Think Local: A Parks and Recreation Retrospective 

You need to do "Community"!

That will be interesting, I'm sure! I had wondered if there would be a Hoots companion video about how Parks and Recreation is actually Boko Haram.

Yay your video came out on my birthday

T1J…….follow me 😂

Please do a retrospective of The Nanny

Mine too. She is such an aspiration. 🙂

In many ways, Leslie is the boss that Michael wanted to be. She's confident, fun, is aware of social issues, makes people smile and gets the admiration of her peers though running for office. Everyone in her office treats her like a friend. Michael's insecure, is overly irritating in his attempt to be fun, says accidentally offensive lines 24/7, makes Jim have that exasperated stare and spends the majority of the show without employee admiration. Everyone in his office treats him like a nuisance. I wonder how these two would interact

And the name is so perfect. Knope, for a total yes person.

I think they overcorrected though, especially in how overly fawning side characters became about her. Got grating.

THIS!! EXACTLY THIS

"Also if anybody's seen my grey hoodie..."

Some people have a tough time expressing themselves.

Do you know what episode that is

​@@Anakinskywalker98 Season 3 episode 9: "Andy and April's Fancy Party"

It’s so genuine. April is finally feeling happy!

Did she say why it had to be done *there?*

@@dracorex426 nope, i think she was just looking for an empty-ish parking lot. and ours wasnt even a good choice, since the parking wraps around the building… and its a community center… and a park… so lots of people around anyways

Well do you let her do it?! If it's evil, then it has to be done. Sorry them are the rules of sorting dolls on fire 101. Obviously who would set non-evil dolls on fire, that'd just be illegal and a war crime

Lmao 💀

🎶 And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I can burn my demonically possessed toys 🎶

💕

Just like how racist fascists and liberal white women are friends in real life

She wasn't his type..

​​@@snatchadams69 Exactly, and he isn't hers.

YES also Donna and Tom's friendship

I struggle to this day to see the point of Donna's character. It was nine seasons of "This fat chick is super confident and sleeps around a lot, surprising huh?"

​@@KotoCrashI mean, what more point does there need to be? She does it well and is a good friend to the rest of the cast.

@@MrGksarathyyeah she’s a good supporting character

TREAT YO SELF

@@KotoCrash she supposed to be someone who doesn’t really care about other people easily, but kind of gross past that she’s a good friend she’s dependable. She likes the finer things in life and there is a long history of the fat character being funny or stupid, but not really good at relationships or desirable generally, or if they are on in more of a funny context, but Donna is desirable with no if ands or buts to it. she’s not only desirable with no questions but she is sexy and confident and other people see it and don’t question it. She’s a pretty decent character and actually goes through great character development.

Subversive and morbidly funny at the same time, that's good comedy.

"The only thing I hate more than lying is skimmed milk, which is water that is *lying* about being milk" - Ron Swanson

@@anmolt3840051 “any dog under 15 pounds is a cat, and cats are pointless” is another good one

“My son is seventeen days old, he is quite familiar with the sound of power tools.”

Democrats are blue so I like the symbolism there as well. Intentional or not lol

Easily one of the funniest moments ever

It's the clip my brother first showed me of the show that made me want to watch it too

Honestly same, one of the funniest moments on tv 😂

"I'm holding the dog, and he is peeing. He is now peeing."

i think it gave me a hernia honestly. Sooo funny

Honestly i didnt like it. The whole moral of the flu episode felt like it was ramping up to be about leslie learning to be able to trust her coworkers and be less stressed and work hyperfocused. But then at the end its all undercut by leslie just magically pulling through, and the line was cheesy and dumb. Not romantic

I loved this moment 💙

@@jontedeakin1986 But that’s not what it was about. It was about how her hyper focus and dedication usurped her flu-addled brain and pulled her through it, because she’s Leslie MFing Knope. She’s flawed. She isn’t perfect. But she’s dedicated to her work, and that pulled her out of her fever just long enough to do what she needed to do. Kind of odd that your main criticism is that it didn’t turn out the way you thought it would.

@@derp195 dude my criticism isn't that the episode didn't turn out the way I expected, it's that the themes of the episode and particularly the lesie subplot (see toms subplot within the Leslie one) is built around trusting the people around you to help when you can't. It's about relying on people. So when the final moral of the story is fuck cooperation, push yourself till death, that felt incongruous to me

Stop... pooping...

Jerry is also hung, which is quite the point in his favor.

Gary/Larry/Jerry etc really caught my eye on the 2nd watch through. It's pretty much a Buddhist parable. He knows his place as the whipping boy and might even be proud of it. He knows he's the glue that holds the place together. He even warns Ben to stop from saying Ben likes him. It's almost a spiritual calling to him, because........he has the prettiest wife who adores him and his gigantic penis. He and his wife are on the same page with everything and provided a stable home for their kids. One of my favorite parts happens during breakfast the Gergich way when he's graceful and in his element.

Exactly. They also have excellent honestly and work towards good communication. Like when Ben advised Chris to say “that sucks” instead of try to fix things. He listened, he changed.

yeeeeeah unironically had me feeling i was libertarian when I was younger

@Geez I'm and ancap because capitalism is just a framework for exchange which is needed to combat entropy.

@@Cyril29a capitalism is a system that incentivizes endless consumption and ruthless accumulation of profit. Markets are the framework, but markets can exist outside of capitalism

@@Tonkertrucks How does it do that?

@@Cyril29a That's a pretty large question, but the primary issue with unfettered capitalism is that it's known to prioritise low wages and consolidate wealth. This is because paying workers is one of those things you can skimp out on without creating worse products, many multinational corporations employ slaves or wage slaves in Africa and Asia and have lobbyists in the parliaments of various governments trying to lower the minimum wage and deregulate the market. Consolidation of wealth occurs because it's the entire point of a business, to keep as much of their money as possible and mitigate any way they could lose their money. Competition is not inducsive to profit, if there is no market regulation then businesses will employ unethical methods. You can see this in places where regulation isn't enforced, gentrification is a good example which has pushed many lower class communities farther into destitution (black neighborhoods in the US as well as poor cities in Puerto Rico are examples I can think of off the top of my head).

I work in municipal gov't and it spoke to me, too.

"there are quite a few Leslie Knopes out there" :')

One thing I learnt from the video was that they weren't intended to end up together and that they planned for Leslie to have a series of different relationship. I think that somehow, it helped to write a more meaningful relationship. When a show plans a "meant to be relationship", especially between main characters, they tend to be each other only real romantic option and as a result, you don't really need to make the relationship special, to try to think as to why it would work. A and B are the two young, beautiful main characters that the public is meant to like, the only other characters that will "fit the bill" to be in a relationship with one of the two are typically side characters who are only temporary obstacles to that main romance. Of course, there can be a little work to show why A and B specifically fit together, but it is not super necessary and it is often, well, not forgotten entirely, but not that much of a focus. The fact that when they were set up to be together, Leslie had already had a few love interests and that the writers weren't already trying to sell us an happily ever after before the characters first conversations on screen, it meant that they had to figure out what made that specific relationship interesting, why these two characters fit together, and how their interactions are different from the ones that came before, and the ones that will possibly come after. If you only need one epic romance on the course of your series, it can be generic. In fact, the whole "meant to be" thing kind of forces things to be generic. If you know you'll need three to five (main) romantic relationships throughout the course of the show, they can't all be generic, otherwise the watchers will be bored by the end of the second one. With Ben and Leslie, they did a really good job at always finding new reasons why these two like and admire each other, reasons that are unique to them both. And I guess at some point they kept finding new reasons why this should work out and decided not to break them up. It's also much more realistic, now that I think of it. In real life people exist, they meet, then they realise whether or not they want to get in a relationship, once they are in the relationship, they see over time how their feelings evolve and how compatible they are, if things go well they continue, and if they don't they break up and meet other people. To be fair, marriage agencies kind of go the other way around, with people wanting a certain type of relationship and trying to fit another person into it, and maybe it does work sometimes, but it does feel a little more artificial to me. Of course, fiction doesn't have to be realistic, but I really do think they struck gold with Ben and Leslie.

I feel like the writers agreed with you in the end, and that’s why they give him such a happy ending!! He was one of my favorite characters lol I just love that he has this amazing and warm home life but it’s a complete mystery!

Jerry had an amazing life which is why he didn't care and how the writers probably evened it out lol

yeah, as someone who the only daughter in an abusive household, i remember not even being able to watch family guy when i was younger because it reminded me too much of how i was being treated in my own home. nowadays, i just hate characters who solely exist as a punching bag. it's just never funny and the mistreatment always angers me.

@@em0ville I feel you

Also appreciate that after his fart attack he mentions changing his health habits and then LIVES TO BE 100!!! Man did not mess around!

Haha I posted almost the same sentiment but about 30 Rock. I would also be psyched to see a Community one, though.

Definitely closer to ALF

I think that would be wonderful but honestly he should just wait until the movie comes out.

@@SIDEKICKDUSTY Oooooo, 30 Rock would be a great one. I think Community should wait til the movie.

@@sneckie After the last 3 seasons, I'm afraid I lost faith in how good the movie could be.

How corny are you

Yes! I love that they are all supportive and mature, where they aren't emphasized by their arguments.

Yes, and the toxic relationships are shown to be toxic, such as Ron's with the Tammys or Tom with whatshername at first, when he wasn't mature enough to have a relationship with her. Relationships that need to be broken up are broken up, and I appreciate that in this show.

I'd add Ron and Leslie in there, their friendship is very well developed. They're no Turk and JD, but they're still pretty great.

Schur romances are unparalleled!

Please tell me they have copies/replicas of the show’s murals in city hall or any of the government buildings

Yeah, I live in Fishers and see a lot of the parallels as well. Specifically I see a lot of parallels between Pawnee and Eagleton to Fishers and Carmel

This show is to local government what Community is to community college - heightened, but scarily accurate.

@@calebmcintosh1991my community college isn’t like community. lol maybe in that year

@@adriano9216 speak for yourself. I went to community college in Colorado, where Community is set, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that it was so fucking similar. We had a paintball incident, for fuck's sake.

@@calebmcintosh1991 that seems like it was done cause it was the set but tbh yea I could see a community college being super upidy with big budgets for that stuff

@@adriano9216 it was the opposite of uppity with a big budget, friend. You don't need a budget to have a paintball incident. Or any of the other wacky shit that happened there.

Ron discovering that eagleton Ron is a hippie is still one of my favorite moments in the show

Seeing Sam Elliott in any role makes me happy, but Eagleton Ron was so perfect for him

It's more believable to me that April could be happy with children than Andy could be happy without children. Besides, Donna, Tom, and Craig never have children, as far as we know.

@@aaa303that is completely true lol

I would've ratherwd she had a child but remained a single mother. I think her want to have a family was right, but they did rush her and Chris getting back together. And it does undercut her development a bit

@@ashjohnson3499 lmao this comment is about april, not ann

Not untrue, but all the same, the way April approached the experience of childbirth in the epilogue felt true to herself, especially with the makeup. That, and as said before, Andy probably wanted them more than April didn't.

Hope you feel better, stranger :)

Feel better friend

Feel better!

Get well soon! :)

I'm sort of the same. I enjoyed parts of The Office but it honestly hasn't stuck with me in the way Parks and Rec has. I just really can't handle how it relied so much on cringe humor and characters often being utter dicks towards each other. And yet, strangely enough, I love It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but that's mostly because IASIP doesn't gloss over the fact that Dennis, Dee, Mac, Charlie and Frank are horrible people. I feel like The Office tries to be both optimistic/heartwarming and cringe comedy, which just feels jarring (probably because The Office was based on a British sitcom).

Sounds like a great marriage! Enjoy and have a great time you both! :)

2 weeks later and she's still going ✊🏼

The trans religion really wants to groom and maim children. She is the villain working for the child molesters and corporations.

But she's a siberian husky!

@@adinakruijssen3056that’s just incorrect lmao

Hope everything’s okay

Hope life feels lighter soon

Sending you love. Hope you’re feeling better.

hope this video has helped you feel better and that you feel better in general soon❤❤

Sending you much love ❤️❤️❤️

Hell yes

Stop. Pooping.

Yep, exactly!!!

Woah, I didn't even remember that. That is incredibly weird and sad, it's deeply unsettling. Because that's how a lot of our misgony and sexism permeated society our world.

56:00 not me crying at the court transcript reading of Bens romantic gesture again….

1:07:38 it keeps happening

Oh my God yes I need this. 3rd rock was my childhood

Omg yes

Netflix didn't removed it from Netflix, NBCUniversal did to put it on their streaming platform, Peacock ^^

@@krankarvolund7771 I corrected my post before you wrote this comment. Sorry, I was baked :P

I call that a Win, Win, Win.

God, me too. I remember listening to the Comedy Bang Bang episode in tribute to him that week and being unable to keep it together. we lost one of the greats. but we'll always have Foam.

RIP Terrorist Wittels ❤

This is *exactly* how I feel.

My feelings exactly.

It never got its hooks into me because of those fantasy politics. It was so clearly delusional.... AND OMG, they just compared it to West Wing as I was about to type it.

Amazingly well said

How have P&R's politics aged horribly?