Parks and Recreation S7 E10, “The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show”

Last week, we got to witness the very special Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show finale. It was jam-packed with all the fun hijinks that Johnny Karate always gets into, and there were even a few special guests!

It’s Johnny’s last show because in a few weeks he’ll be moving to Washington, D.C. with his wife, April Ludgate-Karate-Dwyer. But the show must go on, so he doesn’t focus on the ending, but rather on the fun!

As usual, Perd Hapley introduces Johnny as he jumps out onto the stage and greets the screaming crowd of kids in his audience. Unfortunately, Johnny can’t sing the welcome song because his guitar has disappeared! It’s a case for Special Agent Burt Tyrannosaurus Macklin, FBI.

It turns out the stakes are much higher than anyone could have anticipated – Macklin is informed by his chief (played to perfection by Donna Meagle) that if the guitar isn’t returned, peace in Iraq will be canceled. Oh no! He’s got one clue to find his guitar, so off he goes.

First though is April’s Animal Corner, where April introduces Johnny and the audience to a goliath bird-eating tarantula. But – oh no! – Johnny accidentally let the tarantula out and now it’s somewhere in the studio. This leads to another great segment, Loose Animal in the Studio.

If you recall, Johnny Karate has five karate moves to success on his show: Make Something with Carpenter Ron, Learn Something with Professor Smartbrain (aka Ben Wyatt), Karate Chop Something (which is really just an excuse to call on the little ninjas to attack Mailman Barry), Try Something New with Leslie Knope, and Be Nice to Someone.

Today’s ‘Try Something New’ turns into Leslie’s tribute to Andy Dwyer. Leslie starts at the very beginning of her relationship with Andy: the Pit. At this moment, I almost screamed thinking that Ann was going to come back. She didn’t, and I’m totally doing fine. I’m not an emotional wreck at all. But I digress.

Ben joins to help tell the story as they move to Andy’s time working at city hall, first as a shoeshine, then as a bureaucratic assistant. We then move to the next chapter in Andy’s life: his time in England (aka how Parks and Rec covered up Chris Pratt’s need to film Guardians of the Galaxy). To celebrate the final episode of Andy’s show, Leslie and Ben got Sir Edgar “Eddie” Covington, Andy’s goofy British counterpart, to come visit. As a special gift, he knights both Andy and Ben.

Next, Leslie reminds us that everyone faces failure, even Johnny Karate. Several years ago, Andy failed to become a police officer, and instead created the character of Burt Macklin. Today he is presented with an honorary Pawnee PD badge. And now that he’s officially an honorary police officer, he can solve the case of the missing guitar!

Professor Smartbrain helps Johnny analyze the one clue he has about the culprit: the initials JC. And no, it’s not former US President Jimmy Carter. It’s WWE wrestler John Cena! Naturally, Johnny arrests John Cena for being the one to steal his guitar, and puts John in the dunk tank.

As a final tribute to Johnny Karate, Leslie announces that a piece of Johnny’s uniform will remain in Pawnee forever while Duke Silver and Donna perform a slowed-down, jazzy version of “Kung Fu Fighting.”

The episode is almost over, and all Johnny has left to do is be nice to someone. The person he chooses is his wife, who has been looking pretty upset for almost the whole episode. She runs off, so we get to follow Johnny and the cameras behind-the-scenes to see what happens next. She reveals that she’s upset because she feels like she’s the one stopping him from doing what he loves and is meant to do. In a touching moment unlike any we’ve see so far on Johnny Karate, we see Johnny comfort his wife and promise her that he is always happy as long as he has her.

The show ends with the goodbye song – and we finally find the tarantula! It’s crawling over the dunk tank, right by John Cena. To “save” him, April lets him fall into the water. And that’s the final amazing trainwreck.