- Garth Blundin: The Pawnee Charter shall not change; not today, not ever!
Once a year, Pawnee celebrates "Ted Party Day", a local holiday where they commemorate the Great Pawnee Tea Dump of 1817 by throwing a man named Ted into the lake at Ramsett Park. The Pawnee citizens are well aware the founders meant "tea party" (the "a" was written looking like "d"), but they enjoy their ceremony too much to change it until one of the Teds has enough and objects. Leslie tries to explain to him that they can't second-guess what the founders meant, but it backfires on her when he implements two outdated items from the charter.
Leslie calls a City Council meeting to amend the charter, but a citizen named Garth Blundin filibusters the meeting, adamant that the charter not be changed. He and Leslie make a deal - they will live in the Pawnee Historical House the way Pawneeans of 1817 did, and the first to give in concedes victory to the other. Leslie brings Tom and Andy along to help her, but she is surprised to find that Garth is very knowledgeable about how to live like the settlers and genuinely enjoys it. After looking through Garth's phone, she sees he doesn't have much of a social life. Leslie concedes to Garth and makes him a counter-offer to join the Pawnee Historical Society and not oppose the altering of the charter. Ultimately, they decide to still keep "Ted Party Day", but now accept volunteers to be a Ted to dunk in the lake, with Garth as the first volunteer.
Ben and Ann are both trying to buy Leslie a gift for a special occasion. At first, they find themselves competing for the same gift (a special waffle-maker that's only available on eBay), but then decide to join forces. They convince Leslie that they can only handle so many special occasions per year with her and get her to agree to condense everything to a dedicated week for each one of them.
Now that April is Deputy Director of Animal Control, Chris wants her to undergo his management training course. April begs Ron to get her out of it, but when Chris learns that Ron never took a management class, he requires Ron to take it as well. As a start, they must all write what they expect to get out of the training and seal it in an envelope. Ron and Chris showcase their different management styles on Jerry (with Donna looking on with great interest). At the end of the training, Ron and Chris reveal that their goals were achieved, but Donna informs them that neither style worked best with Jerry. They read April's goal, which was to turn them against each other while she spends time with Andy. They realize that she'll make a good manager.
Tropes
- Batman Gambit: Chris puts Ron and April through a management seminar, and gets them each to write down what they hope to get out of the process. When he and Ron disagree over what April should be learning, they get sidetracked by a competition to see whose style works best. At the end of the episode, unable to find April, they read her objective... which was to set the two of them against each other so she could blow off the seminar. They both agree that she doesn't need any management training.
- Friendship Moment: The moment Ann and Ben join forces to buy Leslie a waffle maker, is the moment Leslie declares the pair have become best friends.
- Graceful Loser:
- Leslie, conceding the Historical House challenge to Garth.
- Ron and Chris, after learning of April's gambit.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: When Leslie dismisses Ted's complaints and refuses to change the town charter, he gets back at her by exploiting other archaic laws from the charter that allow him to take Tom's car in exchange for a quarter and smash an egg over her head when she raises her voice at him.
- Holding the Floor: Leslie is trying to get some laws from the Pawnee charter abolished, but a citizen named Garth (Patton Oswalt), who is against changing the laws, holds a filibuster and he immediately starts talking about his suggestions for the new J. J. Abrams directed Star Wars movie, saying that it should be a Crossover between Star Wars and the Marvel universe. It's worth noting that this was entirely ad-libbed by Patton Oswalt and runs for a total of 8 minutes, most of which was cut, but it can be seen in its entirety here
. - Kill It with Fire: What Ben suggests Ann does to the breakfast food doll she tried to make as a present for Leslie.
- Naked People Are Funny: Andy jumps into the lake fully stark naked at the end of the episode.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Inverted. Ted protests that he doesn't even go by the name "Ted", he goes by his full first name of "Theodore". He gets tossed in the lake anyway.
- Suddenly Significant Rule: Apparently, Pawnee has a long tradition of dumping a guy named Ted into the lake every year, based on a typo in their town charter. Ted, as well as everyone else in town with the name who was subjected to the ritual, finally gets fed up with this and responds by exploiting other archaic laws.Ted: Okay, fine. You want to enforce every single old law we have on our books? Hey, can I see your keys for a second? (takes Tom's car keys). Here's a quarter. I own your car now.Tom: Wha...?Ted: Sorry. The Pawnee Charter clearly states that any white citizen has the right to seize any Indian property for 25 cents.Leslie: That is an outdated and racist law.Tom: And obviously they meant "American Indian."Ted: Whoa, I think we should be careful when we speculate what the Founders intended when they wrote the charter.Leslie: Okay, Ted. I know what you're doing. You're quoting me back to me. But I'm gonna quote me back to you and say that Ted Party Day will never change.Ted: Uh oh. You, a woman, just raised your voice to a landowning male. According to a Pawnee statute passed in 1868, I get to do this. (cracks an egg on Leslie's head)
- Take a Third Option: Leslie is able to please the people who still like having the "Ted Party Day" ceremony and the Teds of Pawnee who don't like being thrown in the lake against their will by having people volunteer themselves as a "Ted" for the ceremony.
