Nick Offerman has called out Ben Shapiro over his “insane” 2023 meltdown about his gay character in HBO’s “The Last of Us.”
The actor, in a recent appearance on the “Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso” podcast, reacted to a clip of the right-wing podcaster giving his two cents on an episode of the post-apocalyptic drama that sees Offerman’s character, Bill, forming a relationship with fellow survivalist Frank (played by Murray Bartlett).
While the episode (“Long, Long Time”) was praised by critics, it was subjected to a flood of homophobic reviews online.
In 2023, Shapiro ranted about the episode on his podcast, arguing that Offerman is playing a version of Ron Swanson — his character on “Parks and Recreation” — “who likes to nail dudes.”
“So Ron Swanson — a libertarian who hates the government and lives in his basement and is a prepper, but also is gay — Ron Swanson during the zombie apocalypse, he’s having himself a grand old time,” said the right-wing pundit.
Shapiro proceeds to argue that there’s “no zombies” or “no real threat” in the episode before adding, “It is about two gay dudes who meet and have a relationship in which one grows strawberries for the other and then they die.”
Offerman told Fragoso he previously read about Shapiro’s “Last of Us” take, which inspired him to name-drop the podcaster before a song he performed on one of his tours.
“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,’” Offerman said.
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Earlier in the podcast, Offerman raised his eyebrows in response to the Shapiro clip before turning to Fragoso and quipping, “Holy shit. First of all, was it necessary to do that at 1.5 times speed? I mean, that poor guy. That’s crazy.”
He continued, “That’s the most Ben Shapiro I’ve ever seen. And there’s a very good reason for that.”
The comedian said he was embarrassed for Shapiro’s “reading comprehension,” noting he got “eight things wrong in his recap besides his rampant homophobia.”
Offerman, who remarked that characters like Swanson have led people to view him as a “symbol of machismo,” said he’s glad to be someone 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.”