'I put my foot down:' Chris Pratt says he spoke out about mean 'Parks and Recreation' jokes

Chris Pratt wasn't a fan of the mean jokes made about Jerry Gergich on "Parks and Recreation," revealing in Jim O’Heir’s new book that there were a few times where he thought the bit "went too far."

In a conversation included in "Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation," Pratt, 45, recalled checking on O'Heir, who played Jerry – also known at various times as Garry, Larry, Terry and Barry – for all seven seasons of the NBC sitcom, when he felt that the jokes were more mean than funny.

O'Heir remembered Pratt, "particularly more than some others, being worried about some of the Jerry bits being…mean," Variety reported. “I remember you saying, ‘Jimmy, you okay with these?’… Do you remember that feeling at all?"

"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," Pratt said, according to Variety. "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.”

Jerry Gergich endured 'endless mockery'

O’Heir’s character, Jerry, was "the butt of endless mockery" and "often mistreated" by his fellow coworkers on show, who more often than not referred to him by the wrong name. At one point in Season 4, Jerry reveals his actual name is Garry.

"There was one time where I put my foot down on something,” Pratt said, per Variety. “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 times where I think it went too far, and I was concerned for you.”

O'Heir did not take any of the jokes to heart but was touched by Pratt's support.

“Just so you know, that meant the world to me," O'Heir said. "You checked in on me, (Amy Poehler) checked in on me, and it’s not like I expected everyone to check in on me, but the fact that you did was so special … You have the biggest heart, and I don’t mean it from a medical perspective.”

'There's got to be something in his life,' Jim O'Heir says

About six months before O'Heir's "loving tribute" to the show came out, O'Heir addressed the mockery his character experienced on a May 2024 episode of "Parks and Recollection," a podcast he co-hosts with writer Greg Levine that "literally breaks down every episode" of "Parks and Recreation."

"I think when most people are like, 'What do I need? What do I need for happiness? Jerry Gergich got it," Levine said.

Jerry may have been the subject of ridicule at work, but his rich personal life more than made up for it, O'Heir said.

"But that's why it all works because Mike (Schur) realized if we're going to keep doing this stuff to him at work, if he's going to be our punching bag, there's got to be something in his life," O'Heir said. "And wow, Jerry absolutely has the best life of any of them. He just does."