The Current South-Asian American Comedy Renaissance (Kumail Nanjiani, Aziz Ansari, Hasan Minhaj, Hari Kondabolu, Aperna Nancherl etc.)

I like this pretty well so far and I'm not even really a fan of the genre. I legit loved Homecoming King, though. Really enjoy his hyperactive delivery.

I've watched all the episodes. Love it. But yeah, his delivery needs work.

It's like his faux youtube vlogger bit on the Daily Show, except he's still doing the bit. He has such good hair though.

i read about this guy in the nyt and i want his show to succeed but i already don’t
really care for stand-up and when he called it a “woke TED talk” in front of “a powerpoint designed by michael bay” it really killed my enthusiasm for actually watching it

^^^

I don't think it really qualifies as standup, it's more like a lecture that's trying to be funny

I think that's fair re: Homecoming King. I'd previously heard the part of HK about his sister on the "storytelling" podcast Snap Judgment, which was also a more appropriate context for that special than regular stand-up.

btw, the Aperna Nancherla episode in one of netflix's stand-up series has a great use of multimedia/powerpoint in a more traditional stand-up set

I guess I think of Patriot Act episodes as more like lectures (with some jokes) in the sense of being didactic - but I think they do a decent job of it. I think of Homecoming King, like Nanette, as a heavily autiobiographical monologue where humour is present but is not the whole point, although it's obv lighter than Nanette.

Patriot Act has definitely grown on me, or maybe I've gotten used to the pacing. The "Oil" episode was particuarly good.

I watched The Big Sick two weeks ago. It wasn't what I expected, but I really liked it.

https://www.vulture.com/2019/01/netflix-pulls-episode-of-hasan-minhajs-show-in-saudi-arabia.html
very chickenshit of netflix imo

Tbf, we're talking about a regime that has people killed for criticizing it. I was surprised to learn that Patriot Act ever ran in Saudi Arabia in the first place.

sure but why choose to run it and wait for the government to ask you to take it down?

i was more shocked when I thought that they pulled the episode completely. pulled in in SA....eh. agree I'm surprised it was even running there

Also this thread

A couple years ago, when I was writing for American Dad!, I needed an Arabic speaker for a small part. Our casting director recommended a Saudi comedian, who happened to be in LA for a couple months shooting a tv show. His name is Fahad Albutairi.

— Kirk Rudell (@krudell) January 2, 2019

thanks for sharing that; very sad.

same

it's hard for me to reconcile how someone with empathy who is good at telling a story could be a writer for American Dad.

you take the jobs you can get

i guess that's true, poor bastard. the little I've seen of that show is I think even worse than Family Guy. at least FG has a couple of characters that are appealing or at least memorable, namely Stewie and Brian. I feel like every character on American Dad is distinctly unappealing to even look at, let alone listen to.

I hear American Dad was really born in Canada

American Dad was good (first few series anyway), much better than contemporary Family Guy or Simpsons

American Dad definitely had its moments, especially the weird completely non-canon episodes

at least FG has a couple of characters that are appealing or at least memorable, namely Stewie and Brian.
― Evans on Hammond (evol j), Thursday, January 3, 2019 8:57 PM

I really cant be doing with any of them

Super excited about Love Birds

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/kumail-nanjiani-issa-rae-lovebirds-romantic-comedy-1203111347/

The new batch of Patriot Acts has been excellent so far. I can't tell if I've adjusted to the format/tone or if Minhaj has improved in the role or both, but I think every episode has been noticeably better than the previous season (not everything lands of course). I especially like that they return to particular targets, like horrific scumbag Betsy DeVos who really should be under intense scrutiny. I also find the show genuinely informative--both the Chinese Censorship and Drug Pricing episodes went a step deeper than I was expecting at the outset.

Also, I watched the first season of Crashing a while back and just started Corporate--I can't wait for Aperna Nancherla to get some kind of starring vehicle soon.

Corporate is really good and Nancherla is really good in them.
Patriot Act is the best comedy/news show going.

I liked the Chinese censorship ep a lot, yeah.

Kumail Nanjiani joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe and got absolutely ripped https://t.co/7uz0JMT627 pic.twitter.com/6hk4nBaAKo

— UPROXX (@UPROXX) December 16, 2019

holy shit

2nd ab from bottom right is the funniest

I booked Kumail to do stand-up a few times at a variety show I hosted 15 years ago. He was the nicest guy, and I will always root for him.

welcome to Sixpackistan

Patriot Act canceled. Sad, I was a big fan. Also, terrible timing, you'd think they would want to keep it going for the election. Maybe Hasan got a better deal elsewhere...

I hope so! Consistently one of the best shows on tv IMO, very sad to see it go.

Hasan's new special, The King's Jester, is up on Netflix. Pretty good - his see-sawing between flippant millenial japes and bleak sincerity is constantly on the edge of being too preachy or serious, but the jokes are really funny. (And those serious stories are totally worth hearing.)

What I wonder - and maybe he doesn't want to be too explicit because this special is in fact, on Netflix - how much of Patriot Act was Netflix axing it and how much of it was him walking away, due to some of the things he talks about in this.

ok, so what do we make of this?

you mean this?
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/hasan-minhajs-emotional-truths

It would be easier to dismiss if he hadn't made the serious stories such a core piece of his specials... I think what he did was pretty wrong considering how much sympathy he sopped up.

I also wonder if this was suspiciously timed and fed by someone else in the running for Daily Show host since Hasan is supposedly the front runner

Hasan is supposedly the front runner

Fucked up if true, since Roy Wood Jr. is clearly the MVP of that cast.

Yeah this is disappointing. everyone expects comics to embellish and even make stuff up, but this strikes me as a step beyond. He's really fucked himself here and I can't really sympathize with him. It's too bad as he is funny.