Comedian Aziz Ansari took to the Saturday Night Live stage at the weekend and, as is tradition among the hosts of the hit show, he used the opportunity to poke fun at the new president.

But behind the veneer of humour was a very poignant, timely message, which has now been viewed almost six million times.

'You can't demonise everyone that voted for Trump," Ansari said.

"We're talking about 63 million people. Don't judge them ... I'm sure there's some people that have different political priorities. I'm sure there's some people who voted for him with reservations.

"The problem is, there is a new group. I'm talking about this tiny slice of people that have gotten way too fired up about the Trump thing for the wrong reasons.

"There's like this new, lower case KKK movement that's started, this kind of casual white supremacy ... I'm talking about these people running around who are saying stuff like, 'Trump won! Go back to Africa', 'Trump won! Go back to Mexico'. They see me, 'Trump won! Go back to ... where you came from'."

Ansari, an American citizen, delivered his routine just days after Trump's inauguration, and on the same day that millions marched in cities around the US and the world in solidarity with women, migrants and Muslims.

"I think part of the problem is, a lot of these people, they just haven't interacted with any brown people in normal life," Ansari said. "The only people they see are just these monsters on the news who are just a drop in the ocean, you know.

"Maybe what needs to happen is, when they do the news report, they should do a second report about some other brown people who are up to normal stuff just to calm those people down."

Ansari also touched on the subject of Islamophobia, devising a very simple solution to see its end.

"A lot of people are Islamophobic ... people are scared," he said.

"Why? Because anytime they watch movies and TV shows and a character is Arabic ... that scary-ass music from 'Homeland' is playing underneath it!

'You want to end Islamophobia? Honestly, just change that music."

Then Ansari rounded on Trump, encouraging him not to take to Twitter to denounce him or the show, but to instead take action.

"I think Trump should make a speech, a real speech denouncing the lower case KKK ... write a real speech because these people are out there and it's pissing a lot of people off," he said.

"Other presidents have done things like this and it has helped, hate crimes and stuff have gone down," Ansari said, referring to a speech George W Bush delivered after 9/11 where he declared "Islam is peace".

After acknowledging how ludicrous it was that he might find himself celebrating Bush some 16 years on, Ansari left the audience with a parting message, encouraging them to continue their fight for "basic human decency".

"If you look at our country's history, change doesn't come from presidents," he said.

"Change comes from large groups of angry people and if day one [of Trump's presidency] is any indication, you are part of the largest group of angry people I have ever seen. Good luck to you."