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Real World Comedy Inside 'Parks and Recreation' with Amy Poehler and Aziz Ansari
by Troy Rogers
 Now
out on her own on the NBC airwaves after carving
out her own style of comedy on Saturday Night
Live, Amy Poehler steps into the shoes of Leslie
Knope, a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and
Recreation Department of Pawnee, Indiana in the
new "mockumentary" series Parks and Recreation,
which makes its return on September 17 at 8:30pm
on NBC.
Adding to the Thursday night line-up, Parks and Recreation explores the average life circumstances people often find themselves in when dealing with the government, from standing in line at the DMV, trying to obtain a drivers license, or making calls to someone in higher office to repair holes in the street on your way to work. Also starring former MTV Human Giant and Flight of the Conchords actor Aziz Ansari as a colleague of Amy Peohler's Leslie Knope, Parks and Recreation is ripe with everyday potential and comedy that viewers can relate to when wading through red tape to get things done.
Ahead of the September 17 return of Parks and Recreation, we made our way through the phone park for a bit of comedy recreation on a conference call with Amy Poehler and Aziz Ansari to find out what Amy's character would do if she was elected to the Oval Office, what topics the show will take on, and how Aziz's character would survive in the real world of politics.
THE DEADBOLT: Amy, if Leslie was the President of the United States, what is the first thing she would do?
 AMY
POEHLER: Oh, she would probably create a
Central Park in every city. She would probably
reclaim back urban areas and developed areas
and make like giant Central Parks in every state
in the United States. I think that would be
the first thing she would do, she'd make it
really green. That and she would probably have
mandatory dance parties in public schools [laughs].
THE DEADBOLT: In the upcoming season we see a couple of gay penguins, some marijuana growers - What other hard hitting topics will you guys be tackling?
AZIZ ANSARI: I believe the third episode is Leslie and I judge a beauty pageant in Pawnee, and that was really fun. And then in the fourth episode we deal with some of Leslie's [love life]. Leslie has a romantic interest and she has a date. The other story is myself and the rest of the people in the office start digging up dirt on each other in kind of a game. If one of us ran for office, what kind of dirt would they dig up? And we find some really interesting things about everybody.
POEHLER: Yeah, and we don't want to over reach. But every single episode will have life, death, happiness, sadness, rebirth, redemption, and a very clear conclusion. And this will happen every week in twenty one minutes. Yeah! And again, I don't want to over reach, but I think that that will happen.
 ANSARI:
Yeah, it's kind of like that HBO show, Angels
in America.
POEHLER: [laughs].
THE DEADBOLT: Aziz, how do you think your character Tom would fit into real world politics?
ANSARI: I think he would probably do pretty well. He seems like a guy that's pretty ambitious and sleazy and he knows how to weasel his way around. So I would think he would probably be okay. He seems like a pretty determined, focused dude. And he's also a douchebag, but I don't know.
THE DEADBOLT: I was thinking the same thing.
POEHLER: [laughs].
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