NBC's hit sitcom Parks and Recreation provides a mockumentary inside view of how to run city government in small-town USA. Here, we meet unforgettable characters like the quirky but tough Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), the outdoorsy and grumpy Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), the scheming young woman April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), and more as they try to keep their hometown of Pawnee, Indiana running.
And in any office, there's one guy who seems to take all the blame. Enter Gary "Jerry" Gurgich (Jim O'Heir), who always gets a good day's work done but manages to attract blame, teasing, pratfalls, and more. But through it all, Jerry is a genuinely wonderful person and family man, and there's plenty of times when he puts up with way too much. When were ten times (out of many) when Jerry deserved better?
Jerry forgot to vote
Let's start the list with a minor moment. But even if this was a small slight against Jerry, it may still sting for this poor man. After Leslie won the race for a seat in city council, she and her friends were getting ready to throw an all-night party. But at the last moment, Ron had a petty moment and mentioned (to the whole group) how Jerry had forgotten to vote. Worse yet, instead of shrugging it off, Leslie just cursed at him. She wasn't furious or anything, but still, it's all in the past now. Why not thank Jerry for everything he did to help instead?
Sweet 16 party
Leslie and the others discover something rather interesting about Jerry: he was born on February 29th, the leap year day! Technically, he gets a birthday once every four years, and once he looks 64 years old, he's really 16 years old, in a sense. Leslie throws him a party, but she keeps taking time to handle her campaign. The end result is that she and Ron drag Jerry from his comfortable bath, motor him all over Pawnee as Leslie takes care of her own issues, and they arrive far too late at the party to have any fun. Ron was right: Leslie needs to choose just one thing and devote all her energy to it.
His retirement
Jerry Gurgich has been a Pawnee city government employee for many years now, and at last, it is time for him to retire. But the gang totally lost track of his retirement schedule, and they had to throw together an impromptu party that was definitely lackluster. Jerry even got his sleeve caught on fire from his cake's candles, and the cake was ruined when Jerry was blasted excessively with a fire extinguisher. Not much of a party after all those years!
Have a Merry Jerry Dinner
Oddly enough, Jerry is a smooth, suave man outside of city hall, and he has an excellent family life. Every year, the Gurgiches throw a professional-grade Christmas party, but Jerry's best friends missed it since they all redirect his emails to a "Jerry folder" and thus didn't see their invitations. Meanwhile, Donna, April, and Andy were planning the mean-spirited Jerry Dinner, to have a fine meal to toast Jerry's many mishaps over the last year. That's far from the holiday spirit, guys.
Cursed paintings
Jerry has some hidden talents, and one of them is that he's a master with the brush. No doubt during his days off, he practiced his painting until he learned to make gallery-worthy pieces of art. But early in season 2, just as he finished a painting during the government shutdown, Leslie celebrated the government's reactivation by tossing Jerry's painting into a lake! Later, his painting of Leslie as a centuar drew a lot of criticism despite its tasteful subject. Let the poor man paint!
Late start for the campaign
Here's another entry on the topic of Leslie's campaign for city council. Leslie's co-workers put their heads together to figure out how to run her campaign, and they all decided on different jobs for everyone to do. Later, they gave Leslie a pleasant surprise and announced their respective jobs. But Jerry had nothing to offer, since he was (apparently) left out of the meeting altogether! Couldn't they include him and at least try to see if he could add something to the campaign? Instead, he had to admit "I wasn't aware of any of this" when the moment came.
Hummingbird feeders
Pawnee's parks and rec department has a hands-on approach to keeping the town's parks and wildlife in good shape, and that even includes the humble work of touring a park to refill all the hummingbird feeders. To decide who does this job, everyone will enter their own names on paper and draw one at random. But they all entered Jerry's name, so he has to do it over and over! The guy isn't exactly young, either. Why not let the Daniel Boone-ish Ron do it, or the fit and youthful Andy?
It's bird flu! Actually, not!
Leslie was not expecting the Indiana state government to send a team to Pawnee and launch an emergency preparedness test, but that's what happened. Leslie was asked to choose a disaster at random, and she got "bird flu." A lot of work went into this drill, including a large setup to simulate treating the victims. Jerry, meanwhile, was misled into thinking that the problem was real, and he ran off to evacuate his whole family! He drove halfway to Muncee before it was clear that the whole thing was just a drill. Leslie and the others had a chance to alert him, but simply opted not to. Honestly, how tough would it have been to call his cell phone?
Lil Sebastian is MIA
Jerry has a number of bad moments during the Harvest Festival, and one of them concerns the popular miniature horse Lil Sebastian. This aging horse is kept in a pen for people to see, and Jerry and Tom take turns watching over him. But at some point, Lil Sebastian goes missing during Tom's watch, and he persistently pins the blame on poor Jerry. Ultimately, they are both partly responsible, but Tom will only frame it in terms of "it's Jerry's fault!" That's not how to handle a crisis, Tom!
Lost in the corn
Now for another moment where Jerry and the Harvest Festival are concerned. Fortunately, the group does find the missing Lil Sebastian, after they scatter and search for him in the festival's corn maze. But it's later revealed that Jerry got horribly lost in there, and the group just left him in the maze! He's missing the whole festival, and his co workers are casually saying how they will get him out of there in a day or two. Or... how about right now? The poor guy doesn't even have access to a bathroom out there! What is he supposed to be, the minotaur of Knossos?