Did you catch the 'Flight of the Conchords' reference on 'Master of None?'
LatestMaster of None, Aziz Ansari’s new Netflix series, is really good. You should watch it! When you do—and when you get to the fourth episode, “Indians on TV”—keep an eye out for this scene:
After experiencing racism from a TV producer, Dev (Ansari) and his friend Ravi (Ravi Patel), both actors, pay a visit to an anti-discrimination advocacy group.
If that set looks familiar, you’re more than likely a fan of Flight of the Conchords, the HBO series that starred Bret Mackenzie and Jemaine Clement as fictionalized versions of themselves. The struggling musicians frequently visited Murray (Rhys Darby), their band manager and New Zealand’s deputy cultural attaché, in his shabby office with wood-paneled walls.
This is a delightfully fitting reference for a few reasons—one of which being that, in 2007, Aziz appeared on Flight of the Conchords as a fruit vendor who refused to sell to Bret and Jemaine because he believed they were Australian.
In an episode of Master of None that questions why a TV show can’t cast two Indian leads without becoming an Indian show, there’s a subtle satisfaction in seeing a more diverse take on a familiar tableau.Molly Fitzpatrick is senior editor of Fusion’s Pop & Culture section. Her interests include movies about movies, TV shows about TV shows, and movies about TV shows, but not so much TV shows about movies.