The Comeback Kid (Season 4, Episode 11)

For as much effort as Parks put into moving the lives of its characters forward, rules of sitcom writing dictate those characters have reliable personality types. Like most comedies, Parks had begun to stretch the elasticity of those personalities by its fourth season. Leslie’s drive, Tom’s swagger, and Garry/Gerry/Larry/Terry’s bumbling were reliable wells to pull a joke from, but the longer such gags ran, the harder it was to keep human characters from becoming cartoonish. Written by former-Simpsons showrunner Mike Scully, “The Comeback Kid” foreshadowed the show’s increasingly goofy sense of humor during the back half of its run, which was not always to its benefit. Parks’ had carefully balanced its silly streak since Season 2, once it became evident that the Parks department were among the sanest bunch of folks you could find in Pawnee (itself modeled on Springfield). But the craziness of Pawnee led to sometimes inconsistent, or repetitive character work during the show’s later years. “Comeback Kid” has all the main characters leaning into their wackiest traits full force, culminating in a hysterical sequence in which the cast has to shuffle across an ice rink to Gloria Estefan’s “Get on Your Feet.”