“[Gasp] Let’s get divorced.
That way we can get married again!"
"Yes!
Let's do it!"
Everyone hopes that finding love will make you happy,
but April Ludgate and Andy Dwyer prove
that love can actually make you better.
“Thank you so much.
I never would have ever done this without you."
It’s not a given that love is improving- for many people, settling down
is an excuse to stop evolving.
"So what do you think, should we have sex tonight?"
"Ughhh, sounds awful"
But one source of Andy and April’s couple power
is that they resist old-fashioned,
restrictive expectations of what a married couple “should” be.
"Your invitations include requests for each of you to bring stuff,
'cause we don't have a whole lot."
"Dearest Tom, please bring silverware."
"Please bring cooked steak."
They do love on their terms, while having a lot of fun
and not worrying about being too “adult” about it all.
“When Andy proposed to me, he gave me a ring pop,
but then he ate it first."
In fact, we might say that they give us a new model
for the inspirational millennial romance.
"I guess I kind of hate most things, but I never really seem to hate you.
So I want to spend the rest of my life with you, is that cool?”
Andy and April show us what it looks like to grow together,
without necessarily growing up.
"I'm really glad I married you."
"Yeah, we made a good call on that one."
If you're new here, be sure to subscribe to and hit the bell
to get notified about all of our new videos.
As children, we promise ourselves that when we’re grown up,
we’ll play all day, stay up late, and eat all the ice cream we want.
Andy and April are the fulfillment of that promise.
"Ack!
Ack!
Ackkkkk!"
They behave like children who have the privileges of adulthood.
Andy and April stay together because they play together.
They first bond by killing time while April’s on hold,
with a game of Marco Polo and practicing spit-takes.
"I'm pregnant... with Josh Groban's baby!"
"[Spits water across room] That was good."
They thrive on role-playing,
"The name is special agent Burt Macklin,
tell me who you are, who you work for,
and don't bother tryin' to lie to me
because I'm amazing."
"My name is Judy Hitler."
And role-playing isn’t just a distraction from life-
it’s a way of life.
"You've had all night to get something out of him Dwyer
we gotta let him go.
"C'mon captain I'm this close to getting a confession."
It teaches them not to take setbacks (or themselves) too seriously,
to embrace nonsense,
"You are absolutely right, no thinking, just stupid."
and bring the creativity of a kid’s imagination into adulthood.
"I’m Janet Snakehole.
I’m a very rich widow,
with a terrible secret."
We might call April and Andy one of TV’s most aspirational
examples of millennial love.
"What kind of music does your band play?"
"You know, I don't really like to define it,
but it's like Matchbox 20 meets The Fray."
"Soooo, rock?"
"Well again, I don't really like to define it."
"I totally get what you mean."
April is right in the middle of the millennial age range,
while Andy is on the oldest end-
there’s some disagreement about the exact cut-off,
but a lot of people consider it to be 1981,
which is Andy’s birth year,
and you might say that, spiritually, he's younger than his years.
As a couple, they echo the observed narratives
about millennial dating habits-
like delaying adulthood,
craving adventure and authenticity,
and being less swayed by traditional status markers.
"So you do a lot of investing?"
"We like to dabble.
I recently invested in some shirts I got at a garage sale.
Left those at Wendy’s on the way home.
[Fake laughter]So...The economy!
[Fake Laughter] Hahahaha!
April represents the liberal tendencies of millennials to be inclusive
and embrace alternative lifestyles.
"Derek is gay, but he's straight for me,
but he's gay for Ben, and Ben's really gay for Derek.
And I hate Ben."
"It's not that complicated."
"Oh.
Yeah.
Sure" The thing about youth culture is
I don't understand it."
While a lot of the criticisms leveled at Season 1 Andy fit the oft-repeated
negative stereotypes of millennials
[Singing] I fell in the pit.
You fell in the pit.
The way that the older adults on the show look at April and Andy,
“Well, I always think April is going to clean up.”
“And I never clean up.”
“It’s cute, right?”
“No."
might remind us of the way
that Baby Boomers and the media in recent years
have condescended toward millennials,
"Are you eating turkey chilli off of a frisbee?"
[Chuckling] "Hahahaha, yeah.
It’s pretty cute, right?"
"No.
Do you know what cute means?"
and like many millennials, they might sometimes feel overwhelmed,
because they don’t have their financial lives in order the way
previous generations did at their age.
“Okay you have to pay these."
"Good thing I didn’t lose them."
Andy and April can also be emotionally immature-
they act like kids on the playground as they struggle
to admit their feelings for each other.
“I like you… in a romantical kind of way..."
"You do?"
But overall, while Ben looks at these two and sees incompetence to be corrected.
"So, how’d we do."
"I don't know, does this answer your question?"
"No."
And Leslie worries that they don’t think things through enough
“But you guys haven’t been together very long and you have no place to live."
“We’ve been together long enough and we’ll find a place to live.
Like a house or like-a condo or something."
"Probably a condo.”
“You can’t just get a condo.”
April’s and Andy’s overgrown-kid lifestyle is a choice.
"And then I’m going to teach you how to you to be adults.
"Cool.
We'll get to be adults."
"Gee, golly, thanks Mister.”]
They’re actively trying not to become like so many dull adults around them
who aren’t having any fun.
"Adults are boring and I hate them and I don’t want to buy all this
stupid boring adult stuff and become boring adults."
High on the childlike fun of their connection,
"Honey...
Honey!
Listen to me...
Get it all."
April and Andy don’t cave to societal pressures
to be reasonable and “adult” about everything.
“Look, this is a stupid idea, but right at this exact second,
we have enough momentum to do something stupid
before we realize how stupid it is."
They redefine what couple life looks like, to suit themselves-
they live in the moment.
They have adventures.
"We have a thousand dollars in our bank account
and we’re young and irresponsible."
Like a lot of millennials, and young couples.
April and Andy don’t have any money.
But this doesn’t cripple them or become
their main focus in life.
“Now put your used plate in my purse.
I almost have a complete set.”
“Really?
Oh, my God.
You're so smart."
They get creative with their resources, and enjoy being free from responsibility.
“I’m broke too, and I don't want anything I just want to hang out with you.”
You might assume that if you spent a year planning every detail
of a wedding, that it would be objectively better than something
thrown together in a day.
"We were hanging out and suddenly I was like
what if we got married tomorrow?
And she was like…"
"Fine."
Yet, Andy’s and April’s “fancy party”
slash-surprise wedding is powered by the joy and magic of spontaneity,
and it epitomizes them as a couple.
Every moment of their wedding is fun,
and every moment is them, to a T.
"I vow to protect you from danger.
I don’t care if I have to fight
an ultimate fighter, or a bear, or him?
Your mom?
I would take them down."
So April and Andy are an inspiration in proving
that “settling down” can look however you want it to,
and be as fun as you make it.
“He’s such a loser.
Can’t believe I’m marrying him.”
“You don’t have to."
“I’m going to and then I”m going to divorce him and then I’m going
to marry him again.”
Just don’t sweat old-school formulas for courtship or home life,
"But seriously, life is short, right?
Uh, just, I really think you should
just do whatever makes you happy."
and trust what you feel.
"We are in love.
So we didn't overthink it.
I mean, seriously,
I cannot emphasize how little we thought about this.”
When we first meet Andy on Parks and Recreation,
he’s a pretty unimpressive guy
“Oh, hey baby if you're going into the kitchen,
could you make me pancakes real quick?”
He’s lazy, self-centered, entirely without self-awareness or career prospects,
mooching off of his long-suffering girlfriend Ann,
"Could I have gotten my cast off two weeks ago,
technically yes, but I really really like it when you serve me food."
Anne doesn’t respect Andy.
She, and the audience, see him
as a man-child and kind of a doofus.
But by the end of Season 2, we start to see Andy through April’s eyes,
and something powerful happens-
suddenly there is so much more potential there than was initially apparent.
Things that were problems, become charming quirks-
Like his childishness,
“Chrissss!
Can I get these?”
his baseless enthusiasm,
"Manning reading the defense, Reggie Wayne goes corner!"
and his irresponsibility.
“He was supposed to buy gas but instead he bought novelty cookie cutters
and now everything we eat is shaped like a dinosaur.
He's amazing.”
It’s a magical thing to be seen through the adoring lens of love-
when someone believes in us, we have the desire to prove ourselves
worthy of that belief.
“Come on, you can hack this.
I believe in you."
And Andy is transformed by how April sees him.
Sure, Anne was right
that Andy was pretty much good-for-nothing during their relationship,
but because they both bought into that idea
of him as a helpless baby, he never became more.
“Honey, can you just clean up a little bit?”
“I'll try.
Don't expect much”
With April, Andy blooms into a mature, supportive partner.
In the series finale, Tom describes the “Andy” type in his book as
“loving,” “exuberant” and “open-hearted,”
and these are exactly the qualities that come out and shine through
his romance with April.
“So my band's working on a new album.”
“Oh, yeah?
What's it called?”
“April Ludgate is the Best Ever, Volume One”
So we come to realize Andy was never a bad guy-
it's just that he and Anne were a terrible match,
and this is true in so many couples.
A lot of the things we think are wrong
with our partners (or ourselves)
might not be fundamental flaws at all; they’re signs of incompatibility.
Likewise, Andy helps April to blossom.
When the show begins, she’s got a fierce individuality
and a mastery of sarcasm that borders on an art form,
"My mom's Puerto Rican, that's why I'm so lively and colofrul."
but she’s also aimless, alienated.
She hides behind that veil of sarcasm.
"I was aimless and just thought everything was stupid and lame."
She's obviously very intelligent, but feels it would be ridiculous
to apply herself professionally.
"You want me to dial a number, and then read another number out loud?"
"Yes, can you handle this?"
"No."
Everything in April’s life is designed
to allow her to avoid emotional investment
and not feel vulnerable.
“I need to find someone to fill in for April.
Now, I know I’m not going
to find someone who’s both aggressively mean and apathetic.
April really is the whole package."
Andy is the opposite of April in this way.
He is pure unbridled enthusiasm-
“April!
April?!”
feeling unfiltered by thought-
"There’s at least a chance that I didn’t think this through completely"
and even though April thinks she hates over-the-top displays of feeling,
or being into things, there’s something about Andy’s raw energy
that breaks through April’s barriers and moves her.
His open-heartedness pushes her to face her feelings.
“I miss Andy and it’s making me weak”
And she sees that it’s actually more fun to get involved and feel your life,
than to stand apart, above it all, ridiculing others.
"God, why does everything we do have to be
cloaked in like 15 layers of irony?"
So they show us that a degree of opposites-attracting in relationships
is a key to growth-as April’s shrewd,
dark outlook meets Andy’s relentless positivity.
"Someone will die.”
“Of fun!”
At times their opposing instincts lead to miscommunication
"Hey.
I love you."
"Dude, shut up!"
That is awesome sauce!
Like when April first professes her love to Andy,and he doesn’t
appreciate how big of a step this is for her.
“I'm not mad at him.
He's great.
I awesome sauce Andy."
But his later response makes her understand
that he was showing love in his own way,
with the childlike enthusiasm she fell for in the first place.
“I do love you."
"You do."
"Yeah.
That’s what makes the sauce so awesome.”
It’s important too, that they don’t expect each other to change.
They accept and enjoy each other just the way they are,
and this is what makes each feel good enough to evolve and thrive.
“I found a dead rabbit on the side of the road,
and I cut its feet off and made it into a lucky charm.”
“Baby, you are so creepy.
Thank you.
I love it."
As much as they love acting like kids, over time Andy and April do accept
that certain aspects of growing up feel good.
"I also kind of want my own fork."
The couple has to negotiate picking up some adult survival skills
while holding onto their capacity for fun.
"We're gonna get a dish rack, and shower curtains, and a cutting board,
but if you think for one second that I'm not also gonna get that
marshmallow shooter so I can shoot you in the face
with marshmallows when you're asleep,
then you're the dumbest woman I know.”
Over the course of the show, the area where both grow up tremendously
is in their careers- and the way that they support each other
through this process is really a model for how to be
an emotionally mature partner.
“I don't like anything, okay?
You're not gonna be able to find
a career for me, so just give up.”
“No way, babe.
We can do this."
Because April sees limitless potential in Andy, she helps him
get motivated and organized in pursuing his dreams.
She’s supportive when he fails to become a police officer-
"Well I’m still proud of you.” and when he tries to quit music,
“I’m an adult now, I’m gonna focus on business.
Which is good.”
she rejects this attempt to remake himself as “responsible.”
“Babe, you love that band that I also love so much.
They're important to you."
If Andy did become too “adult,” then he wouldn’t be the man
April fell in love with.
"What do you mean the squirrel took the nuts out of the...
out of that kids backpack and ate em'?"
"You have to give me a reason to spit."
Instead, she encourages him to embrace his childlike nature
in his profession, too.
"The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show."
This leads him to a hugely successful job he loves.
April helps him get
to this destination by always prioritizing his happiness first, and putting
no pressure on him to find the right career.
“No one knows what they’re doing."
Meanwhile, as she gains confidence thanks to Andy’s natural exuberance
and total devotion to her,
April gets more comfortable revealing her talents at work.
She takes on real responsibility and becomes Leslie's protege.
But, another important millennial characteristic we see in April and Andy
is that they care more about fulfillment than traditional success,
and again, these two show us that this is a good thing.
“You like dealing with people or dogs one on one.
See, we don’t make a list of the things you love-
We make a list of the reasons why you love them
and then we find something that fits that list."
So April goes out and finds a career that she really wants.
“I want to tell people what to do, and then send them far away from me.
It's perfect.
And it hits everything on my list.
Creative problem solving,
working one-on-one."
Most importantly, as long as they’re together,
supporting each other, and putting their shared happiness first,
good things will follow.
"You supported me.
You make me happy,
happier than I ever thought I could be.
Without you I wouldn't be anything.”
Even as they become parents, they stay true
to their personality as a couple.
"Can I get a warm towel to get that makeup off?"
"No!
I want it on.
That's the whole point-
I put the makeup on after going into labor."
They decide to call the baby Jack-
a totally normal, respectable sounding name
"What's his name?"
"Jack."
"Oh, that's good."
but between them, they still know his real name is:
"Burt Snakehole Ludgate Karate Dracula Macklin Demon
Jack-o-Lantern Dwyer, we call him Jack for short."
This playfulness they carry forward, even as they take on more
and more responsibility,
perfectly reflects the kind of parents they’re going to be:
fun, impulsive, supportive, and always loving.
Plus, if they ever feel like they’re getting a little too responsible,
"Andy, we’re planning our whole week, like old people."
they can always run out and buy a creepy house from Werner Herzog.
"We are responsible adults, you know what that means."
"I know."
"We have money, and we’re going to buy
the [Bleep] out of this house."
So together April and Andy show us that we can become better human beings
if we find a love that fills in what we’re missing, and always
sees us in the best possible light.
"You're the best husband ever."
And just because you become a mature, functioning adult, doesn’t mean
you have to be a boring grown-up at heart.
[laughs] "Ohhh babe, you had a crush on me.
That's embarrassing.”
“We're married.”
“Still.”
Hi guys, it's Susannah, and Debra, and we are The Take.
If you like what we're doing and you're new here, please subscribe.
And if you have the means, and you want to,
please consider supporting us on Patreon.
And there's also a new feature here on YouTube where
you can hit that join button and become a member right here.
Thank you so much for watching.