"Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj" Doesn't Miss a Step in new Quarantine Set Up
Many late night talk shows have made the transition to filming from the host’s home as a result of the coronavirus. While it is a valiant effort on the part of the shows the absence of an audience, which is such a large aspect of talk shows, is hard to ignore. “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj” is one such show that has recently resumed airing episodes without an audience. However, Patriot Act has remained consistently good during the pandemic and the timely topics discussed by Minhaj are more important than ever.
Perhaps the show doesn’t miss a step without an audience since it wasn’t filmed live in the first place. Patriot Act premiered in the fall of 2018 on Netflix with episodes also being uploaded to YouTube. The sixth season was set to begin airing on March 29 but had to be pushed back due to the coronavirus.
The most recent episode discusses the legal marijuana industry and how it is disenfranchising people of color, in terms of using marijuana and selling it. The fact that people of color are arrested at a higher rate for drug possession than their white counterparts is not a new issue, but a small group of rich, white businessmen running the majority of the legal marijuana industry is. Legal marijuana is already turning into a monopoly and not giving a fair chance to smaller growers, many of whom are people of color. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic only makes matters worse for these smaller growers; since marijuana is not legalized at the federal level they are unable to qualify for federal loans needed to keep their businesses open.
It is a very serious topic that Minhaj is qualified to talk about. Minhaj is a 34-year-old Muslim whose family originates from India, and the topics he discusses have an undeniable ‘stay woke’ tone to them. He earned a degree in political science from University of California, Davis before beginning his career as a comedian. His comedy consists of a lot of comparisons and references that will be best understood by Millennials close in age to Minhaj, but it also has a bit of edginess that will appeal to younger generations. But Minhaj still keeps things unusually light hearted while tackling serious issues. For example, towards the end of his latest episode he discusses a group of Cincinnati celebrities who have financial stakes in the legal marijuana industry, including former President William Howard Taft’s great great grand nephew Dudley Taft. He comments that Taft “looks like a guy who plays guitar in a band named after himself,” before showing that he does in fact play guitar as a member of the Dudley Taft band.
New episodes of “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj” are uploaded to Netflix every Sunday and to YouTube every subsequent Monday.
Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Report: Michael Rosen
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