The Time ‘Parks and Recreation’ Secretly Roasted the Oscars

As further evidence that this year’s Academy Awards might not suck, it was recently announced that Nick Offerman will be the show’s announcer. So we can look forward to Offerman’s dulcet voice introducing some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, possibly accompanied by the faint sound of a canoe being carved. 

Offerman is, of course, most famous for his work as Ron Swanson in the beloved sitcom Parks and Recreation. And while Parks and Rec wasn’t exactly known for being the most confrontational show, it did seem to low-key dunk on the Oscars in an early episode. 

In Season Two’s “Woman of the Year,” Ron randomly wins the Indiana Organization of Women’s Dorothy Everton Smythe Woman of the Year award. While he privately confesses that he knows he’s obviously not deserving of it, he decides to play up the win, purely to tease Leslie who “cares way too much about crap like this.”

The show continues to repeatedly lambaste the very concept of awards, revealing that the organization purposefully selected a man to boost attendance. At one point, Ron tells Leslie that “awards are political, and everybody has an agenda. You spend your life chasing them, you’ll drive yourself nuts.” Umm, are we still talking about the Indiana Organization of Women’s Dorothy Everton Smythe Woman of the Year award?

Ultimately, instead of publicly denouncing every award in history as he planned, Ron cedes the honor to Leslie, and is genuinely pleased that she’s happy. ”I still think awards are stupid, but they’d be less stupid if they went to the right people,” he concludes. 

It certainly seemed as though the show was trying to make a metaphorical dig at Hollywood’s awards obsession, especially because of its timing. Entertainment Weekly pointed out that the episode just so happened to air a few days before the 2010 Oscars, which surely couldn’t have been a coincidence. That would be like making a show all about how goofy football is and accidentally airing it three days before the Super Bowl.

One reviewer noted that the thinly-veiled allegory could have been because the Parks and Rec crew were “upset about being overlooked at the Golden Globes and the SAGs.” If the show‘s staff really was irritated by the awards neglect, that feeling likely didn’t improve over the years. By the time it ended, Parks and Recreation had been nominated for 14 Emmy awards, and won a grand total of zero. 

Oddly enough, despite the show’s rocky relationship with awards, several Parks and Rec cast members have gone on to participate in some of the biggest awards shows around. We all remember how Amy Poehler hosted the Golden Globes four times with Tina Fey.

Also, April Ludgate herself, Aubrey Plaza, hosted the Film Independent Spirit Awards in 2019 and 2020.

And just a few months after “Woman of the Year” aired, Aziz Ansari hosted the 2010 MTV Movie Awards.

Now Offerman will be this year’s Oscars announcer, hopefully paving the way for him to one day host the ceremony in character as Ron Swanson.