Hasan Minhaj fans who were disappointed the comedian was not named the permanent host of The Daily Show will no longer have to endure a political climate without his commentary. The once-leading candidate for the job — who was taken out of the running in 2023 after a widely discussed New Yorker article set off a public debate about factual inaccuracies and exaggerations in his Netflix stand-up specials Homecoming King and The King’s Jester — is back with a new self-produced digital series, Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know. The show’s first episode, an interview with Senator Elizabeth Warren, premiered on YouTube July 8.
Co-created by Prashanth Venkataramanujam and showrun by Scott Vrooman, who were both collaborators on Minhaj’s previous Netflix talk show, Patriot Act, Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know will see the comedian interviewing the “biggest names in politics, culture, and tech,” according to a release. And given widespread questions about President Joe Biden’s mental acuity following his performance in the June 27 presidential debate, this debut episode, despite having been recorded in April, is timely. “I talk to the man,” Warren says when asked about the incumbent’s age and ability. “The man is sharp. The man knows what he’s talking about. He does the job.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Minhaj gives Warren a few tips about how the Democratic Party can improve its political messaging by studying professional wrestling, pushes the senator to affirm her commitment to calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, and asks her whether the moral trade-offs of presidential politics are spiritually corrosive. “It’s a dumb show for curious people who are looking for answers but can’t find them, not even from their host,” says the release. If one of those answers is to the question “What might The Daily Show have looked like if Minhaj had been given the job?,” it satisfies that curiosity.
