Just because Pawnee, Indiana, isn’t a real place doesn’t mean you can’t live there. Over seven incredibly consistent seasons of Parks and Recreation, creators Greg Daniels and Michael Schur—along with an A-list creative team and one of the best ensemble casts in sitcom history—founded a living, breathing community of oddballs and eccentrics, a town where the breakfast food is to die for if you can make it past the raccoon packs. What started as an offshoot of The Office with a Midwestern twist quickly turned into a live-action cartoon, a carousel of recurring characters that each could have gotten a spinoff if they pitched it loud enough at a public forum.

And at the center was the Parks Department, a group of workplace associates turned friends turned family. Led by living ball of scrapbooked positivity Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), this crew transformed from workplace comedy clichés into something at once relatable and unbelievable. The deadpan loner (Aubrey Plaza) and the hapless oaf (Chris Pratt) fell in love at the shoe-shine stand. The mustachioed curmudgeon in the corner office (Nick Offerman) learned to care about more than meat. Donna Meagle (Retta) came to live for more than a Mercedes, and Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari)—real-life unpleasantness notwithstanding—journeyed from man-child to child-sized man.

What's more, a few of the key players in Pawnee have gone on to become stars outside of Parks & Rec. Pratt is the clear front-runner here, having appeared in five MCU films (and counting!) as Peter "Star-Lord" Quill of the Guardians of the Galaxy. On top of that, he's assembled a lucrative—if not always well-regarded—filmography of actioners, including The Forever War, The Terminal List, and Zero Dark Thirty. Plaza has successfully established herself as an indie-film star through titles such as Black Bear, Ingrid Goes West, An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn, and Emily the Criminal. Small-screen turns on Legion and Criminal Minds have been hailed as well. Before (temporarily) walking away from projects, Ansari gave us two seasons of the thoughtful Master of None and Ben Wyatt actor Adam Scott has branched out with performances in prestige television projects such as Big Little Lies and Severance. Offerman has straddled indie work and establishing his brand as a carpentry-and-whiskey-loving personality. Supporting players like Jenny Slate, Ben Schwartz, and many others have also seen their profiles rise. It's a strong legacy the show leaves behind—along with hours and hours of pitch-perfect comedy.

So, in the words of Perd Hapley: This, the “Top 50 Parks and Recreation Episodes, Ranked,” is a ranking of the top 50 episodes of Parks and Recreation. Enjoy.

50) Season 7, Episode 10: "Johnny Karate’s Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show"

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“You're what keeps me going. You're my VerizonChipotleExon.”

An entire episode filmed in the style of Andy Dwyer’s wildly successful children’s show—complete with fake commercials for Paunch Burger (“Put it in your body or you’re a nerd”) and a John Cena appearance—might have felt too gimmicky on a show less shamelessly sincere as Parks and Rec. But dammit, two episodes away from “One Last Ride” we needed the non-stop sweetness that is “Johnny Karate’s Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show.” And in an appropriately warm way, the conclusion to this late Season 7 entry—a Johnny Karate sing-along accompanied by the Parks department crew, Ron in full Duke Silver regalia—felt like a more appropriate closing to this show than the actual season finale.

49) Season 4, Episode 19: "Article Two"

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After a beat, the gloved Mandalorian armor gauntlet of Boba Fett grabs on to the sand outside the Sarlacc pit…”

“Article Two” will forever be best known for footage not even in the episode: the unedited cut of Patton Oswalt’s improvised eight-minute filibuster that masterfully melds the Star Wars saga with the Marvel universe (and Wrath of the Titans, and the X-Men, and Fantastic Four…). A shame, really, because the episode itself is not only classic Parks and Rec small-town silliness—someone named Ted gets tossed into the lake every year, thanks to some old-timey handwriting in Pawnee’s charter—but ends in some surprisingly moving redemption for Oswalt’s depressed and email-less Garth Blundin. For Leslie Knope, even the most obnoxious Star Wars monologists among us deserve some measure of happiness.

48) Season 3, Episode 11: "Jerry’s Painting"

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“Every great work of art contains a message. And the message of this painting is get out of my way unless you want an arrow in your ass, Marsha.”

By Season 3, audiences knew Leslie Knope was a badass, confident, dare I say sexy mythical creature, but it took an painting by the ever-awkward Jerry Gergich for the character herself to fully come around to the idea. (Sadly, Tom Haverford never quite accepts that he is a fragile-winged cherub of a person.) “Jerry’s Painting” is filled with this type of subtle but sweet character growth. Thanks to new roommate Ben Wyatt, Andy and April are forced to become, if not adults—Andy’s going to buy that marshmallow gun—then a married couple who eats chili out of a bowl and not a Frisbee.

47) Season 6, Episode 13: "Ann and Chris"

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"There has never been a sadness that can't be cured by breakfast food."

It speaks a lot to Parks and Rec’s kind-hearted nature that even its “farewell” episodes felt more like “see ya’ later” episodes. Sure, “Ann and Chris” is less about story than it is a series of pitch-perfect vignettes giving every character a chance to say their own unique goodbye to Ann Perkins and Chris Traeger (and, by extension, Rashida Jones and Rob Lowe). But the episode ends on probably the most gorgeous single shot in the series’ seven season run. As Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers” plays, director Dean Holland raises the camera to take in a bustling Pawnee—the most we ever see of the place all at once—a reminder that life in this absurd midwest town goes on.

46) Season 4, Episode 7: "The Treaty"

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“I definitely have more lions than any other country in the whole world right now.”

Leslie and Ben were never going to be able to exist as just friends, so agreeing to take part in Pawnee Central High School's Model UN club—one of the most sensual activities you can do, if you’re Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt—was always destined for disaster. But amid a food crisis that devolves into violent revolution and war with the actual moon, the best moment of “The Treaty” is a quick, quiet moment between April and Leslie sitting against school lockers. Amy Poehler and Aubrey Plaza are able to project more friendship and support into a smile than most shows do over entire seasons. “Summer is gonna’ totally kick ass.”

45) Season 3, Episode 8: "Camping"

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“Fishing relaxes me. It’s like yoga, except I still get to kill something.”

The comedown from Season 3’s masterful “Harvest Festival” sends the Parks Department into the woods for a brainstorming session. “Camping” is one of those trademark Parks and Rec ensemble pieces where not much happens, and it doesn’t matter, because get these people in the same place and it’s a delight to watch them exist. Andy gets lost, April is miserable, Tom is decked out in glamping gear, and Ron just wants to shotgun some fish. It helps that the episode ends on the funniest deadpan delivery to ever leave Adam Scott’s mouth, after we watch the elderly proprietor of The Quiet Corn Bed & Breakfast play a rendition of “Ode to Joy” on the harpsichord: “Yeah she died like 20 minutes after that.”

44) Season 5, Episode 14: "Leslie and Ben"

Parks and Recreation - Amy Poehler as Leslie and Adam Scott as Ben
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“I love you and I like you.”

“Leslie and Ben” is just a damn adorable half hour of television and I will not apologize for its warming of my heart. Something Parks and Rec was so good at doing was tailoring its weddings to the characters involved in the ceremony; Ron and Diane’s hurried and unfussy affair, April and Andy’s nuptials unplanned and thoroughly unthought-through. “Leslie and Ben,” co-written by Alan Yang and creator Mike Schur, just understands its characters so well. Of course Leslie would write 70 pages of wedding vows and wear a dress scrapbooked together from bills and memos. Of course Andy is not actually going to become a cop, and April is going to be proud of him all the same. Of course Jerry is going to pee his pants. Sure, the frantic pace of “Leslie and Ben” makes it appear like a dramatic episode, but not much actually happens here outside of a series of wonderful character moments and the wedding itself. And that’s okay. Like Leslie’s dress, Schur and Yang managed to construct something beautiful using nothing but happy memories. It still fit perfectly.

43) Season 4, Episode 1: "I’m Leslie Knope"

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"I have the toes I have. Let's just leave it at that."

From beneath a swarm of Pawnee politician penises comes “I’m Leslie Knope,” Season 4r’s sentimental season premiere. The arrival of Tammy 1 has sent Ron into immaculately bearded exile, with Leslie—torn between the dream of running for office and her on-the-down-low relationship with Ben—close behind him. After four seasons of frustrations, there’s a lot of catharsis that comes from these two characters finally deciding to just run the hell away from their problems. (Who among us hasn’t dreamt of taking our emergency meat backpack into the woods?) But this is Parks and Rec. This is Ron Swanson and Leslie fucking Knop. Dealing with tough choices and hellspawn ex-wives are as commonplace for these two as waffles and whiskey. We know that. But it’s a beautiful bit of character growth that neither of them can realize it without the other.

42) Season 4, Episode 9: "The Trial of Leslie Knope"

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“Your actions have wounded me to my core. Which is not easy, since the bulk of my workouts are focused on core strengthening.”

“The Trial of Leslie Knope” is a perfect act of character switcheroo pulled off masterfully by the Parks writers. Ben Wyatt arrived to this show a career-focused stickler for rules and regulations, the perfect contrast to the ball of positivity that was his partner, Chris Traeger, who could not bring himself to deliver a single piece of bad news. Here, Chris has come to respect—and, thanks to Ann, feel a part of—the workings of Pawnee, Indiana, that he leads the charge in discipling Ben and Leslie for their secret relationship, though it kills him to do so. Lucky, then, that Ben found someone worth giving up an entire career for. In the end, we are all Ethel Beavers, dragged out into the cold to begrudgingly acknowledge the annoying endearing corniness that is this episode’s ending.

41) Season 1, Episode 6: "Rock Show"

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“When we started we were Teddy Bear Suicide. But then we changed it to Mouse Rat. Then we were God Hates Figs…”

In hindsight, “Rock Show” is the first time Parks and Rec felt like Parks and Rec. Sure, Andy is still way more unsympathetic dick than lovable oaf, Tom is still married, and Mark Brendanawicz is still…around. But the climactic moment in which Leslie turns down a kiss from Mark (a Brendana-kiss, nailed it) is the exact moment she stopped being a goofy Midwestern Michael Scott and became the hyper-capable heart and soul of this show. Also, Mark falls in the pit and that’s just really goddamn funny. Also, in a show filled with shockingly great original songs, “The Pit” may just be the catchiest.

40) Season 4, Episode 3: "Born and Raised"

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“Is she gonna powder her vagina?”

In which Leslie Knope, perhaps the only human alive who is proud to be from Pawnee, discovers she was born in Eagleton. "Born and Raised" is a real Avengers Assemble episode, with the entire team focused on finding the factual error in Leslie’s book, Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America. This Mission: Impawnsible style of storytelling gives each character a chance to shine. Andy launching himself over an Eagleton desk is a all-time bit of physicality from Chris Pratt, and April and Ron helping the investigation as unenthusiastically as humanly possible is on point. But the best decision writer Aisha Muharrar made was turning this into a showcase of sorts for the brilliant Mo Collins’ Joan Callamezzo. Pawnee’s resident "gotcha" journalist was always one of the best Simpsons-esque side character this show had to offer. But her drunken rendition of “Let’s Hear It For The Boy”—a well-worn seduction technique, ask Tom, Ben, or my exes—is peak Callamezzo.

39) Season 5, Episode 10: "Two Parties"

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“This is a sort of play on Scotch. It’s a whiskey-infused lotion.”

One of the hardest things to explain about Parks and Rec is how often episodes are filled with good people having a good time enjoying each other’s company and how that is actually why it’s great. Case in point: “Two Parties,” a bachelor/bachelorette romp of an episode featuring some wonderfully awkward acting from Andrew Luck and a stripper dressed as Abraham Lincoln. Sure, there’s some drama over a possible future Paunch Burger that dampers Leslie’s big night a bit, but even that is easily resolved, mostly because Chief Ken Hotate is a good guy who recognizes Jeremy Jamm is a dick. Again, it’s hard to explain why this works. All I can really say is, if the sight of Nick Offerman running across Lucas Oil Stadium in an ill-fitting Colts jersey doesn’t fill you with some type of joy, I’m not sure how you even made it this far down the list.

38) Season 2, Episode 23: "The Master Plan"

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“What's a not-gay way to ask him to go camping with me?”

A pair of state auditors—one a walking ball of positivity and vitamins, the other a former child mayor who bankrupted his town via ill-advised ice rink—arrive in Pawnee, and Parks and Rec is never the same. There’s no shortage of classics before “The Master Plan,” but there’s also no denying that Parks and Rec simply became a better show with the addition of Rob Lowe and Adam Scott. This, the turning point, is a fantastic episode filled with standout performances. Ron’s face at the news of the government shut down is the giddiest a man with that thick a mustache has ever looked. Andy writes a heartrending ballad titled “November,” which is about April. And a drunken Ann—driven to drink by Andy’s transformation into a functioning human being—is the first time this show gave Rashida Jones the chance to be the funniest person in the room.

37) Season 4, Episode 5: "Meet ‘n’ Greet"

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“Despite the fact that this seems like a party for Tom's face I think it's going pretty well.”

“Meet ‘n’ Greet” is a bit of a divisive episode because woo boy Tom, in the words of Leslie—who is loathe to overuse the phrase “butt head”—acts like “a real dick.” (He is eventually half-drowned in a hot-tub limousine for his troubles, for what it’s worth.) But the look into April and Andy’s home life—and the way it drives third roommate Ben Wyatt insane—is just an endlessly quotable parade of quintessential Parks moments. A tool box comprised of a Sonic the Hedgehog cartridge and a flashlight filled with jelly beans. The blood orphan-filled Halloween agenda. Shockwire! (“I call it that because if you take a shower, and you touch the wire...you die!”) To this day, I’m not sure I’ve come across a better costume idea than “a sumo wrestler after he lost the weight.”

36) Season 2, Episode 18: "The Possum"

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“By day. Andy Dwyer, shoe-shinist. By different time of day, Andy Radical, possum tackler. And by night? Do whatever I want, no job.”

One of the earliest bonding moments of Parks and Rec is Leslie and April fleeing from a possum, escaped from its cage, and allegedly leaving coffee rings all over Ann’s table. But that’s what makes “The Possum” such a great episode; it’s an early example of the ways this show takes the most absurd of small-town situations and uses it to illustrate who these people are. Andy will dive in to and on to danger with very little forethought, a flaw that slowly becomes incredibly endearing. April is a human being after all, perfectly capable of being terrified of an escaped rodent on the loose. And Leslie Knope is equal parts over-thinker and over-achiever—the type of person who can’t sleep until the possum in the cage.

35) Season 5, Episode 5: "Halloween Surprise"

Rashida Jones and Amy Poehler in Parks and Recreation

“If the kids ever wanted to come to my place, I’d have to take a whole week off work to undo all the alarms and trip wires.”

If anyone ever asks you to explain just how versatile a show Parks and Rec is, how deftly the writing and performances ping-ponged between silly fun and earnest warmth, how capable it was of making you cry from laughter as easily as weep from the type of familiarity that comes with greeting an old friend, you show them “Halloween Surprise,” an episode that features both Ben’s sweet, pitch-perfect proposal to Leslie and Jerry Gergich suffering a fart attack. This show had layers, man. Gorgeous, gaseous layers.

34) Season 3, Episode 12: "Eagleton"

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“The only thing I'm guilty of is loving Pawnee. And punching Lindsay in the face and shoving a coffee filter down her pants.”

This episode is a nice reminder that despite the fact Leslie Knope is so often at odds with the 128-oz sized absurdity of the people around her, Pawnee really is where she belongs. Because over the fence is Eagleton, where the country club might be catered and the raccoon attack rate might be low but no one is truly kind. Leslie, when she’s not being drawn into garbage brawls with former friend Lindsay Carlisle Shay (Parker Posey), is just a kind person, willing to fight for the graffiti-covered side of the fence. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in her episode-ending surprise “party” for Ron’s birthday: a night alone with a Mulligan’s steak, a glass of Lagavulin, and The Bridge on the River Kwai.

33) Season 4, Episode 16: "Sweet Sixteen"

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“Never half ass two things. Whole ass one thing.”

The friendship between Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson is one of the most fascinating aspects of Parks and Rec, a genuinely warm relationship between a curmudgeon and a workaholic from opposite ends of the ideological spectrum built on mutual respect, admiration, and a shared love of breakfast food. “Sweet Sixteen” might be an episode centered on the technically still-teenaged Jerry Gergich, but at its heart it’s about the way Ron occasionally knows Leslie better than she knows herself, even if neither would admit it. He’s the only one who recognizes Leslie cannot juggle a Parks Department job and a run for City Council; she’s too distracted to invite Jerry to his own birthday party, after all. If I ever get around to writing the “Ron Swanson’s Top 50 Motivational Moments, Ranked” somewhere other than my Tumblr, his lakeside parable of an eleven-year-old Ron balancing work at the tannery and the sheet metal factory would land at #1.

32) Season 3, Episode 15: "The Bubble"

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“Jerry can only perform when no one is looking. Shine a spotlight on him and he shrinks faster than an Eskimo's scrotum.”

Chris Traeger may have superhuman cardio and the body fat of a 13-year-old Olympian, but he will never understand the people who populate the Parks Department better than Ron Swanson, who hates the Parks Department. “The Bubble” works so well because it masterfully places everyone outside of their comfort zone. April suddenly has to do work for people, a truly impossible task. Donna is typing on an astronaut's keyboard, Tom and Andy are stuffed up on the third floor with Ethel Beavers, and Jerry is being asked to lead a meeting without even once ripping his pants. But it’s Ron himself who shoulders the heaviest burden; to return arrangements back to the status quo, he agrees to sit in the Traeger-mandated circular bubble, where he is vulnerable to meetings with just anyone who happens to walk in. I’m not one to run a joke into the ground, but I do believe I could have watched Nick Offerman slowly swivel away from prospective meetings for, let’s say, another 25 minutes.

31) Season 7, Episode 7: "Donna and Joe"

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“Now no one gets any popcorn.”

I’ll be the first to say I’m not a huge fan of “One Last Ride” as a series finale (see: Entry #50), especially because episodes like the hilarious, Meagle-centric “Donna and Joe” actually serve as a better farewell to much-loved characters not named Leslie Knope. Donna gets the stability and the glamour she so rightfully deserves (plus just the right amount of drama, courtesy of Questlove and a decades-old microwave feud). In Lucy, Tom realizes he might have found an ambition actually worth paying attention to for the rest of his life. And in quite possibly the kindest thing to ever happen to Jerry Gergich, the most mocked member of this show gets to be called by his actual name. When you have a beautiful wife, loving daughters, and the biggest penis in the Pawnee Parks Department, the respect of your peers is all you can ask for.