‘I felt scared, embarrassed’: Watch comedian Aziz Ansari’s response to sexual misconduct allegations
Ansari cracked a joke on how he wants people to confuse him with comedian-satirist Hasan Minhaj over sexual misconduct too.
On his new Netflix special #RightNow, Aziz Ansari opens the show by addressing the allegations that were first published by https://t.co/AWTQUHcyJ4 a few years back. Here's the clip in its entirety pic.twitter.com/HHkDAxbske
— James Shotwell (@jamesdshotwell) July 9, 2019
Comedian Aziz Ansari’s new Netflix special was released on July 9, almost a year after he was accused of sexual misconduct. In January 2018, an anonymous account on website Babe.net had accused Ansari of forcing a woman to unwillingly perform sexual acts during a date. He has spoken about the incident and how it affected him on his new Netflix comedy show Aziz Ansari: Road To Nowhere.
“There were times when I felt scared, times I felt humiliated, times I felt embarrassed,” Ansari says right at the opening of his show. “Ultimately, I just felt terrible that this person felt this way,” he adds.
Ansari goes on to call the incident a “good thing” if it forced people to rethink “all their dates”.
The routine was substantially similar to portions of Ansari’s stand-up act during his recent tour of India.
Some social media users, however, were not too amused with Ansari’s “remorseless acknowledgement of the allegations”.
Aziz Ansari felt scared, embarassed, and humiliated, and as a whole, felt terrible. He never felt apologetic.
— Maybe next time, you'll estimate me (@iamdatemike) July 10, 2019
He also takes credit for men rethinking their dates.
This, and the hundreds applauding him as he jokes about sexual misconduct is textbook male privilege. https://t.co/Eh8DTDFRrT
Shame on @netflix for giving #azizansari a platform
— Taron Egerton Updates (@UpdatesTaron) July 9, 2019
Hey, @azizansari, maybe you should have:
— Arjun Sethi (@arjunsethi81) July 9, 2019
-said you're sorry
-not joked about consent & assault
-expressed solidarity with survivors everywhere
-been genuine not performative
-not made this an addendum to a Netflix comedy special
-donated some of your proceeds to Time's Up https://t.co/pBaeElRMBj