My son and I recently started binge-watching Parks and Recreation. We like watching tv together at night once his little sister goes to bed, and after making our way through the entire series of The Office we naturally decided to move on to its sister show.1
Originally conceived as a spin off of The Office2 but eventually premiering as its own show, Parks and Recreation shares the same mockumentary style, cringe-inducing humor, and heart as its predecessor. When it premiered on NBC in 2009, Parks and Recreation received a cool reception from fans and critics, but eventually found its voice by the second season, going on to collect multiple awards and accolades and a devoted following during its seven seasons on the air.
Although the show was new to my son, I had seen most of these episodes during its initial run. I was looking forward to revisiting this series that I remembered enjoying so much the first time around, and it didn’t disappoint in that regard. The show is still for the most part very funny and very enjoyable. But what surprised me was how dated and inappropriate some of the humor is, particularly the character Tom Haverford.
Played by Aziz Ansari, Tom Haverford is the fast-talking, suavely dressed pencil pusher at Pawnee, Indiana’s Parks and Recreation Department who fancies himself both a player and an entrepreneur, pursuing women and business ideas with equal ineptitude. The first time I watched this series Haverford was by far my favorite part of the show. (I still contend the monologue in which he rings off a dozen or so nicknames for various food items is one of the funniest 30 seconds ever aired on television.) In fact, so enamored was I with this character that my wife and I paid money to see Ansari perform stand-up when he came through town.
But watching Parks and Recreation just a few years later I don’t find Tom Haverford nearly as funny as I used to. In fact, I find the character a little repulsive, and I’m fairly certain my change in perception is due entirely to the #MeToo movement. The #MeToo movement of course is the viral movement against sexual harassment and assault that gained momentum in the fall of 2017 after allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein were made public.3 Emboldened by women both famous and unknown sharing their stories of sexual abuse with the hashtag #MeToo, a stream of victims would come forward with allegations against prominent men, taking down one after another. Among those accused of misconduct was Aziz Ansari.
In a January, 2018 Babe.net article, a woman identifying herself as “Grace” described an encounter with Ansari in which he behaved aggressively and inappropriately. Readers of the article were split over whether his behavior constituted sexual assault or was merely a case of crossed signals and clumsy aggressiveness. I will let you draw your own conclusions. Although this incident was definitely in the back of my mind when re-watching Parks and Recreation, it’s not the reason I found Tom Haverford repulsive. My problem was with the character Tom Haverford, not the actor.
Tom Haverford, you see, is a sexist. He frequents strip clubs. He finagles his way into judging a beauty pageant, convincing the other judges to vote for the dumbest (and hottest) contestant. He hands out invitations to an office party to a half dozen hot women he finds at a night club. In his mind, every woman he meets is a sex object. These things are fine, I suppose. He’s a comic character intended to be laughed at, and part of the humor comes from his failure to get anywhere with these women. But what disturbed me the most about Tom Haverford is his relentless pursuit of Ann Perkins, played by Rashida Jones. In episode after episode she repeatedly rejects his advances, but he doesn’t let up. He is a prime example of a guy who won’t take no for an answer.
In a season four episode, Ann finally relents to go on a date with Tom. Despite signaling repeatedly that she is simply interested in dinner and conversation, Tom suggests they go back to his place and “snuggle up, like little buuuuuunies.” The next day at work when Tom calls her “boo boo bear” she makes it clear that she’s not interested in him romantically, saying, “We went out once, and nothing happened. There is no this.” When Tom persists, she frustratedly pushes him aside and he perceives this as an advance, sweeping all the papers off his desk and jumping on top of it, as if to say, “Let’s get it on, right here!” Tom spends the rest of the episode pestering Ann for a second date until finally Ann has enough and says, “Fine, fine, fine! I will go out with you. You wore me down,” to which Tom responds, “The four sweetest words in the English language. You wore me down.”
If there’s one thing #MeToo has taught us it’s that no means no. A year or two ago it might have been funny to watch a loser who can’t take no for an answer repeatedly try to wear down a woman (and I suppose there are women for whom this was never funny) but today it just seems creepy and offensive. Indeed, a disregard for female consent is at the heart of rape culture and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that scenes like this promote rape culture. It’s also a little unsettling how similar Haverford’s behavior is to Ansari’s alleged behavior described in the Babe.net article.4
Good comedy by nature pushes the boundaries of taste and acceptable behavior and there are countless examples of things we found funny in the past that are now offensive. Minstrelsy and black face performances were enormously popular for decades and counted among its fans Abraham Lincoln, but the public eventually caught up to the fact that comedy based on demeaning another race just isn’t funny. Mickey Rooney’s portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s was a hit in 1961, but a few decades later it was widely considered one of the most offensive performances in celluloid history. If you grew up in the 80s you most likely loved John Hughes’ Sixteen Candles, but recently the film has taken criticism for its racist caricature, Long Duk Dong, and Molly Ringwald expressed her concern in the New Yorker for the film’s playing up date rape for laughs. And most recently, comedian Hari Kondabolu has taken The Simpsons to task for its character Apu, a racist caricature of an Indian convenient store clerk voiced by a white actor.
A comedy from the past offending present-day values is clearly nothing new. However, what is so unique about Tom Haverford and Parks and Recreation is how quickly the character has grown out of step with our cultural values. Parks and Recreation has only been off the air for three years now. If I had re-watched the series with my son just a year ago I doubt I’d have the same reaction to Tom Haverford. Our culture’s heightened sensitivity to sexual assault and harassment is an extremely recent phenomenon.5 It took decades for Apu, Sixteen Candles, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s to become offensive. It only took a few months for the same fate to befall Tom Haverford.
Our cultural values are changing more rapidly than at any point in my lifetime. I’d imagine you’d have to go back to the 1960s or the 1850s and 60s to find another point where America experienced such a rapid revolution in public attitudes. Just 14 years ago George W. Bush successfully ran for re-election on a platform calling for a Constitutional Amendment “defending traditional marriage” and most prominent Democrats refused to endorse gay marriage, hiding behind their politically convenient support for “civil unions.” Today you’d be laughed out of polite society for not supporting gay rights, at least in educated, professional circles. As a young social studies teacher in the early 2000s I’d quickly change the subject whenever one of my teenaged students inevitably brought up the subject of marijuana legalization. Today weed is legal in nine states with many more likely to join suit. Just ten years ago a number of whitemembers of the media claimed Barack Obama’s election signaled the arrival of a post-racial America, where the racism and discrimination of the past centuries had finally been put to rest. Today we are aware that the judicial and economic obstacles facing minorities are all too real, and Black Lives Matter has made us aware of the frequent mistreatment of African Americans by law enforcement.
And of course we have in short time become much more tolerant and understanding of the transgender community. There’s a scene in a 2nd season episode of Parks and Recreation where the character Andy, played by Chris Pratt, says something to Aubrey Plaza’s character, April, in front of April’s Spanish-speaking boyfriend. The boyfriend asks in Spanish, “What did he say?” She responds in Spanish and the subtitles below read, “He says he wants to become a woman.” In no conceivable way is this funny in the year 2018, yet just a few years ago audiences thought it was hilarious to suggest that manly Chris Pratt was considering a sex change. This is how far we’ve come in just a few short years.
These changes we’re experiencing are undoubtedly good. I’m glad we’re more tolerant of transgender people and that a respect for gay and lesbian citizens and their equal protection under the law has become a common expectation. I’m glad that we’re not turning a blind eye to discriminatory police practices and that men in positions of power are being held accountable for their sexual misconduct. Perhaps it’s presumptuous of me to quote Dr. King, but I believe more than anything that the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice. But these changes we’re experiencing come with a price, perhaps most notably the reactionary politics of the past few years. And one additional price I didn’t expect was that I’d no longer find Tom Haverford funny. A small price to pay for progress I suppose.
Footnotes
1. I realize watching tv isn’t the greatest father/son activity. I suppose if I told you we liked to fishing together or whittling pinewood derby cars or restoring vintage go karts you’d think better of me as a father, but screw it. We like watching tv. Deal with it.
2. “The Office or Parks and Rec?” has become something of a “Beatles or Stones?” for the new millennium. In both cases I think you’d have to be completely insane to choose the latter over the former.
3. Although #MeToo gained widespread attention in the fall of 2017, the movement actually was started way back in 2006 by African American activist Tarana Burke on her MySpace page. People have noted how the general public did not take notice until famous white women like Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan began championing the cause and that Burke perhaps doesn’t get her due credit for her role in this historic movement.
4. Read the Babe.net article and tell me it doesn’t sound exactly like Tom Haverford. When “Grace” tells him she doesn’t want to have sex with him but maybe next time, Aziz says, “Oh, you mean second date?’ and I go, ‘Oh, yeah, sure,’ and he goes, ‘Well, if I poured you another glass of wine now, would it count as our second date?’”
5. I am convinced that had #MeToo taken off a year earlier the Access Hollywood tape would have sunk Trump’s presidential campaign. That’s how much I think we’ve evolved on the issue of sexual assault and harassment. Of course I was also convinced he would never win the GOP nomination and was then convinced that he would never win the presidency, so what do I know?
