After Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said that he did not receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Aziz Ansari poked some fun at the football player in a new stand-up comedy special.
In a new snippet of Netflix’s Aziz Ansari: Nightclub Comedian shared to YouTube on Tuesday (Jan. 25), Ansari asks the crowd what they thought of Rodgers. After receiving a slew of boos and swears from the audience, the comedian said, “Let’s calm down. He’s a football player.”
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He continued, “He read some articles, he got skeptical, he did some research. Are you stunned he came to the wrong conclusion? Did you really think he was going to crack the case? Did you think [Dr. Anthony] Fauci was going to be out there like, ‘I just got off the phone with Aaron Rodgers.’”
Ansari’s bit was in reference to Rodgers’ November 2021 Pat McAfee Show interview, in which he “set the record straight” after telling reporters he was “immunized” despite not getting the vaccine. “It wasn’t some sort of ruse or lie, it was the truth,” he explained. “Had there been a follow-up to my statement that I had been immunized, I would have responded with this. I would have said, ‘Look, I’m not, you know some sort of anti-vaxx, flat-earther. I am somebody who is a critical thinker.’”
The athlete said he was allergic to an ingredient in the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna), and did not want to receive the Johnson & Johnson shot because he “had heard of multiple people who had had adverse events around getting the J&J.”
Instead, Rodgers said he had taken ivermectin, a drug used mostly to treat or prevent parasites in animals. The FDA has not authorized or approved the drug for COVID-19.
“I’m not an anti-vaxx, flat-earther.. I have an allergy to an ingredient that’s in the mRNA vaccines. I found a long term immunization protocol to protect myself & I’m very proud of the research that went into that” ~@AaronRodgers12#PatMcAfeeShowLIVE pic.twitter.com/FDMmI5rZmO
— ????️at McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) November 5, 2021
Ansari went on to joke that Rodgers came off “a little arrogant” in the interview. “He’s out there saying, ‘Oh, you know, I’m a critical thinker,’” he said. “Oh no! Was he, like, running the scientific method?”
The comedian then briefly mentioned Nicki Minaj, who tweeted in September that she would not be attending the Met Gala because she did not receive the COVID-19 vaccine, per the event’s requirements. She also famously referred to her Trinidadian cousin, who “won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied.”
My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 13, 2021
Minaj later added that she’d “def recommend” others get the vaccine before encouraging people to “wear the mask with 2 strings that grips your head & face. Not that loose one.”
“I don’t think [Rodgers], Nicki Minaj, any of these people are idiots,” Ansari shared. “I’m not here to say that. I just think they’re trapped in a different algorithm than you are. You know what I mean by that? If you’re calling them idiots, you’re trapped in another algorithm.”
The Master of None star encouraged the crowd to have “empathy” for those who have different opinions. “Maybe click on some of the stuff they click on for a few days. See what’s going on,” he concluded, before jokingly warning, “Don’t go too hard, though. End of the week, you’ll be out there like, ‘Fauci’s a pedophile!”
See Ansari’s Nightclub Comedian clip below.
