Parks and Recreation/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• Parks and Recreation: Why is Pawnee, Indiana the fourth most obese city in the U.S.? Because Sweetums, the corporation which owns half the town, is a candy manufacturer! -Hello999
  • This is expanded on Leslie's in-universe book, Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America, which portrays Sweetums' history in the town as something akin to a mining corporation in West Virginia. i.e., abusive.
• It might seem strange at first that everyone in Pawnee (including the media) smack-talk, sabotage, and outright attack Leslie and her efforts to make Pawnee's park system great. Then one realizes that Indiana is well-known as a red state, so it's likely that most of Pawnee's residents hold views similar to Ron's, and would prefer the government do as little as possible.
• Jerry. The bits and pieces of his backstory slowly but surely explain why he is a mess of a human being. So far, we found out that: the woman who adopted him is an unrepentant stoner, people having been calling him the wrong name for over 30 years, and he has a medically over-sized penis while being obese. Those alone would be enough to turn someone into both a Schlemiel and a Schlimazel.
  • But he's not a "mess of a human being." Jerry is the only one of the main cast who really has his act together. He's been married for decades, has three daughters who love him, and is just a really happy person in general. Nothing ever really fazes him.