We live in a network-TV landscape where hit shows like 2 Broke Girls behave as if “edgy” comedy means Asian stereotypes and saying vagina multiple times per episode. Then there’s the Parks and Rec gang, who thrive instead on jubilant comedy-dork experimentation and have turned the show into a mini SNL-style launching pad.
Aziz Ansari is everywhere these days: driving chopped up Maybachs with Jay and Ye, expounding on his love for mac and cheese in Bon Appetit, traveling the country on massive comedy tours, and playing a loveable loser on Parks and Recreation, one of the funniest shows on TV today. He’s also hands down the most stylish comedian in the game, so we talked to him about the dinner jacket he wore to meet POTUS, the best face wash in the world, and the secret source of his boundless energy.
On the eve of the fifth (and final?) season premiere of NBC’s Parks & Recreation, GQ’s Drew Magary spoke with creator Mike Schur about the art of building a great TV sitcom:
GQ: What TV shows are you into?
Mike Schur: We’re huge Game of Thrones fan, huge Breaking Bad fan. I really love Justified. I think that show’s really great.
GQ: Are there any shows that just don’t work for you?
Mike Schur: I prefer to never say the shows that I don’t like, because it feels mean. So there are obviously plenty of shows I don’t like, but I only like to talk about the ones that I do like.
GQ: You’re a good man, Schur.
Mike Schur: I just know how hard it is to make good TV. I’d hate if I just opened a magazine or read some site and some dude I’d never met was just like, “I hate Parks and Rec.” I’d be like, “Come on, dude. What the hell?”
(That You Can’t Do in Socialist Europe or Some Other Backwater)
One of our favorite stories in GQ last year was correspondent Brett Martin’s very very funny account of what happened after Aziz Ansari asked on Twitter if a magazine (or travel channel) would please pay for him, chef David Chang and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy to go to Tokyo and eat food together … and GQ happily volunteered.
Tonight, Brett won a James Beard award for it in the humor category.
(By the way, this was also one of our favorite photos in GQ last year. It’s by Ture Lillegraven)
If you believe the Mayans, 2012 marks the End of Days. But post-apocalyptic life ain’t so bad if you do it right. With scotch. And weed. And lots of animal abuse. In this GQ exclusive, Parks and Recreation’s Nick Offerman and Chris Pratt show us how to persevere. There are 12 steps. The first three are below. The rest are here.
1
Fill the tub with water. For this tub, as well as the contents of your hot-water heater, will be your drinking supply. Fill the sinks with scotch—and cover, obviously.2
If there’s any looting to be done, focus on marijuana dispensaries. If you don’t live in California, that’s too bad. We have marijuana dispensaries.3
Assemble a posse of hooligan underlings, choosing a mix of muscular physiques and corpulent ones. Harvest fat from the chubbies and cook the muscular folks in it. When the fatties run out of cellulite to harvest, they are now prime, lean cooking specimens. Obviously you’ll need to be fattening up new “team members” as you go, perpetuating the savory cycle.
Parks and Recreation’s Snake Juice entrepreneur offers love advice and more.
GQ: Best way to pop the more important question, i.e. “Will you have sex with me?”
Jean-Ralphio: Text; tweet; Friendster post; fortune in a fortune cookie; during a screening of Stuart Little; sign language; Legos; make an adorable 2-year-old hand over a note asking the question for you; as a follow-up question, after she says “no” to “will you marry me.”
GQ: What’s the ideal date?
Jean-Ralphio: Me, Snake Juice, anything by Tyrese or Sisqó playing in the background, waterbed.
GQ: You’re in fifth grade. It’s math class. Julie sends you a note: I think you’re kinda cute.” What’s your next move?
Jean-Ralphio: I pass her a scientific calculator with pre-typed numbers that, when held upside down, spells BOOBIES.
GQ: You’re 83 years old. It’s bingo night. Ethel makes eye contact. What’s your next move?
Jean-Ralphio: I pass her a scientific calculator with pre-typed numbers that, when held upside down, spells BOOBIES.
With her new film Our Idiot Brother arriving in theaters, we figured it was high time to share an outtake from our shoot with Miss Jones earlier this summer. Speaking of the movie and Rashida’s role in it, here’s a bit of trivia she shared with GQ’s Devin Gordon during their talk: those big aviator glasses she wears onscreen were a tribute to GQ’s all-world creative director Jim Moore, who rocks the same pair. Oh and click here for more Rashida photos.
[Photograph by Alexi Lubomirski]
When I was just starting out in TV, the ‘cute guys’ all had these boys’ hairless torsos. It was suggested that I wax.
JD.
Robert Redford in The Great Gatsby [1974]
Kate.
Be still, our little shipper hearts!
![Our Neverending Jones For Rashida
With her new film Our Idiot Brother arriving in theaters, we figured it was high time to share an outtake from our shoot with Miss Jones earlier this summer. Speaking of the movie and Rashida’s role in it, here’s a bit of trivia she shared with GQ’s Devin Gordon during their talk: those big aviator glasses she wears onscreen were a tribute to GQ’s all-world creative director Jim Moore, who rocks the same pair. Oh and click here for more Rashida photos.
[Photograph by Alexi Lubomirski]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqdvpxGz6V1qe6vsbo1_500.jpg)
