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Parks and Recreation

In its purest definition, comedy is something that is supposed to make us laugh. That’s it.

Ancient Greeks and Romans defined it merely as theater with a happy ending. Over the centuries, it’s evolved to include biting satire, ribald jests, and elegant presentations of wit. Nowadays, comedy is praised for being “edgy.” Many critically-acclaimed comedies revel in making their audiences feel uncomfortable and lots of popular sitcoms get lambasted for being too easy or “familiar.” Comedy belongs to the rebel as much as the jester. Comedy can be a lot of things, and one of those things is mean.

For over thirteen years, I studied and performed comedy. I went through schools of improv, braved writers’ workshops, and did years and years of harrowing stand up open mics in New York City. There were good times and bad times. I can remember having great shows and barely surviving mortifying disasters. I made a lot of great friends, a few arch-nemeses, and banked a bunch of interesting stories for my hypothetical grandchildren. But I was also profoundly miserable.

I became hyper-competitve, which meant I was terribly jealous of the more talented comics around me. I was incredibly insecure in my place in the community, which just led to me being a cagey, paranoid asshole. Most of all, I took comedy way too seriously. I based my value on what shows I was (or wasn’t) getting booked on and not whether or not I was being a good friend. The moment I recognized my awful pattern of behavior, I fell into a spiral of deep self-loathing.

A few years ago, I hit an emotional bottom that I don’t relish trying to recall. I stayed in bed for a full weekend, and I couldn’t find any reason to feel good about myself, the world, or comedy. That’s when I binge-watched Parks and Recreation for the first time and realized the full glory of what comedy can do.

Parks and Recreation is a unique kind of comedy. Yes, it’s witty and is bursting with moments of tight satire, but what makes the show sing is how upbeat it is. It’s one of the few shows for adults on television that is simultaneously intelligent and optimistic. It’s not a show about people tearing each other apart for laughs; it’s about the comedy that arises when people with different philosophies try to come to together to build something greater than themselves.

At the heart of this show is Amy Poehler. The first season of Parks and Recreation never seems to shift completely into place because Leslie Knope (Poehler) is being presented as someone irksome and doomed for embarrassing fails. Poehler is such an indefatigably likable performer that it just didn’t gel together. It wasn’t until the show went completely on board with being as in love with Leslie as she was with Pawnee that it started to find its voice. Parks and Recreation is a comedy about love, which in a way, makes it the edgiest, bravest, and most rebellious comedy that I know. It’s easier to tear something down than to build something new.

Somewhere between “Greg Pikitis” (Season Two, Episode Seven) and “Ron and Tammy II” (Season Three, Episode Four), I found the shadow that was covering my mood was being pushed away. My anger and resentment were being replaced with hope and optimism. Ever since then I credit Parks and Recreation for pulling me back from teetering into deep depression. I wasn’t magically cured. It still took me months to shake off my funk, rebuild myself, and reassess what I needed to be happy, but I look at that weekend as the moment where I felt like there was hope.

I’m not saying that binge-watching Parks and Recreation is as advisable as seeking help from a therapist or medical professional. I am merely stating that watching the show helped me gain new perspective on my life. It injected a feeling of hope where there was darkness and relieved my stress by getting me to laugh. Parks and Recreation not only made me feel better, but it taught me that comedy could do good. It could be about positivity, love, and taking care of the world around you. Comedy didn’t have to be about being the best; it could simply be about being the best person in the circumstance life threw at you.

Today marks the show’s sixth anniversary. It might not seem like a major milestone for pop culture, but to me it means that for six years the world has been a kinder, brighter, happier place.

[Watch Parks and Recreation]

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