Hasan Minhaj responds to New Yorker story with a lengthy fact-check of his own
"I'm not a psycho," Minhaj said of the "needlessly misleading" story that claimed he had fabricated multiple details in his stand-up specials
Aux News Minhaj
Earlier this fall, comedian Hasan Minhaj landed in some pretty hot water. While Minhaj was known for multiple stand-up specials and incisive commentary that largely centered around his experience as a non-white Muslim living in America, a story published in the New Yorker earlier this fall claimed that a lot of those stories weren’t as accurate as the comedian led his audience to believe.
In a scandal that cost him a great deal of public opinion, not to mention a potential shot at hosting the Daily Show, Minhaj was accused of fabricating alarming details in his stories—all of which made them seem more upsetting— specifically surrounding a rejection from prom over his skin color, a FBI informant that infiltrated his family’s mosque, and an anthrax scare that sent his daughter to the hospital.
After over a month of relative silence, Minhaj has responded to the New Yorker’s allegation in, to use his words, “the most Hasan Minhaj way possible: A 20-minute deep dive with graphics and excessive hand motions.” In the video, published by The Hollywood Reporter, Minhaj attempts to set the record straight on some of the “omissions and factual errors in The New Yorker article that misrepresented my life story” by providing original materials and interview clips he says the New Yorker either ignored or used in bad faith.
“I just want to say to anyone who felt betrayed or hurt by my stand-up, I am sorry. I made artistic choices to express myself and drive home larger issues affecting me and my community, and I feel horrible that I let people down,” he continues. “The reason I feel horrible is because I’m not a psycho. But this New Yorker article definitely made me look like one. It was so needlessly misleading, not just about my stand-up, but also about me as a person. The truth is, racism, FBI surveillance and the threats to my family happened. And I said this on the record.”
Minhaj continues by breaking down the three stories in question. Of the first, he assures viewers through emails and interview clips that he really was rejected from prom because his prospective, white date’s parents weren’t comfortable with his race—it just happened a few days before the actual night, which is how he originally told it in his special Homecoming King. “I created the doorstep scene to drop the audience into the feeling of that moment, which I told the reporter,” he says, before sharing audio from that section of the interview.
He handles the other two stories not by denying that he embellished facts, but by explaining to viewers the different ways these embellishments speak to a larger emotional truth. While he says he “did have altercations with undercover law enforcement growing up,” for example, the FBI informant story was more of a vehicle to shed light on the experience of a peer who really was entrapped. While he did receive a letter containing white powder that turned out to be a hoax, the device of the hospital scene was to dramatize the fear and paranoia he and his wife felt in that moment.
In a statement to The A.V. Club, a spokesperson for The New Yorker wrote,
“Hasan Minhaj confirms in this video that he selectively presents information and embellishes to make a point: exactly what we reported. Our piece, which includes Minhaj’s perspective at length, was carefully reported and fact-checked. It is based on interviews with more than twenty people, including former “Patriot Act” and “Daily Show” staffers; members of Minhaj’s security team; and people who have been the subject of his standup work, including the former F.B.I. informant “Brother Eric” and the woman at the center of his prom-rejection story. We stand by our story.”
While a lot of Minhaj’s video feels a bit more like a lesson on comedy writing than a real corrective, he hopes viewers at least understand the context a bit better now. “The guy in this article is a proper fucking psycho, but I now hope you feel like the real me is not,” the comedian concludes. You can decide for yourself by watching the full video here.
This story has been updated to include a statement from The New Yorker.
221 Comments
That’s totally something a psycho would say.
Yes but does he defend himself in song while playing a ukulele?
Don’t go dragging George Formby into this!
The inventor of the George Formby Grill?
I heard he named all his kids Grill Formby
Now I go inventin’ gadgets to earn an honest bob
For a jolly tinker it’s an interestin’ job
I’ve made a grill and it’s real neat
A marvelous engineering feat
All from playing with my meat
When I’m home inventin’
I never, ever expected to see a George Formby gag on the AV Club.
My cap is doffed sir.
All ABOOOARD! Please have your one way tickets ready for scanning!
What does he look like Zoooey Deschanel or something?
Can the New Yorker investigate whether Steven Wright ever actually had a pony?
This is an idiotic take.There’s not a person alive who thinks Wright was telling true stories. And Wright never once implied that his jokes were anything but playing with words.That’s not true of Minaj.If someone sells their book as a memoir, and it turns out it didn’t happen. Sure they could’ve just sold it as fiction (no harm, no foul) – but for some reason they decided to sell it a nonfiction. That’s Minaj.
A Thousand Little Pieces is EMOTIONALLY TRUE!
You need to fucking grow up and get a grip.
Waiting on the article now debunking that Rodney Dangerfield actually did get respect. But unfortunately he is no longer around to back up his claim.
Can’t people see the difference between a comedian like Steven Wright who actually tells jokes that are funny in order to make the audience laugh, and a comedian like Hasan Minhaj who tells stories that aren’t funny in order to make the audience clap and nod in agreement? Don’t you think people would be understandably upset to find out that Hannah Gadsby was never actually raped and the whole Nannette thing was just a lie to express her “emotional truth”? Because Minhaj is far closer to that than he is to Steven Wright.
They can, they just don’t want to because it’s more validating for them to make bad-faith arguments in the comments for likes.
Yep. I feel like there’s a big jump between lies/embellishment along the lines of “my friend was so wasted and did X wild thing” as a stand-up routine and poking at racial tensions which as you described, “clapter comedy” is closer to political commentary than typical comedy
One of my favorite youtubers Solid.jj has a great sketch about “important comedy” where people just say things to get approval from fans without any actual comedy involved.
I love the Donald Glover interview where he talks about how a guiding principal for Atlanta was that it NOT be “clapter.”
It’s an indictment of your critical thinking that you can’t see the difference between Wright’s and Minaj’s comedy.
Are you being serious? I wasn’t. FMB a lot of people in this thread can’t spot a throwaway joke.
Is the New Yorker going to investigate Jim Gaffigan to find out if he really, REALLY loves Hot Pockets as much as he says he does??
Really sucks that he lost the Daily Show gig over this :/ I hadn’t read the original article so I didn’t really understand why everyone was so upset but it does sound like they went out of their way to make him sound more insincere and less trustworthy than he is. Leaving out all the additional context around “Bethany”’s parents and the specific details that were embellished feels deliberately dishonest to me
He makes himself sound insincere. He seems to continually admit that he embellished the truth (like really, really, really embellished it, one might even consider these lies) without realizing that the problem is he’s embellishing the truth while presenting it as the actual truth.
It sounds like you missed the point completely. And if you think that the New Yorker was right to quibble with the story about the prom date, there was never any chance of convincing you of anything.
Projection is funny to observe.
I’m not exactly sure which point you’re referring to. If it’s that he “embellished” stories by, for instance, saying his daughter had to spend a night in the hospital because it was feared she had been exposed to anthrax when in actuality she NEVER spent a night in the hospital for that reason and hadn’t been exposed to any white powder and he had simply gotten a letter with white powder in it and later thought up how he could “embellish” it by adding the aforementioned additional details… well, I don’t think I missed his assertion. I just don’t agree with it.
I come at this from a person that watched the Patriot Act and has seen his specials, including the ones in question. I enjoy his work. But, Minhaj, unlike many other comedians, has definitely presented himself as someone who is telling real stories. So, it’s disappointing to find out that some of his more harrowing and emotional stories are actually false or highly “embellished.”
Maybe, I dunno, read the original article then? You might not change your opinion, but it will at least be bettered informed?
He doesn’t actually refute anything in the article though, just tries to frame it all in a better light.
all the desks and graphics in the world aren’t gonna make comedy central reconsider him
Well it’z worth a shot… there are bigger problems in the world
Jihadi Hasan should be deported. Now that’s some real Islamophobia for him to chew on
there are plenty of other funny people in the world who can do the job
Yup. This was all leaked to the New Yorker by someone for the express purpose of making sure he didn’t host the Daily Show. And now he’s not gonna. Which sucks for him, but this video won’t get him that job.
This is just an attack on comedians who are also working on news shows.
Basically it’s a big “you’re going to have to choose between the two, either you are acomedic news show host or you’re a comedic storyteller, but you can’t be both.”
You can’t be a news anchor and a storyteller, period.
The Brian Williams method.
I disagree. John Oliver, Bill Maher, Trevor Noah are still doing stand ups right now. And there is no way a 100% of their stand up shows are true stories.
This Hasan Minhaj story will blow over and he will probably adjust the kind of stories he tells. This whole debacle was not something started by the public, it was just a take down piece from a columnist that knows nothing about comedy carrying a chip on her shoulder
“it was just a take down piece from a columnist that knows nothing about comedy carrying a chip on her shoulder”Lol no.
I disagree. Clare Malone was not acting/working as a columnist. She’s working as a reporter and her piece is reportage. These stories about Minhaj had already been circulating, which is what prompter Malone to chase the story down. Just because comedians have artistic license to bend the truth doesn’t mean anything goes or that there’s not fuzzy boundary between what’s okay and what’s not. That fuzzy boundary is what the piece was about.
Yeah, Clare Malone is not exactly an unknown quantity here. She’s a good reporter with a solid reputation based on her past work.
A storyteller’s job is to tell a story. A journalist’s job is to relay facts. John Oliver and Trevor Noah might do stand up, but they are not accused of pretending that other people’s stories are their own.
Not yet, but this is going to open the door for that.
Let’s not forget that there are paid trolls working to exploit culture war fractures to depress progressives and delight reactionaries. This isn’t conspiracy, weird and dumb as it sounds, it’s established fact.
This is genuine, organic disdain for a shit comedian, as opposed to the manufactured woketard outrage that Chapelle gets
You can’t be a news anchor and a storyteller, period. They are called news stories. The ones on the news are meant to be provably factual.Minhaj just needs to make it clear when he’s playing by comedy rules and when he’s playing by journalistic rules, as he mostly did on Patriot Act.
Hey! You and Hasan have something in common: you just completely make things up in order to fit the narrative you want to tell! Maybe you should host The Daily Show?!?
Why not, I love to piss off people, why not get paid in the process.
If true, that’s the saddest thing I’ve heard today. If not, and you’re just trolling, it’s sad in a different way.
I mean, I didn’t think he was a psycho before, but now…
“No, Michael, that’s not my lie…it’s my illusion!”
Larger emotional truths don’t count if you’re embellishing a victimhood situation for sympathy. Doing so for “effect” just wrecks your credibility and generally makes more people call bullshit about these types of claims next time around.
Why are you expecting accuracy in a comedy show?
there’s a difference between joking and lying.
I agree, and it seems lost on the people upset at Hasan. If you go to a comedy show expecting anything you hear to be completely factual and truthful, you are the fool.
What part of the lie about his daughter being hospitalized due to a hate crime was “comedy”?
In what context was the story told? At a show?
And at what point during that show did people laugh? During the story about his daughter being hospitalized due to a hate crime?
So it was a show. The expectation of truth in entertainment is fucking stupid.
Not if you are a “storyteller” comedian ala this motherfucker and Gadsby. Would you be cool if it came out that Gadsby was never raped?Years ago in Chicago, there was a theatre “performer” who produced one man shows purporting to relate real life events. He was incredibly successful and popular. Then it came out that he straight up fabricated a bunch of shit for his theatre verité “storyteller” performers. He was rightfully crucified, as this motherfucker should be.He lied about a hate crime against his daughter while lying to his wife and he made these claims in interviews. Good fucking riddance.
I don’t care if stories told for entertainment or true or not, whoever Gadsby is.
Gadsby built a “stand up” career by discussing her sexual abuse in a “comedy show.” If she lied, it would rightfully be a huge scandal and anyone defending her would be, well, a fucking moron.This guy faked an anthrax attack on his daughter, smeared two innocent people who were doxxed and harassed, faked Islamophobia, and lied to his wife while telling all of the above to the press as true stories. It is rightfully a scandal and anyone defending it as comedy is, well, an enormous fucking moron/starfucker/imbecile (take your pick).
He didn’t fake an attack, he told you a story for entertainment and you were dumb.
I’m less defending him and more taking a shit on all the morons who expect true stories in a show.
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/hasan-minhaj-fabricated-stand-up-anthrax-fbi-1234826237/He presented it as a true story, as Gadsby has presented her rape as a true story. You know, like a the “story teller”, TedTalk comedian that he is. It increased the racial animus in our country, for cheap victim points. Only absolute dullards like yourself are defending him or “shitting” on people expecting such “story tellers” to be fucking honest when relating AN EVENT HE CLAIMED HAPPENED IN HIS OWN LIFE.“And Minhaj himself copped to making up the parts about his daughter being exposed to a white powder and her subsequent hospitalization.”Yeah, area hospitals and the cops said this TRUE STORY didn’t happen.Why are you “shitting” on detractors of a fucking race-hustling liar/professional victim?
I”m shiiting on people because it’s stupid to expect entertainment stories to be 100% true, as I’ve said many times now.
Yeah, you can say it a million times an it’s still stupid. People aren’t expecting all entertainers to tell the truth; they are expecting that if an entertainer claims to HAVE SUFFERED AN ANTHRAX ATTACK ON HIS DAUGHTER and is a “confessional” performer, that said FUCKING ANTHRAX ATTACK occurred.Just some thoughts. Don’t bother responding, your obstinate clinging to your position is solid, son.
You can whine a million time and you’ll still be a moron for expecting 100% truth in an entertainment story.
“an entertainment story”…he related to the press and that the fucking police investigated, you obstinate moron.
Keep being mad and dumb bro.
Bro: When your act requires police investigation, it’s no longer “comedic license”, bro.
Did he file a police report? If not, nothing was needed, the cops are dumb too.
But keep being a moron, I never get tired of telling people. ‘Specially mad ones. LOL
Bro dude, etc.: I’m so fucking furious. I’m not at all killing time at work saying that a fucking entertainer faking an anthrax attack on his own daughter, lying to his wife, and getting people doxxed and harassed is a lying race hustling piece of shit. ‘Specially since it cost him his Daily Show job, dude bro, etc. I guess Comedy Central agrees with me, while you write as if you are 14 and defend a disgraced “comedian” who isn’t funny, bro dude, etc. Goodbye.
So you don’t want to acknowledge he didn’t file a police report, do you? It’s just idiots like you all the way down.
People are fine with being fooled into laughing at a comedy show. It’s what they’re there for.
People are less fine with being fooled into false sympathy at a comedy show.Yes, audiences typically expect comedians to lie on stage for the sake of a bit, but that approach doesn’t mesh well with the current brand of highly confessional soul-bearing stand-up that’s been on the rise in the past decade or so. This whole debacle has shown that if a performer is doing the whole “you’ll laugh and cry” schtick, audiences really only expect lies from the “laugh” part of that premise. Dramatic one-man shows have typically been either explicitly fictional, or explicitly confessional.
Rodney Dangerfield never tried to make anyone feel his trauma.
“People are less fine with being fooled into false sympathy at a comedy show.”
If they expect any of it was 100% true stories, they are dumb.
If they expect any of it was 100% true stories, they are dumb.“It’s comedy” doesn’t fly if it isn’t presented as comedic. If it’s presented as a heartfelt confessional rather than a comedic bit, it’s dumb to be surprised when audiences take it as such.
It flies just fine when you are not dumb and don’t have stupid expectations from entertainment from a comedian that you didn’t find sufficiently humorous.
“ If it’s presented”
Key word is presented. It’s a performance!
I’d tell you to ask yourself why he got in trouble for this when no other comedian has for their own stories and embellishments and then consider the differences, but that might be too much nuance for you. So you’re right, this is totally random and arbitrary blowback for something absolutely every comedian does exactly like this for no particular reason, you nailed it.
“this is totally random and arbitrary blowback for something absolutely every comedian does exactly like this for no particular reason”
I didn’t say any of that but good job on the straw man!
It’s absolutely what you’ve been saying: all comedians do this, it’s inherent to a comedy show, there’s no difference between what Hasan did and what any other comedian does.
I didn’t say all comedians do this. Maybe some tell jokes without embellishments to their stories, I don’t know.
What I actually said is you should expect that the stories in an entertainment show are exactly that – stories to entertain you.
Why do you keep saying this like being “entertaining” and being “true” are mutually exclusive qualities? Some people tell true stories to entertain – that’s the basis of memoir. No, entertainment doesn’t have to be based in fact, but if you say something is a true story, it should be, whether it’s entertaining or not. There are two different values being promised here: true and funny. You can’t offer both and say, “But I delivered on the funny” when that’s only half of what you said you were doing.
Yes, some people do tell true stories to entertain. My point remains that expecting them to be true is foolishness. Funny stories are sometimes presented as true for entertainment purposes, it’s not worth clutching pearls over, so dumb.
I suppose if you read his claims in interviews he gave that you’re a fool too. I suppose his wife—whom he lied to—is a fool. Stupid motherfuckers expecting people not to (checks notes) fake anthrax attack on daughter! What fucking fools!
None of the things he lies about are obvious fictional punchlines. They are lies built for sympathy in his storytelling. That’s the difference I’m talking about.
If someone says “a priest walks into a bar” I know it’s a joke, likely fictional and the reality of it does not influence whether I think it’s funny or not. But if you say “my daughter went to the hospital for an anthrax scare,” I believe you. Why would you lie about something like that?
The key word being storytelling. That you see untruths for entertainment purposes as being so different is just dumb.
I meanwhile know many priests, rabbis, and imams who go drinking together.
Because the comedian told me it was a true story.It didn’t have to be a true. No one is saying it had to be.But Minaj said it was. We’re expecting a true story from someone who said they were telling a true story.
They told you it was true at a show. You are dumb if you expect it all to be true even when they say it is.
Because Minaj’s act isn’t just a comedy show and because he is making a pact with the audience that he is telling the truth.
“ and because he is making a pact with the audience that he is telling the truth”
LOL. That’s the foolish part.
Why are you such a brain dead shitstain?
Sorry, that would be the dumb fucks like you expecting truth at a comedy show.
“embellishing a victimhood situation for sympathy” has been like 90% of all stand-up comedy since it was invented
For humor? Yes. I don’t think Eddie Murphy’s mother could really throw her shoe like a boomerang and take him out from two rooms away. But Minhaj saying his daughter ended up in the hospital because someone sent an envelope of Anthrax to his home was not an effort to heighten the comedy.
That’s a good point, but Gus’s wife really was a Bigfoot, right?
Goony goo goo.
And 90% of stand-ups haven’t pretended they’re telling the literal truth. thus the different responses.
Yeah, I think the issue here is that most people expect a stand-up act to be embellished for the purpose of making it funnier, not to increase empathy for the speaker (except to the extent that it helps with the former goal) or as an attempt to offer critiques of real issues like racism and xenophobia.
I don’t really believe he’s a “psycho,” but I do think approaching his particular act this way was a bad idea given how politicized everything about America’s treatment of immigrants and Muslims is. Exaggerating your suffering just gives the people who are causing those problems an excuse to dismiss whatever you’re saying.
Fact of the matter is America treats Muslims better than they get treated in Muslim countries. But that doesnt let woketards play the victim card so here we have a millionaire Muslim who has to invent stories about Islamophobia
20 minute video that could have just been an email.
I’m just grateful that it wasn’t a slideshow.
Why are we fact checking stand-up specials? The entire point is to entertain and make people laugh; it should be assumed that things are either embellished or entirely fabricated. And that’s okay! I don’t watch stand-up for the autobiographical details.
I don’t think you’ve watched his specials if you think the point is to make people laugh.
Try reading the article before giving your stupid, uninformed opinion that 20 other dumb assholes have already said in the comment section you stupid fucking douchebag. If you weren’t such a lazy stupid fuckhead you would see why people are so upset about Hasan. Dumbass.
I saw the special and I understand why they dd it. When your embellishments (lies) can be easily traced back to real people and are quite damaging to their reputation then I think all bets are off.
“standup comedian embellishes details for sake of comedy.” News at 11.
Right!? Why is anyone upset about any of this. So stupid.
Shut up dumbfuck asshole
I say what I want.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Be mad dumbshit.
I cannot believe that standup comedy is not a completely accurate retelling of actual events that occurred in real life! What is next, sitcoms not being true? Are they going to start making movies about things that didn’t happen??
I said it on the other thread about this, but Anthony Jeselenik better get a damn good lawyer if he’s done all the stuff he says he has in his act.
I mean…not at all?Jeselnik’s explicitly doing a dark, absurdist bit.Minaj presented his fabrications in a confessional style as his personal experiences with racism.These things are not the same.
Nothing he lied about was actually that funny though. Like his daughter getting hit with white powder? That’s a laugh a minute? That part is pretty weird.
He said this shit in interviews. He’s admitting he fucking lied for “emotional truth.” These are not one-liners; they referenced real people who were later doxxed and harassed. But hey, it’s comedy! The fall out of being a race grifter is no big fucking deal! He lied to his fucking wife. He only added to the racial animus of the culture for money. Get over it! Etc.
Bill Cosby actually DID bring a few children into this world AND he took them out.
What type asshole finds my daughter might get anthrax funny?
Yeah it’s totally cool to make up a story about someone being a racist because they rejected you in high school and then tour the country showing a picture of that person. That’s what “comedy” is. Brilliant.
You didn’t listen to his response, did you?
You didn’t respond to Receoginitions, did you?
I think that was a fair point, though. If part of Rec’s concern was calling someone a racist and showing a thinly her nationally, Minhaj reestablished the point was her parents were more conservative than her at the time, she did eventually marry a person of color, and that he staged presumably a recreation of her Facebook post with actors.That latter detail didn’t really occur to me at the time, but in hindsight yeah only blurring his made up pseudonym and the faces in the photo does present a version of him that comes off more psycho than he apparently wanted people to think of him based on his response to the article.
You’re literally a retarded person.
Because most stand-up comedians aren’t attempting to clout-up and parlay that into being the face for certain movements OR, if they do, they’re open about the fact that they’re making up details.
Also most don’t doxx people in their stories, lie to their partners about it, and implicate serious shit like how anthrax and such is handled.
I’ve seen people compare this dude to, like, Patton Oswalt and Jim Gaffigan and it’s fucking dumb. This guy knew what he was doing and barking out something as absurd as “emotional truth” is just a desperate attempt to have it both ways.
It’s either true or it’s not.
so he doxxed her by concealing her real name and using actors with blurred faces to recreate photos?
Yep. The New Yorker article mentions Mike Daisey, and I think Minhaj’s act has a lot more in common with monologuing than with traditional stand-up, especially with his heavy reliance on graphics that are presented as factually accurate. So if the images are supposed to be real, I think it’s reasonable to believe his words are true too.
The parlaying clout into fame/fortune was something that bothered me about the whole jussie smollet thing. Plenty of folks were saying “what does he even have to gain from this?” and were completely blind to the idea that people elevate “already famous” victims of high profile crime/impropriety, fair or not
Did y’all get a memo about using the word “clout” here or something? The reactionary trolls aren’t generally this predictable, but I guess y’all wanted to go for message repetition or something. Weird choice, but okay.
I’m just glad that the people who keep using “clout” are happy to tell on themselves. Saves sooooo much time.
There’s a pretty clear distinction between “standup comedian embellishes details” and “standup comedian outright lies about identifiable, real people.”
Every article about this has this same comment, usually more than once. It’s such a dumb take, like you can’t possibly think what people are taking issue with is the idea of standups embellishing their stories?
If his anthrax story had a funny punchline, you’d be right. I’m baffled that anyone can watch him tell these stories and categorize them as “comedy”.
yeah but…where…where’s the…the…comedy?
(that’s what you do, right? You fake-stammer to sound like you’re all “I-can’t-believe-what-I’m-hearing-this-is-so…something…!)
Woketard dumbfuck cant comprehend nuance. News at 11
“Emotional truths” sounds a bit to me like “Alternative facts”.
Emotional truths are great for fiction.All he had to do was not say it as true. And yet, here we are.
Who the fuck expects 100% true life stories at a comedy show!? It’s for JOKES, not fucking court testimony.
How many times are you gong to post this lazy, uninteresting, uninformed take? FFS
However many times dumb assholes respond to me about it.
…yes, corncob.THEY’RE the dumb assholes!
Right on. A made-up fact is still a fact
You are a dumb asshole who doesn’t understand the story. Shut up with your stupid ass uninformed opinion you dumb asshole.
He doesn’t do comedy shows though, he does shows designed to make middle class, largely white audiences feel good about feeling bad, with the odd joke thrown in.
Sounds like just another brand of comedy show.
You’re just another brand of dumbfuck asshole
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Be mad dumbshit.
You’re just another brand of dumbfuck asshole
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Be mad dumbshit.
Then why did he repeat the “embellishments” in serious interviews and other publications?You can bang the “it was just a comedy show” drum all you want, but that’s not the only place he said this stuff! The prom story was included in a book of “true” short stories.
The prom story where the only change was the date? OMG what a liar! Burn the guy! Jesus fucking Christ get a life.
Huh?Maybe read the short story, son.
What jokes, shitstain? Unless you think a little kid getting anthrax is hilarious
It’s a comedy show, asswipe. The whole bit is for entertainment, stop being a moron.
So, everything the New Yorker said was true, Hasan just thinks he had a really good reason for it?Cool.
It’s a clash of expectations. The stand-up comedian thinks he should be playing by comedy rules. The journalist thinks he should be playing by journalism rules.
I’m happy for comedians to play by comedy rules. But if they explicitly tell me “I’m not playing by comedy rules right now”, how am I the asshole for holding them to that?
You’re the asshole because you were just born that way.
…lying about your daughter being hospitalized due to a hate crime isn’t “playing by comedy rules.”It’s just lying.
It’s not playing by comedy rules because there’s nothing funny about anyone’s child being exposed to a deadly disease.
To be fair, when Hasan does journalism, he plays by journalism rules—and wins awards for the efforts.
The important expectation is the one that Minaj set with his audience and as far as I can tell, he set the expectation that he was sharing a true story.
Hasan heard about the 6 year old Muslim kid who got stabbed and his next special will deliver a powerful message on the death of his imaginary son
Right? Like he just reiterated that he lied, then mentioned he has IBS. But now can I even believe him about the IBS??! I saw Hasan Minhaj stand-up last year, my main takeaway was that he’s a bit of a yuppie.
IBS is no joke, boy!
Nah, it’s more complicated. Hasan is saying that the things he embellished were minor details and accuses the New Yorker of implying that he made up bigger details.For example, he maintains that the prom thing happened roughly the same way he said, just that he got rejected a couple days before prom rather than literally on her parents doorstep. While the New Yorker article implies that the rejection might have happened long before and for a reason unrelated to his race.
And what about his daughter being hospitalized for a hate crime?
Similar embellishment.He claims that the truth is that he received hate mail with a white powder in it. He and his wife freaked out, but the powder ended up being nothing. His wife yelled at him that the powder could have gotten on his daughter. The embellished story for the stand up special was taking that true event (according to him) and adding the minor detail of the powder actually touching his daughter.Same basic events. He got a letter, it had white powder, he and his wife got scared, turned out to be nothing. But with a minor added detail to punch it up for a comedy special.
…I think we have different definitions of “minor.”Unless you were describing his massive fabrication as a “minor detail” because the fabricated detail involved a minor?
It’s a minor detail because the difference between “we freaked out thinking someone sent us Anthrax, but it turned out to be nothing” and “we freaked out thinking someone sent us Anthrax *so we drove to the hospital* but it turned out to be nothing” is fairly minor. It doesn’t change the overall theme of the story, just makes it more interesting as a work of comedic fiction by exaggerating the swing between panic and relief.
Well obviously, she couldn’t go to prom with him because she was in the hospital. Or more likely, she wasn’t born yet while he was attending prom…or not.
I still don’t understand how a comedian embellishing facts is in any way shocking or unexpected in any way.
You should try reading the article before commenting then you stupid asshole.
I still dont understand how you woketards are this fucking stoopid. How’s cancelling trans murderer Dave Chappelle going for ya?
Hasan Minhaj told fake stories to elicit audience empathy rather than laughs – and to make himself sound like an underdog hero. His video basically defends his right to do that, but it’s ultimately up to the public to decide how they feel.What’s wild to me is people will legit just believe the last thing they saw. No one is entitled to host The Daily Show, much less someone who lied about what a hero he was re: his last hosting gig. The New Yorker probably has a stronger track record of truth than Minhaj, by his own admission.
Oh my god again the idiots are out in full force with some form of “Comedian tells joke that’s fake, news at 11”.I fucking love stand-up comedy, and if you can’t tell the difference between an embellished story told for laughs and an embellished or in this case completely made up story told for clout and sympathy, and why one’s ok and the other isn’t, then you’re an aforementioned bad-faith idiot. Minhaj also told these stories in interviews — it’s much more akin to Steve Rannazzisi lying about his 9/11 whereabouts than it is Rodney Dangerfield talking about how his wife’s an idiot.Minhaj’s comedy is sociopolitical, which has always been based on fact. Any comparison to someone like Steven Wright who specifically deals in absurdist comedy is itself absurd. A comedy show like The Daily Show would be raked over the coals, and likely sued, if it improperly portrayed an issue for the sake of comedy. This guy was trying to become host of said show, and hosted one that was essentially his version of it. That’s a big deal!And even if he was doing strictly personal comedy, there’s a pretty clear fucking line there too. I’m sure the same numbskulls saying “it’s just jokes” would be frothing at the mouth if it was revealed that Hannah Gadsby never actually was assaulted as she says in Nanette, or if Jerrod Carmichael wasn’t actually gay. In Marc Maron’s latest special, a bunch of the routine is about how his girlfriend Lynn Shelton died suddenly and how he had to deal with that grief. He populates that with embellished jokes – I don’t know that he actually had the thought in the literal moment to take a selfie with her corpse in the hospital, and I don’t really care! But if it came out that he lied about their dating history, that’d be a big deal. This isn’t hard!
Some people have the weird idea that absolutely anything at all goes on stage because “it’s comedy,” like a weird perversion of what they imagine George Carlin’s take to be.Comedians get leeway to do and say things that would be taboo in other circumstances because they’re supposed to be exceptionally good at it. It’s like surgery: you wouldn’t let just anyone cut you open, but that doesn’t mean a surgeon just gets to do whatever.
Yeah, like…we’ve been here before. Anyone else remember National Report?https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/503146770/npr-finds-the-head-of-a-covert-fake-news-operation-in-the-suburbsTurns out that publishing blatantly false, incendiary headlines isn’t “satire” so much as it’s “fucking lying.”
Embellishment? Fine. No one’s saying that big fish stories don’t or shouldn’t exist. But…yeah, people will have problems if you advance an “earnest” narrative that is revealed to be bullshit.Seems like the best comedians know that?
You’re comparing what is ultimately a form of artistic self-expression without even the pretext of avjournalistic code of ethics (stand up) to literal “fake news.”The fake news maker discussed in the story you linked was (among other things,) fabricating and spreading lies and conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton at a time she was running for President, and helped to foster a false narrative that, in the aggregate, along with other fake newsers, almost certainly contributed to Donald Trump’s victory. To the extent Hasan’s stand-up seeks to exert a political influence on its audience, what is the false narrative he’s promoting? In other words, if I were to take Hasan’s comedy totally at face value, what greater narratives about the US or the word would I be lead to believe, but which are actually false? That Muslims are discriminated against here and abroad? That some parents don’t want their daughters dating a Muslim or POC? That Muslims and their families are terrified at the prospect of being targeted. Hasan may have altered details about what happened to him specifically, but he never lied about “What the World is Like” — but National Report did.
It feels like John Mulanely narrowly missed a mention here.
Why do woketards have such a boner for Mulaney? He team TERF or something
You’re right, it isn’t hard, so I don’t know why you’re so wrong about it. Film at 11 I guess.
From you:
if you can’t tell the difference between an embellished story told for laughs and an embellished or in this case completely made up story told for clout and sympathy, and why one’s ok and the other isn’t, then you’re an aforementioned bad-faith idiot. From Hasan:
The truth is, racism, FBI surveillance and the threats to my family happened. And I said this on the record.” Seems pretty reasonable that people might have difficulty telling the difference. You evidently can’t. What this boils down to is: do you think Hasan is lying in the above statement? If so, then that’s your choice and opinion. If not, then maybe this situation is a bit more nuanced than you’re putting it and Hasan did indeed embellish stories for laughs by making up parts of them ostensibly for sympathy.
These things don’t have to be mutually exclusive, even if you can’t understand that. Like you say, this isn’t hard, but it is maybe a bit more complicated than you’re making it out to be.
And when he said he took his daughter to the hospital after a hate crime was committed against his family…is that “complicated,” or just him being a fucking liar?
Thing is, now and henceforth, whether or not he is telling the truth NOW is an article of faith in someone already dinged for fabulation. These are explosive and emotional topics. For some, the emotional generalized ‘truth’ that these topics exist in the world override and fabrications of details on the storyteller’s narrative. And for others, the explosiveness of the topic mandates that care be taken that what is presented as truth is actually true.
I agree, and part of the reason I enjoyed Patriot Act was because Hasan would usually explicitly say things like “this is true” or “this actually happened” when talking about serious things in a humorous way.
I can understand why people feel deceived and even angry, but I’m not one of them and both ways of feeling are valid. Calling each other idiots as the OP does is at best an oversimplification of consuming Hasan’s content.
Are you suggesting those Onion headlines are fake?
Well said. It’s frustrating trying to discuss this with people whose entire understanding of the situation starts and ends with a smug “you expect comedians to be honest??”Comedians make an unspoken pact with the audience that’s understood by most reasonable people. We all know that Larry the Cable and Andrew Dice Clay are playing characters and that what they say is only true within their character’s universe but Minaj asked the audience to take him at his word. To anyone who is defending Minaj AND actually watched his special, at the time did you think the anthrax and prom stories weren’t actually true?
To anyone who is defending Minaj AND actually watched his special, at the time did you think the anthrax and prom stories weren’t actually true?
The bulk of those stories are true. I’ve just always expected and accepted that a comedian can embellish stuff in their standup, so that’s why those embellishments don’t bother me so much though I understand how they can bother others.
He’s Canadian?
Did you actually watch his video? New Yorker did take things out of context to create a certain narrative.
I get it. Sometimes, when I am feeling intellectually inferior, I pick on easy targets too and argue with people who don’t know what they are talking about and/or are likely children on the other end. You’ve chosen to argue with people who are defending Hasan Minhaj and not the arguments he’s made in his video. In fact, there is not even any indication that you’ve seen that video, which is what this article is about and provides the link to at the end. He is not entirely in the right, but it paints a more balanced picture where he proves that the New Yorker article did take things out of context to paint a certain narrative. They are in the wrong too.
I get it. Sometimes, when I am feeling intellectually inferior, I pick on easy targets too and argue with people who don’t know what they are talking about and/or are likely children on the other end. You’ve chosen to argue with people who are defending Hasan Minhaj and not the arguments he’s made in his video. In fact, there is not even any indication that you’ve seen that video, which is what this article is about and provides the link to at the end. He is not entirely in the right, but it paints a more balanced picture where he proves that the New Yorker article did take things out of context to paint a certain narrative. They are in the wrong too.
This.Also, neither here nor there but the “news at 11” thing is such a played out hack joke at this point. It’s absurd that some people still consider it funny.
Well, maybe it’s not so bad the Daily Show won’t be hosted by an unexciting careerist. You have to be able to feel for the country on these shows. Hasan shown that he feels mainly for himself.
The video on The Hollywood Reporter site is extremely janky and keeps locking up my browser.
It’s also on Hasan Minhaj’s YouTube page, in higher resolution, with captions, etc. I recommend going that route if you want to watch it.
Some of his arguments seem just as uninformed about the journalistic process as Malone sometimes seems to be about comedy writing (“hey, they used two quotes but cut out a ton of other stuff in the middle!”), but in other cases, he does seem to have a point about the New Yorker article jumping to conclusions that they should have questioned, especially since Minhaj offered emails that confirmed what he was saying. (Some of the confirmations aren’t as concrete as he represents them as being, though.)
“It’s also on Hasan Minhaj’s YouTube page, in higher resolution, with
captions, etc. I recommend going that route if you want to watch it.”Thx it wasn’t working for me
He does a good job of explaining himself and countering the New Yorker article in the video. It’s worth a watch.
Woketard dumbfuck spotted
His video is so weird. He’s not actually contradicting anything in the New Yorker piece. Bizarre.
Doesnt have to. Woketards dont deal in facts, they preach to the choir.
The bad part about the anti-Hasan-Minhaj take is that it lets (and I think this is intentional) people say “see, that would never happen, there is absolutely no evidence that prejudice exists at ALL!” I like standup comedy a lot, and I’ve rarely listened to a story and wondered if it happened or not. If it’s funny, or even if it’s not, fact-checking is not my first instinct.
I haven’t actually seen a single person make that argument. At least not here.And intentional on whose part? The New Yorker kicked all of this off and I think we can safely assume that wasn’t their goal.
Most racism stories from woketards are complete bullshit. Maybe this dumbfuck can pretend his daughter was the kid who got stabbed and whine about his grief
This feels like concern trolling. Do you actually believe people are making the leap from “Minaj lied for clout” to “I no longer think prejudice is real?”
Okay one popped up in the grays (who apparently is too stupid to realize his point is weakened by attaching to your post…)
JFC. Hasan Minhaj’s prom story isn’t just a bit from a standup special. It’s included in a collection of stories entitled “All These Wonders: True Stories About Facing the Unknown,” published by the Moth, the non-profit that promotes true storytelling. Minhaj accepted an award from the Moth earlier this year. He knows exactly what he’s done. He is so full of shit hiding behind the “comedian” excuse.
Anybody who calls out Minhaj for this and not other (white) comedians is racist. Full stop.Where’s the hit piece article on John Mulaney embellishing his drug addiction stories?
Unintentional hilarity, right here!There’s actually a New Yorker piece about the surreal experience of watching John Mulaney’s bit about giving an interview coked out of his fucking mind…and realizing that he could only be referring to one he gave to the author of the piece, because of how specifically and accurately he recounted it!
There would absolutely be an uproar if hannah gadsby said “i wasn’t really sexually assaulted, but that thing still happens to people and we should examine it”. There honestly just aren’t a ton of people in the space of “clapter comedy”/political commentary
Shut up you woketard dumbfuck
looool you really thought this trump card was gonna work this time huh? Get lost dork.
Comedian does what all comedians do and gets blasted because he is brown… the exact type of thing his stand up talks about and those embellished stories were trying to get people to understand.
Was trying to give a more honest headline…. but I guess that IS a bit wordy.
Brilliant. Get called out for making up a bullshit Islamophobia story, just blame it on Islamophobia!
Except they were in fact now corroborated stories of other peoples circumstances that DID occur and all that happened here was a switching of identities of the victim (which in practice is true for pretty much ALL of comedy since there are potential legal ramifications to just name dropping people in stories that could potentially be viewed as damaging).
The Islamophobia stems from the fact you don’t care that Larry The Cable Guy wore suits and told regular jokes until the made up redneck gimmick change. You ONLY care because he is brown.
Nice try though.
Eh, someone let me know if Mulaney didn’t really play “What’s New Pussycat” 7 times at a diner, then we can have a discussion about whether its good to embellish a story for standup.
Someone should let you know you’re a dumbfuck
Yes but when is the New Yorker going to let us know if that horse actually walked into that bar?
Just stop for God’s sake Hasan, better to just let things like this fade away than keep fighting it
The funniest bit is the one with the “racist” white woman who wouldnt go out with this untalented hack. Turns out she ended up marrying another Indian guy. lol. Problem wasnt racism just the fact that Hasan is a shit human being like all his woketard fans
You know that unfortunate incident in Michigan of a little Muslim kid getting stabbed is the perfect comedy material for Hasan. He could deliver a really powerful message of how his life was changed by his imaginary son dying
The message is clear. Muslims have it so good in America they literally have to invent bullshit stories of racism. Just goes to show you that the Deuce Dropper is gonna have to pound them extra hard. You know so they have more material to work with
The two weirdest things to me in this comments section:1) Comedy snobs telling other readers they aren’t qualified to watch stand-up comedy.2) That anyone feels the need to get defensive on Minhaj’s part at all.