Aziz Ansari's Amazing Tribute To His Friend Harris Wittels Is Really A Must Read
When the news Harris Wittels died came out on Thursday/Friday, I was like “I know that name, but I’m not sure why I know it”. I knew he was a comedian, but wasn’t sure why I knew that. I’m like that for a lot of people though. For example I have heard the name Joan Cusack a million times, but couldn’t really tell you one thing about her.
Well after reading Aziz’s tribute to his friend Harris Wittels, I spent about 5 hours last night listening to a ton of Wittles’ stuff. And now I’m pissed I didn’t know exactly how funny he was sooner. Just downright hilarious. Besides writing a ton of Parks and Rec, you can listen to his Foam Corners on CBB, him on 100 other different podcasts, and tons of other things on YouTube. On the “You Made It Weird” podcast he told the story of getting hooked multiple times on heroin, relapsing, and how he bought it for the first time. Absolutely incredible story telling- honest, funny, and interesting. You can listen to that here. The fact he replied all to all the execs, suits, everyone at NBC on the below email is just perfect.
As you might know, I’m a bit of a comedy nerd. It always amazes me how many people out there are just so fucking funny. And Aziz says Harris was the funniest of them all. And so few people had heard of him, kind of including myself. Aziz tweeted last night about scripts Harris had written that never saw the light of day. That’s one thing about Hollywood/writers that has always both amazed and perplexed me: there are millions of scripts that just nobody ever sees. Aziz is saying this script Harris wrote is one of the funniest things he’s ever read, and literally 5 or so people ever actually got to see it. Can’t imagine the feeling of writing something so funny and it going to waste like that. It’s always been the weirdest thing to me.
Fuck! I cut that other scene short. Please read all three. Of course Wittels had another killer joke to go out on. pic.twitter.com/8YvmOhHti7
— Aziz Ansari (@azizansari) February 21, 2015
Really sucks for the comedy world to lose someone who was so talented. Don’t do heroin, kids. Just don’t do it.