Sunday, February 3, 2013

The Funny Stuff: Parks and Rec(1/24)



This was pretty great.  Not a lot of character development, but tons of funny to go around.

Let’s start with…

Leslie and April are on a crusade to get more women in government jobs.  Actually, Leslie is on the crusade, and April is there to mock the process.  Leslie and Chris get a meeting with a couple of people from each department to discuss the issue, and Shauna Malwae-Tweep can write a story about it.   When Leslie and April get to the meeting, they are the only two women there.  Whoops.  One of the councilmen tries to get Leslie to leave to get more snacks, but Leslie refuses, calling the meeting to order.  Leslie brings her research to the table, saying that sanitation is the worst offender for gender equality.  The guys are excited for themselves, but Leslie stomps on that pretty quickly, even though they actually have some good points, like women aren’t applying for the job.

Anyway, Leslie decides to show them, and goes on a trash run the next day, with Chris and Shauna trailing.  Leslie and April are rocking the route, and the normal garbage men are not happy.  The guys hear about a unexpected pick up, and take Leslie and April to go get it.  Turns out it is a huge freezer with no wheels.  Leslie and April can’t move it, and Leslie starts freaking out about feminism.  They are still sitting there after dark, until the owner comes out and tells them the actual garbage men couldn’t lift it either, reigniting April’s fire.  They come up with a plan: they are going to donate it to a food shelf, who have much more determination then the garbage men, apparently, cause they get it on a truck no problem.  Leslie is super stoked she got women hired at the sanitation department, and April got her a gift: trash.  Literally.

Ron and Ann are babysitting Diane’s kids since she had an emergency come up, and it was awesome.  Apparently, even though Ann is a nurse, she has no ability to communicate with children, and fails miserably on her first go round.  Ron is watching the girls paint his shoes red when Diane comes back, asking Ron to watch the girls for another day.  Ron accepts, and after they leave heads straight to the liquor cabinet.  As you do. 

The next day, Ron is exhausted, and asks Ann to help him again.  She tells them scary stories, but freaks them out pretty hardcore, and so she goes for her nurse’s bag, and pulls out the gauze and reflex hammer.  The girls are entranced, and Ron is out of there.  Ann talking heads about how awesome it is to give kids medical tools, but Ron pulls her out with an emergency:  the girls have locked themselves in a room with Ann’s bag of tools.  Jerry has a huge ring of keys, one of which will open the door, but he is too slow.  The girls have cut their own hair.  When they finally get in the room, Ron is freaking out, and spills that he loves Diane, and it is super cute.  When Diane comes, Ron tries to steel her for the crazy haircuts, but she is totally cool with it.  They are kids after all.  And then Diane tells Ron she loves him, and Ron reciprocates.  Aww.

Tom, Andy, and Ben have a guys meeting, since Tom’s business is doing gangbusters, but all the kids are super into basketball, and Tom is the opposite of a baller.  Tom gets the other two to his office with white lies involving Skittle and Michael Stipe, respectively, and they get right on to teaching Tom about basketball.  They go to a court, and Tom is seriously the worst basketball player ever.  He can’t even get the ball in the hoop when he is sitting on Andy’s shoulders.  It’s kind of pathetic, actually, but still funny, cause it’s Tom.

Tom finally makes a basket, and gets way over cocky, challenging some boys to a pickup game.  Turns out the boys are pretty good at basketball, and wipe the floor with our guys.  Tom is not impressed again.  Ben and Andy try to cheer Tom up, and they give him another idea: press conference swag!  Tom creates a really fun commercial for his business, and it is basically genius.

This was a fun episode.  From Leslie posing on the garbage truck to Tom failing at basketball, there were great visual gags all around.

I did get a couple of funny lines for you:

A former councilwoman,  about her time of the month, and the other men’s predictive prowess: “Admittedly, they were right, because of the calendar!”
Andy, when Tom asks if he can help with the basketball tutoring: “No need, my only plan was to buy skittles!”
Councilman Milton, after Leslie refuses to get more snacks: “Ouch, why so ornery?  It’s not the seventh yet!”

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