On Wednesday night, CNN hosted a town hall on gun control a week after the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida. The event was incredibly heated, with students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School directly calling out politicians and the gun lobby. But the National Rifle Association probably didn’t think they’d be pissing off Parks and Recreation fans that night, too.
The NRA tweeted Wednesday night to thank their spokesperson, Dana Loesch, for representing them during the town hall. They did so by using a GIF of Leslie Knope, Amy Poehler’s character from the NBC sitcom.
And that wasn’t going to fly for the people involved with the show. Michael Schur, the creator of Parks and Recreation, tweeted at the NRA demanding they take down the tweet. “I would prefer you not use a GIF from a show I worked on to promote your pro-slaughter agenda,” he wrote. And he sent a message from Poehler, who didn’t mince words either. “Amy isn’t on Twitter, but she texted me a message: ‘Can you tweet the NRA for me and tell them I said fuck off?’”
Poehler wasn’t the only former cast member to take issue with the NRA’s tweet. Adam Scott, who played Ben Wyatt, told the NRA to “stay the fuck away from Leslie Knope.”
And Nick Offerman, who played Ron Swanson, the character probably most likely to own guns, even agreed, writing, “Our good-hearted show and especially our Leslie Knope represent the opposite of your pro slaughter agenda. Take it down and also please eat shit.”
So take note, NRA: You mess with Leslie Knope, you mess with all of Pawnee. And if you mess with Pawnee, you mess with Lil’ Sebastian, and honestly how dare you?
