Johnny Karate says goodbye and then so does a very surprising Pawnee Mayor. Check out our recap and share your thoughts on Parks and Rec episodes 10 and 11: “The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show” and “Two Funerals.”
‘Parks and Rec,’ ‘The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show’ recap
How does one even do a recap or review of “The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show”? It’s one of Parks and Rec’s most experimental, off-the-wall episodes – not entirely dissimilar to the “show within a show” concept of 30 Rock‘s “Queen of Jordan.” But it’s more than just that. It’s basically an episodic version of Andy Dwyer’s brain. And it’s wonderful.
April and Andy are moving off to Washington D.C. for April’s new career, which means Johnny Karate must have his final show, with the help of his friends. The entire thirty minutes of “The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show” is contained within an episode of, well…”The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show.” This means an updated Parks and Rec intro credits with “Leslie Knope, Ron Swanson, etc.” and commercials for Very Good Building Company*, the Wamapoke casino, Paunch burger** and of course, Verizon/Exxon/Chipotle or: “Veroxxotle.”
*Every commercial should end with “End of commercial.”
**The Paunch Burger commercial is so indistinguishable from other fast food commercials that I bet a sizable chunk of the Parks and Rec audience didn’t even realize it wasn’t real.
The concept of this episode is that Johnny Karate has lost his guitar and must enlist the help of Burt Tyrannosaurus Macklin to help him find it. It’s crucial to the traditional end of the show song, obviously. Or as Officer Donna Meagle puts it: “If we don’t get that guitar back, peace in the Middle East is cancelled.”
To find it, Johnny Karate must got through his five lessons: 1. Build Something, 2. Learning Something, 3. Karate Chop Something, 4. Do Something New and 5. Be Nice to Someone.
Build Something with Ron Swanson goes well. Ron teaches Andy how to build a wooden box but sadly turns down a hug.
Professor Smart Brain (Ben) tries to teach Johnny Karate about the quickest way to get to Washington, D.C. But Andy would much rather press the “Boring Button” when Ben tries to explain that transportation isn’t possible.
Mailman Barry (Jerry) delivers thousands of fan mail to Andy for his final episode. Andy returns the favor by moving on to Karate Chop Something time.
By the time “Try Something New with Leslie Knope” rolls around, however, the format of the show changes. Leslie’s version of trying something new is honoring Andy for all of his service to Pawnee as Johnny Karate, Burt Macklin or even just good old Andy Dwyer.
Leslie brings Andy’s old boss, Sir Edgar Covington out for a knighting ceremony. No, Eddy can’t technically knight people but he’s so rich that the Queen just lets him do what he wants. With this news, Ben decides it might be a good idea to get knighted as well.
Leslie also gets Andy made into an honorary Pawnee police officer, as that was his first failed career ambition. He uses this new-found honorary power to arrest an out of his element John Cena* for stealing his guitar.
*Yes, John Cena just randomly turns up. This episode is insane.
That just leaves lesson #5: Be Nice to Someone. Andy tries to bring his wife, April Ludgate-Karate-Dwyer out to honor her but she takes off, upset. When Andy catches up to her, she tells him she feels bad for moving him away to Washington and far from this place where he’s a beloved karate hero.
But Andy’s not upset.
“Without you, I wouldn’t be anything,” he says. “You’re my Verizon Exxon Chipotle.”
This episode is our Verizon Exxon Chipotle.
‘Parks and Rec,’ ‘Two Funerals’ recap
After the manic joy of “The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show,” the relatively normal “Two Funerals” is a bit more muted but still solid.
It can’t be undersold just how shocking that cameo is in the first five minutes though. Pawnee Mayor Walt Gunderson has died. And his dead body is played by Bill Murray. BILL EFFING MURRAY. The fact that Pawnee’s Mayor was Bill Murray this whole time reveals a lot about the town’s general insanity. And John Cena, Bill Murray and then Paul Rudd all in one night? Is NBC even aware they’re burning these episodes off two at a time?
Anywho, as city manager Ben must find an interim mayor for two months. His path takes him through Bobby Newport (Paul Rudd), Joan Callamezzo, Dr. Saperstein and famed radio D.J., The Douche. April thinks Ben should be mayor to make up for his Icetown disaster. And Ben almost does agree to be mayor but then realizes he doesn’t want to discount his Icetown years. They made him who he is. So he does the unthinkable: makes Garry Gergich mayor. “Thank God we’re moving,” Leslie later says.
Leslie is helping Tom propose to Lucy. Tom has been off in New York buying himself gifts apparently, which explains his absence from the past few episodes. Tom has a grand idea for his ideal proposal. It’s an action movie starring him in Ted’s jewelry store, defeating Jean-Ralphio and his thugs to win the hand of Lucy in marriage. It’s more than a bit self-indulgent. In a move that’s even more unthinkable than Garry Gergich as mayor, he comes to realize this.
Tom scraps his whole proposal idea and instead goes for something more modest: presenting Lucy with pancakes, a flower and a corny magic trick at the Snakehole Lounge to replicate the beginning of their relationship. She says yes, you guys.
The second funeral of the title’s name is Ron’s barber, Salvatore. Ron is devoted. As he says, “The three most important people in a man’s life are his barber, his butcher and his lover.”
Andy, Donna and most annoying for Ron: Ron Dunn try to cheer him up. Donna comes up with a shrewd idea: introducing Ron to her hair stylist, Typhoon. Typhoon is definitely not the soft-spoken Salvatore but Ron is soon delighted by his sassy, opinionated nature. “Eurotrash. I like that,” he giggles.
Parks and Rec’s penultimate episode is filled with characters growing and changing but nothing suggests a bright future for these Pawnee-ans more than Ron’s realization that gossiping can be fun. Bless this show.
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