Nick Offerman accused Ben Shapiro of “rampant homophobia” to the right-wing personality’s critique of “The Last of Us,” which featured an episode centered on the heartbreaking romance between a gay couple played by Offerman and Murray Bartlett.
On an episode of “Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso” published Sunday, Offerman was played a clip of Shapiro torching the “The Last of Us” episode, which earned the “Parks and Recreation” actor an Emmy for outstanding guest actor in a drama series in 2023. During the clip, Shapiro calls Offerman’s character by his “Parks and Recreation” character, Ron Swanson, adding “who likes to nail dudes.”
Offerman was stunned by the clip. “That’s crazy … That’s the most Ben Shapiro I’ve ever seen, and there’s a very good reason for that,” Offerman said. “I’m embarrassed for his reading comprehension; I think he got eight things wrong in his recap, besides his rampant homophobia … That was insane.”
Offerman noted it was his first time seeing Shapiro in full force, but he had read Shapiro’s comments prior to that and ended up using it while on tour for his comedic music songs.
“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,’” Offerman said.
Despite brushing off the comments about his masculinity, Offerman noted the concerning power behind a clip like that as it circulates through right-wing circles.
“That’s like a Joe Rogan clip or something that’s just so dumb and so wrong,” he said. “But then it’s really upsetting to understand how powerful that probably is and how many people it’s reached (who) would be in agreement with it.”
“The key to my disposition is I don’t [engage],” he continued. “The billionaires, I think Elon [Musk] wants me to go on social media and snark back at all of them, and then suddenly I’m 90 and I die and I haven’t read any Wendell Berry poems on the radio.”
Offerman is up for two primetime Emmy awards next week, one for outstanding supporting actor in a limited or anthology series or movie for Netflix’s “Death by Lightning,” and one for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series for “Margo’s Got Money Troubles.”
