Friday, October 25, 2013

Grunge References on Parks and Recreation

So when the show Parks and Recreation first started, I noticed a few grunge references. Then as time went on, they seemed to have more and more. I'll mention as many of the ones I remember and caught. I have a feeling that this may be due to Chris Pratt's (who plays Andy) influence, as he is at the beginning of that I love the 90s clip in the 1991 episode when they get to grunge, saying, "The biggest I think, most poignant topic of the 90s to be touched upon is is the explosion of grunge music out of Seattle" and I think he really plays the guitar, so I'm guessing he really likes the stuff and was influenced by it, and his character has a lot of the references, though it could also be due to Adam Scott, since his character Ben also has a lot of good references.

*Every time Andy's band plays at that one venue they always play at, the marquee has a band called Flannel Grunge, I think the first time being in the season 1 episode "Rock Show".

*One of the names that Andy's band used to be called is Malice in Chains, as mentioned in the season 1 episode "Rock Show".

*In the season 2 episode "Leslie's House" Tom says, "Pawnee is the opposite of hip. People in this town are just now getting into Nirvana. I don't have the heart to tell them what's gonna happen to Kurt Cobain in 1994."

*There is a Letters to Cleo shirt and a mention of it in the season 4 episode "The Comeback Kid", and apparently that led to the band trending on twitter, and the shirt has shown up since then as well. They also had the band play at the Unity Concert for the season 6 episode "Moving Up"

*They mentioned the Singles Soundtrack in the season 5 episode "How a Bill Becomes a Law" when April and Ben are stuck in a car together and she is going through his CDs.

*In the 5th season episode "Halloween Surprise" there is a garage sale and Andy is wearing a Pearl Jam shirt with a flannel over it, and holding a hat, saying it was the hat he was wearing the first time he heard Vitalogy by Pearl Jam, and he has other grungy clothing there, and come to think of it he always seems to be wearing flannel throughout the series, and Ann mentions that she adopts the personality of the person she is dating, and Andy was her grunge phase.

*In the season 6 episode "Filibuster", Leslie throws Ben his dream Birthday Party: A roller skating bash with an early 90s theme. She says, "Ben lives for the early 90s. The music, the fashion, it's his favorite era." which sounds a lot like us! So of course there are lots of cool references. The ones I picked up on are I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers playing, Ann dressed as Blossom, April saying that Leslie said it was a "Come As You Are of The 90s" party, Tom dressed as Kriss Kross, Hey Jealousy by Gin Blossoms playing, Leslie wearing overalls and a sideways neonish dark pink hat and a white and neonish pink shirt and buttons, Ben wearing a flannel shirt and a Toad the Wet Sprocket T-shirt and a sweater jacket and jeans, Ben mentioning R. E. M. and their albums Monster and Automatic for the People, Larry/Jerry/Garry wearing an Arsenio Hall shirt, Losing My Religion by R. E. M. playing, Chris wearing a denim jacket an a white t-shirt under it and jeans that look a bit acid-washed, a mention of a Reservoir Dog themed birthday cake, and Unbelievable by EMF playing.

*In the season 6 episode "Farmers Market", Dave Grohl was mentioned. When Andy is playing with his band to get ready for a show at a kid's party, one of the members said, "You said we were playing at a festival" to which another replied, "You said Dave Grohl might be there" to which Andy replied, "Dave Grohl might be there, I don't know, he might be anywhere. The guy's awesome, and he's unpredictable."

*In the season 6 episode "Prom", Tom is having trouble connecting with the kids with the music he plays as the DJ, and Ben offers to step in, and plays Pop Song 89 by R.E.M., and a kid says, "Hey I love this song" and Tom says, "You actually like this?" and the kid replies, "Yeah dude it's classic rock" and then Ben says, "Well there's more where that came from..." and the kid replies "I only listen to CDs. It's the way music like this was meant to be heard." and Tom says "But it's not even autotuned." I think more songs were played after this as well (I think Husker Du was one) Haha, looks like they're trying to portray how the youth of today has a growing resentment of modern music. (though I hate it when they call the stuff I listen to from the late 80s on up "classic rock" haha) There is also a deleted scene where Ben is playing something grungy and then says, "...Hope you brought some laundry detergent, because things are about to get grungy in here. Uhh, grunge music."


If you know of any more, please comment.

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