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Remember When Biden Was On 'Parks & Rec'?
Vice President Joe Biden is great on TV, and luckily for us, he'll be back on the screen Thursday night. Biden will be on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as part of the late-night hosts' opening week lineup, which has fueled more rumors that he's running for president (again). At the top of the list of people who want Biden to run is, of course, Leslie Knope. Amy Poehler's Parks and Recreation character once described her perfect man as having "the brains of George Clooney in the body of Joe Biden." If you're a Parks and Rec enthusiast like myself, you'll remember that after years of joking about the VP, Biden finally appeared on the show not once, but twice. In anticipation of his Late Show appearance, let's look back at what are perhaps the VP's best TV appearances of all time — his cameos on Parks and Rec .
The show's co-creator, Mike Schur, told Entertainment Tonight Online about the recurring Biden joke: "It was a very casual joke pitched in the writers room one day a long time ago. It just sort of took hold, and once you give a writers room a bone like that, they are just going to chew it forever."
Knope first meets Biden in Washington D.C., during what appears to be a meeting. Biden greets Knope and her husband Ben, and tries not to act scared about the fact that Knope is overly excited to meet him. All he really needed to do was flash his heart-melting smile to win over every Parks and Rec fan, but he had a few lines too, telling Knope: "The reason you're here is, I'm told you've done such a great job in your town and in the state of Indiana, and I just want to say congratulations for your public service." It must be weird to play yourself on TV, but Biden executed it perfectly.
How the VP found the time to film a scene is a mystery, but he did it so well that they asked him to come back for the series finale. The show flashes into the future, showing Knope at a party at Biden's house in 2025. Biden brought his wife Jill along this time, and she tells the guests that they can't talk politics at dinner. The Second Lady says: "I'm looking at you, Leslie." Of course, all Knope wants to do is play charades, and Biden says to his wife: "The last time we played charades, she spent three and a half hours here."
Biden's appearances on Parks and Rec only solidified his reputation as a lovable, easygoing VP that could have a career as an actor after he leaves office. Although if he runs for president and wins, that acting career will have to be put on hold — with the exception of more appearances on late-night talk shows like The Late Show.
