Aziz Ansari read fans’ embarrassing first-date texts Monday on Jimmy Fallon's "Tonight Show" in a hilarious real-life showing of men's attempts at wooing women.
The segment was in honor of Ansari’s newly released book, "Modern Romance: An Investigation," and was inspired by actual texts that fans tweeted to the comedian. Ansari said he wrote the book, which functions as a dating guide for the technology-dependent world with a special emphasis on texting, because no one was ever taught
real texting etiquette, according to the New York Daily News.
The "Parks and Recreation" star worked with Eric Kilinenberg, a New York University sociologist, to determine why people still have so much trouble finding love when technological platforms like OKCupid and Tinder are meant to help.
“I didn't want this book to be, you know, just for single people . . . who are out there now, but I wanted to kind of do an overview of dating and
relationships as a whole,” Ansari told NPR in an interview this week.
On the "Tonight Show," Fallon set the mood for the "First Textual Experience" segment by lighting candles on a rose petal-covered table between him and his guest. The host then asked Ansari about why the “first text” is so important in the dating world.
“That’s something that a lot of people fret about: ‘What’s the first thing I should say?’ What we did for the book was really interesting, we looked at people’s real phones, like we had all these women and men show us their real exchanges, and it was really surprising the kind of bozo texts a lot of dudes send," Ansari said. "It seems like a very simple thing to just say: ‘Hey, would you like to do this specific thing at this specific time, you were nice’ or whatever, but most dudes are just writing very weird things or saying ‘Hey’, ‘What are you doing?’, ‘Hey.'"
The segment evoked a positive Twitter response among fans, who could not get enough of the relatable short.
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