Comedy lost one of its underrated greats on Friday, as the death of writer, producer and comedian Harris Wittels from a suspected drug overdose was reported.
Long time friend, collaborator and co-star on Parks and Recreation, Aziz Ansari, has remembered Wittels in a touching tribute to the writer on Tumblr: retelling jokes, stories and snippets from Wittels’ life that make his loss all the more difficult to swallow.
“I don’t know when my brain is going to be able to process the terrible feeling that fills my heart with dread and my eyes with tears every 20 seconds when I realize this very special person is really gone,” Ansari begins.
Ansari also wrote about an unrealised film project written by Wittels that was intended to star Ansari and Danny McBride, with a script where “every page had a huge laugh.”
“But, after that, any time I worked on anything, I insisted that Harris Wittels be one of the writers. He was the first name I asked for every time. When I worked on the MTV Movie Awards. Those Randy videos for Funny People. Anytime I did a dumb commercial. Any time I needed to get joke writers, I always asked for Harris to help because he was truly the best of the best. And I was so lucky that he always said yes.”
Aziz Ansari also told of the tragically unexpected nature of Wittels’ death, saying:
“We knew Harris had issues with addiction but things were pointing in the right direction. He was getting treatment and focused on his career and the opportunities ahead. It all seemed to point in the right direction. We were all about to move to New York together in March to have great fun and make great work. He was excited. I was excited. It all seemed perfect. He just found an apartment on Monday.”
Rest in peace, Harris Wittels. You can read Aziz Ansari’s full post over here.
And here’s one of my favourite moments from Wittels’ on-screen stints for Parks and Recreation. He’ll be missed.
