Nick Offerman’s The Last of Us character is long gone, but the actor isn’t letting Ben Shapiro’s comments about the HBO show slide, saying he’s “embarrassed” for him over his reading comprehension while calling out his “rampant homophobia”. The Parks and Recreation star played survivalist Bill in season one episode three of The Last of Us adaptation, which largely steps away from Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to tell Bill’s years-long love story with Frank (Murray Bartlett). It’s truly one of the best – and most heartbreaking – single TV episodes in history, not just because Bill and Frank’s relationship is so sweet to watch unfold, but because it manages to encapsulate everything The Last of Us is about into a single hour. Bill spent years preparing to survive the end of the world alone, only to discover through Frank that simply staying alive isn’t a life at all. Credit: HBO The episode was met with widespread acclaim when it first dropped in 2023, but one person who didn’t approve is conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who missed the point entirely. He complained that there weren’t enough “zombies” (even though there weren’t any infected in episode four, which he didn’t take issue with) and referred to Offerman’s character as “gay Ron Swanson”. Shapiro’s review has now been put directly to Offerman during a recent appearance on Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso, and while the actor had previously read some of his comments, he’d never actually watched him deliver them before. After Fragoso played the clip, Offerman initially seemed almost lost for words, before saying, “I mean, that poor guy. That’s crazy. That’s the most Ben Shapiro I’ve ever seen, and there’s a very good reason for that.” The actor then said he’s “embarrassed for his reading comprehension,” adding, “I think he got eight things wrong in his recap besides his rampant homophobia.” Credit: HBO Offerman clearly saw the funny side of Shapiro questioning his masculinity, revealing he’d even turned it into a running joke. “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.’” But what troubles him is the number of people Shapiro’s comments could reach. He described the clip as “so dumb and so wrong”, before admitting it’s “really upsetting to understand how powerful that probably is and how many people it’s reached”. Rather than spending his time fighting back at hate online, Offerman said he tries not to engage with it at all. “I think the billionaires, I think Elon wants me to go on social media and snark back at all of them,” he said, joking that if he does do that, he’ll suddenly be 90 and realise he hasn’t spent his time doing the things he actually cares about. Offerman also explained he doesn’t know what he could say to people who already agree with figures like Shapiro that wouldn’t simply make them more hostile towards him. “It might as well be Goebbels, it might as well be David Duke on the pulpit,” he added. Instead, he tries to remain aware of what’s being said and “just keep making my stuff”. Shapiro’s comments also led into a wider conversation about Offerman’s own relationship with masculinity. The actor said his “degree of masculinity” had never really occurred to him until Parks and Recreation, when playing Ron Swanson suddenly turned him into a “symbol of machismo”. It’s a label he’s happy to complicate, saying that he’s glad to be “a guy who can split wood and change a truck tire” while also being able to “do that episode of The Last of Us and understand that it’s all just good work”. For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page. Featured image credit: Mark Schierbecker/Creative Commons/HBO Post navigation Next storyPrevious story
