Ron Swanson, the ultra-libertarian boss on Parks and Recreation, is a throwback character and a symbol of masculinity that Dr. Kronner seems to talk about a lot, here and here (I think he may be overcompensating). In the first season of the show, he served in a more limited role but they began to include him more and expand character and his background.
We’ll use any excuse to use this Gif again…
With this information from the character development, we have been able to form a full picture of him. I propose that based on his character, we can form a club, somewhat a combination of the He-Man Women Haters Club, NO-MA’AM and the Libertarians. One only need look at the Pyramid of Greatness that Ron presented to the boys basketball team that he coached to find the guiding principles.
Some of my favorites are: “Capitalism: God’s way of determining who is smart and who is poor” “Torso: Should be thick and impenetrable” and “America: The only country that matters. If you want to experience other “cultures”, use an atlas or a ham radio.” It’s things like this that earned Offerman a Television Critics Association award for Individual Achievement in Comedy, which he had to share with Ty Burrell of Modern Family (which doesn’t really seem like an individual achievement if you have to share it).
It has also been announce who will be the first Tammy in Ron’s life on the show. His real world wife Megan Mullaly plays his second wife Tammy and Paula Pell, of SNL fame, will play the OG Tammy aka Ron’s mom. This is going to be incredibly interesting because it is suggested that all three Tammys from Ron’s life will be united. Is he ready to deal with this?
If you want to hear some more from Nick Offerman about Parks and Recreation and some other stuff, you can check out an interview he has done with TV Fanatic. Lots of interesting stuff in there about the show and some things from his life.
Parks and Recreation has grown into a fantastic show and Ron Swanson is one of the best parts of it. I am looking forward to the new season. Hopefully it brings us some more scenes like this one below.
and this one…
and this one…
Images: NBC
Grizzly Bomb 