Jean-Ralphio Saperstein is annoying, chaotic, messy, and impossibly confident. Played by Ben Schwartz on one of the greatest TV shows of all time, Parks and Recreation, he became an instant icon. Even if you’ve never seen the show, you’ve seen the Internet, where you probably recognize him from the incredibly popular gifs of his character (often with his sister, Mona-Lisa, played by the hilarious Jenny Slate). Example:
What you might have forgotten is that Jean-Ralphio is a proud member of the alphabet mafia. In the 100th episode of the series (spoiler alert for any punk ass book jockies who haven’t seen the show), Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) and Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) decide they cannot wait for office hours and accost their doctor, played by Henry Winkler, at his home, and who joins them at the door but his lovably obnoxious son, Jean-Ralphio. Up to this point in the show, it’s established that Jean-Ralphio hits on every woman he sees, ever, especially when he has absolutely no shot with them. His courage would almost be admirable if he didn’t shoot his shot with every single woman he meets, with seemingly no discernment.
But, in this clip, Jean-Ralphio not only tries to sleep with a very pregnant Ann, he also invites Chris to join them and calls him “beautiful.” In his classic sing-song voice, Jean-Ralphio offers an explanation: “I guess sometimes I call men beautiful too. I’m open-minded as hell. I think you’re pretty good lookin.'” Chris, being Chris, looks thrilled and says, “Thank you.”
Clearly, it’s a low bar to say Rob Lowe is beautiful, because have you ever looked at that man?! (His political leanings make him decidedly less attractive. You can look that up yourself.) It’s another thing for a man to be interested in a threesome with a woman he finds attractive, though usually the ratio skews in men’s fantasies to two women, one cuck. Sorry: Two women, one man. It’s yet another thing entirely for Jean-Ralphio to say he’s “open-minded as hell,” as that cements him pretty firmly as not heterosexual.
And yes, he’s annoying. He’s loud. He sings half his sentences. He dresses obnoxiously. He doesn’t care about the law because he knows a guy who is “super gentle” and will hit you with his Lexus so you can win a lawsuit and get a bunch of money. He’s either broke or flush with cash, and he’ll support your dreams of starting a company, but doesn’t know how to do anything except party. He gets way into everyone’s personal space and hits on anything that moves. When asked why he is the way he is, his famous response? “Pills, baby!” I don’t know about you, but some/all of those qualities can be ascribed to almost every queer person in my life, myself included (minus the questionable drug use). Jean-Ralphio is 100% irritating and 100% queer … yes, in that order, and we love him no matter what.
