My girlfriend and I just started rewatching Parks and Recreation (because it is one of the greatest television series ever created) and I noticed that Season 2, Episode 3: Beauty Pageant makes for quite a foreshadowing of the 2016 election.
Let me set the scene:
Eternally optimistic Leslie Knope decides to preside over the Miss Pawnee Beauty Pageant, because “whoever Miss Pawnee is, is going to be a representative of womanhood in our town … chosen for her talent and poise.” Leslie believes beauty pageants exist “so that awesome girls … can be rewarded for their intelligence and savvy.” Something we might argue is also the case for women who are trying to win the election for President of the United States, perhaps. After all, who wouldn’t want to elect the “most well rounded, intelligent, modern and forward thinking woman to represent our fine town”?
As we know, Leslie is a paragon of civic virtue and feminism. She thinks people are sane and make rational decisions, of the kind that are in your best interest. But as we soon discover, civic virtue and feminism are not characteristics desired in contestants for Miss Pawnee.
No one wants a Susan Gleever. All she did was study history and learn piano and volunteer for sick children. Piano is BORING! Susan is SAD!
Contestant Trish Ianetta, on the other hand…
Hmm, sounds familiar.
Really familiar.
DAMN IT PAWNEE, DON’T YOU SEE WHAT YOU’VE DONE!?
You’ve sent TRISH to White House!
There are times when I wonder, if the Hugh Everett many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is true, whether there is a parallel universe out there somewhere—branching off from the 2000 presidential election—where Al Gore rode the mighty Moon Worm, and there was no Iraq War, and the Clinton dynasty was shattered like Saruman’s staff with the nomination of Bernie the White.
I don’t wonder anymore. Nowadays, I just drink.
And while I may not be optimistic, at least Leslie always is:
Good night and good luck, folks.
