Parks and Rec airs its series finale tonight. To honor seven seasons of excellence, we’ve compiled and ranked 50 of Pawnee’s most lovable weirdos.
Pawnee, Indiana is in Wamapoke County and has anywhere between 50,000 and 80,000 citizens depending on who you ask. It’s about 90 minutes from Indianapolis and has really good waffles. It also is home to some of the most insane, passionate and bizarre people in the United States.
With Pawnee, Parks and Rec has accomplished what seemed near-impossible: created a live-action version of Springfield from the Simpsons. Michael Schur and his writers have done it through casting characters as diverse, colorful and hilarious as a cartoon universe. It’s such an underrated challenge: finding enough talented actors and work around their schedules to create a believable fictional town with a believable number of citizens.
Now that Pawnee is finally closing its borders, let’s rank the 50 best Pawnee-ans and Parks and Rec supporting characters. The vast majority of the people on this list are native Pawnee-ans and even those who aren’t have spent enough time in town to be honorary citizens.
50. Lavondrius (Questlove)
Donna wouldn’t talk to her estranged cousin for years and it turns out it was for a very good reason: he’s a popcorn stealer. He’s also played by Questlove, which is NBC corporate synergy gone right.
49. Garth Blundin (Patton Oswalt)
Garth Blundin may be a lonely, miserable man who fears change but he can also pitch a mean Marvel-Star Wars crossover.
48. Typhoon (Rodney To)
Typhoon is a late addition to the Pawnee universe. He may have made the list for his brief appearance at Donna’s wedding alone, but becoming Ron Swanson’s go-to barber assures him a spot.
47. Tynnyfer (June Diane Raphael)
Tynnfer, with two “y’s” is the worst person April’s ever met. And April loves her. It’s Xanax-o’clock!
46. Marlene Griggs-Knope (Pamela Reed)
Leslie’s mom hasn’t appeared much since season 3 (only as a cameo once in “Operation Ann”). When she did, however, she was a powerful presence in Leslie’s life and made it clear where Leslie got at least 1% of her superhuman tenacity from.
45. Gayle Gergich (Christie Brinkley)
Gayle, along with her beautiful daughters, is the reason why while Jerry may be the unluckiest man in the world at the office, he’s certainly the luckiest man in the world at home. Christie Brinkley is 61 years old, by the way. Figure that out.
44. Councilman Douglass Howser (Yvans Jourdain)
The Pawnee City Council can’t only be filled with creeps and degenerates. There has to be at least one decent man. Councilman Howser is that man, and Leslie only seems to run into him when she’s doing something embarrassing.
43. Diane Lewis (Lucy Lawless)
Ron Swanson went through a lot of crazy and a lot of Tammys to find the love of his life. Lucy Lawless is such a wonderful actress that she makes all the Tammys seem worth the suffering.
42. Lord Edgar Covington (Peter Serafinowicz)
Andy’s one-time boss and forever bro, Lord Edgar Covington is so rich that the Queen of England just lets him knight people as he sees fit.
41. Trevor Nelson (Marc Evan Jackson)
Marc Evan Jackson took what could have been a rather anonymous character and injected him enough dry wit to suggest an unseen reservoir of rage bubbling just below the surface. Trevor’s boss, Dr. Saperstein, tasks him with negotiating with Tom for “Rent-a-Swag” and it’s clear that there is nothing Trevor would rather do less.
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