For those of you who don't know, Jerry is a character on Parks and Recreation that is the laughing stock of the department. Here's my situation: People generally respect me. The new people I met at college all respect me. The disrespect and "laughing stock" treatment come from my group of childhood friends. They have a hive mind mentality: a group of about 3 or 4 of the more popular ones just back eachother up constantly and I always end up being the butt of the joke. It gets more confusing when you understand that the jokes aren't malicious or serious, so its hard to be confrontational without looking like I've got a stick up my ass. At the same time they make me look like a clown, something that can't be taken seriously. This is made worse by the fact that our group of guys hangs out with a group of girls, think of them as our counterpart. When this group of girls sees my friends treat me this way, they tend to do the same, and I'm sick of it. I want to make a move on one of these girls in specific, but its almost impossible to do so if my own friends are constantly treating me like a walking pun.