Hasan Minhaj: Comedic Gold

Table of Contents

Introduction Pg.3

Early life Pg.4

Pre Hype Era Pg.5-6

The Era of Hype Pg.7

The Post Hype Era Pg.8

New Beginnings Pg.9

About the Author Pg.10

Pg.2

Have you ever heard of a sliding door moment? It’s when an infinitesimal moment can change your life, like missing a train and then getting a new job, or getting on that train and getting blown to smithereens. For Hasan Minhaj, that moment came when he promised a then high school prom date to follow his dreams and perform stand-up comedy. With hard work and dedication, he became an icon among comedians for his unique perspective on the world and his style of comedy and storytelling.

Accounts of Hasan Minhaj's early life are prevalent solely because he produced a Netflix special talking about it, so here are some facts. Hasan Minhaj was born in Davis, California on September 23, 1985. For the first 8 years of his life, it was just him and his father because his mother had to go back to India to finish her degree. In some ways, his father’s situation at work was similar because they were the only brown people at work and school, respectively. However, differences in their culture and the time they grew up in caused rifts between them. For example, on his birthday, his father took him to Home Depot to pick up a new doorknob for the bathroom.

While in high school, Hasan Minhaj’s future became a lot clearer. Working on projects with a girlfriend, he promised her he would continue to follow his dreams and work on stand-up comedy. But after years of working on his comedy routine and performing in small comedy clubs, he landed a “big” gig, PIZZA HUT PIZZA SLIDERS or a Pizza Hut ad during the Super Bowl, in front of a massive audience. This jump-started his comedy career, eventually getting him a spot on the Daily Show in 2014 as a correspondent, the last correspondent hired by Jon Stewart, putting him in front of millions of eyeballs every week.

In May 2017, about a month after he hosted the White House Correspondents’ dinner, his first comedy special, Homecoming King, aired on Netflix. The special covered most of his early life and won a Peabody award. In March 2018, Netflix announced that they would have a show on their platform, called Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj. This show would be a catapult from famous to stardom. The way the show uniquely melded facts and comedy to create an interesting story about meaningful issues pulled in a lot of viewers, running for 40 episodes spread over 6 seasons.

However, no comedy show runs forever, and Patriot Act, even though it was no ordinary comedy show, is still governed by the comedy gods and the comedy gods are fickle. On August 18th, 2020, Netflix canceled Patriot Act. This marked an end of an era for Hasan Minhaj as he would be away from millions of eyeballs per week and while he was still in the public eye as he has multiple social media accounts, anyone who didn’t have a main interest in him or his work wouldn’t be actively seeking those accounts out. This prevented him from growing his platform during those months where he wasn’t on a streaming service.