Emmys 2016: Master of None wins best comedy writing

Chalk one up for Master of None: The Netflix breakout won Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series at the 68th annual Emmy Awards in Los Angeles Sunday.

“Wow,” said executive producer Alan Yang. “Thank you very much to everyone who worked on the show.”

Yang continued: “There’s 17 million Asian Americans, and there’s 17 million Italian Americans.”

Then he pointed out how many more projects are about the latter than the former, making a plea for Asian American parents to buy their kids cameras instead of violins. “We got Long Duk Dong,” he joked, “so we’ve got a long way to go!”

The music started playing before Ansari had the chance to speak, but he ended up taking the mic for a brief moment after all.

“I just want to say… Oh man, you guys are in trouble,” said Ansari, who ran off stage.

via GIPHY

via GIPHY

The golden statuette went to Ansari and Yang for “Parents,” an early season episode about how millennials — particularly those in immigrant families — relate to their parents. Creator, writer, and star Aziz Ansari’s own mother and father made guest appearances, and Yang included his father’s story in an episode titled “Parents.”“The ‘Parents’ episode was one of the first ideas we had for the show,” Ansari told reporters backstage after their win. “We were just walking around the city, and Alan told me this story about his dad having to kill his pet chicken and eat it. And I was like, that’s incredible… So here we are, young guys, trying to think of funny stuff to write into a TV show, and then we really talked to our parents and kind of heard their stories. It’s something we probably wouldn’t have done unless we were doing that episode. I wouldn’t have known some of those stories, and so to hear that and then write about it and have people connect to it so much was a pretty incredible experience.”

Yang added, “My dad texted me as soon as we won the award tonight, and I texted him back and said, ‘Thank you.’ Because I basically just transcribed his story, and they gave me an award for it. So kudos to Dr. Yang for that.”

“And those people in South Carolina who were mean to my parents — shout out to them!” said Ansari.

Though fresh to the Emmys after a November 2015 debut, Master of None was one of the most buzzed about and critically praised shows of the year. It follows a 30-year-old actor named Dev (Ansari) as he navigates life in New York City. It’s landed several major nominations, including a Golden Globe nod for Ansari as Best Actor in a Television Series (Comedy or Musical), and won a Peabody. It was also up for four total Emmys this year, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Oustanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and Oustanding Directing for a Comedy Series.

Master of None outshone several promising contenders in its category, besting hit British sitcom Catastrophe, tech-centric HBO series Silicon Valley, and the Julia Louis-Dreyfus-led Veep, which took home the prize at last year’s show.