Posted in: NBC, TV | Tagged: chris pratt, Jim O’Heir, parks and recreation

Parks and Recreation: Pratt Protective of O'Heir Over Some Jerry Jokes

Jim O'Heir & Chris Pratt discussed Pratt checking in on him while filming Parks and Recreation to make sure he was okay with the Jerry jokes.

We should be grateful for those rare moments when our society taps into a greater awareness of its surroundings because, all too often, they slip through the cracks and end up with something or someone being taken for granted. That wasn't the case for Jim O'Heir when it came to playing fan favorite straight man Jerry Gergich on NBC's Parks & Recreation. That often means a popular target and butt of the joke, something that he and co-star Chris Pratt, who played Andy Dwyer, were aware of. While promoting his book Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles and Parks and Recreation, O'Heir shared a discussion he had with The Garfield Movie star during their time on the Greg Daniels and Michael Schur sitcom.

Parks and Recreation Star Jim O'Heir on Chris Pratt Checking on Him for Jokes That Might Be Too Mean to Jerry

"I remember you, particularly more than some others, being worried about some of the Jerry bits being…mean," O'Heir tells Pratt in the book (via Variety). "I remember you saying, 'Jimmy, you okay with these?'… Do you remember that feeling at all?" "I do, I do," Pratt responded. "I was concerned in some of those moments because I care about you and I love you, and I knew that there were some jokes that were, like, mean. But meaner than they were funny. If it's a joke, it's funny. But if it's mean for the sake of being mean, well, I'm not a huge fan of mean-spirited humor, and I just wanted to check in on you."

A joke that the Jurassic World franchise star wasn't cool? "There was one time where I put my foot down on something," Pratt says in the book. "There was that time you use the printer, and it says something like, 'Jerry sucks' on a piece of paper, and I just said, 'I don't think that's funny. I don't know about it.' For the most part, I rolled with it, but there were a couple of times where I think it went too far, and I was concerned for you." The Fall actor added that star Amy Poehler (Leslie Knope) also checked in with him.

As far as how the Parks & Rec fans approached him, O'Heir told Bleeding Cool in September 2024, "I get all of it. I get tons of 'Dammit, Jerry!' every day. One guy, I was leaving a restaurant, and he yelled, "Thanks for ruining the Harvest Festival, Jerry!" (from the season three episode "Harvest Festival"), which made me laugh. That's hysterical, and I yelled back, "It wasn't me! It was Tom (Aziz Ansari)!" Fans of the show would understand. I also get a lot of it because my character ended up with five different names: Gary, Jerry, Larry, Terry, and then Barry, during the Johnny Karate stages of the show. People will always ask, "What was your favorite name?" Or they'll call me by their favorite name. It was always "Jerry" for me because that's how I always knew the show was and how I was cast. "Jerry" always seemed right to me."

Parks & Rec, which also starred Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Aziz Ansari, Retta, Rashida Jones, Adam Scott, and Rob Lowe, ran from 2009 to 2015. It's currently available to stream on Peacock. Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation, which features contributions from the entire cast and creators, is available in bookstores in print and audiobook.

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