This is a few days old, but still worth a watch. Aziz Ansari was one of the many standups to perform at the Comedy Central Roast of James Fanco over the weekend. It’s normal and usually acceptable for comedians at roasts to get nasty and personal when joking about the other people in attendance (and not just the roastee), but the jokes made at Ansari’s expense had a certain edge. A certain racist edge.
Throughout the night, Ansari faced a barrage of tired and lazy jokes made at the expense of his Indian heritage and when it was finally his turn to speak, he addressed it head on. “I think it’s so cool that some of you guys were able to travel back in time to 1995 for those Indian jokes you did…Those stereotypes are so outdated, my god. There’s more Indian dudes doing sitcoms than there are running 7/11s. We are straight-up snatching roles from white actors.”
He also remarked on the night’s rampant homophobia, saying, “So many gay jokes about Franco! Apparently, if you’re clean and mildly cultured, you’re super gay now.”
Fair points all around, but Andy Samberg did land one particularly good Indian joke that night when he said, “Aziz’s parents are from India and he’s from South Carolina. Hey Aziz, what’s it like to have a unique perspective on what it means to be American, you bag of shit?” Ya burnt, Ansari!
