When Aziz Ansari's Master of None premiered on Netflix Nov. 6, the conversation around the 10-episode first season focused largely on its second installment: "Parents." In the episode, Dev (Ansari) and Brian (Kelvin Yu) realize that they don't know much about their immigrant parents -- who, in Ansari's case, are played by his real-life mother and father, Shoukath and Fatima Ansari.
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Throughout the episode, Dev and Brian realize that their parents made innumerable sacrifices in order to give their children a better life. Ansari spoke about this theme further in a Tumblr post that went up following his appearance with his father on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Tuesday.
"Tonight after we did Colbert together [my dad] said: 'This is all fun and I liked acting in the show, but I really just did it so I could spend more time with you.'," Ansari wrote in the post. "I almost instantly collapsed into tears at the thought of how much this person cares about me and took care of me and gave me everything to give me the amazing life I have."
"I felt like a total piece of garbage for all the times I haven’t visited my parents and told them I wanted to stay in New York cause I’d get bored in SC," Ansari continued. "I’m an incredibly lucky person and many of you are as well. Not to beat a dead horse here and sorry if this is cheesy or too sentimental but if your parents are good to you too, just go do something nice for them. I bet they care and love you more than you realize."
Ansari said he had been "overwhelmed" by the response to "Parents" and enriched by how it's improved his relationship with his actual mom and dad.
"I haven’t always had the best, most open relationship with my parents because we are weirdly closed off emotionally sometimes," he added. "But we are getting better. And if you have something like that with your family - I urge you to work at it and get better because these are special people in your life...Enjoy and love these people while you can."
Excuse us while we go call our parents. (Again.)