Ben Shapiro called “The Last of Us” “Brokeback Zombie Farm.”

February 8, 2023

The conservative pundit says the HBO series changed “Brokeback Zombie Farm” without the undead.

Ben Shapiro didn’t share the sharpest commentary on “The Last of Us.”

Following the groundbreaking third episode of the viral HBO series, the conservative pundit took to Facebook (via The independent) to share his criticisms of the premise of “Brokeback Zombie Farm.”

“It’s about two gay dudes who meet and have a relationship where one grows strawberries for the other and then they die from not being killed by zombies,” Shapiro wrote, referring to the standalone episode “Long, Long Time,” Nick starring. Offerman and Murray Bartlett as a couple at the beginning of the apocalypse.

“You get cancer and decide to put yourself to sleep,” Shapiro said. “And gay Ron Swanson decides to simultaneously commit suicide over ‘Romeo and Juliet’ or ‘Romeo and Romeo’ in this particular case.”

Shapiro added: “Everything is very well done and the footage is beautiful. But here’s the problem with Brokeback Zombie Farm: it’s a zombie show. There are no zombies in this entire episode. There are no zombies in a zombie show. This is worth highlighting. It has literally nothing to do with the plot of the show.”

Shapiro also spoke about the series on The Ben Shapiro Show, a Daily Wire talk show (via Youtube), saying that although he did not play the video game on which the series is based (“because I’m not a kid”), he acknowledged that the episode was “historic and important” in terms of representation. “The problem with this episode is that it doesn’t advance the plot in any way at all, and it doesn’t really have any consequences,” Shapiro said. “There’s a gay Ron Swanson.” Full of sex scenes and all. The whole episode has no zombies and no real danger, and it’s about two gay guys who meet.”

The Republican reporter was slammed on social media, with critics calling her “brain dead” reaction to the emotional episode.

“Ben Shapiro doesn’t understand that TLOU is not a ‘zombie show’ but about human relationships in a post-apocalyptic setting,” one fan wrote.

Another added: “If you think ‘The Last of Us’ is about zombies, you’re just as brain dead. It’s always been a story about love in circumstances that push people to the edge, about the extremes of light and dark that humanity is capable of.”

“The Last of Us” director Peter Hoar told a similar story Inverse that the plot line of the third episode was in place to “trick” the audience into watching a strange love story.

“Sometimes you have to get the rest of the world to look at these things before they say, ‘Oh my God, there were two guys. I just found out,” Hoar said. “I think maybe then they’ll understand that it’s all real.” It’s the same love.”