Parks And Recreation: Ron Swanson's Best Episodes Of All Time

"Parks and Recreation" has many things to recommend it: Amy Poehler as ace government worker Leslie Knope, Aziz Ansari as the greasy, ambitious Tom Haverford, and Aubrey Plaza as acerbic but smart April Ludgate are just a few standouts. But Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson is arguably one of the show's biggest — and most unexpected — draws. Ron has shown many sides of himself in "Parks and Recreation." Sure, he's a stoic, anti-government advocate ironically working a government job ... poorly. But he's also a man who hates — and lusts after — his ex-wives, the Tammys, enjoys woodworking so much he wins a trophy for a chair he made, and has a secret career as a jazz saxophonist, Duke Silver.

Eventually, Ron even starts to change his colors, at least a little bit. When he meets and marries Diane, he takes care of her kids, and they have a son of their own. It's a change of pace for Ron, and a good one. While some of his best episodes show his traditionally masculine preferences, others show his softer side, and it's that dichotomy that we've come to love in Ron Swanson. Here, by season, are Ron Swanson's best episodes.

These four episodes are all about Ron and his ex-wives, Tammy 1 and Tammy 2. Though Tammy 2 is played by Nick Offerman's real-life wife, Megan Mullally, she is the worst person in the world for Ron to be around. She brings out all of his worst impulses, and the two fight and have sex with each other over and over again in the fog of lust. In "Ron and Tammy Part 2," she even gets him to marry her — and get cornrows. Needless to say, their relationship is messy.

Messier still is Ron's relationship with Tammy 1 (Patricia Clarkson), his much older first wife. In the second episode of the fourth season she treats him like a naughty child, and what follows can only be described as Ron being shaped into the anti-Ron.

Despite the embarrassing circumstances for Ron, people love Ron and Tammy. Folks on Reddit enjoy watching Ron come face-to-face with his ex-wives, particularly for the way that they knock Ron out of his manly comfort zone. Fortunately, by Season 7, he seems to have gotten over Tammy 2, going out of his way to help Jeremy Jamm (Jon Glaser) dump Tammy after the unfortunate councilman is caught in her snare.

In the Season 3 premiere, "Go Big or Go Home," the parks department goes back to work after a few months' furlough, except they don't have that much to do. That is, except for Ron and Andy (Chris Pratt), who've volunteered to coach the youth basketball teams created by Ben. This gives Ron a chance to whip out his "Swanson Pyramid of Greatness," and boy, is it a sight to behold.

While Andy goofs around with his team, Ron drills the tenets of the "Pyramid of Greatness" into his. For example, "Crying, acceptable at funerals and the Grand Canyon" and "Fish, for sport only, not for meat. Fish meat is practically a vegetable." (Oh, and he teaches them the fundamentals of basketball too.) 

To complicate matters, Ron is dating Tom's ex-wife, Wendy (Jama Williamson), and even though Tom has moved on to date Lucy (Natalie Morales) and seems very happy, when they get to game day, Tom (as referee) manages to find reasons to eject all of Ron's players as an act of revenge. This leads Andy's team to mop the floor with Ron's, despite their obvious superiority. At least Ron got to introduce his "Pyramid."

Pawnee is the fourth most obese city in the country and, therefore, Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) decides to make cuts at city hall for the good of the employees. But Ron is not about to let him get his hands on the cafeteria's burgers, the only part of his job he actually likes. So in Season 3, Ron challenges Chris to a cook-off: Chris's turkey burgers against Ron's beef burgers. If Ron wins, the beef burgers stay on the menu, not to mention Chris eats crow.

But first, Ron accompanies Chris to Grain 'n Simple, a health food store 40 minutes away, to see the health freaks in their native habitat. Ron doesn't buy anything, but he does torture the guy with the vegan-free samples, throwing one after another into the trash, and then having April do the same.

In the end, Ron wins with his beef burgers because, despite all the effort Chris put into his burgers, Ron's simple concoction — a beef patty on a bun — still tastes better. It's a great victory for Ron's artery-clogging burgers that even Chris agrees with.

From the cold open, Season 3's "The Fight" is a winner. Ron tricks everyone into fighting over who broke the Parks department's coffee machine — except it turns out he broke it, after punching it because it burned his hand. But Ron felt things were getting too chummy so he decided to sow a little chaos with his ruse. And indeed, it looks like everyone is at each other's throats within minutes.

But that's not the main story of the episode. While the title "The Fight" has to do with Leslie and Ann (Rashida Jones) arguing over a job interview, the other storyline has to do with Tom enlisting everyone to talk up his liquor, Snake Juice, at the bar. In order to do that, most of them try it. The only problem is the liquor is 140 proof, meaning it's 70 percent alcohol, and it has the effects to show it. One of the best effects it has is on Ron.

Ron is usually a whiskey guy, but when Tom bets him that if he doesn't like Snake Juice, he'll shave Jean-Ralphio's (Ben Schwartz) head, Ron tries it and thinks it's delicious. So much so that he talks it up to a random couple. But the best part of the episode is watching Ron delightedly dance in a drunken stupor with April's pill-box hat on his head, bringing out the character's sillier side.

Leslie and Ben (Adam Scott) go on a road trip in this episode, and the rest of the office takes advantage of Leslie's absence to try out Tom's game, "Know Ya Boo." Ron is left as the only person who can talk to a child on a field trip, Lauren Berkus (Dani Fish), about the value of government. Or, in Ron's terms, the reason government is terrible. Ron's unique take includes eating 40 percent of Lauren's lunch to demonstrate the impact of taxes and telling her why FDR ruined the United States. Not exactly popular opinions — or ideas academically appropriate for a fourth grader, for that matter — but Lauren eats what Ron says up.

So much so that when she returns to school and has to write a paper on why government matters, her answer to the prompt is simple: "It doesn't". That leads the girl's mother to seek out Ron to give him a talking-to for corrupting her daughter. He doesn't have much of an excuse, so he tells Lauren not to judge things too harshly until she's 18. But he doesn't let her part without making her autograph the paper about government for him.

Chris has a hard time giving people bad news, but Ron lives for it, so in "Campaign Ad," Chris sees an opportunity: Have Ron come to his meetings delivering bad news to government departments. It's a win-win! Except Chris doesn't want their time together to end. He invites Ron to lunch and Ron goes with him, although he can't figure out how he got there. Chris even proposes Ron go to a seminar on the art of the Japanese tea ceremony with him because he knows Ron values silence. But after their lunch, Ron doesn't want to hang out with Chris ... ever.

It turns out Chris was trying to spend time with Ron because he's considering him for the job of Assistant City Manager, a far less sinister goal than Ron was imagining. Of course, Ron wouldn't be interested in the job Chris is hiring for but, then again, if Ron could be the one delivering bad news to all the departments of the Pawnee government, Chris might be onto something.

Ron has been through a lot with his ex-wives, the Tammys, but in Season 5, he meets a different kind of woman. Diane (Lucy Lawless) is understanding and sweet and appreciates Ron for who he is, even if she doesn't always understand his interests. So in "Ron and Diane," when Ron gets nominated for an award by the Indiana Fine Woodworking Association for a chair he made, Diane goes with him for support.

Of course, then Tammy 2 shows up and tries to ruin it for Ron, to the point where he can't even deliver his acceptance speech because of Tammy's presence. But it turns out Diane is more upset because of Leslie, who has a level of intimacy with Ron she doesn't understand.

To alleviate Diane's fears, Ron introduces Diane to Duke Silver, his jazz-infused alter-ego. Even Leslie doesn't know about Duke, and Ron uses his smooth saxophone to clear away any concerns Diane has. This puts the hate back on Tammy where it belongs, and just in time, too, because Tammy has been arrested for stealing Ron's car and putting Leslie in the trunk.

It's an odd sight when Ron is first seen in "Women in Garbage." He's being pummeled by two little girls (Rylan Lee and Sadie Salazar) with stuffed animals while a stuffed pink monkey is on his head, a fluffy white dog is on his shoulder, and he's sitting on a pink pillow. What's happened? Well, it turns out Diane has lost her babysitter for the day and the kids are on break, so Ron's offered to take care of them. Though he tells Diane everything went great and he can take them again the next day, his actions — draining a glass of liquor and pouring himself another — tell a different story.

He becomes so desperate that he goes to Ann for help, which is strange, because Ann is more awkward with kids than him. Ann ends up winning them over with her nurse's bag to entertain them, but it leads to tragedy when the pair lock Ann and Ron out of Ron's office and play surgery by themselves, leading them to cut off their hair. Ron is horrified, thinking that Diane is going to be furious, but when she comes back, she just laughs the girls' new haircuts off, making Ron love her even more.

Since the second season episode "The Stakeout," we've known that Ron would almost rather die than go to the doctor. In that episode, Ron stayed still all day to avoid going to the hospital to get a hernia checked out. So in "Animal Control," it's no surprise that he chooses not to go to the doctor again, this time for a cold. Ron has been in a coat and hat in his office all day, drinking whiskey which, in the name of health, he puts an ice cube in.

But when he passes out while delivering a speech to Ann about being able to handle his cold, Ann does the right thing and takes him to the hospital. Ron redacts most of his information on the intake form and the questions he does answer are remarkably vague. For example, for date of birth, Ron puts springtime. In the end, though, he goes through with the appointment and even gets to laugh when the doctor feels his torso. Ultimately, the doctor decides he likes Ron for his take-the-prescription-and-run attitude. 

Ron may have Diane and her children to think about now, but he still has his standards. So when Ann tells him he needs to eat a banana once in a while to boost his potassium, he does his best to psych himself up, then he puts the banana in a hamburger for easy digestion.

Ron and Diane get pregnant by accident — Ron's sperm is simply too powerful to be denied. This leads to the birth of their son, John, in Season 6, to the surprise of Leslie and everyone else in the Parks department. But when people start fawning over John, Ron can't take it anymore and strolls the boy out of there.

In looking for a quiet place for them to be, he makes his way to the third floor, a place that for anyone else would be a no-go because it's fallen into disrepair, but for Ron, it's a quiet paradise. Ron even finds a tool kit there to fix the radiator.

When the repair crew comes to restore the floor, they attempt to kick him out, but Ron tells them John's familiar with the sound of power tools — after all, he's several weeks old. The crew decides they like John and fawn over him like the folks in the Parks department, so Ron offers to do their work for them to get them to go away. Of course, then Leslie catches him doting over his son, and although he plays it off, it still happened. Ron's a proud papa no matter how low-key he tries to play it.

Despite his manly ways, Ron has mellowed over the years, and Donna (Retta) tells him so in "One in 8,000" — but first, he has to ask Donna for a favor. It's a terrible thing for Ron, and a point of pride for Donna, until she realizes that he's asking her to volunteer with him to make costumes at his step-daughters' public elementary school. You see, Joe (Keegan-Michael Key), her ex, works there and he's a nightmare. As she describes it, he's her Tammy. So Ron offers to keep Joe away from her.

The trouble is when they get to the school, Joe turns out to be not so bad. Joe is nice, accommodating, good at keeping Ron's daughters' in line, and best of all, he's made a jig to make Ron's work easier. So what's Donna's problem? Donna can't stand Joe being respectful and trying to connect with her, to which Ron has some very good advice: "Don't confuse drama with happiness."

Ron has changed for the better. He can help Donna while wearing a sparkly crown from his step-daughters and not bat an eyelash. Ron's priorities have shifted and it's good to see him helping his friends, even if it's in small doses.

The fourth episode of Season 7 is one of the highest-rated episodes of "Parks and Recreation" on IMDb.com, and it's easy to understand why. In the timeline of the show, several years have passed and Ron and Leslie are no longer friends. Leslie has moved on to a National Parks Service job and Ron has started Very Good Building and Development Company, which two years ago, built an apartment complex by bulldozing Ann's former house. Leslie is furious at Ron, and Ron, in turn, is furious at her. So when their friends lock them in the Parks department for the night and tell them to work out their differences, neither is happy.

Ron is determined not to talk to Leslie. He even goes so far as to blow up his landmine that was a gift from her which, to his utter disappointment, is full of confetti and balloons. Eventually, though, she figures out a way to make him talk, which leads Ron to finally tell Leslie that before he quit the government, he tried to come to her to ask her for a job. Unfortunately, she was so busy she forgot about their meeting. This changes everything for Leslie and they finally forgive each other. By the end of the episode, they're best pals again, jamming to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" and drinking a lot of liquor. It may have been painful, but Ron's truth bomb made a huge difference in both his and Leslie's lives.

Ron loves puzzles, and he's almost preternaturally good at solving them. He shows this in the cold open for the ninth episode of Season 7, when he solves Craig's (Billy Eichner) puzzle in record time, despite the Indiana Puzzlers Guild giving it 5 out of 5 Sherlock Pipes. But April comes to him with a much harder puzzle: Finding the key he gave her to his house. The problem is he gave her the key eight years ago and she can't remember where she put it. Fortunately, she left a series of minimally helpful clues and Ron, instead of being upset, is excited to get started.

When it looks like all is lost, Ron invites April back to his office and tells her the truth: He has his house locks changed every two weeks, so that key has been useless for years. But giving the key to her showed that he trusted her and admired her as a person. April ends up remembering where she put the key in the end. She digs it up from under a tree that reminds her of Ron, and Ron, in a moment of weakness, confesses that he buried a large quantity of gold there many years ago, proving his connection with April. He then avoids the sentimentality of the conversation with a long list of possibilities for the gold. But the fact that he loves and respects April — and all the people he got to know at the Parks department — remains.