Monthly Archives: March 2019

Patriot Act is a show performed by Indian American comedian Hasan Minhaj, in the same manner as the Daily Show and its contemporaries. In this regard, Patriot act is unique in its perspective: Hasan’s cultural background allows him to breach certain topics with greater depth or detail than Caucasian hosts can. It is with this knowledge that Hasan described the situation in Saudi Arabia regarding Jamal Khashoggi, combining current information of the journalist’s death with multiple decades of history.

Hasan deftly weaves two narratives in the episode: Saudi Arabia and its history with the U.S., and non-Asian perceptions of Indian tradition. To accurately elaborate on this, summarizing the episode is necessary. The show begins with a recap of the Khashoggi situation, Saudi Arabia’s holy states, the financial significance of the Saud family, and the U.S.’s relationship with the country. Regarding the last section, Hasan shows the U.S. Guidebook for training missions in Saudi Arabia, wherein the Saudi people are considered to be “Indigenous tribes with some later [having a] mixture of Negro blood from slaves imported from Africa.” His dissection of the guidebook stereotypes is his first handling of tropes in the episode, and prominently handles it in a relatively serious manner: he pretends he is talking to another person who believes the guidebook is not intentionally racist by defending its written date, intent, the usage of negro, etc. All of these perceptions are deftly countered by Hasan, who points out the recent updates made to the guidebook, and other contradictions. The response is a strong one that balances severity and comedy in equal measure: the racism present is dealt with seriousness, though the “other voice” has a comedically high pitch.

Following this the trope of a ‘monolithic Islam’ is analyzed as well. After noting MbS’ recent imprisonments and executions, Hasan states that “Saudi Arabia is only two percent of the entire Muslim population, but whenever Saudi does something wrong, muslims around the world have to live with the consequences. Right? ‘Hey, don’t chop my hand off, Saudi style.’” This paradoxical standard is discussed in a serious manner, which is befitting for the impact of the matter. Hasan often interjects small jokes to lighten segments, but this portion in particular is without reprieve, to great effect. Since this is arguably the most pressing issue when it comes to MbS, the most serious tone is only fitting. Hasan Minhaj’s take on the Khashoggi case is informative and entertaining, but benefits greatly from knowing its tone, and its effectiveness in tackling tropes.

Hasan Minaj explores several tropes about Muslims in the episode of Patriot Act, “Saudi Arabia”. One of these instances is when he was tearing down the way America has been buying Muhammad bin Salman’s “sale pitch,” as he says,  specifically the way he lifted the ban on women driving. He implies that he thinks this act alone does not make MBS a good person, and he shows disdain at America for buying into it. This connects to the trope that Islam is uniquely sexist. MBS is held in such high stature in America for lifting the ban, even though he has done horrible things, because many Americans don’t expect much more from an Islamic country. Therefore, MBS is applauded for doing the bare minimum due to the bias Americans hold. Minaj uses humour to point out that this does not redeem MBS, and that it is merely a surface gesture to win the hearts of the biased Americans, by insulting the female rapper who made a “garbage” video around a car.

This episode also touches on the trope that Islam is inherently violent, and that the West spreads democracy. Minaj uses a compilation of news footage to show America’s positive reaction to Vision 2030. He shows that MBS has met with presidents, celebrities, and even Oprah. He says that MBS was “treated like a celebrity.” However, Minaj then goes on to show the aftermath of Khashoggi’s death. The same people who were praising MBS for his “reforms” immediately turned around to say that they would never do work with Saudi Arabia again, and that they felt tricked by MBS. Minaj contrasts the two reels of footage to show how important people in America ate their words when an American citizen was killed.

In fact, this brings up another interesting point made by Minaj: MBS has been getting away with killing and arresting people for years. America has continued to do deals with Saudi even though they knew that MBS was rounding up and killing hundreds of Saudi innocents. However, when an American citizen is harmed, they turn their backs on Saudi. Minaj makes this irony clear by framing the two news reels mentioned before the way he did, and also by laying out the numbers. This brings Minaj’s sequence back to the beginning of his episode, where he mentioned that any Muslim person already knew that MBS was a horrible person.