Not really new news, but new to me news – In January, comedian Aziz Ansari premiered his Comedy Central stand up special: “Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening.” We’ve talked about Aziz plenty of times on Sepia Mutiny in the past as the latest up and coming funny man. He can also be seen on Parks on Recreation on NBC Thursday nights, otherwise known as ‘every show has a Desi sidekick’ night. The clips from his Comedy Central special are up [NSFW] and I wanted to share. (h/t Channel APA)
Russel Peters is the only other Desi person I know to have had a Comedy Central special, though I could be wrong on this one. What I do find interesting though, is how different Peters and Ansari’s comedy styles are from one another. I could be snarky and say style differences reflect a Canada vs. U.S.A. thing, but that could just be the residual Olympic effect speaking. In reality, it seems that Peters relies on his Desi background for his jokes, and Ansari has moved away from that, using Desi references more as seasoning than crutch. But maybe, that really is reflective of a Canada vs. U.S.A. thing.
More from an ‘Intimate Moment for a Sensual Evening’ after the jump.
| Jokes.com | ||||
| Aziz Ansari – Cold Stone Creamery | ||||
| ||||
This is the point where I encourage you to go online and buy Aziz Ansari’s DVD where you can watch the whole show. But, if you are proficient in google, I’m sure you can find a way to watch the whole thing online. I would never encourage you to do that though. Never.
I just can’t believe no ones has mentioned how hilarious that picture is. Instead it’s dumb-ass discussion of a has-been. The polar bear, the virtually buggin out eyes, that ironic come hither pose with that damn glass of wine?! C’mon! It is soo funny. He has a great talent for physical comedy for sure, that hasn’t even been tapped yet.
Anyways, does every Indian (well, technically she was British as well) HAVE to have the same story?
Nope, but as Bipashu said I remember part of Parmindra’s character involved her parents and their push for her to continue with medicine…I didn’t watch ER too often, so I don’t know the full storyline at all; I did catch episodes that involved conflict with her parents. So it was weird to me that they didn’t follow up, with the conflict and issues that would most likely arise, with the type of parents that she seemed to have anyways, from her marriage to a nondesi dr. and also her family had no part in this arrangement.
Anyways I didn’t watch ER often (I get so annoyed with these dr. shows where all the dr.s and nurses get accidentally pregnant – come on, they of all people should know how to be careful) so it was news to me, from Bipashu’s comment, that the whole marraige was supposed to be a secret.
Coach, honey, it’s Courvoithier and the Ladies Man would like to buy you a fish sandwich.
I used to go watch Aziz Ansari when he’d perform at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater in NYC. He’s really a funny guy. I think Russell Peters is really funny, but it seems like more of his stories have to do with race than don’t. That’s cool, but then that’s it – you always know what to expect.
Aziz is the type of funny guy that I’d want in my crew. He tells stories the way my friends tell each other stories.
I love his bit about running into M.I.A.
dayum i thought rediff was the place to go for the crazies. clearly i was wrong.
“not in this instance.”
fair enough, but many I know have said this but retroactively amended their statement.
That seems to be a very loaded and oversimplified statement. Its interesting though, initially in some of Russell Peters early comedy (when he did small time shows in Canada in the late 90’s) he use to subvert racist discourses around South Asians which would be sometimes the basis of his comedy and sometimes would make it explicit that he makes fun of racism and racists to discredit them. But I guess now, I mean especially with his growing popularity his craft went another direction and his material may not so much be growing, developing, evolving… (can’t really find the right word but you know what I mean) especially with pressures from mainstream comedy. But to be honest, it may be that it took the likes of comedy of Russell Peters and others to pave the way and breakdown certain barriers in mainstream comedy for “Brown” comedians like Aziz Ansari to perform a unique craft like theirs. Although I do like his character on NBC, there was one episode where white, masculine, heterosexism serves to emasculate his character to the same degree as the character Jonathan on 30 Rock is repeatedly subjugated to. It is a “desi sidekick” thing at the end of the day on the office, 30 rock and parks and rec, I think there needs to be more character development though.
ah, its all good, both nation-states were developed by racist, white, colonial settler societies and not to mention still occupy stolen indigenous lands (which we are complicit in somewhat) so we can ease up on the olympic fever of nationalism… go team super friends of the earth! that should be our new slogan
acha! also to problematize my comment (although its still already shady) I guess it is also the likes of comedy of Russell Peters which serve to privilege only a certain “racialized” or “desi-ized” style of comedy over all others as well…
go super friends of the earth!
maybe its just me, but neither ansari or peters are all that funny. especially ansari. i hear better desi comedy on local asian comedy circuits.
Well do share. Don’t hoard them all for yourself! What are you, Guju?
That’s a joke people! A JOKE!
Re: comment 54, fuerza criticized Peters for his exclusively racial material and then when s/he pointed out the one bit of Aziz that s/he found most funny, it was one with a strong South Asian bend, the M.I.A. bit.
The thing is, I think that M.I.A. bit is probably Aziz’s most funny one as well (along with his long story about how he broke his arm). When he moves away from all South Asian material, I’m mad not because he’s a sell out or because he’s turned away from his roots, I’m mad because, to me, he’s not being as funny as he was before. Ultimately, I think that’s bad for his career.
sometimes i get a bit of mitch hedberg’s style from aziz… don’t understand why anyone would think peters and ansari would have similar styles anyway