Chris Pratt Worried Some “Parks and Recs ”Jokes About Jerry Were 'Meaner Than They Were Funny'; Actor Praises His 'Heart'

Jim O’Heir is opening up about his Parks and Recreation castmate, Chris Pratt.

In his new book, Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation, O’Heir, 62, talked about appearing on the series as Jerry. The character was one of the workers in the parks and recreation office, and he was often the butt of jokes from the others. But in a conversation published in the book, O’Heir spoke to Pratt, 45, about how the younger actor would check in on him.

“I remember you, particularly more than some others, being worried about some of the Jerry bits being ... mean,” O’Heir wrote. “I remember you saying, ‘Jimmy, you okay with these?’ My theory was, ‘It’s funny and these are just jobs. I’m happy to be around.’ 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,” Pratt explained. “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.”

“There was one time where I put my foot down on something,” the Jurassic World star, who played Andy on the sitcom, remembered. “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 said it meant “the world” to him that Pratt and their costar Amy Poehler would check in on him amid the anti-Jerry jokes. “It’s not like I expected everyone to check in on me, but the fact that you did was so special,” he said.

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“Well, I also know that we’re from the Midwest, and people from the Midwest —­ their love language is, like, teasing,” Pratt, who was born in Minnesota, said. “You learn to take your lumps and roll with it —­ I did at least — and I was never overly concerned you couldn’t take care of yourself, but if it ever went too far, I wanted you to know I was there for you.” O’Heir praised Pratt for having "the biggest heart."

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Though Jerry was often the subject of mean jokes, in the series, the character has the last laugh. His coworkers eventually meet his loving wife Gayle, played by Christie Brinkley. Jerry, ultimately, has a large loving family who cherishes him, and in the show’s last episode flash-forward, viewers learn Jerry served as mayor of the show's fictional town of Pawnee for 10 terms before dying at age 100. “Christie Brinkley and I had a riot poking fun at our characters’ physical pairing,” O’Heir wrote in his book.

Parks and Recreation ended in 2015. Two years later, O’Heir won a Daytime Emmy for a guest role on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.

Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation is available now.

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