Entertainment

'Parks and Rec' Star Just Ruined Candy Corn

by Alicia Lutes

Well, Halloween candy-masquerading-as-vegetation: it was fun while it lasted but Parks and Recreation star Jim O'Heir just made us consider giving up candy corn forever. In a new video for the Nerdist's YouTube channel, O'Heir shills the in-no-way-naturally-colored candy crop in this fauxmercial for Nathan's Valley: the organic farm of choice for all your grade-A, top-quality confectioner corn needs.

Way to take something as simple and thoughtless as the Halloween sugarbomb (though really, what isn't a sugarbomb at this time of year) that is candy corn and make it horrific. No, not because of his satirical takedown of both the quote-unquote organic movement (which is hilarious in that funny-cuz-it-is-true sort of way) or because of the truth behind the obvious, which is to say that the stuff is just a bunch of colored sugar. That's a fairly shame-inducing fact to really pay attention to when popping back a couple cornies this Hallow's Eve.

That didn't stop Jerry/Gary/Gerry from tackling all of the above as Nathan's time-tested proprietor, graciously retelling the tale of such agricultural practices like sugar-dumping, and leaf-licking. Likely a subsidiary of Sweetums, Nathan's Valley proves that the way to America's heart is through their waxy-sugar-craving maws. Mmm!

It isn't until the end, culminating in O'Heir's creepy date with a Corny Pie (a name I just made up), that we really realize what's going on here: candy corn aversion therapy. And guess what? It totally, totally works. Damnit, Jerry!