‘Stranger Things’ Joe Keery And ‘Parks And Rec’ Ben Schwartz Met Up After Rumors Of Their TV Connection

by Hillary Luehring-JonesSeptember 21, 2016, 5:58 pmNews, News Feed >

Web rumors have been circulating that Joe Keery‘s Steve on Stranger Things and Ben Schwartz‘s Jean-Ralphio Saperstein from Parks and Rec might be related – now the pair took to Instagram to fuel those rumors.

KEERY AND SCHWARTZ POST INSTA PICTURE

Since Stranger Things came out and gained unstoppable fame, fans have been brewing theories of what the show could be hiding. The latest theory actually involves another show – Parks and Rec. Some fans seem to believe that Steve could be Jean-Ralphio’s biological father.

People have already suspected that Dr. Saperstein is not Jean-Ralphio’s real father, and the fact that the actors look nearly identical helps give credibility to this theory. But the evidence goes deeper than just appearances.

Both shows take place in fictional, other-worldly Indiana towns near Indianapolis. Jean-Ralphio was born in 1985, which is just two years after the timeline of Stranger Things. Steve, with his heated outdoor pool, is clearly very well-off financially, and yet lives within walking distance of the Joyce Byers, an underpaid single mother. This seems not unlike a typical Indiana town. Jean-Ralphio also comes from money. Not to mention the even crazier part of the theory, that Nancy and Steve would have named Jean-Ralphio after Jonathan Byers.

The hair, though, seems to be the thing that ties these characters together the most. And this is what the actors were playing off when they took to Instagram, wearing the same outfit and saying, “that’s strange” in unison.

Dad and son meet because the Internet. @uncle_jezzy @strangerthingstv #strangertwins

A video posted by Ben Schwartz (@rejectedjokes) on Sep 20, 2016 at 1:44pm PDT

The pair clearly have a sense of humor about this crazy fan theory. Perhaps we’ll never know if these characters are actually related, but at least for now we can live in the fantasy.