Parts of Rec: "Correspondent's Lunch"

Nick Offerman

Welcome to Parts of Rec, a new column that will attempt to take the weekly brilliance of NBC show Parks and Recreation and cut it into the bare essentials. After all, time is precious and sometimes you cannot read pages and pages of reviews. While it will be impossible to bottle all of the highlights, I will do my best to cover the plot, as well as memorable moments and just what makes it great in general. Make sure to look for Parts of Rec every Friday following the episode.

Season 5, Episode 15
"Correspondent's Lunch"

Amy Poehler

"Aah! Just opened a can of Whoop Ass on myself."

-Leslie (Amy Poehler)

After returning from their honeymoon, Ben (Adam Scott) and Leslie (Amy Poehler) are ready to get down to business. Ben is now working to find a charity for candy company Sweetums, which he requires the assistance of April (Aubrey Plaza), Andy (Chris Pratt), and Tom (Aziz Ansari). Meanwhile, Leslie is planning on attending the Correspondent's Lunch, which is a roast for council members. Meanwhile, Ann (Rashida Jones) wants to ask Chris (Rob Lowe) to artificially inseminate her, but is too afraid to ask, so she seeks advice form Ron (Nick Offerman). Andy finds a charity that he wants to do, but when Ben shoots him down, he becomes overly depressed. Leslie realizes that someone stole her jokes and demands that they solve how this could have happened. April talks to Ben and he sees Andy's way, thus landing them on an exciting charity case that may cost more, but is better for the community. Leslie finds out that her jokes were being hacked by the Pawnee Sun, which causes her to blurt out at a later event her frustration. Ann asks Chris to inseminate her, thus making things awkward. Ben lands the deal and asks Andy to be his idea man.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Rob Lowe

MVP: Ann (Rashida Jones)

It is a tough call in an episode that pales in comparison to the one it was paired with. It isn't a bad episode, but it lacks the gravitas and feels more like a season premiere. Still, Ann's quest to get a baby isn't calmed down for a second, and her quest to ask Chris is probably the episode's greatest source of comedy, notably in her foul analogy of planting stuff in her front yard. Also, when Shauna shows up for a brief cameo, it leads to great awkward humor. I also enjoy how the characters are just bumping in and out of Ron's office throughout the whole episode. Let's hope this works out.

Best scene: Tough call, but it probably goes to Leslie's desire to figure out who stole her jokes. This results in a paranoid conversation with her staff that is a great revelation of where Jerry (Jim O'Heir) is hiding his copy of her speech as well as a bunch of brilliant reasoning behind why the Pawnee Sun would steal it in the first place. This is only made more over the top by the fact that Leslie, without any sense of irony, pulls out a can of Whoop Ass, which she made specifically for said occasion.