Saturday Night Live Aziz Ansari Analysis

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Aziz Ansari, an Indian-American actor and comedian, is best known for his role as Tom Haverford on the NBC series Parks and Recreation. He was invited as a comedian to talk on the American television show “Saturday Night Live,” a day after the inauguration of Donald Trump. In his performance, Ansari discusses several factors that contribute to rising racial problems that appear after Donald Trump’s election as president. He points out that a certain group of people, “lowercase KKK”, is rising and now uses Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda to spread hate. Ansari urges president Trump to make an official speech to calm the upsetting citizens of America by addressing the racial tension and the rise of “lowercase KKK" group. Aziz Ansari uses the opportunity as host of SNL to assure people that even with Donald Trump as president, we are all going to be just fine because president doesn’t make or break this country, the people do (Ansari). Ansari’s performance was successful because he utilizes different theories to comfort the people who are scared about Donald Trump and address different uncommon problems that arise due to Donald Trump as president. Even though Ansari’s comedy might offend Trump supporters, especially white supremacy groups, his performance brings light to controversial issues that some overlook and some fear.
Before I begin my analysis, it’s important to understand the context of the monologue and the main
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We can best understand Ansari’s performance through three theories: incongruity, benign violation and identity theory. The incongruity theory can clearly be seen in the way Ansari addresses the unspoken truths of the aftermath of the election (Critchley 123). Philosopher Simon Critchley explains that “in order for the incongruity of the joke to be seen as such, there has to be a congruence between

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