Hasan Minhaj found a bit even Nathan Fielder wouldn’t commit to
While making Patriot Act, Hasan Minhaj tried to rope Nathan Fielder into a potentially dangerous Saudi Arabia sketch
Aux News Minhaj
Nathan Fielder is the current reigning champion of ethically dubious comedy, but apparently, Hasan Minhaj found a line even he wouldn’t cross. Minhaj’s new Netflix special The King’s Jester explores some of his regrets in pushing a bit too far, which includes certain actions surrounding the controversial Saudi Arabia episode of Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj. In a new interview with The Daily Beast, the comedian admits that he tried to recruit Fielder for a potentially dangerous prank.
“Even after it happened and the episode got taken down and my Hajj visa was denied, I had this idea where, in Islam, if you can’t make your pilgrimage, somebody can make it on your behalf. So God has created this little loophole. So I said, how can we make a sketch out of this? I feel like this would be kind of the ultimate long con,” he explains. “So I called Nathan Fielder, and I go, ‘Nate, have you ever considered Islam? I know you love reporting from the field. What if you converted to Islam? You know, Muslims and Jews, we are cousins, we both come from Abraham, let’s just do this. You go down. You make your pilgrimage on my behalf. We come back and, you know, maybe we go on CBS Sunday Morning and let the Saudis know, ‘Hey, no autocratic power can inhibit my connection to God.’”
“I remember Nate said something that was so chilling now that I think about it. He goes, ‘Could this get me hurt?’ And Matt, he meant it sincerely,” Minhaj tells writer Matt Wilstein. “‘Would this get me hurt? Would they kill me?’ He’s like, ‘Dude, I don’t know. I think the idea is brilliant. I think it’s so funny. But…’”
In some ways, it’s a badge of honor to find a bit too extreme for Nathan Fielder—but as Minhaj notes, “[This] isn’t, ‘I’m gonna create a restaurant called Dumb Starbucks.’ This is, ‘I’m gonna fly to Saudi Arabia and pull this off with cameras.’ There is a delta of danger here that a lot of Americans don’t know. Safety is assumed in the States.”
Today, Minhaj says he’s relieved they “didn’t go through with it,” adding, “But I’m also kind of ashamed at myself that to pursue comedy and to pursue a bit, I’d be willing to put myself and another person’s life in danger. That’s not cool, man.”
30 Comments
Smart call for Nathan Fielder, but also if he accepted knowing the risks it could have been one of the crowning achievements for both of them. You know, if it didn’t get Nathan killed or a fatwa issued for either/both of them.
That shit would never go away. Some asshats are still coming after Salman Rushdie, how many decades later?
Fatwas are issued all the time. They’re the equivalent of a legal decree.
If you mean a price being put on their heads, that was Iran who famously did that against Salman Rushdie and the Iranians and Saudi hate each other. There’s not a lot of chance they’d come off the bench to have the Saudi royal family’s back.
That said, the Saudi royal family is plenty happy to have folks beat journalists to death and then dismember them in office buildings, so Fielder was right to bow out.
Yeah I don’t get the impression the Saudis (or many other devout Muslims) would take kindly to their religion being the butt of a prank bit.
If it was done sincerely — i.e. not with Fiedler — I don’t think even the Saudis would be able to object. But this was clearly just to poke a finger in their eye using one of the five pillars of Islam.
That’s the problem and the glory of a plan where ‘Seriously might die’ is among the downsides. If you pull it off you’re an instant legend. But if you don’t, you might actually die. I do love the image of someone going “Hey, I’ve got this really great idea for you. It will be fucking hysterical. You might get killed, though. But if you don’t, it will be funny as shit.”
If it got someone killed and/or resulted in a fatwa, how would that not be a crowning achievement?
Come on, Lenny Bruce wasn’t afraid to go to jail for his comedy you cowards.I mean, not a Saudi dungeon, I guess, but still.
Jail is one thing. Potential drawing and quartering is another. Eye of the hurricane, listen to yourself churn.
Nothing “legendary” about it. It seems like a dumb idea, and I’m glad Nathan turned it down. His crowning achievment will be out-living idiots like Hasan Minhaj
“In some ways, it’s a badge of honor to find a bit too extreme for Nathan Fielder”Such as?
And yet he was willing to risk becoming a registered sex offender for a bit.
Hasan Minhaj? I don’t remember hearing anything about him and sex offenses. Serious question: Are you thinking of Aziz Ansari?
It’s a Nathan For You episode
Ohh okay, thanks. I’ve seen too many people mixing Aziz Ansari and Hasan Minhaj up to not ask.
You need to watch Nathan for You if you haven’t already.
Co-signing the “Watch Nathan For You” movement.
While I intellectually appreciate Fielder’s humor, I literally cannot watch Nathan For You. It’s too painful. I can’t handle humor based on awkwardness.
Sure, something might have happened there, but if it did…. so what?
“Big cube city over here!”
Maybe they can send John Wilson instead.
Come on. The Saudi government would never hurt anyone.
Should’ve done a crossover event and had Minhaj come on The Rehearsal to try to convert both Nathan and Angela to Islam as a compromise for the Christianity/Judaism debate
I mean they’re both right, Nathan was smart for not doing it but also in Hasan’s defense it would have been extremely funny if they pulled it off.
I’m not entirely sure funny is the word I would use here. At least not in the traditional humor sense.
I think maybe we should give the whole Islam thing a rest, seeing as it’s 2022
Nathan Fielder was credited as a writer on one episode of “Who Is America”, the Sacha Baron Cohen show where he had come up with new characters. He was most likely involved in the sketch where the clueless liberal character shows up at a town hall meeting in Arizona to announce that the place is about to get a lot of benefits and income due to the building of the largest mosque in the world, outside of the Middle East, there. The locals get the news as well as you assume, especially when they hear that the project is supported by Hillary Clinton.
Would it have been all that funny though? It sounds like an SNL skit that gets a couple chuckles and then continues on way too long.
I really greatly enjoyed Patriot Act.
Not as crazy but Kenny Hotz once built a mosque
https://www.vice.com/en/article/8gv4ez/the-mosque-that-kenny-hotz-built