Parks and Recreation actor Nick Offerman has slammed MAGA mouthpiece Ben Shapiro for his criticism of Offerman’s character in The Last of Us.
Offerman, 56, responded on Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso to a clip of Shapiro, 42, giving a bizarre analysis of his character’s storyline. Shapiro attacked the episode “Long, Long Time,” which chronicles the romance between Bill, played by Offerman, and Frank, played by Murray Bartlett.
In his rant, Shapiro said Offerman’s character “likes to nail dudes.”
“The entire episode has no zombies, no real threat, and it is about two gay dudes who meet and have a relationship, in which one grows strawberries for the other, and then they die,” Shapiro said.
“There’s gay Ron Swanson, and it’s complete with sex scenes and the whole thing,” he said. “And gay Ron Swanson decides that he is also going to commit suicide at the same time because of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ or ‘Romeo and Romeo’ in this particular case.”
After listening to the rant for several minutes, Offerman said, “Holy s--t...that’s crazy.”
“That’s the most Ben Shapiro I’ve ever seen, and there’s a very good reason for that,” he continued. “I mean, I don’t know what to say. I’m embarrassed for his reading comprehension. I think he got eight things wrong in his recap, besides his rampant homophobia.”
The interviewer, Sam Fragoso, noted Offerman seems shocked, a reaction that the Parks and Recreation actor confirmed.
“I had that somewhere,” he said of Shapiro’s comments from three years ago. “I read what Ben Shapiro said — ‘Gay Ron Swanson.’ Then I wrote a song that I was performing on tour, and I would preface it by saying, ‘I was going to write a joke about this, but Ben Shapiro questioned my masculinity, and I can’t write a better joke than that.’”
The Emmy-winning actor acknowledged that he came across as “a symbol of machismo” in his other roles, including Parks and Rec. “I’m glad to be, you know, a guy who can split wood and change a truck tire and also can do that episode of The Last of Us and understand that it’s all just good work.”
Offerman then said, “I think the billionaires, I think Elon, want us—want me—to go on social media and snark back at all of them, and then suddenly I’m 90, and I haven’t read any Wendell Berry poems on the radio.”
He concluded, “The reason I maintain my disposition is I completely—I’m aware of that. I’m aware of what they’re saying. And then I just keep making my stuff.”
The Last of Us fans fiercely mocked Shapiro’s fixation on the episode in his commentary. He was particularly slammed for insisting that the HBO series is a “zombie show”–missing the fundamental core of the emotionally poignant, relationship-centric show.
The Daily Beast’s Kevin Fallon praised the devastating episode, writing, “It’s also remarkable because, let’s face it, a horror thriller on an HBO series that is based on a video game is not necessarily the arena in which you would imagine a nuanced, sensitive gay love story to be given that kind of time and attention.”
“It was transgressive, but also educational, exposing people to characters and a romance they otherwise may never have sought out or ever seen,” wrote Fallon.
Offerman praised the writers and Bartlett for the episode. “It was quite celebrated,” he said, “as an incredibly effective piece of storytelling.”
For his role on the series, Offerman won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor.
