As much as us Parks and Recreation fans adore Leslie Knope and her dedication to Pawnee and friendship, everyone has their flaws. We’ve seen her do some incredible work for the state of Indiana (and in turn, the United States) but she’s also done some pretty crummy things throughout seven seasons of the award-winning show.
This article may come hard for those fangirling over Leslie but no one’s perfect. She’s organized but controlling. She’s protective but dominating. She’s loving but (at times) spiteful. In fact, her biggest flaw may be the fact that she cares too much. It’s clear that she steamrolls her BFF Ann and (now husband) Ben since they both told her so in “Smallest Park.” And as much as she wants the best for April (who she’s worked with since April was an intern), she shuts down her ideas and doesn’t really take her seriously when she is, in fact, serious. We love Leslie Knope, but here are 10 times she was the worst.
STEAMROLLING ANN AND BEN
In regards to her best friend Ann, these two hit it off right away because they both inspire and encourage one another. They both taught each other things they wouldn’t know otherwise. Regardless of how much Leslie adores her “tropical fish” Ann, she treats her like she’s dumb sometimes.
Remember when Leslie offered her a job at city hall and she literally got mad at her for not reading the mounds of paperwork she gave her for preparation? And what about Ben? We know Leslie was loving Ben from afar but she totally disregarded his wants and needs as long as they benefited her. Thankfully, both parties had a convo with Leslie about this but her personality didn’t change that much.
FALSIFYING AN INDIAN GROUND
We’ve seen Leslie’s love and devotion for Lot 48 since the first episode of Parks and Recreation but her dedication to the old lot got the best of her when she was willing to falsify the validity of the grounds just so Paunch Burger didn’t take her place.
In “Two Parties,” the girls are celebrating Leslie’s bachelorette party but when Leslie learns Paunch Burger is getting construction started early, she decides to grab ancient Native American artifacts to scatter around the lot to halt construction. This, of course, is illegal and completely unjustifiable to the Native Americans in Pawnee. Thankfully, Leslie knew she was wrong and came clean the next day.
BRIBING GORGE WILLIAMS FOR HIS DISCRETION
We finally see all of Leslie’s hard work and dedication come to life at the Harvest Festival. It was one of the most memorable and distinguishable moments in her career as the Deputy for the Parks and Rec. Department.
Seeing all her hard work come to life made Leslie rather emotional and now that she was in the secret arms of the man she loves, Leslie and Ben shared a quick kiss. Unfortunately for them, Geroge Williams saw the kiss—which could get her and Ben fired—so she bribed him. Bribing a city employee is a huge no-no. As a person who always follows the rules, it was shocking that she took it to that level.
DEGRADING A STRIPPER (BUT CLAIMS TO BE A FEMINIST)
One of the most inspiring things about Leslie is how much of a feminist she is. She wants to see more women working in government and fights for inequality and injustices. While Leslie is rather conservative, it was striking that she was so against going to the strip club to celebrate Tom’s divorce.
She said her stripper name would be Equality and yet when she entered the strip club she did nothing but degrade the stripper she spoke to. The dancer told Leslie her name but she continued to ignore her and call her Sea Biscuit. As a gal’s gal, that was pretty low of Leslie to make the dancer feel so small.
SHE STAYS UP ALL NIGHT GOING AFTER A CHILD
Granted, Greg Pikitis is a snot of a child but it’s pretty shocking when a grown woman goes a seventh-grader. In the episode aptly titled after the child Leslie is chasing, “Greg Pikitis” shows Leslie on a mission to find the person who’s been vandalizing her park and city hall.
She literally gets her (then) boyfriend involved (who’s a police officer) and tells him to strike fear into him whether that’s physically or verbally. We know how much Leslie loves Pawnee, but there has to be another way to find out who’s vandalizing the city then attacking and stalking a child.
CHOOSING A PARK OVER APRIL’S PROGRESSION
We all love (and are quite scared of) April Ludgate because as dry and sarcastic as she is, it’s clear she cares for the people she works with (eh, minus Jerry). She started as an intern but slowly climbed up the ladder. And as scary as she was at times, her fear of growing old and not knowing what to do with her life was quite relatable.
So when she came to Leslie with an idea for a communal dog park on Lot 48, Leslie shut it down immediately. It’s not every day April takes things seriously, so for Leslie to shut her down for her own pure obsession over the lot was pretty selfish.
UPSETTING THE MODEL UN STUDENTS
Leslie and Ben decided to attend a local high school’s Model UN group and as luck would have it, Leslie sucked all the fun out of it for those political inspiring kids. She took her frustrations out on her private relationship with Ben on the children around her.
She created a war with Peru and totally stirred the pot, confusing the students who joined the Model UN for fun. She eventually made it up to them for ruining their club but it’s still eye-opening the lengths Leslie takes regarding children.
STEALS THE SHINE FROM JERRY’S PAINTING
We come to find that Jerry is quite the artist in “Jerry’s Painting.” Showing off a piece of art in a local art show, we see that Jerry created a centaur with Leslie’s face as the head. While the parks and rec. department thought it was weird, Leslie loved how she was depicted. But in classic Parks and Rec. form, credit to Jerry wasn’t really given. Leslie did everything she could to hang the painting in city hall and even took charge when the city thought the painting was inappropriate.
When Jerry tried to get involved, Leslie literally shushed him and told him it wasn’t his fight… but isn’t he the artist? Shouldn’t he have a say in what happens to HIS painting?
WANTING BEN TO NOT TAKE THE GIG IN DC
It’s obvious that Ben would do anything for Leslie. He quit her job for her and dropped what he was doing to become the manager of her campaign. He’s dedicated and loyal to Leslie. We know that Leslie feels the same feelings for Ben but when he was offered a new short-term job in DC on the night of Leslie’s election, she said they would talk about it at a different time.
Rightfully so, when the conversation circled back around to DC, Ben said he would turn it down for her and what did she say? “Oh thank God.” We know she just wanted as much time as possible with her boyfriend but knowing how much he gave up for her, being relieved he was giving up yet another thing for her seemed, again, selfish.
HER IGNORING RON’S CRY FOR HELP
In the episode “Leslie and Ron,” we finally find out why former best friends Leslie and Ron had a falling out. And in a tear-joking moment, we learn that Ron felt left behind when Leslie left the parks and rec. department for her new title and took most of the people they worked with with her.
Ron came to her for a job but she ended up ghosting him for their waffle-eating meeting. Seeing Ron fade away in the background as everything he knows changes around him to honor Leslie’s shining star was hard to watch.
