Parks and Recreation had a very strong roster of guest stars—Patricia Clarkson playing Ron Swanson’s (Nick Offerman) insane and domineering ex-wife Tammy remains seared into my consciousness. But, perhaps even more impressive than getting famous actors to come on as random characters was Parks and Rec’s cameo game.
Across seven seasons of the show, sitting lawmakers, the Vice President of the United States, a sitting First Lady, and an NBA player all entered the universe of Pawnee, Indiana to portray themselves. Without a doubt, the best of these illustrious guests was R&B artist Ginuwine. Best known for his song “Pony,” (which he performed in the Season 6 finale), the Grammy nominated artist’s appearance was immensely rewarding.
For multiple seasons, Ginuwine was referenced in the show, building the mythos around the man in a similar way that Leslie Knope’s (Amy Poehler) love for Joe Biden made his appearance in the final season particularly triumphant. Back in Season 4, when Tom (Aziz Ansari) and Ann (Rashida Jones) are experimenting with dating each other, Tom finds out that Ann doesn’t know who Ginwune is. The entire department is spending the weekend at Donna’s (Retta) lakehouse to celebrate Garry’s (Jim O’Heir) birthday.
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As Donna breaks down the printed list of rules for staying at her lakehouse, Tom notices some framed photos of Ginuwine on the wall.
“My god is that Ginuwine?” Tom asked.
“Mm-hm,” Donna responded.
“Why do you have Ginuwine’s platinum record on your wall why do you have a photo of you with Ginuwine at some place?” Tom followed up, sounding frantic.
“Oh, have I never talked about this before? Ginuwine is my cousin,” Donna replied.
“Ginuwine. The Ginuwine is your cousin? How do I not know this?” Tom asked.
“Who is Ginuwine?” Ann inquired, looking lost.
“Ginuwine. Ginuwine is Ginuwine. He’s Ginuwine.” Tom explained, at a loss.
Ann’s lack of pop culture knowledge ends up causing an irreparable rift between the two. But it also lays the groundwork for one of the most anticipated guest appearances in the entire show. Also, compared to the heaps of politicians that made cameos, Ginuwine’s moments on the show aged the best in an increasingly depressing American political landscape.
Just this year, Rashida Jones told Amy Poehler that having to pretend she didn’t know who the infamous R&B artist was stil mortifies her. “It’s still one of my biggest complaints!” Jones said on Poehler’s Good Hang podcast. “I remember we did the table read for that, and I was like, ‘No. No! No one’s gonna buy it, because I don’t buy it. Pick anybody else on this cast to try to play that in an honest way.’”
All of the praise for the artist worked out—Retta revealed that Ginuwine reached out and actually expressed interest in being on the show first. That’s how the Pawnee/Eagleton Unity Concert performance came to life—and also how those records ended up on Donna’s wall in the show. Retta told Entertainment Weekly that the artist sent them over himself.
“He actually sent his gold records and those pictures of himself,” Retta said back in 2012. Ginuwine went on to make one final cameo in the show, in Season 7, Episode 7, titled “Donna & Joe.” His bookend role only served to further cement his importance to the show, and certify him as the best cameo of the entire series.
As Tom said: “Ginuwine. Ginuwine is Ginuwine. He’s Ginuwine.”
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