History Headscratchers / ParksAndRecreation

** The issue might be less that they never discovered that his real name is Garry as much as they just couldn't be bothered remembering it when they did.

** The issue might be less that they never discovered that his real name is Garry as much as they just couldn't be bothered remembering it.

* Ron believes that he earns his pay by keeping the "frivolous and unnecessary" parks department from spending any money and doing anything. It's why he hired April- to keep anyone who wants to meet with him to discuss projects away from him. This is also why he has a bunch of slackers working in the office- they don't have any ambition and they won't get any projects done. He likely justifies this model with the idea that the handful of moderate salaries paid to his department saves a lot of taxpayer money in the long run. Then Leslie comes in and destroys that idea. Ron tried to fire Leslie four times because of that.

*** Also, this essentially means that she's a bit pushy, overbearing and thoughtless at times. While irritating character traits, this hardly makes her the reincarnation of Himmler or anything. Leslie has friends the same reason that anyone has friends; she has sufficient positive qualities that people find appealing enough to be willing to overlook her more negative traits.

*** They could be conservative Democrats; not every member / voter of the Democratic party is a dyed-in-the-wool progressive, and Leslie might just simply be further to the left than most of the rest of Pawnee.

* In "Practice Date", how did everyone have detailed dirt on Jerry (including Dave, a police officer) without discovering that his real name is Garry?

** Or they could have just simply moved on with their lives. How many times do you hear of old friends, partners etc. promising to keep in touch but just kind of drifting apart? Two years is a long time.

** For the same reason Jimmy James from NewsRadio spends all his time micromanaging his radio station despite owning a huge business empire, and the same reason Jack Donaghy of ThirtyRock spends all his time solving problems at TGS, despite being the president of NBC and a high level GE executive.

** People who believe in the zodiac tend to ascribe particular character traits to the different signs (for example, being born under Pisces is supposed to make someone generous, compassionate, faithful, caring and artistically inclined). Other Ron is likely just working backwards by noting Ron's personality traits and comparing them to the most applicable sign of the zodiac.

*** I imagine that Ron's initial idea with hiring Leslie was that he was looking for someone who would ''look'' efficient without actually ''being'' efficient. In Ron's mind, he's all about undermining the government from within, but you've got to walk before you can run; if he shows up and immediately begins overtly running the department into the ground and visibly not doing anything, he's probably gonna get replaced pretty soon because his official job isn't actually "run the Parks department into the ground and don't do anything worthwhile as part of a sort-of secret plan to undermine the government from within". So his idea is that he hires someone with a lot of energy and enthusiasm who looks busy and capable, but turns out to be ineffective, thus making it ''seem'' like the department is running the way it should while it's actually being run down and not accomplishing anything. He probably wasn't expecting Leslie to be as capable as she ended up being, by the time he realised it it was too late, she hasn't given him any cause to fire her (since "you're too good at your job and it's foiling my sort-of secret plan to undermine the government from within" isn't actually a fireable offence) and he ended up liking her despite himself.

*** I imagine that Ron's initial idea with hiring Leslie was that he was looking for someone who would ''look'' efficient without actually ''being'' efficient. In Ron's mind, he's all about undermining the government from within, but you've got to walk before you can run; if he shows up and immediately begins overtly running the department into the ground, he's probably gonna get replaced pretty soon because his official job isn't actually "run the Parks department into the ground as part of a plan to undermine the government from within". So his idea is that he hires someone with a lot of energy and enthusiasm who looks busy and capable, but turns out to be ineffective, thus making it ''seem'' like the department is running the way it should while he's actually running it down on the quiet. He probably wasn't expecting Leslie to be as capable as she ended up being, by the time he realised it it was too late, she hasn't given him any cause to fire her (since "you're too good at your job and it's foiling my sort-of secret plan to undermine the government" isn't actually a fireable offence) and he ended up liking her despite himself.

*** I imagine that Ron's initial idea with hiring Leslie was that he was looking for someone who would ''look'' efficient without actually ''being'' efficient. In Ron's mind, he's all about undermining the government from within, but you've got to walk before you can run; if he shows up and immediately begins overtly running the department into the ground, he's probably gonna get replaced pretty soon because his official job isn't actually "run the Parks department into the ground as part of a plan to undermine the government from within". So his idea is that he hires someone with a lot of energy and enthusiasm who looks busy and capable, but turns out to be ineffective, thus making it ''seem'' like the department is running the way it should while he subverts it from the inside. He probably wasn't expecting Leslie to be as capable as she ended up being, by the time he realised it it was too late, she hasn't given him any cause to fire her (since "you're too good at your job and it's foiling my secret plans to undermine the government" isn't actually a fireable offence) and he ended up liking her despite himself.

** The answer to this is simply that Ron -- like the rest of us -- can be a wee bit of a hypocrite from time to time. He believes everyone should live their lives how they choose, but -- again like the rest of us -- ''also'' believes that everyone's life would run best if they made the same choices ''he'' makes.

** The TimeSkip was three years (between 2014-2017). They could've likely reconnected during that time in between and then just simply didn't work out.

** The TimeSkip was three years (between 2014-2017). They could'v likely reconnected during that time in between and then just never worked out.

*** The person who posted this comment about Diane's character has never had kids, babysitted kids, had a sibling, was probably homeschooled and never attended a public or private school, and probably uses a bullet-proof Popemobile for every trip, even if it's going from the kitchen to the living room. I mean, seriously? When you have kids, you learn to take a little thing like an impromptu haircut in stride. And what do you mean, "they came very close to doing worse?" What, are you thinking the two little girls are going to start cutting off each other's fingers and toes? They're sisters who are just playing, not budding serial killers. If it had looked even remotely like they were in any danger of hurting each other, Ron would have ripped that door off its hinges. Besides, we do understand IT'S JUST A SHOW WITH MAKE-BELIEVE CHARACTERS AND THE RULE OF FUNNY APPLIES, right? Let's not drag our issues into it.

* In Season 7, what on earth happened to Nadia? She was only supposed to be on her DWB mission in Rwanda for two years and even tells Tom she'll call him when she gets back and yet is never even mentioned even though she would have returned by then.

* Does it seem weird to anyone else that in season two, the Pawnee Summer Catalogue includes tennis "for the first time in twenty years", but there's always footage of someone playing tennis in the opening credits?

** Other Ron's kind of a NewAgeRetroHippie who's probably into some "spiritual" vibe reading stuff. So, RuleOfFunny.