Funny Bro: Aziz Ansari

By Ned Hepburn on February 8th, 2010

Aziz-lg Aziz Ansari is a comedian. He is also an actor, and can be seen on the show “Parks & Recreation.” Now that I have that out of the way, allow me to demonstrate his career trajectory from when I first heard of him until now, present day.

I heard about him on an mp3 blog, of all things. Someone posted some stand up of his based on the popular singer M.I.A. and his crush on her. I thought it was pretty funny. Nobody really tells indie-music jokes. I made a note.
Couple of months later, he pops up on my radar in a sketch about a guy working at a record store. More indie music nerd jokes.
He appears in the MTV sketch show “Human Giant,” which was pretty good, although I can’t say I watched more than three episodes of it.
I randomly saw him do stand-up at the Hollywood Improv. He tells a joke about text messages that I remember at parties and tell people.
Here’s where it gets crazy. He gets a part in the Judd Apatow movie “Funny People,” playing a loudmouth comedian named “Raaaaaaaandy” who skewers the whole Def Jam Comedy act, and performs with a DJ on stage. He’s in the movie for about three minutes total, although he’s one of the more memorable parts.
He gets the part on “Parks & Rec.”
He appears in GQ in a fashion spread.
He puts out this comedy album “Intimate Moments For A Sensual Evening.”

I tell you all this because watching him at the Hollywood Improv, he was nervous and skittish, unsure of his jokes. Watching his new comedy album / DVD — he uses the same joke about text messages, but seems to be infinitely more confident — if anything — like his character ‘Raaaaaaandy’ in the movie Funny People. It’s a lot like going to, say, a Nirvana show in 1991 and hearing them play Sheila E. songs.

My point is this. Has Aziz become Raaaaaaaandy? Gone are the indie nerd jokes, and instead is the in your face jokes that Raaaaaandy would tell, albeit with a GQ cut suit and a little more than a nod to the fact that barely 18 months ago he was performing onstage in a hoodie and jeans talking about being too nervous to talk to girls at bars. Or something. To be honest, his set at the Improv wasn’t that memorable. The thing is that he’s using the same and similar jokes to that set, they’re just turned up to 10. This works for Aziz Ansari, I just find it extremely interesting that he assimilated his most popular character into his act.