Politics

Please Enjoy The Cast Of ‘Parks And Recreation’ Telling The NRA To Fuck Off And Eat Shit

They're not mincing their words.

by Tom Clift  23 February 2018
Parks and Recreation NRA

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The creators and cast of Parks and Recreation have a message for the National Rifle Association (NRA). And that message, put simply, is “fuck off”.

Once again, America finds itself in the middle of a furious debate over gun control following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida that left 17 people dead. Teenage survivors have marched, gone on television, flooded social media and confronted their elected officials, demanding that the adults take responsibility for protecting their constituents from harm.

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Naturally, the NRA and the rest of the pro-gun lobby has pulled out all the stops in their efforts to counter the #NeverAgain movement, wheeling out lobbyists and sympathetic (read: bought) politicians to argue against even the most basic gun control measures. One such spokesperson was Dana Loesch, who recently fronted an emotional town hall meeting alongside pro-gun senator Marco Rubio.

So what does any of this have to do with the folks of Pawnee, Indiana? Well, after the meeting, the NRA tweeted at Loesch thanking her “for being the voice” of its members. The message was accompanied by a GIF of Amy Poehler’s Parks and Recreation character, Leslie Knope.

But the show’s co-creator, Mike Schur, was less than pleased to see his lovely (and unapologetically progressive) program being co-opted by gun nuts.

“Please take this down,” Schur tweeted. “I would prefer you not use a GIF from a show I worked on to promote your pro-slaughter agenda.”

Poehler, for her part, isn’t on Twitter, but asked Schur to pass on a message.

The rest of the cast were quick to get behind their former colleagues. Adam Scott, who played Ben Wyatt, tweeted that the NRA needed to “stay the fuck away from Leslie Knope”, while Nick Offerman, who played Ron Swanson, asked them to “take it down and also please eat shit”. This inspired Aubrey Plaza, aka April Ludgate, to send out a GIF of her own.

C’mon Chris Pratt. Don’t let us down.