10 Times When 'Parks & Rec' Was Actually the Worst

I didn't watch Parks & Recreation from the beginning. As a matter of fact, I think I didn't start watching until after season 4 had ended. I don't know why, exactly... I think I was afraid it would be too much like The Office, and I wasn't interested at the time.

I'm forever grateful to my friend Sarah, who convinced me to give the show a try. She loved the characters and thought I would too, so we started meeting up a couple nights a week to watch episodes. I was sucked in almost immediately... it was nothing like I expected.

Fast forward to now: I can quote an embarrassing number of lines from the show. I have watched the whole series probably close to 100 times. My "I met Lil Sebastian at the Pawnee Harvest Festival" T-shirt is one of my most-worn articles of clothing.

With that said, I can't ignore that there are some majorly problematic themes and scenes. From abusive relationships to gross misogyny, I find myself cringing more often than I'd like. So today I'm going to outline ten times when Parks & Rec was actually the worst.

*Warning: spoilers ahead!*

Season 4 brought us one of the worst couple pairings ever when April sets up a date for Tom and Ann. Tom, who's perpetually thirsty for any woman even remotely attractive, immediately crosses the line of acceptable behavior, and his toxic, misogynist behaviors continue for the duration of their short-lived relationship.

From the start, Tom is far too aggressive. He continually refuses to accept the boundaries Ann puts up with regard to their relationship and pushes her past her comfort zone on several occasions. At one point, after she decided NOT to date him after all, Tom ambushes her and relentlessly asks her for another chance until she drops the age-old trope: "You wore me down."

He also brags at one point about their relationship reaching a new milestone... 48 continuous hours without a breakup... which only happened because Ann went out of town for two days and forgot they were dating.

In real life, this kind of obsessive and controlling behavior would be considered very abusive. It perpetuates the idea that men should "just keep trying" when rejected, and considering the story from earlier this year of Aziz Ansari's sexually inappropriate behaviors on a date, Tom's behaviors might be an example of art imitating life.

2. When Leslie Accosted a Stripper

Leslie makes it clear in the episode "Tom's Divorce" that she is a feminist. She also makes it clear that she's a SWERF. Let's dig in.

In this episode, Tom is getting a divorce from his wife, Wendy. To cheer him up, the team (led by Leslie) takes him out to dinner and then to his favorite strip club, The Glitter Factory.

Leslie is outspoken about her dislike of strippers. She purposely calls one stripper, named Sierra, by the name "Seabiscuit" twice, even after being corrected. She also goes out of her way to advise Sierra to rethink her life choices and choose a better career, despite having never met this woman before and having no idea about her life.

Sorry, Leslie. Any feminism that isn't inclusive and intersectional is garbage feminism.

3. Ben's Awkward Fascination

Without question, Jerry/Larry/Gary Gergich had the most successful marriage of the entire Parks & Rec community. And like everything else about J/L/G, the marriage became a running gag. (Because it's always hilarious when "ugly people" and "beautiful people" fall in love with each other, right? *insert eye roll here*)

For the most part, the characters were all fine about the relationship. But Ben, for some reason, just couldn't handle the idea that a woman as beautiful as Gayle would actually choose to be with someone like Jerry. He spends multiple scenes, across multiple seasons, trying to understand their pairing.

"Like... was she a Russian spy and the KGB forced her to marry Jerry as a cover?"

"Like... does she think that Jerry is a friendly hat?"

"Hey... Maybe Gayle has one of those Oliver Sach's brain disorder thingies!"

"Was she temporarily blind?"

We never really find out what made Jerry and Gayle fall and love, and I'm fine with that. The answer is really none of our business... and completely irrelevant to the plot line.

Believe it or not, Ben, love isn't dependent on looks. And beauty is in the eye of the beholder, anyhow.

4. Tom fakes being British for no reason.

Season six found us fighting alongside Leslie as she faced recall. It also gave us some awesome celebrity cameos, including a two-episode arc with Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) as Nadia, a doctor who comes to City Hall to obtain a Parks Permit. Tom and April are holding down the fort for all of Parks and Rec that day, and the former takes an immediate interest in this new, attractive woman. That's when it all unravels.

During his first interaction with this woman, Tom changes his suit at least FOUR times (to impress her, he says, not to seem like a total loon). He dons a British accent (also to impress her) and stalls her permit process in order to spend more time with her. In the end, she gets frustrated with his obviously gross behavior and leaves angry.

Unwilling to accept no for an answer, Tom then enlists April's help and drives to Nadia's place of work to confront her (on the job). She is surprised and confused (as anyone would be). Luckily for him, April goes off-script and wins Nadia over with her sincerity. Nadia agrees to go out with Tom for some reason... mostly because she's leaving the country in a couple of weeks, so... whatever.

Besides the fact that this story is completely irrelevant to the storyline, it further perpetuates the idea that Tom is dangerous and aggressive. This is one of my least favorite sitcom tropes—the character who seems the most benign is actually the one who is most abusive. Tom is seen as this goofy guy... instead of like the toxic, abusive man he really was most of the time. (Luckily, he finds a woman who loves him but won't allow those abusive behaviors. #TeamLucy!)

5. Leslie ruins Galentine's Day.

After Ann and Chris leave for Michigan in the middle of season six, Leslie finds herself struggling to replace her best friend. She decides to throw an impromptu Galentine's Day and invite all of her potential new besties to brunch, so that she can RANK THEM to see who is best.

Leslie is not a good liar, and the women quickly realize what is happening... thankfully, they leave and refuse to participate. Even Ann gets angry when she learns what Leslie had done.

Now, this is one of the less egregious of the issues listed here, but it's still worth mentioning... throughout the show, Leslie's biggest issue was the way she treated her friends sometimes... steamrolling, ignoring boundaries, and otherwise just not knowing when to stop. While there are many things about Leslie that I try to emulate in my personal character... there are also some I try to avoid. Like this next one...

6. Ron and Leslie ruin a child's summer.

In the very next episode, we learn that the school has canceled prom and Leslie, in true Leslie fashion, decides to throw one herself. She enlists the help of local HS junior, Allison Gifford, to help organize and set things up.

Leslie sees some potential in Allison and offers her an internship at the Parks Department. Enter Ron, who also knows Allison and refuses to allow her to work for FREE for the GOVERNMENT (gasp), so he gets her a job at his buddy's sawmill.

Allison is understandably overwhelmed with the options and confused about what to do because both offers seem great. She makes it very clear that she doesn't know what she wants to do and needs time to make a decision. Still, Leslie steps onto the stage to announce the Parks & Rec Summer Internship has been awarded to... you guessed it, Allison Gifford.

This is another example of Leslie just not listening to the people around her. She believes that she's doing this great and noble thing by helping Allison get involved in politics, but she is so concerned with her own goals that she doesn't listen to Allison ask her to stop. That's not good friendship, nor mentorship.

7. Fake Artifacts

Okay, this one's pretty gross. We're flashing back to Season five, when Councilman Jamm is fighting to put a Paunch Burger on Lot 48, instead of the park Leslie has dreamed of (and promised to Ann). In true Jamm fashion, he announces that ground will be broken on the new fast food restaurant soon, so Leslie searches for a hail mary to save the land.

Somewhere in her head, she decides that it's a good idea to sprinkle fake Wamapoke artifacts throughout the site. After all, any projects that unearth tribal artifacts must immediately stop until they can be investigated thoroughly. Brilliant, right?

Emphatically, no.

It doesn't take long for Leslie to realize what an outrageously disgusting thing she's done. She goes to Chief Ken Hotate, with whom she has a decent relationship, and luckily he is forgiving. But wow... what a nightmare, and not the first time that Leslie has needed to step back and acknowledge her privilege as a White person.

(Pro-tip: Don't appropriate from native cultures. It's not a good look.)

Season two featured several rough episodes, but the worst was definitely "Sister City", which introduced us to several Venezuelan representatives who visited Pawnee. We will find out later in the episode that their entire goal is to embarrass America, which is accomplished easily.

The episode is basically just 25 minutes of poorly-written rape jokes and sexual innuendo and classism... the visitors are focused on explaining how rich they are and which women they'd like to bring home.

Fred Armisen's brand of creepy is a good fit for the role, but the comedy falls flat... it's one of the few episodes that doesn't make me laugh AT ALL. Hard pass for me.

Do you ever have characters that you appreciate, but simultaneously cannot stand? For me, that character is Councilman Dexhardt.

I appreciate that there is a clear example of a disgusting man whose abusive behaviors aren't coddled or sugar-coated for the sake of humor. It makes me feel like, maybe (just maybe) in this effed up political climate, there are some behaviors we all agree are misogynist and despicable.

However, there is way too much about Dexhardt that is upsetting to watch... triggering, even, for folks who have a history of sexual abuse or who have been victims of abuse or infidelity.

Sometimes when I'm watching a sitcom, I just want to laugh and forget about all the disgusting realities of the world. Can't do that anytime Dexhardt is in frame.

Parks and Rec brought us some really good examples of healthy relationships. Ann and Chris had quite the evolution and ended up being an excellent pair. Leslie and Ben are a match made in heaven. Jerry and Gayle. Donna and Joe. April and Andy. Ron and Diane. The list goes on and on.

But it also brought us a couple of examples of toxic, abusive, dangerous relationships. Specifically... Ron and Tammy 1, and Jamm and Tammy 2.

Season 4 brought us guest star Patricia Clarkson as Ron's first wife, Tammy 1. Tammy is a state auditor and... guess what?!?! Ron's being audited. This gives us an opportunity to see exactly how abusive and destructive their relationship truly is.

Season seven launched a huge surprise with the relationship between Tammy 2 (Megan Mulally) and Jeremy Jamm. Now that Ron is happily married, Tammy 2 moves on to her next victim, who eventually needs an intervention from Ron and Leslie to break free of Tammy's spell.

In both cases, the relationship's abuse highlights some very real and key aspects of domestic abuse. Both Ron and Jamm become shells of the people they once were. They abandon the hobbies and personality traits that define their personalities, and they become slaves to the will of their partner.

In both cases, friends swoop in to save the day... which is awesome. But abuse for comedy always rubs me the wrong way.

Okay... so what did I miss?

All of our favs are problematic. That's just the reality of the world we live in. I've listed ten of the issues I found from watching Parks and Rec... but I'm positive you have others. What were your least favorite parts of the show? Other shows?

I want to hear your thoughts! Tweet me @cylestnichole with the hashtag #problematicfavs and let me know!