Asim Chaudhry: 2021 Mangoprism Person of the Year

For the last two years my favorite TV show has been People Just Do Nothing, a BBC mockumentary about a clique of man-children who run a shitty pirate radio station in West London called Kurupt FM. The Kurupt FM boys fantasize about mainstream glory yet remain stubbornly devoted to drum & bass and UK garage, commercially outdated strains of club music from the ‘90s and early ‘00s. People Just Do Nothing is a show about the slow death of big dreams, as well as the hijinks that ensue when delusions of grandeur persist.

I first learned about PDJN from the rapper Danny Brown, whose own artistic identity revolves around the fact that, against all odds, he didn’t develop a sustainable rap career until his 30s. “People Just Do Nothing is almost like my music—it’s so fucking funny and self-aware, but also so dark,” Brown said. “I don’t shed too many tears, but [the series] finale definitely struck a chord. For it to end the way it did—with main character MC Grindah realizing that he’s in his 30s and music is moving on without him, and he’ll probably never make it in the industry—that was something that was so close. I was pretty much like that.”

The best character in People Just Do Nothing is Chabuddy G, the relentless grifter played by Asim Chaudhry. A friend, manager, and hype man of Kurupt FM, Chabuds is not beholden to the same musical-biological clock as the group’s narcissistic leader Grindah. He is an undocumented immigrant from Lahore who has assimilated into the rhythms of London life in flamboyant fashion, a self-styled “ultrapaneer” who is constantly concocting new hare-brained schemes big and small. Each venture—the Kurupt FM studio soundproof walls, the knock-off designer T-shirts (“Dolce & Gabbana? Nah mate, Deepak & Gurdev.”), the asbestos-infested DIY nightclub—is doomed to fail. PDJN charts the excruciating downward trajectory of Chabuddy G. In each of the five seasons, his ponytail grows longer and his life takes a new turn for the worse. His Polish mail-order bride Aldona leaves him; he becomes homeless. But the hallmark of Chabuddy is that he never gives up, a testament to his self-delusion, desperation, and determination. He doesn’t change much over the course of the show, even as his prospects grow steadily more bleak. If anything, defeat emboldens him. With nothing to lose, he courts failure with gusto.

Chaudhry met the other creators and cast of People Just Do Nothing during college through music. They conceived the show as a take on the 2004 pirate radio docu-series Tower Block Dreams, filtered through their own experiences in hip hop, pirate radio, and fake garage crews. Chaudhry was known then as a battle rapper, and he operated behind the camera for the show’s early webisodes before debuting Chabuds on-screen, building out the suave persona he sometimes used to prank call brothels.

Chaudhry has notably appeared in DC superhero movies and Stephen Merchant projects, but no matter how far he goes as an actor, he will always have a hard time topping his portrayal of Chabuddy G. It is probably not a coincidence that his most iconic role draws heavily on his own life. Chaudhry has said that Chabuddy is a composite of his own dad, uncles, friends, and supremely overconfident UK comedy characters like Del Boy and Alan Partridge. Chabuddy claims to be the unofficial mayor of Hounslow, the West London melting pot from which Chaudhry hails.

The legend of Chabuddy G still grows in 2021. Earlier this year, BBC Films released People Just Do Nothing: Big In Japan, a film that picks up the threads of Kurupt FM three years after the series ended with a deeply bittersweet sense of closure and new beginnings (including the launch of an exciting new business venture for Chabuds). Chabuddy is still living out of his van when he gets wind that Kurupt’s pugnacious single “Heart Monitor Riddem” has become an unexpected hit in Japan. And so, he jets off to Tokyo with the Kurupt boys to capitalize on this seemingly golden opportunity. 

In the movie, as in the show, Chabuddy shares apocryphal biographical details from his past. For example, we learn that, in the ‘90s, he took over a Hounslow titty bar and saved it from certain economic death. Chabuddy exists in an alternate reality, one of his own invention—and indeed, what a life this man has lived. He’s like the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World™, but the opposite and even more interesting.

This year, the line between reality and fiction for Chabuddy G and Kurupt FM continued to blur. Chaudhry regularly posts as Chabuddy on Instagram and TikTok, dispensing questionable advice and realizing the character’s ultimate destiny as social media personality. The musically talented cast of PJDN put out an album of wall-to-wall Kurupt FM slaps, a showcase of their slick, call-and-response-heavy take on garage that illustrates how the group’s pronounced character flaws, more than the music itself, is the root cause of their depressing lack of success in the show. In the music videos, Chabuddy G can be found bribing used-car salesmen and bopping in the background with his black pleather jacket and Gator-skin shoes. Undoubtedly he is drenched in his “Sean Paul Gaultier” signature cologne. He even stars in his own song, “Aldona,” a funky lament about his ex-wife. (“She was so cold… yet so hot.”)

My own wife can’t stand Chabuddy G. As I’ve rewatched People Just Do Nothing several times in the last couple years, our opposing reactions towards the character has been something of an inside joke. While Chabuddy’s swashbuckling fashion choices, unwarranted confidence, and incessant peacocking tend to nauseate her, these things have brought me great joy. To borrow a phrase from the comedian Jaboukie Young-White, Chabuddy, by his nature, is always raw-dogging reality. As I have maintained a relatively staid lifestyle, his vivid, if pathetic, existence has resonated with me and given me vicarious pleasure. I admire his capacity for adventure. I am drawn to his complicated and largely invisible backstory and his instinct for reinvention. Hope springs eternal in the heart of Chabuddy G. He’s a self-made man, even if he has nothing to show for it. ▩