“I hope you guys enjoyed the season finale of America,” Minhaj said at the start of his comedy show on Saturday at the Great Hall in the Student Union.
“I’m just as surprised as you guys. I’m glad to hear that you guys were in shock, because when I flew in I was like, ‘Oh shit, this is a red state,’ but then I was told, like, no it’s this little Carolina Blue section and so I was like, ‘It’s good, we’re good.’”
The show, hosted by the Carolina Union Activities Board and UNC Muslim Student Association, drew a crowd of more than 600.
For the first half of Minhaj’s set, he poked fun at America’s democratic system, calling President-elect Donald Trump America’s new “Orange Mascot” and Hillary Clinton “the broccoli of presidential choices.”
Minhaj then began talking about his family and his experience growing up as a child of immigrants.
“Growing up in an immigrant household, it’s like your parents, especially your father, are the arbiters of truth and justice,” he said.
Minhaj said his family’s car was destroyed in a perceived hate crime after the 9/11 attacks. He used this anecdote to explain his father’s idea of the “American Dream Tax.”
“I look in the middle of the street and my dad is barefoot in his pajamas sweeping glass out of the road,” Minhaj said. “And I go, ‘Dad why aren’t you upset. This is fucking wrong. Why aren’t you upset?’ And he says, ‘This is the price we pay for being here.’”
