniving, despite her youth and deceptively sweet sweater sets. If she didn't look (and act, and sound...) like such a goodie-two-shoes, it would be nowhere near as hilarious when she violently chloroforms janitors or mimes deeply explicit sex acts in a game of Dungeons & Dragons.

2. Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi)

Many claim Abed is the breakout character of Community, and even though he's coming in second, I would agree. (Seldom has a character like this appeared on TV without being a robot of some kind.) Abed's stream of pop-culture references is so detailed and so long, it's impossible to think you've caught them all. His shifts in character — vampire, Don Draper, Jeff Winger — are as spot-on as they are surprising. Abed's generally hilarious, but one of his best moments contained very few laughs — the sustained, oddly serious monolog about his life-changing experience on the set of Cougar Town that built upon itself until you couldn't help but guffaw.

1. Troy Barnes (Donald Glover)

There are many different Troys: dumb Troy, cocky Troy, wide-eyed Troy, crying Troy... and all of them are funny. I wish I could just list off all the hilarious Troy moments that immediately come to my mind when I think of his character (singing that oddly conservative football chant, his "sexy Dracula" costume, his back and forth with Jeff about being racist and/or gay, "That's a fun-time snack!"), but I feel like we'd be here forever. Perhaps it's just because Donald Glover is such a gifted actor, but all of these different Troys make sense as one person. The truth is, when Troy's onscreen, I'm almost always laughing.