As a professional Funny Person, Hasan Minhaj has, understandably, a lot of jokes up his sleeve. But when it comes to his personal queue, the comedian, political commentator and TV host doesn’t mess around. From classic rom-coms to sci-fi and feel-good reality TV, Minhaj’s taste runs the gamut of genres and moods, but every choice is clearly deliberate and holds meaning to him. We sat down with Minhaj just in time for his new stand-up special, Hasan Minhaj: The King’s Jester (a follow-up to his award-winning comedy special Homecoming King), to see what’s on his watch list.

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What’s a show or movie you could watch 1,000 times and never tire of?
When Harry Met Sally... is so great. I think it’s one of Billy Crystal’s best movies. Iconic fits. It’s peak aspirational New York, and the dialogue and writing is actually pretty spectacular. It’s also kind of wild that Billy Crystal pulled off being a young guy in college, because I think he was in his mid 40s at the time. It’s pretty crazy.

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What’s your comfort watch? 
All right. This is embarrassing to say: For me and [wife] Beena, it’s Save the Last Dance. I love Save the Last Dance. Do you know what? People are like, “It’s a really dumb dance movie.” There’s biting social commentary. Someone dies in it. It’s powerful. The intro is jarring — it gets pretty jarring when you just have a loved one dying pretty quickly. They ramp into the stakes very fast. But to me, it’s a great comfort watch for me and Beena. We can just kind of dive in at any point. We’re like, “Yep. We’ve seen this.” Because it made its way from TNT to Netflix. You put it on and you’re like, “All right, Save the Last Dance is on. I guess I’ll take nine hours and watch this for the 500th time.” It’s like one of those. So, yeah, I know most people are like, “Seinfeld, Friends...” No. Save the Last Dance. And people, they meme it as if they’re like, “Isn’t this so bad?” I’m like, “It was pretty great at the time.”

What’s the last movie or show that made you cry?
Mo. Mo Amer’s show made me cry. There’s this really beautiful monologue that his mother has at the tail end of the series when Mo’s saying how hard his life is. And then she kind of really is pouring out her soul of, “That’s not what we do, though; we find a way to carry on despite everything that we’ve gone through.” And it’s this really beautiful monologue that Mo wrote that kind of brought me to tears, and it reminded me of our parents and everything they struggled to go through.

What’s the last movie or show that made you laugh out loud?
Nick Kroll: Little Big Boy. He’s really funny. It’s because he vacillates between sweet, sincere and straight-up silly. He’s a goofball in the best way and it’s awesome. 

What’s a show or movie you always recommend to other people?
Black Mirror. I think what’s great about it is: you don’t have to binge all of it. You could just watch certain episodes. To me, the best shows or movies start conversation, like, “Hey, watch it and then call me.” And Black Mirror’s one of those. The episode about the girl [“Nosedive,” Season 3, Episode 1], the one on social media, where the girl gets disinvited to the wedding and the lengths that she goes to [freaked me out]. Funny enough, those kinds of themes of clout and attention and acceptance — a lot of those themes I talk about in The King’s Jester. And I remember just seeing that episode and my skin was crawling because it’s reminding me of something that’s inside of me.

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What’s the smartest title you’ve seen recently... or ever?
I rewatched Flight with Denzel Washington. It’s a great film. I think it’s such a well-written film. It’s such a well-directed film. Denzel’s performance in it is incredible. I love it.

What’s a Netflix show you didn’t want to watch and then did and loved it?
[Sighs] The Great British Baking Show. I’m not a cooking show fan. I’m not a foodie. I can just eat almond butter and bananas and water. So I was like, “I don’t get it.” But it’s really just a celebration of the human spirit. It’s actually not a food show. It’s about just kinship, commiseration and love, and I’m here for it.

What’s a show you wish you made?
I wish I was the show creator of Old Enough! because it’s so cute, so adorable and so human. It’s like if I could be Indian LeVar Burton and host Old Enough!... dream. Get me out of this racket — get me out of whatever, stand-up and performing and being funny. I wouldn’t send my children because my 2-year-old son would not get far on that show. But shout-out to the parents who do, that are giving us this amazing content. It’s really spectacular.

Are people giving this a 10 out of 10 or not? Old Enough! better have a higher rating than Chernobyl. [checks IMDB rating] How does it only have an 8.1? This is a crime. When people are like, “Why aren’t you speaking out more about global warming?” I’m going to be like, “Can we just first talk about why Old Enough! is so underrated?”