This prankster was first referenced in the second season episode "Intro to Political Science," when Annie states "the assailant known only as the 'Ass Crack Bandit' will be brought to justice."
is to drop a coin down the back of someone's pants when they lean over) returns to campus after two years, Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) and Annie Edison (Alison Brie) begin an investigation.
Before the investigation can go any further, Shirley Bennett (Yvette Nicole Brown) arrives and informs the group that former member Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase) has died.
Musician Ben Folds wrote and performed an original song, "Ass Crack Bandit", for the episode's climax, with backing vocals by Ruby Amanfu.
[6][7] The episode adheres to tropes of the crime drama genre, e.g., TV series like The Bridge, Hannibal, and The Killing.
[9][10] Shirley's sons sing the Radiohead song "Creep" in the opening scene[8] in the style of the initial trailer for Fincher's The Social Network.
While the focus was on Annie and Jeff, this episode also managed to give pretty much every character at least one great line or moment, including Shirley's 'He should be the run on sentence Bandit', Abed's 'Mildly autistic super detectives everywhere!'
run, Chang's backwards butt costume and Britta naming every possible meaning for the Ass Crack Bandit's crimes.
"[6] She also noted the episode's ending, saying: "the way this week’s episode builds to its Fincheresque climax — with Annie and Jeff on the cusp of solving the crime during a big student gathering, a couple of clever misdirects, and then the pair losing their bad guy at the last minute — only to slide gracefully into Shirley announcing the death of Pierce was quite moving.
Amid all the clever gags and moments of laughter, this show still finds time to have a huge, beating heart in the center of it all, and Dan Harmon balances it all so, so well.
The episode quickly won it over—again, it said “butts” a lot—but I found myself kind of wanting more “normal Greendale” adventures going in, and that may have affected my opinion a bit in the early going.