The Office vs. Parks and Rec vs. Community - What's the best one?

 Alright! So, I have finished watch Community, Parks and Rec, and The Office, which is what we in the business call, "NBC ruling comedy television from 2005 - 2015." From 2010 to 2013, we had all three shows running simultaneously! Granted, it was seasons 7-9 of The Office, but still! That's good! 

However, I do believe that this inevitably arises to a debate as to which series is the best. All are beloved and have extremely devoted fans, but which series actually exudes the most quality entertainment? Well, to do that, I look to some metrics for how we can turn my own opinions and feelings into quantifiable data. 

To break it down, I'm giving these shows 10 metrics in which I will rank them, and then combine the scores to see what scores the best: Humor, Consistency, Rewatchability, Plot, Format, Romance, Protagonists, Supporting Cast, Scene-Stealers, and Finales.

Also, this will be covering several of the main plot points of these three shows, so if you have not seen any of them, I suggest you do and then come back.

Round One: Humor

What exactly defines humor? Well, I'm looking at it as how many times I laughed during the episode, and this is a pretty obvious pick. The Office was absolutely hilarious for nearly five of its nine seasons, creating some of the funniest moments to ever grace the small screen. Jim's endless pranks against Dwight, Michael Scott's antics, and a fire drill put The Office on top. 

After that, I would say Community. Community's humor was focused more on clever dialogue and high concept plots (Riffs with purpose) than a typical comedy would. It's not a bad thing, but it added more to the show than laughs you can take from it. 

In last place is Parks and Rec. I'm sorry Pawnee, but even though you could be hilarious at times, I definitely laughed the least at you. Parks and Rec coasted by on funny characters, throwaway gags, and the occasional actually funny moment. Plus they nerfed Andy Dwyer pretty hard by making him unbelievably stupid in later seasons. 

So for this round, the tally rounds out with The Office at 3, Community at 2, and Parks and Rec at 1.

And the award for funniest goes to... 

Round Two: Consistency

In my books, consistency means how long the show was able to sustain the best quality. And by quality, I mean a combination of humor, substance, and fun plots, and this is obviously Parks and Rec. Out of these three shows, Parks and Rec was able to sustain the same quality for seven out of its seven seasons, my personal low point being season four, and my personal high points being every other season. Parks and Rec may have given me the least laughs, but it was enjoyable throughout. 

After that is The Office. The Office has four absolutely amazing seasons (2-5), four mediocre seasons (1, 6, 7, 9), and one actually bad season (8). When The Office is good, it is really good. But when The Office is not good, you notice. From special and memorable episodes to "I guess I have to watch it since it's the next episode" episodes.

After that is Community. Community for its first three seasons may be better than either of the other two shows. It had constant adventures and riffs on tropes and broke new grounds in television. I looked forward to whatever Community would hand me from its buffet of conceptual episodes. And then it didn't. Season four was a mess, season five was just okay, and season six was just "Get it over with." 

Round Two: Consistency brings the total points to The Office at 5, Parks and Rec at 4, and Community at 3.

Parks and Rec was recently taken off of Netflix and put on Peacock for free.

Round Three: Rewatchability

This is a gimme for The Office. The Office's somewhat floating timeline, gut-bustlingly hilarious moments, and sweet character moments make rewatching it the easiest to rewatch by far. Basically, you pick any episode of The Office to watch while eating a quick cereal dinner, and you'll probably be satisfied. 

After that we have Community. Community has a lot of rewatch value - the show's clever gag-a-minute jokes, fun characters, and extremely quotable lines boost the show. I've found myself thinking about episodes months after I've seen them, mostly because of the hilarious and meta parodies of television tropes.

Next is Parks and Rec. Parks and Rec is really good, but none of it ever exactly reaches the heights of Community or The Office. It's fun and I love it, but I'm way more likely to watch a timeless prank or a paintball war than whatever Parks and Rec has going on. 

Round Three: Rewatchability brings the total points to The Office at 8, Parks and Rec at 5, and Community at 5. 

What else could win over this?

Round Four: Format

Format is how the show is set up - The format which it uses. This one goes to Community because Community did all of the formats.  Zombie movies, action movies, crime movies, documentaries, bottle episodes, 8-bit, space movies, stop motion, clip shows, and musicals are all accounted for with Community. Community wins this battle by doing it all. 

It's a simple fact that The Office popularized the mockumentary format. The story goes that a camera crew is sent to record the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin, The People Person's Paper People, and it's all paid off with a finale in which they publish the full documentary. Although, The Office did have a drawback to this format - After a while, you could start to tell when a scene break would happen. It became repetitive and predictable after 9 seasons. It's also notable that Community did the Mockumentary format in Documentary Filmmaking: Redux (S3E8).

Once again in last place is Parks and Rec, which was created as a sister show to The Office and ultimately ending up as a spiritual spin-off to the aforementioned comedy. But Parks and Rec suffers from the same problem with The Office, especially since it came second. Watching The Office is like an introduction to the mockumentary, with the last four seasons feeling ctrl+v ctrl+c. That feeling doesn't shake with Parks and Rec, which is more of the same. And it never actually gives a reason for why a documentary crew is filming them. They just are. 

Round Four: Format gives the lead to The Office at 10, Community at 8, and Parks and Rec at 6.

The Godfather parody may very well be my favorite episode of Community

Round Five: Romance

Romance is going to be defined as the love story between the protagonist and the protagonist's love interest. And the show that delivers that is definitely The Office. The Office has a sweeping and epic 3 season-long love story between Jim and Pam, and then another 2 seasons when they tie the knot early in season 6. Jim and Pam is an extremely feel-good romance. You want them to get together and you feel really happy for them when they do. It gives you the most fuzzies.

By far, one of the sweetest romances to ever air.

Parks and Rec deserves second place here because the main romance of the show, Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt, get together in season three (The same season Wyatt is introduced). Season four deals with the fallout of them dating (Which is not allowed), and in season five they get married. I liked it. I'm a really big fan of Ben Wyatt (The funniest character on the show), and was happy when they got together. 

Community once again broke television norm by literally never focusing on relationships. The main plot of the first season is that Jeff Winger wants to get with Britta Perry, which leads him to unwittingly create a study group full of life long friends. But that plotline kind of drops sometimes in season two when they realize all attraction between the two was purely physical, and when they're given the group's blessing to continue, they just stop. It was very unceremonious, 

Community also low-key tried to get Jeff Winger and Annie Edison together, with the main drama there being the age gap. Nothing more happens then, like, three kisses and several pats on the head, and then in the series finale they hug and she leaves. Was that, like, even a relationship? 

Because Community fails on the protagonist's relationship, I'm diving into the secondary relationships in search of some type of feels. Once again, Community disappoints me. After avoiding any type of relationship drama in seasons 1-3, they suddenly drop in a Troy Barnes/Britta Perry subplot out of nowhere. And then it disappears as quickly as it came. Community was definitely more about the wit than the heart. 

Round Five: Romance gives us a total of The Office at 13, Community at 9, and Parks and Rec at 8.

Was Community trying to ship these two?
It was referenced throughout the show and then never resolved.

Round Six: Protagonists

The protagonists are the main characters of the show. You probably know who they are. Right now, Leslie Knope has swept first place. Leslie Knope is quite definitely the best lead to me - she's smart, funny, nice, admirable, and not so over the top as to where she's unbelievable. If I had to hang out with any of these three leads, I would hang out with Leslie Knope. Easily. She seems like a really nice lady. She also has the best arc out of all of these protagonists. 

In second place we have The Office. Is it sacrilege to put the iconic Michael Scott performance by Steve Carell in second place? Possibly. But, Michael Scott, while a facilitator for great laughs and a juggernaut for Emmy nominations, Michael Scott, for much of his time on screen, is very largely defined by who he's in love with (Jan, Pam's Mom, alone, Holly, etc.). 

Although, I do commend without question Michael Scott's character. He's actually the most tragic character on here. He's so desperate to find love and friends that he ends up hopelessly finagling himself in the lives of his employees and the lives of crazy girlfriends. He's a tragic, depressing, albeit hilarious, character. I just prefer Leslie Knope to him, as Michael's antics often put the people he works with in direct danger of being fired, and some surprisingly selfish episodes (Golden Ticket).

Leslie Knope is, by far, the most likable lead. Michael Scott may be the funniest, but Leslie Knope is just so nice. 

Once again in last place, we have Community. Community's lead, Jeff Winger, is so uncommitted to being the lead that a large part of his character is not trying to be the main character. For most of seasons 2, 3, and 5, if he's not on his blackberry or trying to get with a girl he's complaining he's on the show, and his constant sarcastic and sardonic remarks about literally everything gets a bit grating at times. Also bad is when the ensemble (Annie Edison, Troy Barnes, Abed) constantly outshine and are funnier than him.

Round Six: Protagonists brings the tally up to The Office at 14, Parks and Rec at 11, and Community at 10.

This is Jeff Winger for 90% of the show

Round Seven: Supporting Cast

The supporting cast is everyone else who has a main role: For The Office, that's characters like Jim, Dwight, Pam, Oscar, Toby, and Kevin. For Parks and Rec, that's Andy, April, Ron, and Jerry/Larry/Terry/Garry, and Community's got Annie, Troy, Abed, Pierce, Britta, and Shirley.

Still in first place is Parks and Rec. Parks and Rec has got some amazing ensemble going on, and it never dipped in quality so much that even more outlandish characters like Ron never became caricatures. I love Ben Wyatt, who could've single-handedly got Parks and Rec to first place. His dorky accountant calzone-loving personality was a highlight of the show. Also hilarious were Ron and April. I'm not a huge fan of Ann (Who is completely defined by relationships), and Andy is the only character who became a stereotype as the series went on, getting so stupid to the point of it being unbelievable. 

Ice Town here is a tough act to beat.

Next is Community. Community had an extremely strong ensemble that covered nearly every comedic base - Perhaps the best example of a boomer in the form of Chevy Chase, the best example of the "I don't care" Gen-X, the "Work hard and it'll come true" millennial, the "Play hard and put off life" millennial, and Abed, who is special enough to put in his own category of awesomeness. He's so meta. Also Britta. But we don't talk about Britta. They're a hilarious and awesome ensemble, elevated by the spot-on cast. 

For the first time in last place we have The Office. Most of the time, The Office is on-point with all of its characters. But, I am forced to acknowledge that as time went on, every character became a pale imitation of themselves. Jim and Pam have relatively nothing to do after they get hitched, Dwight becomes a cartoon, Kevin becomes a cartoon, and all of them becomes stereotypes of themselves. Kevin becomes quite possibly the dumbest person on television ever. 

Round Seven: Supporting Cast goes to The Office at 15, Parks and Rec at 14, and Community at 12. 

Andy kind of took a huge dive after season 7.

Round Eight: Scene-Stealers

So the scene-stealers are the tertiary characters - ones who aren't main, secondary, or even tertiary characters. They just show up a couple times a season for some laughs. For The Office, that's Todd Packer, Ed Truck, David Wallace, Bob Vance, and Charles Miner. For Parks and Rec, that's the accountant who wants to hire Ben, Lil' Sebastian, Jean Ralphio, Joan Callamezzo, Perd Hapley, and Jennifer Barkley. And for Community, it's Leonard, Magnitude, The Greendale Human Being, and Starburns. 

First place goes to Community. Community had the best scene stealers. It's community college setting allowed for a wide variety of several persons and peoples, and extremely bad decisions from the Dean in terms of Greendale's mascot. One of the characters only says "Pop pop!" and he's one of the funniest characters on the show. 

POP POP!

Parks and Rec is in second place. Like Community, it's setting (Government officials) allowed for a wide and varied supporting cast of characters, including some who I just couldn't stop laughing every time they were on screen - Lil' Sebastian's episodes ruled, Jean Ralphio was hilarious, and those accountants who wanted to hire Ben were so sad. It was all funny. But what keeps Parks and Rec back is Tammy Swanson (I), who is just an insane character. Her episodes were just the worst. Very weird. 

In last place is The Office. The Office just didn't have a setting that allowed for tertiary characters. I pulled out all of them earlier. Because they stayed in the office building for nearly every episode, most of the scene-stealing characters were only there for one episode. So the best scene-stealer in The Office was definitely David Wallace. The overworked and eventual CEO of Dunder Mifflin, any time he interacted with Michael Scott was just gold. It was like a real human got to meet the insane tv show characters we don't think too hard about. 

But, The Office also has Todd Packer, who in every appearance is so painfully unfunny it hurts. It's like they set The Office's normally well balanced "Cringe" factor to 11. Come to think of it, David Koechner (Who plays Todd Packer) is unfunny in every role has, partially because every character he's played is basically Todd Packer. 

Round Eight: Scene-Stealers brings the surprisingly close tally to Parks and Rec at 16, The Office at 16, and Community at 15. 

Robert California.... yeah no. 

Round Nine: Plot

The plot is the overarching.... plot.... anyway, it's the journey that you go on with the show, the evolution of the characters, and none of these shows have a better plot than Parks and Rec. You see highly ambitious Parks and Recreation employee Leslie Knope go from desk job to governor to the implied President. The entire fourth season is literally just the plot of Leslie becoming a city councilwoman. And other characters also get plots: Andy becomes a kid's show host, April gets into veterinary sciences, Ben hops around before becoming City Manager, and Tom has an excellent plot of foolish 20-something diving into bad investments with his friend to capable entrepreneur. And Ron stays Ron. 

I'm 100% sure Leslie Knope became President in the finale. 

After that is The Office. The Office's main plot would be... I dunno. Without a consistent lead, it's harder to define. But we certainly get a lot of plot for Dunder Mifflin, which absorbs it's rival The Michael Scott Paper Company, is bought by Sabre, is handed to Robert California, and is bought by David Wallace. It's an interesting and realistic look at what a small company might go through. And the characters go through arc, like Pam, who goes from shy receptionist to vocal artistic mother, or Jim, who helps found a sports company, or Michael Scott, who's dream of finding a wife takes him to Colorado. 

In last place we have Community. Community already runs into a problem with it's setup - most Community college students are only there for two years and then move on. But, it does take around four years to get a law degree, so okay. Winger can stay. But for the other characters, it doesn't make sense as to why they would all be there for 6 years. How does top-of-her-class perfectionist Annie Edison end up with six years in a community college? And none of the characters (Other than Jeff Winger), go on noteworthy arcs. I guess Troy drops his "Football guy" facade, but he did that two episodes into season one. And Pierce dies between seasons, so I guess that counts. Again, Community was more a vehicle for the riffs on tropes than for actual emotional connections. 

Round Nine: Plot brings us to Parks and Rec at 19, The Office at 18, and Community at 16. 

Pierce just.. died. I get that Chevy Chase left the show, but dang. He's just dead.

Round Ten: Finales

The finale is self-explanatory. It's whichever one hit me hardest in the feels, and no show did that better than The Office. After two lackluster seasons, The Office's finale was by far the best - an hour-long episode wrapping up the series, providing some fun insights into the lives of the characters after the show ends, a great wedding between Dwight and Angela, and a very, very sweet cameo from Michael Scott. It was everything you could want from a finale.

After that is Community. Community had a very fun and very in-universe way to do the finale - Do all of the finales. Each character imagines a finale they'd like, and each character imagines a life without the other characters. I liked it. It fit the series. Although, Community also had a very weird thing where out of nowhere the finale has two F-Bombs - not sure where they came from, but they are present.

In the last place is Parks and Rec. Instead of doing what The Office did and having the finale take place a couple years or so after the "Show" ends, Parks and Rec bounces back and forth between the characters in their present lives and their future. While it was nice to know exactly what will happen to these characters, the constant back and forth bouncing felt repetitive and tiring after an hour of it. 

Michael came. That's all you need to know. 

And the overall ranking is [Drum rolllllll] 

In 1st place, we have The Office at 21 points. Even though The Office's last several seasons were not the best and fell into the mediocre territory, the enormous amounts of laughs given, the cozy vibe of the actual office, and the great performances given make The Office the best comedy show out there.

In 2nd place, we have Parks and Rec at 20 points. Parks and Rec is never as funny as the other two shows, but how the show never declines in quality and the amazing and lovable variety of characters make Parks and Rec a very good show. 

In 3rd place we have Community. The best episodes of Community probably made me laugh harder than the other two shows, but an unsure and sharp decline in those laughs and fun constructs - Seasons 4 and 6 - make a retrospective view of Community a bit less. I love it, but if I rewatched it, I would only rewatch half of it, plus the highlights of season 5. 

So, there's my overall ranking. Some may disagree with it, some may really disagree with it, but my opinion, my quantitative opinion no less, stays the same.