Ben Schwartz and Jenny Slate Know ‘Don’t Be Suspicious’ Is Having Its TikTok Moment
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In the series finale of beloved workplace comedy Parks and Recreation, the Saperstein twins Jean-Ralphio (Ben Schwartz) and Mona-Lisa (Jenny Slate) flamboyantly parade through a sunny cemetery. They have staged one last plot—Jean-Ralphio’s death—in order to collect life insurance money, and naturally, are planning to flee to Tajikistan to open a casino with the funds. After they spy on his funeral from behind a tree in the cemetery to ensure that their plan worked, the duo, outfitted in the least inconspicuous neon and fur clothing imaginable, gyrate across the frame, riffing a little song as they go, in typical Saperstein fashion. Mona-Lisa starts, sing-telling her twin brother “don’t be suspicious!” as they begin to make their great escape. He sings it back. And suddenly, the two have broken out into dance and song, blowing their cover in the process. Maybe you’ve seen the clip on YouTube? It has 4.3 million views.
But YouTube isn’t the only place “Don’t Be Suspicious” has found an audience long after Parks and Rec ended. The hashtag #dontbesuspicious has over 1.2 billion views on TikTok as of Feb. 23, and hundreds of thousands of videos with millions of likes using the sound, too, whether it's the soundtrack of ducks walking through a mall or a hack to sneak alcohol into a freezy pop. Someone created a full length remix of the song, and there are even YouTube videos compiling the best TikToks using the sound.
Six years after the finale, this scene has become the most meme’d moment of Parks and Recreation. And it wasn't even in the script. Schwartz and Slate improvised the dance and the song while filming in an actual cemetery, they told me over Zoom last week. Though they admit neither of them have quite figured out TikTok yet, they've seen and enjoyed the many videos soundtracked by their characters.
But how has this scene in particular taken on a life of its own with a new generation—especially since some of TikTok's Gen Z users don't even know the origin of the clip? Schwartz and Slate have seen the memes, and below they discuss filming the scene and its second life on the internet.
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This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What do you both remember about the day the finale aired, if anything?
Jenny: I don't remember when it aired because I notoriously do not watch a lot of the things that I'm in because they make me feel weird about myself and how I sound and look. But this summer during quarantine, my fiance was like, "It's weird that you've never watched it." And I was like, "I'm just afraid I'll see myself, and something bad will happen." And he was like, "No, I just don't think that's going to happen." And we watched the whole thing. We watched it all. It was wonderful.
Ben: It's so lovely to consume. I've learned that younger kids watch it now. Like my friend's kids and stuff like that. They're like, "Yeah, we were watching Parks and then heard your voice." It's crazy how long ago we did it.
Jenny: Ben and I had worked together on House of Lies before, and it was a nice coincidence that we got to work together again. But I will say that it seems like the Mona-Lisa and Jean-Ralphio vibe really started on the set of House of Lies because you're just very easy to joke with and everybody jokes around with you so much, Ben. But I felt like it was a special connection.
Ben: It was very two goofballs, very much. It felt like family very quickly between us. Right? It just feels like a good friend that you could talk to, but also just being absolute maniacs and singing Disney songs and doing bananas things. And then I remember Mike [Schur]'s like, "Yeah, your sister in this is going to be Jenny." I was like, "Yes, of course. That's perfect. That's exactly correct." And I remember the first day, Jenny, that you came to record your first scene. I don't remember what scene it was, but I remember you looked at lines, we were talking about them. And I remember telling you to just do the stupidest version in your head, whatever the silliest, craziest version is. And you're like, yeah, I got it. And immediately you were great and right in that role, which is such an insanely weird role to jump into.
Jenny: It's so insane. And it's very different than my own personality. I was really, really nervous to be on Parks and Rec. Joe Mande, one of the writers on the show was like, I wrote you this character. And I was like, why did you think of me for this? This person is literally called the worst person in the world. I was so, so nervous. And I remember, that one of the first scenes I shot was where she tells Jerry “hard pass.” She's like would hit, would hit, would hit, hard pass. And I just remember thinking, I watched this, I know that they do this to Jerry. And I know that everyone's used to it, but it felt so heartbreaking.
Ben: I remember also saying, "Hey, sometimes when I play this character, I sing a little bit" and you go, "Got it. Great." That was literally what happened. You said "Really?" And I go, "Yeah, I just sing a little bit." And you go, "Great. Fantastic." And then we tried to harmonize. We tried to harmonize once and then started doing it every time.
Jenny: Well, once you start, you just can't stop it. It really felt like we got onto just a turbo thing once we became those characters.
Ben: It was very, very, very fun. Truly.
Jenny: Stupid outfits.
Ben: Great stupid outfits, and sometimes matching stupid outfits.
Jenny: Well then they leaned into it and the wardrobe department, they would be like, so Jenny, you're going to be wearing this denim cap. And Ben is also going to be in a denim outfit or whatever. It was like how they dress babies, but adults.
The “Don’t Be Suspicious” scene itself—did you guys improvise that? Was it choreographed?
Ben: I found the script. Because I keep everything.
Jenny: Is it anything like what happened?
Ben: All it says in the script is, "pan over, there is the Rabbi played by Dave King." Which is amazing. He says his thing about Lil Jon. And then it says "pan over to a tree behind which Jean-Ralphio and Mona-Lisa are hiding." Then I say, "Okay, they bought it. You got the insurance money?" And Jenny says, "No doubt, no doubt. Let's hit it." And I say, "Oh yeah, time to start a casino in..." And then it says, “sing-song to Tajikistan.” Then it says “they run off,” and that's it. Which means it wasn't even in this version of the script. But maybe when we were there, I think Mike directed that up. Mike Schur, who's a genius of all geniuses. I don't know if he was like, maybe you guys should sing...I remember practicing the song with you before, Jenny, like near a tree. But I don't remember how it started. Maybe one of us said, “don't be suspicious,” and the other one started going off it, but it was not a very thought-out thing.
Jenny: No, it wasn't. It wasn't at all. Also, we were in a cemetery, from what I remember. It's a real cemetery. And you can see how you want to see it, but I saw it as a great big lawn in front of me. And it was like, they're shooting from far away. We could probably dance our way out of this scene. And the dancing is so stupid.
Ben: So stupid.
Jenny: And that is why I love it. They gave us so much room. It's so funny because I've tried to figure out what TikTok is, but I apparently am just too ancient. I'm living the Fran Lebowitz lifestyle or whatever, and I have been for many, many years, but one of my friends was like, did you see what's happening on TikTok? And I was like, what is TikTok? And I tried to look and couldn't figure it out and got intimidated. But it was funny to hear that it had become, years later, a big TikTok, as they always say.
Ben: There it is Jenny. You're cool. What are you talking about? You're very hip. I think that if Jenny and I were coming up now in the comedy world, would love TikTok, because it's all people yes and-ing ideas. But I didn't know it was a thing on TikTok. And then someone sent me a video of a dog going into a supermarket on its hind legs with “Don't Be Suspicious” playing. And I was like, this is insane.
Jenny: Did you send me that?
Ben: I must have. And then someone sent me a bunch more of them, but I haven't quite figured out TikTok. I did what you did. I made a profile and tried, but it just seems like a lot of people dancing all the time, though the comedy ones are really fun. But then someone's like, "Oh no, no, everybody's doing this." I was like, what are you talking about? And nobody knows it's even Jenny or I, they just think it's a random two people, nut jobs singing “Don't Be Suspicious.” Like they don't know it's from Parks or anything. So it was very funny to me to see all those videos. It really made me laugh.
There's also an EDM full length, two minute remix of the song that a lot of people use.
Ben: EDM like dance music, electronic dance music?
Yes.
Jenny: I was just going to ask what EDM was, and I was like, Jenny don't. Don't reveal that much. And I'm proud of you that you made a TikTok profile, Ben. I just looked at it and did not know what to do. But I am in the process of divesting myself of all social media completely. So I can't make any more accounts. Is it social media?
Ben: Yeah, it's social media.
Jenny: It's not like a wall of clocks, for example.
Ben: No, sorry, TikTok. Sorry, I should have prefaced this with the fact that TikTok is not just a wall of old clocks. It's like a social media thing that people have in their phones. So my assumption then is that you thought people were yelling “Don't Be Suspicious” to a wall of old clocks?
Jenny: Yeah. I mean, add it to the groups of people that are yelling other stuff at all the old clocks.
Ben: So listen, we're aware that on the wall of clocks that some people may know “Don't Be Suspicious.” We are aware of that. I think it was our very last time we knew we were going to do something and we just kind of went bananas.
Jenny: Yeah, because there was also the sense that maybe it wouldn't make it into the show. There was a lot of improvising between us and a lot of long stupid harmonies with dumb trills. And they always let us do it. It was definitely, I mean, it's cheesy, but it was definitely enough just to be able to do that. To be able to play around on the set of a show that was a classic already while it was still on the air. It just was so fun. I always felt like this sort of sense of making it to varsity or something.
Ben: It's very fun. And also, the other show that Jenny and I were on, we were playing the exact opposite characters. So it literally felt like playtime. It felt like “go with your friends and have fun for a little bit!” when we did Parks.
Jenny: It was just as much fun as I think you would want to think it was. When I watched The Office, I was like, please tell me that it was this much fun to do it. And I got the chance to ask someone about it. And they were like, it was even more fun. And that's how I feel about playing these characters with Ben. It was the best.
So you watched it for the first time this summer. What did you think?
Ben: What did you think of that scene, Jenny?
Jenny: I was fascinated by it. I was genuinely so fascinated by it because in so many ways it was so incredibly different from everything in my life while I was watching it. I was watching it pregnant in a pandemic, just being like wow. Wow. Things used to be really, really different. But I was also just so pumped up by how free it was. I remember feeling so much joy. And like, you really want them to get away. You really want them to like—
Ben: Bonnie and Clyde out of there. There was also a beat where it cuts from the funeral to us, and we Three Stooges our heads out from behind the tree. Do you remember that, Jenny? Jenny is either above my head or below my head. And we did this so cartoonishly and had a very silly conversation. I wish I remembered, but one of us must've been like, “don't be suspicious,” and then the other one was like, how funny would it be if we started singing it? And we get so into saying it that we've blown our own cover. And that dancing was so funny. I wonder how many takes we did. I have no idea if any of the other takes are like that. I remember anytime I'd watch the show, I would have no idea what was going to be in it from what I did or Jenny did, because we would do so many different versions. So it'd be so exciting to see, oh my god, they kept us fucking dancing on the way out before getting chased by a Rabbi in a cemetery. This is beautiful. It was always so fun to watch. And I got as a wrap gift, Greg Daniels and Mike Schur gave me my tombstone. I guess I die next year, 2022.
Why do you think these characters have resonated with so many people?
Ben: Jean-Ralphio always thought he was nailing it, even though he never was. He always thought he was doing things perfectly. That's why I tried to make him as endearing as possible, so that you root for him because he doesn't know he's doing something bad or mean. He thinks he's just doing everything perfectly. And he can't believe how well everything's going.
Jenny: They are, in terms of like a moral compass or any sort of ethos that would sort of nourish other people's wellbeing, limited for sure. But it's why it's sometimes wonderful to just imagine the terrifying chaos of outer space. Like a beautiful, energetic mystery that you're like, I love that. I genuinely hope I'm not left alone in its environment, though.
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