Chris Pratt remembers the time he ate 16 racks of ribs on Parks and Recreation

If Joey Chestnut is retiring anytime soon, Chris Pratt could take his spot as an extreme eating champion.

The actor revealed that he once ate 16 racks of ribs in one day on the set of Parks and Recreation. Pratt, who played lovable doofus Andy Dwyer on the acclaimed NBC comedy, told the Jimmy Kimmel Live! audience on Thursday that it became his mission to be plumper on the show, and to make his costars laugh.

He recalled how on the series, the characters would sometimes visit the dinosaur-themed Jurassic Fork restaurant. In one particular scene at the restaurant, Pratt went all-in on eating the food.

“They gave us dinosaur-sized portions. And so I didn’t have anything to say in the scene. So inevitably I wanted to try to get some screen time and I decided I would eat one rack of ribs per take,” Pratt said. Uh oh. We think we know where this story is going.

“And if the camera happened to catch me, I would absolutely be inhaling ribs. I went through 12 racks of ribs, which is the equivalent of six pigs,” he continued, going on to imitate his costar Nick Offerman’s (a.k.a. Ron Swanson) signature giggle.

“If I can make [Offerman] laugh, it tickles me to no end. And so I knew it was making Nick laugh. I was making myself sick,” Pratt admitted.

But it wasn’t over.

“And then at lunch, because our catering company was creating the ribs, they cooked ribs,” he added. “I sat down with another four racks of ribs next to Nick. And ate the ribs, and I got a big laugh. I gave myself a food coma.”

Pratt also said while he didn’t intentionally gain weight to be on the show, he suggested that his character put on “30-40 pounds” throughout his arc.

“I remember in the first couple of seasons, just unintentionally, I’d gotten a little fat and I was watching the episodes. I was like, ‘Oh God Chris, you really let yourself go,'” he recalled. “And then I was like, ‘But this is some of the funniest stuff you’ve ever done.’ And I went to Mike Schur, our creator, and I said, ‘I wanna gain like another 30-40 pounds.’ And he was like, ‘Ok.’ And so I did.”

Marvel Studios; Mitchell Haaseth/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
Marvel Studios; Mitchell Haaseth/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank

Pratt broke out with his hilarious and winning performance on Parks & Rec. After slimming down and putting on some muscle, the actor went on to play Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy and various Avengers films. Perhaps it was destiny that Pratt ate so much at Jurassic Fork, because he eventually nabbed the lead in two Jurassic World films as well, with the third movie gearing up to shoot “very soon,” the actor announced on the talk show.

He even joked that instead of getting fit for filming the adventure movie, the studio should simply CGI abs onto him.

“They’re pumping a lot of money into the thing I’m not running from. Why they can’t dial in this in too?” Pratt joked, pointing to his chest.

He appeared on the show to promote his upcoming Pixar movie, Onward. His costar Tom Holland even made a cameo appearance during the interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, only to find out he wasn’t even Pratt’s fourth favorite actor whose first name is Tom and last name begins with an H.

Watch the pair’s funny exchange, and the rest of the interview, above.

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