Top 10 Unscripted Parks and Recreation Moments That Were Kept in the Show

While not the show’s funniest unscripted moment, this might be the most important. In the Season One finale, Chris Pratt improvised Andy’s brief song about Ann’s lamp. The lamp Andy describes is similar to one Pratt had recently received. As Andy tries to define his undeniable music, Aubrey Plaza went off-book with this line: [“I totally get what you mean.”] Although this seemed like a throwaway gag at first, it helped shape Andy and April’s relationship. According to co-creator Michael Schur, the creative team saw something in that little exchange. It inspired the writers to pair Andy and April in Season Two’s “Hunting Trip,” which eventually led to them becoming a couple. Had it not been for Plaza’s ad-lib, who knows where Janet Snakehole and Burt Macklin would be now.

You’ll find throughout this list that Pratt was responsible for a lot of the show’s best unscripted moments. Thinking that Ann wants to rekindle their romance, Andy shows up on her doorstep with a bouquet of flowers and zero clothes, much to Leslie’s horror. This bit was written because, as Michael Schur put it, Pratt “loves taking his clothes off.” Wanting to get the funniest reaction possible out of Amy Poehler, Pratt decided to ditch the flesh-colored underwear he was given and go the full monty. This unplanned take made it into the show and the unprepared expression we see on Poehler’s face is 100% genuine. Of course, Pratt received a letter from NBC telling him to never pull a stunt like this again.

When Andy forgets to pay the cable bill, he’s tasked with entertaining Leslie’s donors at a debate viewing party. Amy Poehler, who directed and wrote the episode, asked Pratt what movie Andy should reenact for the unsuspecting guests. Pratt’s immediate answer was “Road House.” After Poehler watched the film, she started writing the scene. She quickly realized, however, that Pratt could probably conceive a funnier recap. In the dressing room, Pratt gave his take on the film, which Poehler basically transcribed. Once it came time to shoot, Pratt incorporated several more ideas on the spot, making the scene even funnier. Pratt also recommended reenacting a “Rambo” movie for a bit that played over the end credits. Once again, Poehler let Pratt run wild.

Retta, who portrays Donna Meagle, had been with the show from the very beginning. It wasn’t until Season Four, though, that she got one of her ad-libs into an episode. The episode in question finds Ann leading a crusade for cleaner water fountains. Open to suggestions, Ann calls on Donna for input. More interested in doing her nails, Donna delivers this sassy comeback, courtesy of Retta. [“Do I look like I drink water?”] The line is reminiscent of something Donna told Ann the previous season at a singles mixer. [“Do I look like I’m joking?”] We’re not sure what Donna was drinking in that scene, but it apparently wasn’t water.

We all recognize Andy’s band as Mouse Rat. Any true “Parks and Rec” fan knows, though, that the band’s name has gone through a lengthy evolution. In this episode, Andy reveals just some of the rock group’s former names. According to Pratt, roughly half of the band names that Andy lists off were improvised. About 15 or 20 bands were already written in the script. Knowing that they would shoot this scene somewhere down the line, Pratt filled a notebook with approximately 200 band names. After doing a few takes as scripted, Pratt added one of his own band names. From there, they let him go all out. Pratt had stored a lot of the names in his memory, sharing as many as he could.

Pratt isn’t the only one who has sporadically stripped down on the show to enhance the comedy. Megan Mullally, who’s married to Nick Offerman in real life, made her “Parks and Rec” debut in this episode as Ron’s second ex-wife, Tammy. Various bits between Ron and Tammy were improvised, including some of their fights and bizarre kisses. Driving into a motel parking lot, Ron and Tammy start ripping off their clothes before even reaching the room. Although the script didn’t call for it, Mullally took her shirt off as she headed inside. Mullally neglected to inform the crew what she had planned. Since she didn’t know anybody and the shoot was at 6:00 A.M. on a Monday morning, Mullally figured, who cares?

“Flu Season” is one of the show’s best episodes and two of its funniest lines weren’t even in the script. One of these lines came from Rob Lowe, who usually seems like the epitome of good health as Chris Traeger. Ann finds that Chris is only human when he catches the flu. Intensely staring in the mirror, Chris delivers a line that’s so childish and yet all too relatable. [“Stop Pooping.”] While the line alone is hilarious, it’s the painful pause between “stop” and “pooping” that makes it one of the show’s finest moments. At this point, Lowe was still relatively new to the cast. After immortalizing Chris Traeger with this ad-lib, however, we all knew that he was a keeper.

This is the other unscripted line from “Flu Season” that we were talking about. It’s also quite possibly the most uproarious improvisation from Pratt, which is saying a lot. As Ben leads a sickly Leslie out of the office, the camera lands on Andy at a computer. Pratt seized the opportunity to contribute this classic moment. From his daft delivery to the strange way he pronounces “network connectivity,” the ad-lib is pure Andy Dwyer. It’s one that connects to the episode’s theme as well, working on both a character and storytelling level. Michael Schur considers this the funniest joke in the entire series. As a writer, however, Schur was kind of “furious” that Pratt came up with such a brilliant line on a whim.

This episode was written by Leslie Knope herself. The cast thus made a bet to see who could get Poehler and director Randall Einhorn to laugh behind the camera. They brought their comedic A-game to this sequence where several characters get plastered on Snake Juice. Everyone is at their drunkest during a talking heads montage, which overflows with improved gems. This includes Aziz Ansari’s elephant comment, Adam Scott’s “bababooey” line, Chris Pratt’s random singing, Aubrey Plaza rapidly speaking Spanish, and Nick Offerman prancing around in April’s hat. Poehler’s inebriated ad-lib ties more into the central plot regarding Leslie’s fight with Ann. While it’s unknown exactly how much the cast made her laugh here, Poehler called the experience “the most fun [she’s] ever had.”

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Leslie on Russia, “Canvassing”
All Improvised by Poehler

Cleaning Up After Leslie, “Boys’ Club”
Another Amy Ad-Lib

Reverse Psychiatry, “Freddy Spaghetti”
Pratt Was Supposed to Say “Reverse Psychology”

Seducing Chris, “Go Big or Go Home”
Improvising Role-Playing

Guest-starring as a Pawnee historian who wishes to keep the town charter intact, Patton Oswalt was asked to improvise his character’s filibuster. Oswalt went above and beyond the call of duty, delivering a ridiculous yet surprisingly well-conceived pitch for the then-upcoming “Star Wars: Episode VII.” Oswalt says he was only supposed to fill up 10 seconds. Instead, his filibuster lasted over eight minutes. Oswalt expected somebody to say cut, but he was allowed to just roll with it. Being a half-hour sitcom, the creators naturally couldn’t include the whole monologue. They did cherry-pick the most ingenious idea, however: using the Reality Gem to have the “Star Wars” universe cross over with the MCU. Come on, Disney, canonize this already!