Chance Yeh/FilmMagicAziz Ansari has a request, y'all: If you're lucky enough to have a parent or parents that love you, let 'em know.
The 32-year-old comedian only recently came to this revelation himself after his real-life mom and dad played his character's parents on his Netflix comedy, Master of None.
Despite having no acting background whatsoever, Fatima Ansari and Dr. Shoukath Ansari have been total hit. As Stephen Colbert told Aziz on Tuesday's The Late Show, "People say your dad—your parents, are like stealing scenes from you."
The Parks and Recreation alum agreed, but as he revealed in a heartfelt Instagram post on Wednesday, it was his experience with his parents behind the scenes that showed him just how lucky he is to have such a supportive mom and dad.
Aziz began by writing that because his dad "took off most of his vacation time for the year to act in Master of None," he was "really relieved this all worked out." But it was after Aziz's dad joined his Late Show interview that Dr. Ansari told his son, "This is all fun and I liked acting in the show, but I really just did it so I could spent more time with you."
When Aziz heard those words, he "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." At the same time, he wrote, "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."
"I'm an incredibly lucky person and many of you are as well," he continued. "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."
Aziz has "been overwhelmed by the response to the Parents episode of our show." What's peculiar, he writes, "is doing that episode and working with my parents has increased the quality of my relationship to my parents IN MY REAL LIFE."
Offscreen, Aziz hasn't always "had the best, most open relationship" with his parents, largely because they "are weirdly closed off emotionally sometimes," he wrote.
But Aziz is proud to say his relationship with his folks is "getting better," and he hopes his fans can learn something from it, too. "...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 and I get terrified when my dad tells me about friends of his, people close to his age, that are having serious health issues, etc." he wrote. "Enjoy and love these people while you can."
Aziz, you're going to make us cry!
Master of None is currently streaming on Netflix.