Gobbo, I know all these character rankings are subjective and pointless, but I'm surprised that you would discount Leslie so much. She's the anchor of the entire thing. Gets the most screen time, generates the most story, and accomplishes a lot.

Not that quantity equals quality, but in this case it's very hard to be both a show's anchor and one of its funniest people -- Leslie gets to play drunk, be insecure and insane, and provide some real grounded intelligence when necessary. She's one of the few three-dimensional people on the show (maybe the only one) and Amy Poehler makes what is very very hard look very very easy. And the biggest danger of having that quality is that you get taken for granted.

I'm not saying she's playing the character wrong or even that the character is a poor character. Ann's character is barely a character but she's involved in barely any funny hijinks onscreen so I don't get excited when we have an Ann-centric episode whereas if it's a Ron episode I know it's going to be awesome. Leslie just doesn't have very many laugh out loud moments for me and the boring, predictable scenes outweigh the funny lines she gets.

It's like Michael Bluth. Bateman did an amazing job and the character is fantastic but he doesn't get you excited like a great scene with Tobias does.

Ben is a much better parallel to Michael Bluth than Leslie. Adam Scott plays the straight man better than anyone else in comedy except for Jason Bateman, and both characters function as real-world identifiers responding to the insanity around them. And yes, I think both Ben and Michael are among their shows' best characters.

But so is Leslie, though I guess we'll just agree to disagree about how funny she is.

Have you seen the episode where she's in the car listing off all the ridiculous ways and places she's been broken up with? That's gold.

I hated Amy Poehler in everything I saw her in. I hated her so much that I never would have given this show a shot. However, I ended up doing work for it, and fell in love with the show very quickly. She has an incredibly balanced comedic performance, in the series, (plays straight great, insane great, goofy great, and stupid great). She has more range than I ever though possible, based on all the stuff where I only saw her going for cheap low brow laughs. She is way underrated by people in this thread, but her EMMY nomination, last season, shows that she is appreciated.

I agree with pj, and wherever you rank her and Ben, as characters, they should be right next to each other.

hated April's scene this episode. She's been pretty annoying the past few eps.

The hunting trip is definitely her best list montage.

Been marathoning on Netflix. This show rocks.

Heh. Yeah I've been trying to convince some of my other friends to give P&R a shot. They all say they hate Poehler in everything they have ever seen her in and refuse to give it a shot because of that. I agree I have hated her in everything else. But still don't believe me it is worth watching, because somehow she works in her character for this show.

Her as the wife of GOB was pretty good, the 'You're in love with your brother scene?' is a classic

Ya, they have been going to the Janet Snakehole well a little too often this season. I didn't like Poehler on SNL, but she is really good on Parks and Rec, she has so much comic range and gets to show all of it. The lead of a show will never have the batting average of secondary characters because they need to carry the whole show and the audience needs to empathize with her. Ron/Tom/Andy all frequently get bigger laughs from than Leslie, but they are mercenaries who can come in for one scene and deliver the lulz, if the show was about Tom and Leslie was the scene-stealing over-achieving boss people's rankings would change a whole lot.

"Nice to see you again... Usarmy."

Somehow Tom really reminds me of Daniel Negreanu.

also Sherillyn Fenn was so hot on that show.

http://jonnyetc.prosite.com/18213/home Some pretty funny stuff on this site

rafi!!!

Marshmellow ron, PHENOMENAL

hahaha came in here to post that.

Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can't Lose.

JAY RALPH

Jean Ralphio was in fine form tonight

great hair

Also Mantzoukas killed it.

Lol so awesome. Made me miss fnl though

never disappoints.