Parks And Recreation Bloopers Even Funnier Than The Show

After the success of other sitcom mockumentaries like The Office, the world was ready for Parks and Recreation – which was originally conceived as a spin-off of The Office in the first place — when it premiered in 2009. Led by Greg Daniels, who also served as showrunner on The Office, and Michael Schur, the workplace comedy focused on the small, humble Parks and Recreation department in the tiny hamlet of Pawnee, Indiana, and the efforts of one woman to change the world from within her local government.

As Leslie Knope, series lead Amy Poehler is dauntless, fearless, and peerless in her efforts to improve Pawnee, which she loves dearly, but between her coworkers and the town's decidedly quirky citizens, Leslie faces opposition at every turn. However, flanked by her loyal friends and loved ones, Leslie manages to enact real change, but not without fighting several particularly hilarious battles. Parks and Recreation is, without question, one of the funniest television shows in recent memory, so it should come as no surprise that some of its bloopers match the show beat for beat. From classic Chris Pratt moments to sight gags gone wrong, here are just a few Parks and Recreation bloopers that are (almost) funnier than the show itself.

Out of all the infamous bloopers in recent memory, few are quite as well known as Chris Pratt's joke about the word "comeback." As Andy Dwyer, the Parks department's resident lovable doofus, Pratt turned in a tour-de-force performance as a dimwitted yet sweet man-child, and though Andy may have been simple, Pratt's comedic skills were anything but.

During a season four episode entitled "The Comeback Kid," Leslie tries to bounce back from poor polling numbers and launch a campaign for Pawnee's city council. She and her best friend slash campaign manager, Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones), try to rally the troops, announcing that the campaign's theme will be centered around "great comebacks" like Seabiscuit and Robert Downey Jr. Immediately, Pratt makes the least appropriate joke of all time involving reality star Kim Kardashian, sending co-star Jim O'Heir — who plays the office's punching bag Jerry Gurgich — into hysterics, while Retta, who portrays the sardonic Donna Meagle, says the line is "only gonna make the wrap party."

If you've watched enough Parks and Recreation, you know one thing is true: the town of Pawnee is filled with cantankerous, erratic townspeople, none of whom are ever happy with any of Leslie's intrepid efforts to make the town a better place to live. As Leslie tries to turn Pawnee into a Midwestern paradise, she faces off against the townspeople at every turn, constantly forced to make publicity appearances for her efforts, including on Pawnee Today, run by unhinged anchorwoman Joan Calamezzo (Mo Collins).

The callers who reach out to Pawnee Today usually have some pretty far-fetched concerns, but in this blooper from season two, the caller's query is so ridiculous that even comedy veteran Amy Poehler can't keep a straight face. When a caller asks Leslie, who is doing a panel on animal welfare, "what is it about cats that makes them think they're so much g*dd*mn better than we are," Poehler can't hold it together, even as the caller says he'll take the answer off air. Parks and Rec fans know about Pawnee's raccoon infestation, but apparently, their citizens hate cats as well.

As a devoted public servant, Leslie is dedicated to any and all rules, whether it's Pawnee's insane town charter — which once arrested women for wearing pants in public — or the rule of law. In this season three blooper, Poehler uses a simple physical gag to show Leslie's adherence to rules as well as sweet, earnest nature, which then makes the whole room laugh.

When Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) bursts into one of the Parks department's offices and tells everyone inside — which includes Leslie, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), and Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) — to "cover their ears" because their "heads are about to explode," Poehler, as Leslie, claps her hands over her ears with a huge grin on her face without a moment's hesitation. As soon as Ansari looks back over at her, he can't help but laugh, which sets off the entire group. Poehler is one of the founders of Upright Citizens Brigade and has plenty of improv comedy training, and in little moments like this, it pays off perfectly.

Though shows like Friends, The Big Bang Theory, and How I Met Your Mother are all relatively recent examples of sitcoms with laugh tracks, canned laughter has largely fallen out of style in televised comedy, especially in mockumentaries like The Office and Parks and Recreation. However, if you watch the season three bloopers for Parks and Rec, you may be surprised to see a lone laugh track make an unplanned appearance.

In a scene where Ben tries to teach childish Andy and his wife April (Aubrey Plaza) how to live like adults after moving into their spare room, Ben is horrified to learn that the couple have been washing their laundry with bubble bath instead of detergent. In the original episode, Andy responds, "Bubble bath, clothes soap, same thing," justifying his response by saying they both "make bubbles." Apparently, Adam Scott planned a blooper to follow this line: in the cut scene, he hits play on a small speaker, playing a laugh track. Both Pratt and Plaza laugh, though the latter just says "no" to Scott's prank. Laugh tracks are definitely out of place on Parks and Rec, but they're super funny in the bloopers.

Throughout the run of Parks and Recreation, Chris Pratt proved that he'd do just about anything to get a laugh, and as a result, one of his best physical bloopers is a result of a super physical scene he performs in the show's fourth season.

In the episode "Born and Raised," where Leslie tries to prove that she was born in Pawnee — not the neighboring town of Eagleton — to promote her memoir during her run for city council, Andy, operating as his FBI alter-ego "Burt Macklin," breaks into an office to steal her birth certificate to help her track down the evidence. However, when he also brings back a stranger's briefcase, city manager Chris Traegar (Rob Lowe) tells him to return it, and in this outtake, that doesn't go as planned. When Pratt, as Andy, carelessly tosses the briefcase over a counter, it smashes a light switch, turning all of the overhead lights off and ruining the switch entirely. As Lowe says, "That is f**king hilarious" and the camera zooms in on the broken switch, Pratt does a little song and dance about how hard that blunder will be to fix for the props department before tossing himself over the desk, creating one of the funniest physical comedy bloopers in Parks and Rec's history.

As one of the most famous people to join the core cast of Parks and Recreation, Rob Lowe, who has been gracing the big and small screen alike for several decades, has plenty of celebrity friends... but he probably didn't plan on showing that fact off during filming, like he does in this Parks and Rec outtake.

While talking to Leslie and Ben about an upcoming business trip to Indianapolis, what appears to be Lowe's real phone goes off in his pocket, startling everybody on set. Amazingly, he checks his phone while saying, "That's not good at all." When Poehler demands to know who it is, he responds, "Former NBC topper Scott Sassa," referring to an executive who oversaw shows like The West Wing – which featured Lowe — during his tenure at NBC. Poehler cackles and claps her hands, while Scott deadpans, "Wow. Well, that was worth it, then," as Lowe mugs for the camera and crew members giggle out of frame.

As Andy, Chris Pratt always played the perfect dimwit, and his extraordinary skill of portraying a simpleton is on perfect display in the season four episode "The Trial of Leslie Knope." After her secret relationship with her superior, Ben, is revealed, Leslie must defend herself in court, proving that their tryst hasn't affected their professional lives. Her friends scramble to help her win the case — including Andy.

In the clip, Leslie tells Andy that she needs help procuring evidence, and tells him to go to her office and look for a picture of a female politician, Bella Abzug, next to her desk, which is a clue for some sort of hiding place for documents. As a follow-up, Andy asks, "Is that scary face, funny hat, or Bill Clinton's wife?" After Leslie clarifies that she means "funny hat," she starts to describe a complicated system involving a hidden key, but in the meantime, Andy completely loses focus, sending Poehler into mild hysterics at the idea that he would just get bored with what she was saying. Pratt and Poehler always contrasted well, and in his time on Parks and Rec, Pratt could always make Poehler laugh.

Though Ann Perkins might seem like a sweet, unassuming person, she has one nemesis within the Parks department: April Ludgate, who bears a longstanding grudge against Leslie's closest friend thanks to Ann's previous relationship with Andy. As a result, April finds any chance she can to antagonize Ann, including in this clip, where she uses her own dog in a twisted ventriloquist act.

During the meeting where Ann and Leslie try to mount a comeback for Leslie's city council campaign in season four's "The Comeback Kid," April hides behind her three-legged rescue dog, Champion, adopting a funny voice and pretending to be him to bother Ann. However, in these outtakes, Aubrey Plaza really takes the schtick to a new level. As Champion, April jokes, "Ann, I'm in love with you, because you're just like me... you're a dog. Date me, Ann. I'm single." Though Jones, as Ann, throws a disgusted look directly to the camera, nobody else in the room can keep it together, and everyone bursts out laughing. However, the joke doesn't end there; in the next blooper, where Ron agrees to construct a stage for Leslie's campaign event, he suggests that they involve the "talking dog." Plaza takes the bait, intoning, "Ann, will you go out on a date with me? You're the prettiest dog I've ever seen," setting everyone off once again.

Ron Swanson might not be much of a jokester in Parks and Recreation, but he does love to make his co-workers nervous, which he does to perfect effect in a season three cold open. During a meeting, he mentions that he's been having some tooth pain, and rather than go to the dentist, he whips out a pair of pliers and seemingly pulls his tooth right then and there. However, he then reveals to the cameras that he had the tooth pulled the day before and was just re-enacting it to frighten his colleagues.

In the outtake for this scene, however, the fake teeth fail Nick Offerman entirely, and as he tries to dramatically yank out his tooth while the people around him panic and scream, he ends up pulling out an entire set of fake teeth instead. Offerman will go to some pretty big lengths for a joke, but even he didn't see this particular mistake coming, and nobody can stop themselves from laughing.

There's no doubt that Chris Pratt is an excellent improviser, but there's also something seriously impressive about how far he'll go to try and get his co-stars to break — even the seemingly inscrutable Nick Offerman, who, like Ron Swanson, seems to always remain expressionless.

In a clip where Andy is confessing a number of odd sins to Ron, Pratt clearly goes off-script, revealing some pretty personal details to his stone-faced boss. After telling Ron that his head weighs "upwards of 85 pounds," Andy reveals that he was a "sixteen pound baby," that his mother carried him "to full term plus eight months," and he was born at 17 months. Ron remains straight faced, but even Offerman has his limits. When Andy tells Ron that he was born with a "full head of hair and a full head of teeth," Offerman can't handle it anymore, and neither can the crew, as laughter can be heard throughout the set.

Parks and Recreation has an amazing and ridiculous roster of supporting characters, but there's nobody quite like Jean Ralphio Saperstein (Ben Schwartz), a ball of disturbing, erratic energy who lives to party and cause chaos. In one of his first appearances, Schwartz really pushes the limits during a scene with Retta's Donna Meagle, as he and Tom try to convince her to join them as investors in the town's local upscale club, the Snakehole Lounge.

In the original scene, Jean Ralphio says such invasive, unsettling things to Donna that she declines to invest, but in this outtake, Schwartz takes the whole interaction even further. Between the improvised whispers alongside his scripted lines and the fact that Schwartz gets closer and closer to Retta's face throughout the entire clip, nobody can keep from laughing, and it's easy to see why. Jean Ralphio is always hilarious, but in this outtake, Schwartz really goes for it, turning his character's most upsetting tendencies up to 11.