NBCParks and Recreation, the best comedy series in the history of moving pictures on the small screen according to the person writing this article is leaving us forever tonight. We're not ready to talk about the end of our Pawnee adventure yet, so let's just celebrate the fact that Parks and Rec still has one episode left and let us stay in denial a little bit longer. It's warm here.
One of the greatest things about this show is the consistently perfect supporting and recurring characters that make up the grand city of Pawnee. The core cast is fantastic, but when they bring in the side characters for a storyline, it's just pure comedy gold.
To honor (and mourn) the end of Parks and Rec, we picked our favorite 18 recurring characters and ranked them from awesome to even more awesome:
18. Kyle (Andy Forrest)
Damn it, Kyle! His only purpose in every scene is to be just the worst or to make Jerry/Gerry/Terry look good.
17. Orin (Eric Isenhower)
We're still not sure if he asks people how they want to die or tells them how they will die.
16. The Douche (Nick Kroll)
Why we love the character of The Douche can be best summed up in the scene when he talks to Ann and Leslie about becoming Ann's sperm donor. He's half-normal, have douche-y and ends it with this quote: "I'm gonna scan a quick pic of them boobies for a little deposit in El banco de spanko. That was the douche talking. Douche Nation! You guys know where the library is?"
15. Dennis Feinstein (Jason Mantzoukas)
How can you not love the man (formerly named Dante Fiero) who probably wants to hunt Tom and created iconic scents like Sideboob, Money Shot, Butterface and Itch?
14. Bill Dexhart (Kevin Symons)
There's really no need to explain why Councilman Dexhart is just the greatest; we'll just list the pseudonyms he's used in the past to sext his ladies: Enrique Shockwave, Willie Dynamite, Lee Harvey Teabag, Lieutenant Wilhelm Von Penis and Anthony Weiner.
13. Ingrid de Forest (Kristen Bell)
The beautiful, perfect councilwoman from Eagleton not only knows Sir Ian McKellan and Karl Lagerfeld, but she made sure her town kept Michael Bublé on retainer.
12. Joan Callamezzo (Mo Collins)
She doesn't just love "gotcha" journalism, she has a theme song for it. Oh, and she has multiple erotic paintings of herself hanging up in her own home.
11. Mona-Lisa Saperstein (Jenny Slate)
Mona-Lisa is absolutely terrifying. She can go from baby talk to arson talk in zero seconds flat, especially if you don't tell her that Diddy is on Instagram. Jagweeds.
10. The Animal Control guys
Sadly, one half of the hilarious stoner Animal Control team, writer Harris Wittels, passed away last week. The Parks and Rec team will pay tribute to Harris in the series finale tonight. We will always remember how terrible this duo was at their jobs and the time they released a dead dove at Andy and April's wedding, which April probably loved.
9. Perd Hapley (Jay Jackson)
The purpose of putting this character at No. 9 is because he is the ninth best recurring character on this NBC television comedy. We are Perd-verts for life.
8. Tynnyfer (June Diane Raphael)
We all know a Tynnyfer, right? And if April and Tynnyfer do ever travel the world together, they'd better bring a documentary crew to film it all or else what the hell are we even doing here?!
7. Bobby Newport (Paul Rudd)
We're just so damn happy that Bobby will be back in the final season. We've missed that rich, cute, stupid man who can't vote without the pen exploding all over his hands.
6. Marcia and Marshall Langman (Darlene Hunt and Todd Sherry)
They're awful and always messing things up for Leslie, but damn if we don't love every single second they are onscreen together. A match made in heaven hell.
5. Craig (Billy Eichner)
What did we do before Craig came to Pawnee? Thankfully, now that he's here we learned the best thing to yell out when we're really excited about something is: "I need to go lie down for 45 minutes. No, an hour. A full hour!"
4. Tammy Swanson/Tammy 2 (Megan Mullally)
She's not the most lethal Tammy (that's Tammy Zero), but she is the most insane. It's a bummer Ron is happily married now because she pretty much stays away from Pawnee, but we will see her in the final season moving in on Jamm. And speaking of...
3. Jeremy Jamm (Jon Glaser)
He has his own amazing catchphrase and be brings ridiculous props just in case he can use them while verbally sparring with Leslie. He's our favorite Pawnee politician ever.
2. Jean-Ralphio Saperstein (Ben Schwartz)
Jean-Ralphio is to Pawnee as glitter lotion is to strippers. Necessary? No. Over the top, obnoxious but still somehow makes things better? Yes.
1. Ethel Beavers (Helen Slayton-Hughes)
FLAWLESS QUEEN. Do not argue with us. Your rebuttal will be invalid. We're currently penning a spinoff series starring Ms. Beavers titled Ethel Does Not Give A Single F--K. HBO, call us.
Parks and Recreation's final episodes airs tonight on NBC. Gird your loins, y'all!
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
(Originally published on Tue., Jan. 13, 2015 at 6:00 AM PST)