Parks and Recreation remain one of the most fondly remembered comedy series of the 2010s. With its blend of humor, relatable characters, and generally wholesome vibe, Parks and Recreation amassed an extremely dedicated audience, who still follow the projects of the cast and crew of the series. While the show ended in 2013, there are still behind-the-scenes stories that have been shared throughout the years.
Since the cast of Parks and Recreation was stacked with great comedic actors, a lot of the behind-the-scenes stories focus on improvisation with the cast. Some of the best lines in the series came from these improvised moments, which still get elicit laughter from any viewer watching Parks and Recreation years after the series ended.
Chris Traeger's Flu Pep Talk
Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) is the health-obsessed, optimistic City Manager of Pawnee, Indiana. Unfortunately, even the healthiest amongst the population can still get the flu. In season 3, episode 2 "Flu Season", Chris finds himself sick and admitted to the hospital during a flu outbreak in Pawnee.
At one point, Chris tries to give his body a pep talk, which was largely improvised by Lowe. The line, however, that everyone remembers is the intensely said "Stop. Pooping." Brilliant.
Does Donna Not Drink Water?
Donna Meagle (Retta) is a character whose presence only grows over the course of Parks and Recreation. From a background character to a fabulous real estate mogul, Donna always brought the sass and snark to the proceedings. She also brought one amazing improvised line as well.
In season 4, episode 14 "Campaign Shakeup", Donna just casually drops the line "Do I look like I drink water?" Retta, once again, proves that her comedy chops were some of the best (and most underutilized) on the series.
Leslie Knope: Master Debater
Sometimes, in Parks and Recreation, the improvised lines don't always come from the actors saying them. In season 4, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) has a moment where she calls herself "a master debater". The line did not come from Poehler herself, but from Chris Pratt, who fed her the line to say. It was good enough to stay in the episode.
Thus, audiences have Leslie Knope in her sunshine voice calling herself a "master debater" forevermore. It's just too funny.
The Line That Changed Leslie's Character
Amy Poehler's improvisation skills, however, allowed the course of the series to be changed. Most audiences don't like to talk about Parks and Recreation season 1, feeling that the series truly found its voice and tone in season 2. One line in season 1, according to creator Mike Schur, ended up changing the course of Parks and Recreation irrevocably. In a Reddit AMA, Schur said that around the third or fourth episode of the series, Poehler was improvising a talking head segment.
Schur wrote that Leslie was talking about breaking the glass ceiling and recalled Poehler improvising "[S]he got super cocky and looked back at the men sweeping up and improvised something like, 'Am I breaking into the boys' club? I dunno. I mean, just look at all those bitches cleaning up after me.'" The improv totally changed how the character was viewed by the writer's room after it.
Andy Does Roadhouse
Parks and Recreation season 4, episode 20 "The Debate" sees Leslie debating against others for the city council position that she's running for. Meanwhile, the donor watch party for Leslie's campaign has its cable cut. In order to keep the donors entertained, Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) decides to perform his favorite movie Road House in order to keep them engaged.
The whole segment is absolutely hilarious and totally improvised. The script apparently just said "Pratt does Road House" and it was up to Chris Pratt how he interrupted it. It's absolute comedy gold leaving audiences just as invested as Donna apparently was during the performance.
April Threatens An Intern
April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza) was one of the most iconic characters of Parks and Recreation with her dead-eyed stare and deadpan delivery. She could also be incredibly intimidating toward people who have not respected her friends at all. When a well-connected intern disrespects Ben (Adam Scott) while both were working in Washington, D.C., April takes it upon herself to teach the intern some manners.
In a beautifully improvised threat at the end of season 5, episode 2 "Soda Tax", she describes how she was going to gouge out the intern's eyes so that his Congressman uncle would have to hire a seeing-eye dog to drive him around. Plaza does it with the perfect tone and just an utterly blank expression that's both disturbing and hilarious.
Andy's Diagnosis
Parks and Recreation season 3, episode 2 "Flu Season" is one of the best episodes of the series, hands down. While Chris Trager's "Stop. Pooping." line is truly iconic. Andy Dwyer wins for one of the best and funniest lines of the series, which was entirely improvised by Chris Pratt. Michael Schur has gone on record saying that he was "furious" as a writer because the line was that good.
Leslie, sick with the flu, is being led out of her office. Andy, trying to help, says "I typed your symptoms into the thing up here, and it says you could have ‘network connectivity problems." It remains one of the best lines of the series.
Everyone Gets Wasted On Snake Juice
Parks and Recreation had a lot of great "talking head" segments, where characters talk as if they're being interviewed by someone. Who is interviewing them? Audiences never get an answer on that front. The most iconic instance of the style being used to its comedy potential is in season 3, episode 13 "The Fight". The entire Parks department gets wasted on Snake Juice, which was invented by Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari).
Everyone improvised their segment from Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) dancing wearing April's hat to Ben Wyatt just saying random funny words to himself to Leslie drunkenly rambling about her fight with Ann (Rashida Jones). It's all perfectly improvised by the actors.
"Why Are You Naked?"
This is a legendary story that is well-known to fans of Parks and Recreation. In season 2, episode 6 "Kaboom", Ann invites her ex-boyfriend Andy to her house in order to get his help. Andy, however, thinks that Ann wants to get back together and shows up at her house completely naked. Chris Pratt, for one take, decided to forgo the flesh-colored underwear he was wearing, which made it into the episode.
Amy Poehler's genuine surprise is very much real. It's hard to tell if Rashida Jones' screaming "Why are you naked?" was improvised or written into the episode. Either way, it's a seamless bit of a comedy. Either way, don't do what Pratt did on a film set, even if it's for the sake of comedy.
The Filibuster
Parks and Recreation had some legendary guest stars over the seasons, but no one could top Patton Oswalt's appearance on the series. In season 5, episode 19 "Article Two", Oswalt plays Garth Blundin, a Pawnee native who takes the town's weird traditions very seriously. When Leslie tries to abolish some of the older and contradictory rules in the town charter, Garth stages a filibuster, during which he pitches his Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars crossover mixed with Greek mythology for good measure.
Oswalt improvised the whole thing, which clocked it at around eight minutes. The entire scene has remained one of the best and most legendary instances of improv in the past decade.