After the breakaway success of his previous two Netflix outings, Minhaj focuses on delivering his ‘story so far’ – from fatherhood and fertility, to the influence and power of free speech. As far as confessional comedy goes the Netflix’s stand-up-verse has its share of hits and misses. Hannah Gatsby’s Nanette or even Daniel Sloss’s live shows are at the excellent end of the spectrum while Vir Das’s Abroad Understanding is on the opposite. As a pure confessional, The King’s Jester would perhaps fall somewhere in the middle. It is neither as powerful, raw and real as Nanette, or Sloss’s Dark/Jigsaw; but it is significantly smarter than Das’s misguided attempts of showcasing his family’s financial ‘downfall’.
At the start of the special, Minhaj focuses on his wife Beena and him trying to have their first child, which eventually segues into the first joke for the public he ever cracked as a teenager (he was trying to impress a girl while being held down by the police. Why? Because it was the age of the Patriot Act in America) and then moves on to Minhaj’s tryst with the Saudis on Patriot Act (the comedian’s Netflix show; not the American law). All through, Minhaj peppers his stories with commentary on race, power, identity and speaking truth to power.
