Parks And Recreation: Ron Swanson's Best Episodes Of All Time

These four episodes are all about Ron and his ex-wives, Tammy 1 and Tammy 2. Though Tammy 2 is played by Nick Offerman's real-life wife, Megan Mullally, she is the worst person in the world for Ron to be around. She brings out all of his worst impulses, and the two fight and have sex with each other over and over again in the fog of lust. In "Ron and Tammy Part 2," she even gets him to marry her — and get cornrows. Needless to say, their relationship is messy.

Messier still is Ron's relationship with Tammy 1 (Patricia Clarkson), his much older first wife. In the second episode of the fourth season she treats him like a naughty child, and what follows can only be described as Ron being shaped into the anti-Ron.

Despite the embarrassing circumstances for Ron, people love Ron and Tammy. Folks on Reddit enjoy watching Ron come face-to-face with his ex-wives, particularly for the way that they knock Ron out of his manly comfort zone. Fortunately, by Season 7, he seems to have gotten over Tammy 2, going out of his way to help Jeremy Jamm (Jon Glaser) dump Tammy after the unfortunate councilman is caught in her snare.

Pawnee is the fourth most obese city in the country and, therefore, Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) decides to make cuts at city hall for the good of the employees. But Ron is not about to let him get his hands on the cafeteria's burgers, the only part of his job he actually likes. So in Season 3, Ron challenges Chris to a cook-off: Chris's turkey burgers against Ron's beef burgers. If Ron wins, the beef burgers stay on the menu, not to mention Chris eats crow.

But first, Ron accompanies Chris to Grain 'n Simple, a health food store 40 minutes away, to see the health freaks in their native habitat. Ron doesn't buy anything, but he does torture the guy with the vegan-free samples, throwing one after another into the trash, and then having April do the same.

In the end, Ron wins with his beef burgers because, despite all the effort Chris put into his burgers, Ron's simple concoction — a beef patty on a bun — still tastes better. It's a great victory for Ron's artery-clogging burgers that even Chris agrees with.

Leslie and Ben (Adam Scott) go on a road trip in this episode, and the rest of the office takes advantage of Leslie's absence to try out Tom's game, "Know Ya Boo." Ron is left as the only person who can talk to a child on a field trip, Lauren Berkus (Dani Fish), about the value of government. Or, in Ron's terms, the reason government is terrible. Ron's unique take includes eating 40 percent of Lauren's lunch to demonstrate the impact of taxes and telling her why FDR ruined the United States. Not exactly popular opinions — or ideas academically appropriate for a fourth grader, for that matter — but Lauren eats what Ron says up.

So much so that when she returns to school and has to write a paper on why government matters, her answer to the prompt is simple: "It doesn't". That leads the girl's mother to seek out Ron to give him a talking-to for corrupting her daughter. He doesn't have much of an excuse, so he tells Lauren not to judge things too harshly until she's 18. But he doesn't let her part without making her autograph the paper about government for him.

Ron has been through a lot with his ex-wives, the Tammys, but in Season 5, he meets a different kind of woman. Diane (Lucy Lawless) is understanding and sweet and appreciates Ron for who he is, even if she doesn't always understand his interests. So in "Ron and Diane," when Ron gets nominated for an award by the Indiana Fine Woodworking Association for a chair he made, Diane goes with him for support.

Of course, then Tammy 2 shows up and tries to ruin it for Ron, to the point where he can't even deliver his acceptance speech because of Tammy's presence. But it turns out Diane is more upset because of Leslie, who has a level of intimacy with Ron she doesn't understand.

To alleviate Diane's fears, Ron introduces Diane to Duke Silver, his jazz-infused alter-ego. Even Leslie doesn't know about Duke, and Ron uses his smooth saxophone to clear away any concerns Diane has. This puts the hate back on Tammy where it belongs, and just in time, too, because Tammy has been arrested for stealing Ron's car and putting Leslie in the trunk.

Since the second season episode "The Stakeout," we've known that Ron would almost rather die than go to the doctor. In that episode, Ron stayed still all day to avoid going to the hospital to get a hernia checked out. So in "Animal Control," it's no surprise that he chooses not to go to the doctor again, this time for a cold. Ron has been in a coat and hat in his office all day, drinking whiskey which, in the name of health, he puts an ice cube in.

But when he passes out while delivering a speech to Ann about being able to handle his cold, Ann does the right thing and takes him to the hospital. Ron redacts most of his information on the intake form and the questions he does answer are remarkably vague. For example, for date of birth, Ron puts springtime. In the end, though, he goes through with the appointment and even gets to laugh when the doctor feels his torso. Ultimately, the doctor decides he likes Ron for his take-the-prescription-and-run attitude. 

Ron may have Diane and her children to think about now, but he still has his standards. So when Ann tells him he needs to eat a banana once in a while to boost his potassium, he does his best to psych himself up, then he puts the banana in a hamburger for easy digestion.

Despite his manly ways, Ron has mellowed over the years, and Donna (Retta) tells him so in "One in 8,000" — but first, he has to ask Donna for a favor. It's a terrible thing for Ron, and a point of pride for Donna, until she realizes that he's asking her to volunteer with him to make costumes at his step-daughters' public elementary school. You see, Joe (Keegan-Michael Key), her ex, works there and he's a nightmare. As she describes it, he's her Tammy. So Ron offers to keep Joe away from her.

The trouble is when they get to the school, Joe turns out to be not so bad. Joe is nice, accommodating, good at keeping Ron's daughters' in line, and best of all, he's made a jig to make Ron's work easier. So what's Donna's problem? Donna can't stand Joe being respectful and trying to connect with her, to which Ron has some very good advice: "Don't confuse drama with happiness."

Ron has changed for the better. He can help Donna while wearing a sparkly crown from his step-daughters and not bat an eyelash. Ron's priorities have shifted and it's good to see him helping his friends, even if it's in small doses.

Ron loves puzzles, and he's almost preternaturally good at solving them. He shows this in the cold open for the ninth episode of Season 7, when he solves Craig's (Billy Eichner) puzzle in record time, despite the Indiana Puzzlers Guild giving it 5 out of 5 Sherlock Pipes. But April comes to him with a much harder puzzle: Finding the key he gave her to his house. The problem is he gave her the key eight years ago and she can't remember where she put it. Fortunately, she left a series of minimally helpful clues and Ron, instead of being upset, is excited to get started.

When it looks like all is lost, Ron invites April back to his office and tells her the truth: He has his house locks changed every two weeks, so that key has been useless for years. But giving the key to her showed that he trusted her and admired her as a person. April ends up remembering where she put the key in the end. She digs it up from under a tree that reminds her of Ron, and Ron, in a moment of weakness, confesses that he buried a large quantity of gold there many years ago, proving his connection with April. He then avoids the sentimentality of the conversation with a long list of possibilities for the gold. But the fact that he loves and respects April — and all the people he got to know at the Parks department — remains.