Nick Offerman pranks Parks and Rec co-star on airplane after coincidentally ending up on same flight

It’s been 20 years since Nick Offerman and Jim O’Heir co-starred on Parks and Recreation as the curmudgeonly Ron Swanson and the affable Garry Gergich, respectively — but that doesn’t mean they’ve lost their friendly rapport.

Earlier this week, O’Heir, 63, shared a photo on Instagram of himself and Offerman, 55, at the airport together after they coincidentally boarded the same flight to Indianapolis, Indiana.

“Nick and I were on the same flight. I didn’t know until we were about to land and he got on the speaker and started talking about Jerry, Gary [sic], Larry and Terry Gergich. It was awesome,” he wrote.

O’Heir is best known for playing Garry, the office klutz, on the beloved sitcom. His character is often the butt of his colleagues’ jokes, and throughout the show’s seven-season run from 2009 to 2015, he collected numerous nicknames as a running gag after failing to correct an old boss who once called him Jerry.

He later shared a clip of the moment, adding: “The video of @nickofferman pranking me on our flight to Indy has surfaced. So great. I love that man.”

In the video, Offerman is seen speaking into the flight attendant’s telecom to prepare passengers for landing.

“American Airlines flight attendants will be walking down the aisles to do final safety checks before we land,” the Emmy-winning actor announces. “If you have any trash that you want to discard, please give it to them.

“And I always say don’t half ass your safety, only whole ass,” he quips, before closing with a final message for O’Heir: “If you’re traveling out to areas like Muncie and your last name is Gergich, first name Jerry, Larry, Barry or Gary, please behave yourself and travel safely.”

As Offerman makes his way back to his seat, he spots O’Heir and greets him, saying, “Oh, hello there,” while they both share a laugh and a handshake.

Ironically, O’Heir originally auditioned for the role of Ron Swanson before he received a call about reading for the role of Garry instead.

“My agents didn’t know if I should do it because they’d been told that they didn’t know what was going to happen with this character and they didn’t want me to feel like an extra,” he told The Independent in 2024.

“I thought, these are the guys who did The Office and I knew what had happened to Kevin, Phyllis, Stanley, Angela. All of those side characters had become major players. For me it was a no-brainer. I said: ‘I’ll risk it.’”

While promoting his memoir, Welcome to Pawnee, in 2024, O’Heir spoke about working on Parks and Recreation.

“I’ve seen some ‘showbiz’ craziness over the years. I’ve been on sets where tensions were high and morale was low,” O’Heir said. “Then came Parks and Recreation. I had never experienced such kindness and collaboration with other actors, writers, crew and producers.”