Mindy Kaling Defends Aziz Ansari After Backlash For Attending A Show

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Mindy Kaling Comes To Her Friend Aziz Ansari’s Defense

Mindy Kaling going to fellow comedian Aziz Ansari’s show on Friday night sparked a heated debate between the the actress and her fans about defending those who have been accused of sexual assault.

The latest performance on Ansari’s Road to Nowhere tour drew the likes of Mindy Kaling, who went as far as posting a photo of her ticket stub on Instagram, with the caption “Funniest s**t ever.” Unsurprisingly, a large number of both Kaling’s fans and critics decided to chime in on her continued support for Ansari throughout the backlash he’s faces following sexual assault accusations.

But Mindy definitely didn’t back down.

Kaling spent the rest of the night doubling down on her support for Ansari and her decision to attend his stand-up show. “I’m a feminist and standing up for women is very important to me,” she said in response to one of the comments. “I’m not rehabbing him Bc I think he did a fine job doing it himself.”

She also made a point of deleting certain comments she took offense to, including one which compared Ansari to R. Kelly: “I think comparing Aziz to R. Kelly was offensive and degrading to the victims of R. Kelly, so yeah, I deleted it,” the actress wrote, according to reports from BuzzFeed.

This all stems from a story back in 2018, when Ansari was the subject of an article written by a woman he allegedly pressured into having sex with him. The woman claimed that Ansari failed to acknowledge both “verbal and non-verbal cues” that indicated she was not comfortable being intimate with him. But unlike most cut-and-dry stories, Ansari’s case had many readers scratching their heads on what is and isn’t consent, along with what is and isn’t sexual assault.

Earlier this month, the comedian addressed the incident for the first time since releasing his initial statement once the allegations were published. He repeatedly apologized and signaled that he had spent a long time reflecting on his behavior. “There were times I felt really upset and humiliated and embarrassed, and ultimately I just felt terrible this person felt this way,” Aziz reportedly told a crowd in New York City.

“I definitely don’t separate the art from the artist,” Kaling wrote to someone else in another response. “His experience has shaped his art and he talked about [it] eloquently. I hope you check it out.”