Aziz Ansari

""Seventy-two thread count! You didn't think I was gonna count that shit?! If this was a drug deal, I would've shot Hotel Luxury Linens in the face!""

- Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, "MTV's Next"



Aziz Ansari began performing stand-up comedy in the early 2000s, after moving to New York City to study marketing at NYU. His act steers clear of ethnic humor most of the time and instead focuses a lot on pop culture, technology, and his experiences around celebrities such as his friend Kanye West.

He co-created and starred in Human Giant, which ran for two seasons on MTV, and currently stars in Amy Poehler's sitcom Parks and Recreation. In 2009 he played a small but memorable role as an obnoxious stand-up comedian named Randy in Judd Apatow's Funny People, and subsequently signed a deal with Apatow to write and star in three new movies. In 2011, Ansari along with Jesse Eisenberg, starred in main roles in the comedy film 30MinutesorLess.


 * Dead Baby Comedy: More prevalent on Human Giant than in his own stand-up, particularly in the "Shutterbugz" sketches, which featured himself and Rob Huebel as nasty child-actor agents.
 * Hidden Depths: Usually comedians have one, as for Ansari, he graduated from New York University with a major in marketing.
 * Large Ham: Turned Up to Eleven with his Funny People character.
 * Leisure Suit Larry: Not so much in Real Life, but most of his film and television characters are variations of this trope. Parks and Recreation's Tom Haverford is a prime example.
 * Older Than They Look: At first glance, he could pass for his mid-twenties, but he's actually nearing 30.
 * Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Anyone familiar with Ansari's style of stand-up knows that he does this a lot near or during punchlines.
 * Self-Deprecation: Does this once in a while.
 * Take That: "Most shows on MTV aren't really my cup of tea. Mostly because I don't like giant pieces of shit in my tea." (Coming from a guy who had a show on MTV for two years and subsequently hosted the network's Movie Awards.)