Actor Nick Offerman has accused political commentator Ben Shapiro of "rampant homophobia" after Shapiro mocked and misrepresented Offerman's gay character in HBO's The Last of Us during his own podcast. Offerman's comments came on the Talk Easy With Sam Fragoso podcast, after Fragoso played him a clip of Shapiro's remarks, which the actor said were riddled with factual errors and reflected badly on the reach such commentary can have with audiences.

In the clip, Shapiro described Offerman's character as a "gay Ron Swanson" and gave an inaccurate, mocking summary of the acclaimed season-one episode "Long, Long Time", which portrays a 20-year romance between Offerman's survivalist Bill and Frank, played by Murray Bartlett. Offerman said he was "embarrassed" by Shapiro's poor grasp of the plot, noting he had got "eight things wrong" besides the homophobic framing, and expressed concern about how influential such distorted takes could be. The role earned Offerman an Emmy for best guest actor in a drama series.