Out of all the quirky characters from NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) is easily one of the most memorable. From his infamous “Treat Yo’ Self” catchphrase and subsequent shopping sprees to his obsession with the latest trends, Tom is a character that you’ll likely not soon forget.
Though Tom may be incredibly vain and oftentimes out of touch with reality, he’s also one of the most ambitious and passionate employees of Pawnee’s Parks and Rec department. He’s always coming up with new business ideas and selling the hell out of them, despite how absurd they are. And he’s always on the hunt for his next big business venture.
Plenty of hot, new money-earning opportunities cropped up since “Parks and Recreation” ended seven years ago, and Tom would likely have at least considered several of them at some point. However, there is one type of fashionable investment opportunity that has enough clout behind it for him to get very excited about. And fans are pretty certain that Tom would have tried to work his trademark brand of swag into it.
While not necessarily new, cryptocurrency has become a novel and contemporary means to invest one’s finances in hopes of generating a very successful portfolio. But would the well-dressed entrepreneur be interested?
Redditor u/Redqueenhypo pondered the question and asked their fellow fans on the “Parks and Recreation” subreddit for their thoughts. Nearly every single commenter on the thread was certain that Tom would definitely invest in cryptocurrency, with several users predicting that he’d either do poorly or simply create his own. After what happened with Entertainment 720, it’s not hard to believe that he’d likely lose his investment.
One clever Redditor u/may92 even outlined an entire scenario for Tom’s involvement with the digital currency: “He would create his own cryptocoin, the T-coin, where you can invest and get a free blue t-shirt when you invite a friend to invest 50 T-coins. For 100 T-coins you can get a free NFTom, at the starting price of 1 T-coin.” Considering Tom’s narcissism, we can see the character creating his own currency, naming it after himself, and masterminding a marketing strategy to sell as many as possible.
Linked in the thread was another very similar discussion that also examined “Parks and Rec” characters’ interest in blockchain. There, one post by u/CrippledBalls, with nearly 700 upvotes, was able to summarize the thoughts of both threads in one statement: “Tom would have his own crypto coin, but he still wouldn’t have a clue on what crypto was.”
Overall, the fans over at the “Parks and Rec” subreddit know Tom very well. However, how accurate are they? What sort of personality traits would a crypto investor have? Writer James Kennedy at TheGamer.com analyzed a few video game characters who would invest in crypto, helping to break down some characteristics of an average fictional crypto enthusiast.
One such character is named Makoto Tsukumo from the “Yakuza” spinoff video game “Judgment.” According to Kennedy, the character “spends most of his life online and he is up on all the digital trends,” which is a trait that Tom shares. We learned in a season 5 episode, called “Sex Education,” that Tom is very addicted to the Internet and struggles to live life without technology.
And just as our “Parks and Rec” Reddit community believes that Tom wouldn’t understand Bitcoin from NFTs, it seems that there would also be investors who wouldn’t understand it either, fueled only by its popularity. Kennedy believes that Dan Hibiki – of “Street Fighter” fame – would be that person and “Parks and Rec” fans know that Tom will likely be similar.
Using these traits to define a potential crypto investor, a picture of an Internet-obsessed trend follower comes to mind, and both traits apply to Tom. Add to that Tom’s constant search for new business ventures and we can confirm that “Parks and Rec” fans were correct in their predictions.
