Aziz Ansari has had the kind of career you'd expect to see from a guy who's 35 or so, not from someone who's only four years out of business school.

The 26-year-old comedian's profile has risen quickly over the last couple of years. From being an up-and-coming stand-up star playing the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York, the last three years have seen him do two seasons of MTV's 'Human Giant,' a half-season as lazy intern Ed on the eighth season of 'Scrubs,' a big role as awful stand-up comic Randy in Judd Apatow's 'Funny People,' a one-hour stand-up special on Comedy Central, and a season and a half as Tom Haverford on 'Parks and Recreation.'

I caught up with Ansari at NBC's all-star press party last month and asked him about how his character, who plays the scheming right-hand man of the earnest Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), has developed since the show started, and what's next for a guy who's done a lot in such a short period of time.

26-year-old actor/comedian Aziz Ansari is riding a wave most of his peers can only dream about. As the lecherous, sarcastic Tom Haverford on NBC's 'Parks and Recreation,' Ansari has received critical acclaim and helped dispel any thoughts of an 'Office'-type knockoff.

The former co-creator of MTV sketch comedy show 'Human Giant,' Ansari now shuffles his time between 'Parks,' movie roles and stand-up ('Aziz Ansari: Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening,' his first CD/TV special, airs on Comedy Central Jan. 17.) Most recently, the writer sold three film ideas to Judd Apatow and Universal Pictures, including a spinoff of his popular Raaaaaaaandy character from last year's 'Funny People.'

We caught up with Anzari right before Thanksgiving from his family's home in Charlotte, NC, where he's "looking forward to my mother's cooking and hanging out with my cousins for a few days."

Mad TV came along at a time in American television history when America had an excuse to get out of the house and live healthy and productive lives on Saturday night.

But eventually, the show evolved into a 60-minute scream fest of recurring characters spouting catchphrases over and over and celebrity satire that taught lessons about the proliferation of pop culture and ignorance. Important lessons, such as "Boy is Anna Nicole Smith dumb and fat!" and "Hey, is that Paris Hilton a whore or what?" Every episode felt like a hand was reaching out of the TV and rubbing a cheese grater across my face. Now 14 years after its inception, Fox has finally decided to pull the plug on Mad TV and let it die a slow horrible death instead of taking it out Old Yeller-style, the way God intended.

Aziz Ansari seems to be the hottest name around Hollywood casting circles. According to Variety, the stand-up comedian, who's also one-third of the MTV's acclaimed sketch team Human Giant, has been cast in the upcoming Office spin-off. He's also signed a one-year talent hold deal with Universal Media Studios.

What's interesting about this news is that Ansari was also tapped to play one of the new interns on the eighth season of Scrubs, which is produced by and will now air on ABC. What I'm guessing is that, since Scrubs will finish shooting in August, this deal will start after his deal with the veteran medical comedy ends. If there happens to be a ninth season of the show, as Bill Lawrence told me might happen, I'd imagine he'd come back after his Universal deal ends or they'll just replace him with someone else.

Considering that MTV seems to cater to nothing but teenagers, how did two thirtysomethings and a very mature 25 year-old end up making one of the network's most popular shows?

By being funny. Damn funny, in fact.

Rob Huebel, Aziz Ansari, and Paul Scheer (l-r), otherwise known as Human Giant, are entering their second season on the cable network, starting tomorrow night at 11 PM ET. I spoke to the guys by telephone last week as they were doing a round of promotion for their second season, as well as the DVD of the first season, which was released on March 4.

Tidbits from the interview, and audio clips, are after the jump.

It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to anyone that Human Giant, the new sketch comedy series for MTV, has been granted a second season.

In order to drum up more interest in the show, MTV turned the network over to the Human Giant men: Aziz Ansari, Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer for 24 hours and told them they had to garner one million hits on their Web site if they wanted a second season. Of course, taking into consideration lines from the press release like, "fans can also show up in Times Square to deliver a pizza counting for 80 hits, or carving Paul Scheer's face into Mount Rushmore for the entire million hits" it's obvious the series was going to be renewed all along. Still, it's nice to hear an official announcement.

So I told you that on May 18 Human Giant would be taking the reins of MTV and MTV2 for 24 hours starting at noon on May 18.

A rather amusing press release has it that MTV will give the series --which features actors Paul Scheer, Aziz Ansari and Rob Huebel-- a second season if they get one million hits on their MTV site. A snippet from the release:

Okay, so back on May 9 I found an interview with Human Giant's Paul Scheer (via CC Insider) in which Scheer said that he and his partners in crime, Aziz Ansari and Rob Huebel, would be taking over MTV for a whole 24 hours starting at noon on May 18. I couldn't find anything on MTV's site about it, and then I got distracted by something shiny and wound up forgetting about it.

Well, today The Coming cited an actual e-mail from Scheer himself that makes things a little less vague. It reads:

I think MTV is going after the YouTube generation with its latest programming decisions. Earlier this week, the network announced it had picked up eight episodes of a sketch comedy show called Nick Cannon: Short Circuitz. Now, it has also picked up a sketch/short film comedy series by internet viral video creators, Human Giant. The comedy group produces short films that MTV describes as "recklessly hilarious". Some of the group's most popular clips include Shutterbugs and The Illusionators. The comedy troupe also has a big following in New York where they do live shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade theatre. I checked out the videos and I recognize one of the cast members, Rob Huebel, as the Inconsiderate Cell Phone Guy shown before movies who says, "It's pronounced kah-rah-tay." The first eight episodes are scheduled to air in early 2007.