Abed Nadir: Self-Efficacy and Meta-Egotism

One of the ongoing and quintessential bits of Abed Nadir is his uncanny ability to be "Meta" or realize that he himself and his group of funny counterpart friends are all just characters on this TV show we watch called community. This is a character trait of his that is paired well with his love for pop culture and film. In fact, Abed is at Greendale Community College to earn his degree in film studies. This is referenced as far back seasons one episode three Introduction to Film where Abed uses a camera to display his emotions about his friends and family. It's both touching and interesting to say the least.

Today though, I want to discuss season 2, episode 5: Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples. In this episode Abed is given the Christian Bible by his religious friend, and one of the other main characters Shirley Bennet (Yvette-Nicole Brown). She gives him it with the intention of having Abed make a viral video that surrounds the topic of Christianity. This idea was prompted by seeing a viral "farting Jesus" video in their anthropology class. After reading the bible however, Abed's idea for the Movie is not exactly what Shirley wanted, but exactly what you would imagine Abed to do. 

"In the film, Jesus is a filmmaker trying to find God with his camera. The filmmaker realizes that he's Jesus and he's being filmed by God's camera. It goes like that forever because the filmmakers are Jesus and the cameras are God. And the movie is called, ABED. All caps. Filmmaking beyond film. A meta film. My masterpiece."

As most episodes of TV go, this created conflict that resulted in Abed thinking of himself as a god-like person, taking everyones attention, and becoming a caricature of an all-knowing entity. Answering questions with other questions and having people treat him like a deity. Abed's egotistical and meta idea creates for what Abed describes as the worst thing he has ever made. His prayers for God to destroy his movie are overheard by Shirley though, who then destroys all the film equipment and set for all to see. His prayer was answered, and they made up. The episode is truly much more in depth and witty than my post can convey but what we will focus on today is Abed's confidence. 

Abed had a self-efficacy that did not result in an output that was productive. This is not only true for Abed and can be seen in other people. It is a common feature of self efficacy that it works proportionally to productivity. When someone is in a state of high emotional arousal they are often anxious and excited. We were able to see that in Abed as he became more and more like Jesus. Wearing a wig and costume as the episode progressed. If you want to achieve maximum performance however,  the way to do so is to have moderate arousal as shown below. Abed felt this at the end of the episode where he does make a viral Jesus video that both please Shirley and make his friends laugh.