I first discovered Hasan Minhaj when I watched his Netflix stand up comedy special, Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King. I was instantly attached, never had I been able to relate to a comedian so easily. In his comedy special he tells the story that was so relatable to me, as I felt like I was going through the same thing living in a brown household in high school. I have been following him since, and when I heard that he was going to start a weekly show, to talk about whatever random topic he chose, I was ecstatic.
Every week on the show Hasan picks a new topic to dive into, exposing the harsh truths about the topic, and how it affects society. He chooses to inform his audience about the topic in the most interesting and comedic way, which allows the audience to stay engaged. One of the best parts of the show is that there is a live audience, so everyone’s reactions are pure and immediate to when the facts are being revealed. I was lucky enough to actually be a part of his audience on one of his shows. The stage for the show does live up to the hype and is very magnificent.
Some of the topics that he has discussed on his show have been the Indian Election, Supreme, and Student Loans. This just shows to go the broad variety of topics that he will discuss and bring light to for his audience. For example, in his episode on the Indian Election, he exposes a lot of corruption that goes on in the Indian government. He even interviews a member of the Indian parliament and asks him if his murder allegations were in fact true. His interviews are always light-hearted while finding a unique way to get the truth.
Hasan’s show is groundbreaking as he is the first Indian-American to host a weekly comedy show. This has paved the way for Asians as Lilly Singh better known as Super Women on youtube has received her own late-night talk, “A Little Late with Lilly Singh” on NBC. I would really recommend watching this show especially if you are interested in any of the topics that he covers. Hasan always makes his shows very entertaining while keeping them very informative at the same time. Although Hasan Minhaj is a great comedian, my favorite part of the show definitely has to be his amazing stage.
I first saw Hasan on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah (I think) and I always thought he had a very funny and interesting way of looking at things and getting to the bottom of stories. I haven’t seen his stand-up comedy or his show, but I will definitely want to check them out after reading this.
Although, I have never watched Patriot Act I am interested to start because I heard Aziz Asari reference his show in his stand up comedy act. It is interesting how he is able to pick a new topic every show so that his show is almost completely different every week. It also sound cool how well Hasan incorporates technology into his talk show!