In Which Nick Offerman Sums Up Just About Everything With A Single Beer Metaphor

Parks & Recreation is going to get murdered. There’s really no way around that. NBC has given the show the 8 p.m. slot on Thursday nights, which pits it directly against the CBS ratings monster Big Bang Theory, and it’s going to be a bloodbath. (For the math-inclined among you: Parks averaged about 3 million viewers last season; Big Bang Theory pulled in closer to 20.) That’s essentially the gist of this LA Times article, which depicts Parks as kind of a plucky, fun show that is both among the last of its generation of quote-unquote smart comedies at NBC, as well as the sacrificial lamb the network is serving up to CBS’s broad, middle-of-the-road juggernaut.

Enter Ron Swanson himself, Nick Offerman, who summed up the situation thusly:

“A lot of people like to drink Budweiser,” says Nick Offerman, who plays bacon-loving Ron Swanson and has a metaphor for the competition. “I prefer Guinness myself. I don’t go into any bars and say, ‘Let me try some Budweiser and let’s see if they have improved it any. Beers are precious. I’m going to choose the ones that are thick and full-bodied.”

See, there are a few things going on in that quote. First of all, since this is the context at play here, yes, it is a good point about television. No argument there. And taken quite literally, it is also some pretty solid beer advice for all you youngsters out there. But most importantly, if you really dig in there, if you roll up your sleeves and start pulling it apart a little, you’ll see that it’s actually a pretty profound life lesson about enjoying your time on the planet and not settling for the average and ho-hum when there’s so much more right there at your fingertips. Or, to put a finer point on it: Don’t drink the Budweiser of life, people.

I mean, either that or he was just trying to score some free Guinness. We’ve seen that sort of shameless display out of him before.

×