Have yourself a merry little dark, animated Community Christmas trailer

It’s yet another year without a Christmas episode of Community, but that doesn’t mean Community can’t celebrate the Christmas inside—a state of mind that isn’t beholden to dates or awkward Olympics-shifted time schedules, and also everything looks like a cartoon. This animated trailer for the show’s Jan. 2 return serves as a sort-of-prequel to the fifth season, establishing the study group’s estrangement, Jeff’s depression, Pierce’s absence (he may or may not be dead, according to this), and also the winking acknowledgment that everyone will soon be freaking out over what’s happening to Donald Glover, who just has too many gifts he needs to barf out into the world. A very merry, dark, metaphor-laden, frustratingly delayed Christmas to us all.