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Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj
2018 · TV series · 24 min episodes · 6 seasons
Every Sunday, Hasan Minhaj brings an incisive and nuanced perspective to global news, politics and culture in his unique comedy series.
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7 comments on Hacker News
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls033928706/
Netflix: 13 Reasons Why: Following concerns from mental health professionals, Netflix edited the first-season finale in 2019 to remove a graphic scene depicting the main character’s suicide. Back to the Future Part II: In May 2020, it was discovered that a scene involving an adult magazine cover was censored in certain regions. Netflix stated they had received an edited foreign version from the studio and later restored the original scene. Bird Box: Following public outcry in 2018, Netflix agreed to remove footage from the 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster used in the film's scenes, as it was deemed insensitive. The Devil Next Door: In 2019, Netflix added extra text to a map in this documentary series after complaints from the Polish Prime Minister regarding the portrayal of Nazi death camps. Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj: An episode critical of the Saudi Arabian government was removed in Saudi Arabia in 2019 after a government takedown request.
My problem with Minhaj is the same problem I have with all newsinfotainment comedians. The mixing of news and entertainment on the left is no better than red meat bait on Fox News.
This stands for Stewart, Colbert, Klepper, Oliver, Noah, etc.
If you're whole shtick is about how (group X) is so bad and (here's a bunch of things that have happened to me), then you don't get to fallback on "hey I'm a comedian, this is just entertainment, of course its made up".
It's the same vibe as the people who love the orange man because even though he lies nonstop, he says things that appeal to how they feel.
Minhaj is not "just a comedian", he had a 40 episode news show - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act_with_Hasan_Minhaj after being on the Daily Show .. all in the same timeframe he was doing these comedy tours. He's even been called to testify before congress after one of his episodes did a deep dive on student loans.
The untrue jokes that he told about racism were long, deeply specific and extremely dire things like being the target of an FBI sting, anthrax hoax attack, or being physically attacked for his race. A few simple jokes about some words said or getting turned down for a date would be a smaller matter.
Unfortunately, Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj was canceled[0]. The last episode was June 28, 2020: "Why Doing Taxes Is So Hard"
It's too bad. I thought it was a really worthwhile show.
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[0]: https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/hasan-minhaj-patriot-act-canceled-netflix-1234738562/
I remember watching in Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj how greedy monopolistic ISP corporations like Comcast are trying hard to outlaw town based internet offerings.
Must watch -
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xw87-zP2VNA
>On the same day, Netflix pulled an episode of “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj” for the following joke about the killing of Saudi Arabian writer Jamal Khashoggi
From my understanding, they only pulled it from the library specific to Saudi Arabia. As well, they left it on youtube, where the entire first season is streaming for free. That seems either to be left out of the article, or to have changed recently.
Other than that, this doesn't seem particularly new. Just easier to hear about. People have always attempted to censor folk.
To quote an ad-lib line from a famous rock musician -
"Does anyone remember laughter?"
>The underlying assumptions of social justice censorship are that words are a form of violence, that a subjective interpretation matters more than the speaker’s intent and that safety is contingent on not being teased or challenged.
Probably who tells the joke matters more. Except for the following:
>On the same day, Netflix pulled an episode of “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj” for the following joke about the killing of Saudi Arabian writer Jamal Khashoggi
Maybe, as the article insinuates, it was to protect the delicate feelings of Saudi elites. My money is on the belief Netflix wanted to keep Hasan alive.
Tangentially related: Netflix's Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj had an interesting episode about Amazon.[1]
It's a little oversimplified, but it does a good job of explaining how large Amazon is to the layperson.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5maXvZ5fyQY