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Aziz Ansari Pens a Touching Tribute to His Father

It’s all there within a simple interaction: the inability to communicate, the innocent ignorance, the guilt. And he needs to get there early to see the trailers.

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The critically acclaimed second episode, which juxtaposes his frustrations with his parents’ failure to grasp technologies and niceties of life in the United States with their experiences in India and their sacrifices for their son, reads as slightly moralistic and heavyhanded, but it’s still a point well-taken. Hollywood isn’t just white. Dev’s father responds. “Fun is a luxury only your generation really has”. The subjects he takes on episode-to-episode probably stand out the most, as he provides, through comedy, scathing indictments on our treatments of the elderly, our relationships, how we deal with our parents, the differences in men and women, and so much more. He explained the necessity for that episode and the low numbers of lead roles for ethnicities in an editorial for The NY Times as well. With characters, not caricatures.

The show (which everyone needs to spend this weekend binge-watching, OK?) follows Dev, a 30-year-old actor played by Ansari.

It’s been an unbelievable year for Aziz Ansari.

Additionally, kids should grow up seeing themselves reflected in a variety of characters because data shows that it’s good not just for them but for all kids to understand that skin color is not associated with any one type of character.

After the first season debuted, Ansari wrote an essay for the NY Times addressing this same issue, and calling out Hollywood for only casting straight white actors even though 40% of the population are minorities. We gotta get a robot that has an American accent! But finally we can see that universal story told through this particular lens and treating these immigrant parents with dignity and respect. Odds are you’re not a TV executive (unless you are, in which – bam! – you know what to do here).

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But as important as such shows were in terms of milestones and firsts, they were limited in scope. Everyone has flaws and everyone is doing the best they can while, from time-to-time, getting distracted by texts and iPads. Just like in real life.

The actor’s father, who is a doctor, even used up most of his vacation days from work to make time for the show. “I wanted the parents to feel real”, Ansari said. The comedian writes that he “almost instantly collapsed into tears at the thought of how much this person cares about [him]” and “gave [him] everything”.

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He also reminded fans to enjoy and love the people in their family while they can. They are awesome, ‘ tweeted one viewer, while another said: ‘@azizansari’s Master of None “Parents” episode is attractive, and devastating and amusing.

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