Goodbye to Patriot Act, a comedy show that was a different kind of laugh

If you want to watch a TV show that catches up on the latest news with a healthy amount of jokes and comically bad photo shops, you have many choices. There is The Daily Show With Trevor Noah on Comedy Central, TBSs Full frontal with Samantha Bee, and HBOs Last week last night wwith John Oliver. This week, however, there is one lesser option: Netflix has been canceled Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, a show that superficially did not appear to be anything but different from its competitors, but with every half-hour installation it proved to be the best.

In 2020, it may be difficult to watch these shows. As clever as the jokes can be and as deep as they can dig into under-seen issues, current events have become unimaginably gloomy, and the political response of the United States to them was more horrific than our darkest satirical thoughts could have imagined. This kind of programming feels like a relic from another era, the young liberal response to Fox News, the exchange of racism and intrusion for sensible humor and fact-checked information. However, the ultimate goal is the same: a bowl for our collective anger, even if that anger was motivated by a desire for a more equal world.

Patriot Act felt different, however. Patriot Act used to be al crazy, and it knew you were that too. It was not interesting to keep you informed about something new, but all of that already scares you to get through the day? The show wanted to break things down into its various parts and tell you what could be done about it.

Elections, college, retirement, streaming media, public transportation, video game harassment, drug prices, student loans – all topics that most viewers of Patriot Act must already be around and do not need expertise to understand how broken they are. The show’s June 28 episode – its de facto finale – was titled “Why Doing Taxes Is So Hard,” and it serves as a good summary of what the show had to offer: a dive into something so thoroughly spoiled. en so simply that the exam was elusive, brought to you by an ebullient and energetic man with great comic timing and an even better stylist. What’s more, as the report is based on the was, it had a shelf life: doing taxes is long suck, and chances are that does not change!

Minhaj and the Patriot Act team also worked to center non-white perspectives, thereby validating non-white anger on a world that is clearly designed to exclude them. It’s a subtle thing, but in the space of late night comedy shows where the (white) subtext is often we should not even have to worry about this, Minhaj’s show took the time to look at immigrant children and tenants for diversity from a place of understanding: you know this game, so let’s find the cleanest way through.

Photo by Cara Howe / Netflix

It also helped that Minhaj – a ridiculously insulting man who, even in comic performances like Homecoming King seemed to want nothing more than to run from one end of a giant stage to the other and talk about his top five favorite sneakers – actually gone crazy. That is not to say that his colleagues were not angry (anger burns coal for laughter in this genre), but Minhaj’s stage persona is one that comes across as paper thin: he says something, and then you see what he thinks about you assertion on his face, clear as day.

This made Patriot Act feel much more conversational. Minhaj’s emotions followed with you, and the show modulated with them. It helped that the show did not position itself as a neutral host, but as an individual. Minhaj often made it clear that his identity influenced his perspective, centering (as calling) the South Asian community whenever possible.

It does not seem like there is saving Patriot Act, at least at his present home. Talkshows do not work on Netflix, en Patriot Act already got an extra seven episodes above the first sequence of 32 episodes. However, there is something comforting that it will live there, a collection of mostly greenless stories that all begin with the same intro: hip-hop-inspired horns that blare as the chaos of our modern world surrounds this skinny brown guy, confused that he has to lay it all out, but about to give it his best shot.