Have you ever seen R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet epic hip-hopera?:

And this is just one chapter! There are 12 chapters (so far; the saga hasn’t ended yet.)

And as if that wasn’t funny enough, on Saturday night, at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, Ulysses S. Ferrero (Aziz Ansari) and Eliot Rosenblatt (Eric Appel) put together a group of experts to watch and comment on this great masterpiece as it was inducted into the Smithsonian. The panel consisted of a hip hop safety expert, the head of craft services from the filming of TITC(Nick Kroll), the token lesbian, the everyman (Todd Barry) and special guest star, The Closet (David Cross).

The panel listens as the Closet tells his story.

The funniest parts, of course, happened in the videos, but the commentators did a good job of keeping the laughs going between chapters. Kroll and Cross especially had a nice ‘gay guy’ and ‘closet’ symbiosis going, and Barry’s confusion and amusement with his own involvement was entertaining to watch. The UCB was packed, but the beer was cheap and they tried to make room for everyone.

As I was leaving I heard a couple of girls say that they didn’t think the videos needed any extra commentary, and that they should’ve just watched it at home. Those girls are fools. Aziz Ansari’s Trapped in the Closet nights will become legendary. They are already selling out in NY and in LA, and it’s only a matter of time before theatres and comedy clubs all over the country are having midnight screenings.