10. Duke Silver (Nick Offerman)
Okay, this is cheating a little bit as Duke Silver is actually an alias of a main character but any list of Pawnee’s finest won’t feel complete without the Duke. Sure, he’s found his Duchess now but that doesn’t mean we won’t always have “Memories of Now.”
9. Orin (Eric Isenhower)
The best part about Orin as a character is how aware of his own creepiness he is. When he’s not trying to open a farm where people are the animals he must just be lurking around corners waiting to freak people out.
8. Ethel Beavers (Helen Slayton-Hughes
Ethel Beavers is always an unwilling participant in the main cast’s lives. As Pawnee’s court reporter, she seems to be as much of the fabric of the town as the buildings and racist murals. She’s also a closet freak as we learn at Mayor Gunderson’s funeral.
7. Burt Macklin/Johnny Karate (Chris Pratt)
See: Duke Silver above. Anytime there’s an unsolvable case in Pawnee, you can trust that Burt Macklin, F.B.I. will be on the job. And should he run into any problems, he can enlist the help of his friend, Johnny Karate.
6. D.J. Roomba
R.I.P., little guy.
5. Tammy II (Megan Mullally)
A Tammy II episode was always an event. Parks and Rec was smart to stagger Tammy II’s appearances to only one episode a season (with a few exceptions) and even smarter to hire Nick Offerman’s off-screen wife to play his on-screen ex-wife. Tammy II is a perfect supporting character in that she matches the style of the show but does so in a more extreme way since we don’t ever have to worry about needing to see her as anything other than a cartoon character essentially.
4. Perd Hapley (Jay Jackson)
“The story of this entry is that it’s number four and that the fourth person on the list is…Perd Hapley.”
3. Joan Callamezzo (Mo Collins)
There could be a whole separate season of this show merely charting the rise and fall of Joan Callamezzo. Parks and Rec is so good at satirizing the media (“Gotcha Dancers, anyone?) but Joan goes much further than a parody of a TV talk show. By season 7, she’s a parody of a human being: hopelessly narcissistic to the point of insanity.
2. Jean-Ralphio Saperstein (Ben Schwartz)
The best thing that Parks and Rec ever did for Jean-Ralphio was limiting his exposure. He never overstays his welcome. He appears just the exactly correct amount of times to be hilarious and never annoying. The best thing Jean-Ralphio did for Parks and Rec was just be his his crazy old self. The relationship between Tom and Jean-Ralphio is a perfect example of the difference between a main character and a supporting one. Tom eventually grows up, starts a business and falls in love. Jean-Ralphio will be getting hit by Lexus’s for insurance money until he dies. And we love him for it.
1. Li’l Sebastian
“I have cried twice in my life. Once when I was 7 and I was hit by a school bus and then again when I heard Li’l Sebastian had passed.” – Ron Ulysses Swanson
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