My theory/head-canon on how old Abed is
(Wasnt sure whether to label as head-canon or theory due to how this is mostly just a bunch of coincidences, in this essay i will-)
I believe his birthday is March 24th 1987, making him 22 years old at the beginning of season one.
1. His birthday is March 24
2. Season one takes place in the fall of 2009
3. He had to help his dad in their falafel restaurant because post 9/11 racial-profiling was destroying the business
4. He grew up watching the 1964 Rankin Bass movie Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer every Christmas
5. Abed is older than Troy
6. Abed is younger than Britta
7. Dan Harmon, in the behind the scenes for the episode G.I. Jeff, cited Abed as being âtoo youngâ for the G.I. Joe episode to be centered around him
3. Abed wouldâve been 14 at the time, making him the youngest possible age he could legally work in a restaurant
4. Rankin Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeerâs first, and earliest, home media release was on VHS in 1989. This wouldâve made him two years old, closer to three years old by Christmas of â89, a very formative age and good time to start a tradition. One could argue that he and his mom watched it when it aired on tv but we see at the end of Abedâs Uncontrollable Christmas that they are watching it on a VCR. It doesnât seem like too much of a stretch as we see multiple times in the series that Abed has an extensive dvd/vhs collection
5. In Mixology Certification, Abedâs ID and being legally able to drink are not considered an issue, unlike Annie. He is seen legally drinking (presumably) in Communication Studies, making him at least 21. In the same episode, Jeff references the fact that Abed apparently doesnât drink. This makes it sound that he can, but just choses not to.
6. Amongst other instances, in Investigative Journalism, Britta says âVacations are wasted on the youngâ while referring to Troy and Abed.
7. In this Interview/Behind the scenes, Dan Harmon talks about how the plot came to be, ââThis must have something to do with Abedâs psychosis, why is Abed seeing things as 80âs G.I. Joe? Why would he do that? Heâs a young fella.â And that conversation led to âWhy are we asking about Abed?â.â G.I Joe ran from September 12, 1983 âNovember 20, 1986. I personally donât believe this rules out that he wasnât born yet or that he never watched it, itâs more so Dan Harmon and the other writers being so adamant that this was before Abedâs time, to the point where they opted for Jeff instead, that makes it seem worth noting.
Anyway. Thatâs it. Just thought it was neat. But hey, thatâs just a theory, a fILM THEO- *gunned down by firing squad*