voice of reason, undergoes a role reversal as the troublemaker. Themes The main storyline shows that while Jeff and Shirley are opposite in many ways, both have morphed into their present personas under very similar circumstances. When they were children, Shirley was a mean foosball player; Jeff used the game to fill his loneliness and inability to connect with people. Shirley behaves as a pious woman to erase memories of her past as a bully, while Jeff's too-cool-to-care attitude developed after being a victim of bullying during his childhood. Despite Shirley feeling bad about bullying Jeff and his bitterness about it, the episode demonstrates that the process of growing up is often about giving up on painful experiences and realizing an ability to rise above them with the help of friends and family. Meanwhile, in the second storyline, Abed initially used the Batman persona as a way to deal with a painful situation. In the end, he, Troy and Annie resolve the situation maturely and take a collective leap into adulthood. Reception Ratings In its original American broadcast on December 1, 2011, the episode was viewed by approximately 3.74 million people, with a Nielsen rating/share of 1.7/5 in the 18–49 demographic. Reviews "Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism" received generally positive reviews from critics. Nick Kroll's guest appearance drew near universal acclaim. Alan Sepinwall of HitFix said the Jeff/Shirley storyline "wound up being much more successful than the [Annie/Abed storyline]... in rare combinations like we got tonight, we can see that Joel McHale and Yvette Nicole Brown work very well together." As for the Annie/Abed storyline, he said "it didn't seem much different, or better, than the many, many, many other sitcoms that have done the 'secretly replace a priceless broken item' thing before it. Not unfunny, but a whole lot flimsier than what 'Community' is capable of so much of the time." Ology's Emily Cheever said "'Foosball And Nocturnal Vigilantism' was one of the best episodes of Community, nay television, I've ever seen... Community has the reputation that it's hard to get new viewers due to its irreverence and self-referencial humor. It's hard to always appreciate the benefits of Community when you don't know what's going on. But this episode filled my living room with belly laughs from start to finish." Kelsea Stahler of Hollywood.com said the episode was "simple and sweet... Tonight’s episode shows that while Community is certainly adept