The Ridiculous Character Names in ‘Parks and Recreation’ Were Created for a Sweet Reason
In addition to raccoon infestations, horrifying civic murals and a certain local equine celebrity, one of Pawnee, Indiana’s most memorable attributes was its population’s unusual names. Even the most minor characters on Parks and Recreation seemed to have hilariously offbeat names such as Kipp Bunthart, Chance Frenlm, Derry Murbles and Judy Zappossoppazzappossopaz.
It turns out that these names weren’t just goofy for the sake of being goofy. According to co-creator Mike Schur, he had a very altruistic reason for giving every single character a moniker that wouldn’t seem out of place in a Star Wars porn parody written by ChatGPT.
Schur recently guested on Good Hang with Amy Poehler and revealed the names in Parks and Rec were partly inspired by Monty Python’s Flying Circus. “Monty Python (were) experts at silly stupid names. Like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them,” Schur explained. He has previously claimed that Pawnee residents “Summer Olé-Kracken Frogfrong” and “Winter Carumba-Yecti Rabrabbit” were among some of the show’s most Python-esque names.
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But the ridiculous names mainly stemmed from Schur’s respect for the acting community. “I would go to actors’ IMDb pages to see what they had been in when we were casting them in the early days of the show,” Schur recalled. “And you would see, like ‘Woman #2’ or like, ‘Man in Crowd’ or ‘Guy with Sandwich.’ And it really bummed me out because I love actors, I love them so much. I think that their job – people will scoff when I say this – I think they have the hardest job of any job when it comes to making a show. Anyone who doesn't believe this should try it.”
After going through the audition process, and the rigors of production, Schur figured that these actors deserved to be given actual character names, not just vague descriptors. “So I decided, at that moment, this is early in Season One … that every character who appeared on the show was going to have a first and last name.”
This would also potentially benefit actors auditioning for future gigs. “If it says ‘Man in Crowd’ you’re like, ‘Oh well that doesn’t really count as an acting gig.’ But if you saw ‘Marv Vavavma,’ which is a name I gave a character once, you’re like, ‘Who the hell is Marva Vavama? What was Marva Vavama up to?’” Schur pointed out.
The producer, who called coming up with the names “one of the great joys of my life,” also noted that character names for TV shows have to be cleared by the network, and therefore need be either very bland, so that they can’t be seen as referring to anyone specific in real life who might share that name, or be so absurd that nobody in the world could possibly share that name and sue the show.
Apparently, nobody told any of this to Jerry Seinfeld.
