Am I biased? Sure. After all, what's prompting this blog post is a recent episode dedicated to corruption in cricket. As Minhaj delved into the ruckus that the Indian Premier League has caused, and how the BCCI has undue influence over international cricket and stifles the ability of smaller nations to join the game, I was in heaven. But don't worry - he doesn't just do Indian news (though when he covered the Indian elections, I did immediately make my father watch it and then ask my grandma who she was voting for). Patriot Act borrows its DNA from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - it's a short half hour that is generally dedicated to a single topic, at the most two, and ranges broadly from domestic to international issues. But the two hosts couldn't be more different, which is why while the shows may be alike, the viewing experience is completely unique.
Minhaj doesn't sit behind a desk - he follows the Samantha Bee model of standing up throughout the show, which instantly gives it a different kind of energy. However, while Bee generally stands in one place while she delivers an indignant rant about how women are being screwed over by the US government again, Minhaj tends to roam around the stage, looking at different cameras, pointing to audience members who crack up at certain jokes or get way too excited about a cricket reference (that would be me if I ever made it to a taping). It's a bit like watching a stand-up act, except a rather depressing one in which you learn that no one is saving the rainforest.
There's a lot of news these days, and none of it is good. As such, I like my news delivered to me by intelligent comedians, who don't beat around the bush but at least make me laugh while they enumerate the many ways in which we are heading to Armageddon. With Patriot Act, I get the additional joy of getting my news delivered from an Indian Muslim man who is very American in terms of swagger but can still pull off a joke where he points to a picture of a corrupt Goldman Sachs banker and goes, "Look at this gulab jamun with glasses." I died.
Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj is a continuing lesson in the importance of diversifying the late night landscape. This isn't a saturated market - there's more than enough news for everyone to cover, but the trouble is we seem to keep hiring white guys to cover it. When you hand the reins over to new voices, they report on new stories, open up different parts of the globe to you, explain old problems with a new perspective, and force you to be a little less myopic. Come on gulab jamun, take those glasses off and let Hasan Minhaj broaden your horizons.
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