Parks & Recreation Mines Comedy Gold out of Hugo Chavez's Ego

​Word on the street -- well, if the street you happen to be on is Calle Ocho -- is that Hollywood is full of a bunch of Hugo Chávez-loving socialists. Well, maybe you didn't see last night's Parks & Recreation on NBC, and judging from the ratings, we guess you probably didn't, which is a shame, because you missed one of the best slams on Chávez's government you're likely to see in American pop culture.

Leslie Knope, the Hillary Clinton-worshipping midlevel bureaucrat in a small town's parks and recreation department welcomes an envoy from a Venezuelan city's parks department, including their minister of small fountains and administer of hedges, with Fred Armisen playing the lead. We won't give any spoilers, but things go awry, as they tend to do in sitcoms, when the foreign "dignitaries" show up as arrogant, Chávez-loving pricks who live large off of their country's oil wealth while fostering a bit of disdain for all things American.

There's also a mention of the Magic City, when Venezuelans say their counterparts from Caracas are in Miami partying with Dwyane Wade. Which doesn't sound too realistic, but the joke that Chávez has a secret pet project called the "Committee to Shame and Humiliate America" does.

Luckily for you, you can watch the full episode behind the cut.