Whoopi Goldberg stands by Hasan Minhaj’s standup: “That’s our job”
After Hasan Minhaj revealed he fabricated parts of his standup, Whoopi Goldberg reminded The View’s audience that not everything standups say is truthful
Aux News Whoopi Goldberg
Well, comedy nerds, the time has come to debate the merits of verisimilitude in standup comedy. Should standups only tell the truth about the mundanity of life, or are they permitted to, in Emerill’s parlance, kick it up a notch with some good, old-fashioned exaggeration? What if there are fabrications in the set-up? What about tags? Act outs? Are those also subject to fact-checking? Of course, the only answer to this question is a question: “Is the joke funny?” Nevertheless, the discourse is hungry and it shall feed.
On The View, Whoopi Goldberg came out in favor of exaggeration, responding to criticisms against Hasan Minhaj, who recently admitted to fabricating material, by reminding her audience “That’s our job.”
“That’s what we do, tell stories, and we embellish them,” she told her audience. Looking a little confused by the whole argument, Goldberg didn’t wade into the specifics of the claims made in The New Yorker’s profile of Minhaj, but she did recall the time a reporter asked about her degree from NYU, which she doesn’t have. Goldberg remembered that one of her characters, Fontaine, had the degree, and the reporter had mistook her joke for truth.
“If you’re going to hold a comic to the point where you’re
going to check up on stories, you have to understand, a lot of it is not
the exact thing that happened because why would we tell exactly what
happened? It ain’t that interesting,” she continued. “There’s
information that we will give you as comics that will have grains of
truth but don’t take it to the bank. That’s our job, a seed of truth.
Sometimes truth and sometimes total BS.”
Over the weekend, Minhaj admitted to the New Yorker that he exaggerated events for comedy, including a joke about worrying his daughter ingested anthrax. She’s fine, but he did receive white powder in the mail and worried it was anthrax. In another instance, he joked about his prom date rejecting him the night of the dance because of his race. However, the woman said she broke up with him days before their date and denied that she did so because of he is Muslim (Minhaj disagrees with her version of events). Furthermore, she accused the comedian of failing to protect her identity in the joke, effectively doxing her, leading to years of online harassment. Elsewhere in the piece, The New Yorker reports that three women accused his show, Patriot Act, of “gender discrimination, sex-based harassment, and retaliation,” which seems lost in the conversations surrounding exaggerating real-life events for comedy.
Minhaj, who was a frontrunner for The Daily Show until this recent controversy took over headlines, says he is within his rights to invent jokes, premises, and situations for comedy. “All my standup stories are based on events that happened to me. Yes, I was rejected from going to prom because of my race. Yes, a letter with powder was sent to my apartment that almost harmed my daughter. Yes, I had an interaction with law enforcement during the war on terror,” he said in a statement to Variety. “I use the tools of standup comedy—hyperbole, changing names and locations, and compressing timelines to tell entertaining stories. That’s inherent to the art form.”
92 Comments
Taking as much of this into account as I’ve read and comparing my own experience, this is my suggestion to artists and comedians: don’t literally name names and switch up some details before you deliver. As they say “the truth is in the lie” so make sure it’s a good lie.
I guess this is a discourse we’re having. I don’t expect comedians to tell the truth when they’re telling a joke, but FWIW, it feels like ever since social media came to prominence, more and more standup comedians have embraced parasocial relationships with their fans. Sometimes I see comedians reference their performance in interviews to elaborate on something personal, implying – or even boasting – that when they talk about on their life on stage, they’re being honest. It doesn’t help when comics start every other joke with, “And this is true, this actually happened to me.”So I can see how the line between truth and fiction – or at least truth with a cup of salt – is blurry as hell for people that watch a lot of stand-up.
I’m not sure the parasocial angle is nearly as important as the political/cultural angle. It seems to me that this Minhaj guy was trading in the slightly-more-left-wing version of the borderline outrage/comedy pandering that those right-wing clowns do. He was making himself out to be the victim constantly in perfectly pat little stories with obvious good guys and bad guys. That’s embarrassingly basic-ass shit unless it’s true. When those kinds of stories are literally true, they become legitimate grist for a brand of shock/outrage comedy that John Oliver gets a lot of mileage out of on his show, for example — and, not for nothing, but Oliver doesn’t make himself out to be the hero/victim constantly, as far as I’m aware. It’s still lazy not to go farther, granted — hone the material, find the fresh angle, etc. — but at least the foundation is there.
If the pat little anecdotes aren’t true, then the foundation isn’t there. The extra work has nothing to rest upon. The jokes can’t survive without the initial shock/outrage that something that shitty, stupid, etc. etc. actually happened.That’s why Dangerfield is fine, and not a point of comparison. His jokes never depended on anybody believing that his parents did, could, or would leave him to die on the side of a desert highway. They didn’t depend in the slightest on the shock or outrage his audience might feel about the idea of his parents actually having done that.
I think the other lesson is that if you’re going to try to take on the hero/victim role in your comedy constantly, genericize like crazy and/or exaggerate like crazy. I don’t think we live in quite a fucked-up enough world that dozens of Minhaj’s audience members were saying to themselves, “Hey, yeah, that whole anthrax thing happened to me, too!” thus retroactively exempting him from having to have experienced it himself. By contrast, if you get really weird and specific about, say, your kid throwing a tantrum on the playground, you’re still in safe waters. Kids throw tantrums on playgrounds. It’s a persistent, universal truth.
Re: Dangerfield, EXACTLY. Rodney Dangerfield never spun his personal “emotional truths” into a 2-season Netflix series about child endangerment.The people going to defense of Minhaj are relatively insane to me. Dude admitted to lying to his own wife and repeatedly uttering the phrase “emotional truth” over and over again. Which is, in my opinion, pretty damn close to gaslighting behavior – to his wife, to his audience, etc.
Minhaj lying on stage as a comic shouldn’t generally be considered immoral. It should be assumed that a stand-up comic is lying for comedic entertainment purposes. However, if he’s lying about & doxing real people in his routine and then gaslighting people off the stage, he can be called an asshole and deal with the consequences of those actions. This article seems to make it seem like the whole controversy is about how honest he his during his routine.
I think people need to realize that basically all forms of entertainment are art, which means none of it has to be true. It can be inspirational or recognize real events, but every consumer should know they are potentially being lied to, since the entertainment factor is all that really matters to a performance. Maybe that would help get the much needed death of the 24 hours “news” cycles.
The Daily Show was considered a legitimate new source during the Stewart years. A certain demographic got all their news there. Was it satire? Sure. But what if Stewart had simply made up news stories to satirize? It would become a source of misinformation and propaganda. Sure, you could say buyer beware and blame the audience for taking it seriously, but that was the case, they took it seriously.Now we are going to turn over where many people get their news over to a man who has lied about islamophobia, anthrax attacks, lied to his wife, and doxed people. Should people take him seriously? No. Do they? Absolutely.But “comedians lie.” That kind of gets complicated when they are considered news sources.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Never let the facts get in the way of a joke.
Never let the facts get in the way of a made up story about your infant child getting exposed to anthrax.
I mean, there are far better thrash metal bands that you should expose your children to.
The Sound of White Noise is a helluva album tho.
SLAYER m/
“made up story”
Joke. Calm down, sad loser.
Right, that’s the kicker here. Of course comedians exaggerate or maybe even wholly make shit up; I think it matters a LITTLE more given the specific things he chose to make up. I don’t care much either way as I’m not a big fan of his so my opinion hasn’t changed but I can see why people are raising an eyebrow in this case and it isn’t just “oh, wow, comedians lie???”
Save your fabulism for a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed
He lied about prejudice and discrimination he faced and doxxed two people, adding to the general racial animus in the world for personal gain. And he forgot to be funny doing so.
I’d rather have a comedian that embellishes or even fabricated stories just for humor, rather than a comedian who RAPES.
Believe it or not, you can have a comedian that doesn’t embellish their child being exposed to anthrax for sympathy AND that comedian also doesn’t rape people. Weird, I know!
I agree with you there. Though I did specify embellishing and making up stories for humor, rather than for sympathy. I’m not with Minaj on the anthrax stuff or any other BS sob stories.I’ve interacted with many a people who lie consistently to either impress, outdo, or evoke a response that benefits themselves in some way. I don’t like those people. They are not entertaining.Except maybe the guy who said centrifugal force isn’t real. Granted it’s not an actual “force”. But he thought the concept itself was not real. That was funny.
Cant blame Minhaj. Nothin racist happened to him and he’s a rich. So he had to make some racism up to get the woketards to watch his show
Not enough racism in America so Minhaj and the woketards have to invent stories of Islamophobia to keep their outrage boner going
You’re pretty upset about this, eh?
If woketard Minhaj is free to make up anything he likes why doesnt he ever say anything funny?
When comedian Steve Rannazzisi told jokes about narrowly escaping The World Trade Center during 9/11 which he later admitted was all a lie — according to Whoopi, this would be okay?
He wasn’t telling jokes in his set about it, though.
i’m almost positive he was?
Nope: As far as I remember and can find online, he was talking about it in interviews and telling fellow comedians about it, but wasn’t using it for material.
fair enough. that’s also worse imo haha.
Oh yeah it totally is, but it’s not a similar situation.
He went on Marc Maron’s podcast and told this lie, in an interview setting, not a stand up context.
I’m starting to think the the number of actual encounters comedians have had with legendary vaudeville troupe The Aristocrats is significantly exaggerated.
Pretty sure Bob Saget was the only comedian who actually saw that show.
I think Gilbert Gottfried was also at that performance.
He is under no obligation, legally or socially, to be truthful. His job is to make people laugh. It’s the job of every comedian. That said, for me, Hassan simply isn’t funny, not even a little. I find his material simplistic, mass appealing schlock delivered with poor timing and clear sense of entitlement to laughter.
FFS of course comedians are allowed to lie to tell a joke.
The only issue I can see is if they name a real person in their joke and haven’t told them they’re going to lie about them. But since that’s between them it’s none of my business and I dare say none of yours.
I don’t know man. If it was for the laughs I could get it but it sounds like he lied to get sympathy from the audience/interviewers and that hits a bit different. It doesn’t help that while I do think Minhaj is funny his stage persona is obnoxious and he doesn’t know when to drop it. Or maybe that’s just the way he is. Anyway maybe comics should steer clear of exaggerating their personal experiences with sensitive topics. Even if Tom Green had been molested I’m not sure that would have excused “Freddy Got Fingered”.
“I don’t know man. If it was for the laughs I could get it but it sounds like he lied to get sympathy from the audience/interviewers and that hits a bit different. I don’t understand comedy.”
Fixed for you. Go watch some reality television.
Daddy would you like some sausage?
I think that movie, much like Green’s style of comedy, is half great absurdism and half sheer dumbassery. I will say I’ve laughed less at better made and written comedies so the absolute bizarreness of some of the scenes works as intended.
Well put
This is such a dumb controversy. Do people think that Stephen Colbert actually idolizes Bill O’Reilly?
I mean, out of character, Colbert would consider O’Reilly a friend back in those Bush/early Obama days. Yes. Not “idolize” though.
“Stephen Colbert” the host of the Colbert Report called him Papa Bear. Of course I know that version of Stephen was a character, but I basically see a comedian doing stand up as basically the same thing.
Did people take Jon Stewart and his Daily Show as an actual news source? Yes, yes they did. A generation legitimately got their news there. What if he had just made up stories to satirize?So now the Daily Show, which is still viewed as a news source, is going to be handed to a man who lied about islamophobia, an anthrax attack, lied to his wife, and doxed and vilified real people. He ain’t Colbert. He’s a propagandist.
It’s fairly obvious comedians make shit up. Like do people really think a story that has been honed over the course of a comedy tour actually happened “the other day”? Do they think Dave Chappelle really bought weed from a baby? Or that Stewart Lee actually vomitted into the mouth of Jesus?
I do believe Douglas Adams’s story of his biscuit thievery is 100%, especially since he made an additional point of making sure that he said it happened to him and *not* Jeffrey Archer that it happened to.That plus the one of having to breaking into own car after both a police and a passing car thief had been unsuccesful in helping him.
He lied about the prejudice he faced, which adds to the racial animus in this country, doxxing two people and forgetting to be funny in the process. This was not absurdist humor; it was pretentious social commentary that fucked with people’s lives.
Everyone knows that Jesus is no longer alive. What a weird comparison for you to choose. Any joke about knowing a modern, physical form of Jesus is obviously a joke. There’s no obfuscation or manipulation in that.
Here’s the thing and it’s really this easy. If you’re bending the truth to make a joke funnier. Fair game. Everyone’s on board. If you’re bending the truth to get more sympathy fuck off, and nobody’s on board. It’s that simple.
She also defended Bill Cosby. Not exactly the first person you want in your corner.
and Roman Polanski
People think comedians tell the truth in their sets?
Right? Like, when was there ever an expectation that comedians only tell people 100% true life experiences? I missed that memo. I thought it was literally their job to “make up” jokes for people to laugh at.
Anthony Jeselnik is in big, big trouble.
If Jeselnik’s stories aren’t true I don’t know what’s reality and what’s fantasy anymore!
So you’d be cool if, say, Hannah Gadsby lied about being raped? Minhaj is not dropping one-liners ala Dangerfield. He’s a “storyteller” comedian, and a pretentious and unfunny one. This guy said he was racially profiled and brought up a specific person, then said he was discriminated against and brought up a specific person, then said he wasn’t joking but expressing “emotional truth.” He also claimed his daughter was sent anthrax. He lied to his wife. And he’s a huge star. So a lot of people now have the impression that the country is a worse place than it is, based on an obvious egomaniac’s “entertaining stories.”“Comedian’s lie.” No, comedian’s tell jokes. They don’t dox people and makeup racist incidents that he claims actually happened. I hope he loses everything.
Absolutely, I wouldn’t give 2 shits if Gadsby did a bit about getting raped when she didn’t really get raped, it doesn’t effect me in any way and so I 100% do not care about it.
Comedians definitely lie.
So you wouldn’t care that viewers would come away with a greater sense of misandry, and you wouldn’t care that a feminist icon was spreading an ideology based on lies. Noted.Audiences do not go to “storyteller” Ted Talk comedians expecting to be lied to. Both Gadsby and Minhaj would be pushing propaganda. They are not telling fucking bits. Brilliant.
“So you wouldn’t care that viewers would come away with a greater sense
of misandry, and you wouldn’t care that a feminist icon was spreading an
ideology based on lies. Noted.”If that’s what you’re getting out of this then sure, put it in your notebook.
“Audiences do not go to “storyteller” Ted Talk comedians expecting to be lied to.”Maybe they should re calibrate their expectation because, again, comedians do not tell the truth in their bits. It might help if you put that in your notebook too.
Got it in my notebook, thanks. Your position is clear, you fucking condescending dickhead.Minhaj said all this shit fucking happened. If you haven’t noticed, he’s had to backtrack and fall into your position, after, again, doxxing a few people and presenting these stories as truth. I repeat: He said they were true. He said they happened. He said it was real. He named real people. Do you follow?Should audiences have then said, “Yeah, he’s definitely lying.” Maybe. Maybe if HE HADN’T PRESENTED THEM AS AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL REALITY. Maybe if he wasn’t a TedTalk comedian and storyteller. Maybe if he said they were jokes. He didn’t. Again: HE NAMED REAL FUCKING PEOPLE. People get their news from the fucking Daily Show and Jon Oliver. They shouldn’t, but they do. This guy is going to be given the Daily Show. Would you be comfortable with Jon Oliver just making up stories to cover? Not satirizing news stories; manufacturing them.No need to reply. I got your response in my notebook. It makes zero fucking sense in this context, but duly recorded.
“you fucking condescending dickhead.”Sure, you go ahead and think that about me. I’m not the throwing out horrible names at people and screaming at them, but I’m the dickhead.
“No need to reply.”Ah ok, so you can curse and scream at me but I have no need to reply, thanks for that!
Do better.
I’m sorry, but you are condescending and you are a dickhead. Was I meant to take your notebook crack as anything other than patronizing? Am I supposed to come away from those cracks thinking you’re a nice guy? No. You’re a condescending dickhead.Oh, and I “screamed” at you lol. I capitalized for emphasis. If you take that as “screaming”…put this in your notebook: One cannot hear over the internet.Another thing for your notebook: People are legitimately mad at this guy. You think these people are fools, and you wouldn’t care if Gatsby lied about rape. If she did, it would be a massive scandal. Why would that be? (bolded for emphasis, but you may want to shield your ears.) Honestly, why would that be a massive scandal?While Minhaj’s bullshit is not as big of a deal as if Gatsby lied, he lied. He lied while using real people. He lied to his wife. Does this sound like someone just cracking jokes? He made himself out to be the victim of terrorism and Islamophobia. What a jokester, what hilarious one-liners.I fully understand your position. We are never to take comedians seriously, even if they are autobiographical storytellers like Minhaj and Gatsby, even if they lie about real people, even if those lies add to racial animus, even if the people they lie about are harassed and doxxed, even if they lied about being the victim of terrorism and prejudice, even if this person is about to be handed a show that people take seriously. I know, I know, they are fools.They all disagree with you. This is a big story for a reason. He lied about terrorism and Islamophobia and doxxed people. Whoopie Goldberg is a fucking idiot. You agree with her. Put that in your fucking notebook.
“Was I meant to take your notebook crack as anything other than patronizing?”Yes, it was sarcastic because you were ‘noting’ my responses. Like, you’re actually writing this down or something. Get it?
“Oh, and I “screamed” at you lol. I capitalized for emphasis.”Put this in your notebook: Typing in all caps is generally considered to be ‘yelling’ in text. Yelling and cursing at someone will basically never convince them that you’re right, it’ll only convince them that you’re yelling and cursing at them.
Here’s a helpful link!https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/23/us/all-caps-typography-history-tweets-trnd/index.htmlI hope that info helps you better your online discourse going forward.
Nah. I’m good. I don’t spend any time whatsoever on social media, and I simply don’t care if people think I’M YELLING AT THEM on the AV Club.But, again, thanks for being a condescending dickhead re: tweet etiquette, as if that means something lol. You’re passive-aggressive, too.You addressed none of the points I brought up, so I’m assuming you’re cool with PRETENDING TO BE THE VICTIM OF TERRORISM, DOXXING, PRETENDING TO BE THE VICTIM OF ISLAMAPHOBIA WHILE EXPLOITING ONE’S CHILD, LYING TO ONE’S SPOUSE, CAUSING HARRASMENT OF INNOCENT PEOPLE, and FAILING UPWARDS REGARDLESS.He’s a fraud and he’s going to be rewarded for it, you’re cool with it, and you think people are stupid for believing him when he said these THINGS ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO HIM.CAN YOU HEAR ME? I pray that you understand fraud, doxing, harassment, and general discourse going forward, MY FINE FEATHERED FRIEND.
“But, again, thanks for being a condescending dickhead re: tweet etiquette, as if that means something lol. You’re passive-aggressive, too.”I mean it’s basic online etiquette that I learned back in the early ‘90s when I was a teenager. If you can’t be assed to be a decent person online I can’t imagine how your interactions go in real life.
Just picture this: You’re having this debate with someone in real life. Screaming at them and calling them names. They reply calmly and ask you to stop screaming and insulting them, and you call them passive aggressive for not yelling back. Is that something you do irl? Because that’s literally what you’re doing now.
I could not give less of a shit about online etiquette. If that bothers you, I find that sad/hilarious/absurd.You have failed to address any meaningful points, and instead focused on made-up internet grammar bullshit. You are not a serious person. You are a shallow, nitpicky, sarcastic, passive-aggressive….dick.Actually, you have addressed my points. I will try to maintain “tweet etiquette”, since that’s important to you, as you are apparently a person hung up on such absolute fucking nonsense.Ahem:You’re okay with:Lying about your daughter being the victim of an anthrax attack.Lying about being the victim of racial profiling, while doxing an innocent man.Lying about being discriminated against, while doxing an innocent woman.Lying to your spouse.The liar backpedaling said lies, claiming he was going for “emotional truth”, something well-known to comedians and audiences alike (sarcasm!)The liar being rewarded with millions of dollars and a prestigious television show.Your reasoning? “Comedians lie.”Name a comedian who has doxed innocent people, faked an anthrax attack, faked racial profiling, faked discrimination, and lied to his wife about it all…in service of a joke.I will accept any comedian who lies in his act while doing similar damage to one’s family, the racial animus of the country, innocent people, and who then issued a sad mea culpa about how it’s all cool because he was actually finding truth in his fucking lies.I won’t hold my breath. This is fucking different from comedians lying about blowjobs and airplane food, friendo. This guy fucked with peoples’ lives.And you’re fine with it.
Hey thank you for talking civally! I hope that, in the future, you can apply the way you would talk irl to people who you converse with online, it makes life a lot nicer when people don’t scream at and insult each other for absolutely no reason no matter where the discussion takes place. “You are a shallow, nitpicky, sarcastic, passive-aggressive….dick.”Oh damn, there goes the civility right down the drain. Sure, I’m all of that if it makes you feel good to insult someone you don’t really know for absolutely no reason.
“You’re okay with:Lying about your daughter being the victim of an anthrax attack.Lying about being the victim of racial profiling, while doxing an innocent man.Lying about being discriminated against, while doxing an innocent woman.Lying to your spouse.”As I believe I’ve basically before: I do not give a single shit about this guy doing any of that. I’ve got a whole bunch of stuff I do care about, this guy and what he says about anything is so unimportant it might as well not exist. If you believe a single word of what any entertainer says on an entertainment stage is real and are surprised to find out that it’s not, well, that’s a learning experience, I hope. The doxxing thing isn’t cool but, really, I’m not going to give this guy any money anyhow so I have absolutely no reason to care. And, honestly, that seems to be a ‘he said she said’ thing, so it’s not up to you to decide who is right.Whatever he said to his wife is no business of mine or yours in any way.So, to sum up: Keep your nose out of other people’s business, don’t believe anything an entertainer says and please, for the love of god, learn how to be a nicer and better person than you are right now.Have a nice day!
Hey, thanks! I’ve interacted with you before and seen your interactions with other users, so I would hardly start pontificating on being a nicer, better person if I were you. Me, I simply don’t care how I behave online to pretentious dickheads, progressive idiots spouting lies, and people who don’t care about fraud, doxing, harassment, borderline child abuse, and lying to one’s family. None of my business? He’s a public figure who committed fraud, hurt real people, and added to racial tensions. Truly meaningless shit, right? He might as well not exist. He’s so insignificant that he’s going to be hosting The Daily Show, a place where people actually get their opinions and news. Should they? No. Do they? Yes. I dare say this is a more pressing issue than your apparent interest in fucking cartoons.If you don’t care about this guy and have such a complex life, why did you bother to comment with a meme about it, and discuss it with others? Why are you on a pop culture site to begin with? You’re commenting on all kinds of meaningless bullshit, from Ghostbusters to other shit I’m not going to bother looking into (fucking cartoons? As an adult?), but it seems like you spend an awful lot of your super serious life commenting on pop culture garbage, so I find your above-it-all attitude to be, um, total disingenuous horseshit. You just like other, way more meaningless shit.I’ve got a lot going on too, friendo, and I’m just killing time at work, as you may be. I rarely post on the AV Club; I was more interested in The Root, because they are a pure propaganda outlet that spews harmful bullshit that hurts people I work with. But I’ll be outta here soon (new job, less screen time), so I wish you the best as you demand tweet etiquette, spend your supposedly precious time commenting on cartoons, and pretending to be above it all.Keep it 100!
Hey you’re the one who is screaming and cursing at me, so at least I know you have a lot of emotional investment in this argument.“The Root, because they are a pure propaganda outlet that spews harmful bullshit that hurts people I work with.”Ahh ok you’re a GOP employee, that explains a lot.
“screaming and cursing at me”A) Again, I do not care about nor particularly give a shit about made-up “tweet etiquette.” I was not screaming, That’s impossible. I was fucking typing. I freely admit to be emotionally involved in fake anthrax attacks and doxing innocent people. You like Star Wars, I think, I can’t fucking parse the silly shit you’re into. To each their own.B) Sorry for the salty language. Never been online before? Methinks you use salty language too, but I may be wrong, as I don’t care enough to look. Just a hunch. I apologize to all-get-out if wrong.C) The Root is a regressive, racist rag that regularly lies. They lie about white on black violence. They lie about police killings. They are openly racist to white people (yes, that is a thing). Fuck them. It serves no one to tell black people that white people are slaughtering them, and that police are massacring unarmed black people. I could show you the numbers, but there are no lightsabers or cartoon titties involved, so I doubt you’d be interested.D) I am a life-long, actual fucking liberal. Never voted R in my life. Progressives are not liberals. Just off the top of my head, they are against free speech, are against academic freedom, and judge everyone by immutable characteristics. These sound like liberal values to you? I can provide mind-exploding examples if you like. I’m politically homeless. Liberals are considered center-right now. I don’t belong there. But, hey, you’ve found your home, lost amongst pop culture horseshit you obsess over yet claim to be above. Cartoons > Hurting Actual People. Brilliant.Go back to your lightsabers and whatever the fuck.
“you fucking condescending dickhead” – Quit looking in the mirror…Look at what an unhinged cuckoo you are. Sweet Jesus, go touch grass already. 87 replies to a “nothing burger” remark.Fucking unhinged weirdo.
If anyone is actually in their feelings about this: maybe no? Maybe don’t do that?
However, the woman said she broke up with him days before their date and denied that she did so because of he is Muslim (Minhaj disagrees with her version of events). Furthermore, she accused the comedian of failing to protect her identity in the joke, effectively doxing her, leading to years of online harassment.OK, that’s pretty shitty. You should be careful not to dox anyone, especially over exaggerated/fabricated racism.But I don’t see the problem with modifying or fabricating life experiences. They’re comedians, not documentarians. What matters is the joke, not whether it’s literally true.
Wait, is Larry not a cable guy?
‘comedians make up stories, it’s normal’ and ‘these particular made-up stories by a comedian are a bit weird’ can both be true.i do think overall absolutely noone cares about this. people barely care online.
This is what is so frustrating about passive-aggressive shifting ‘takes’ on stuff like this. I’ve been on board with Whoopi’s position of the day on this for YEARS. When people would ooh and aah about a poignant point made in a stand-up bit or rant, I would observe it’s a funny, well-crafted bit of performative fiction.’ And people would rail about me denying the performer’s ‘truth’ or being in denial about the ‘lesson’ being asserted by the embellished anecdote.And now that the embellishment is laid bare and fully acknowledged, those same people want to chide people for not realizing what they had been passionately denying up until yesterday, that in the overwhelming majority of cases the reality is much more tame and benign than the story created after for sympathy and adulation.
This isn’t terribly difficult, right?You can make stuff up for jokes. No one’s saying you can’t. But if your INTENT with those jokes is to inform on personal experience and, perhaps, try to better society in some way – you better damn well make sure that your stories are actually true.It took an INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST to figure out he’d been making the facts of these stories up. These weren’t “wild tales” like some other comedians tell, either – he’s saying these things happened to him. HE BROUGHT ACTUAL PEOPLE IN ON THIS (re: the highschool prom date, etc.) At no point did he ever WANT to admit “Hey, yeah, I hyperbolized this for the laughs.” Instead he keeps spouting the term “emotional truth,” which is such a nonsense idea that it should be discarded immediately.
I legit feel like I’m taking crazy pills when I see people defend this.
I legit feel like anybody who believes a single word of any comedian’s set, no matter what kind of jokes they’re telling, do not have correctly calibrated expectations.
“But if your INTENT with those jokes is to inform on personal experience
and, perhaps, try to better society in some way – you better damn well
make sure that your stories are actually true.”I don’t see why that needs to be a thing at all.
My dude he literally used that platform to get himself a Netflix show. He also didn’t clearly admit that it wasn’t true. He’s trying to have it both ways and when caught, he’s spouting “emotional truth.”
I’m not saying you can’t lie as a comedian. I’m saying that you should be pretty fucking open about it if you’re trying to, say, represent the Muslim experience and use that as an in-road to more powerful positions in media.
My homie, if you expect anything a comedian says on stage to be true then you’re expecting the wrong thing. If you think anyone who uses the term ‘emotional truth’ is being truthful, well, that’s on you.Should he have used someone’s real name in a story that made them look like a shithead? Nope, definitely not.
My bro, that’s what I’m saying. I’d have much more respect for him if he was just like “I lied a bit for the laughs” rather than scoffing and repeating “emotional truth” as something other than a nonsense term over and over.
Don’t lie to your wife. Lie to your audience, and be truthful about the fact you’re lying. That’s all. HE’S ALLOWED TO LIE TO US, THAT’S THE POINT OF COMEDY. He just needs to take full ownership of that, and the fact that some of the shit he’s pulled re: the prom date, lying to his wife, etc. is super, super stupid and uncool.
Mon frere, I honestly don’t care if he lies to his wife or whatever, respect doesn’t enter into the equation.
Old chum, idk even know why we’re still talking about this, but at this point I don’t want it to stop.
I have to file this one under “people are stupid”. Are average people really walking around thinking stand up stories are 100% the literal truth? If so, wow.
Randy Buys a Bookshelf off Gumtree (Draft One) – YouTube
I love that we’re holding our comedians to higher standards to either our news or our politicians.
Whoopie we know you make up shit on the view. No one can actually be that stupid and be serious about it.
On the one hand, yeah, it’s not unheard of for stand-ups to make shit up to get a laugh. On the other, though, given the prevalence of Nanette-style autobiographical / confessional / therapeutic style stand-up these days, where the whole point is that it’s supposed to be the comedian bearing themselves to the audience in order to gain their sympathies, the whole “Obviously it’s all made-up and if you were led to believe otherwise you’re a stupid dumb-dumb!”argument seems at least a little bit disingenuous. In those cases, the whole power of the act is that it’s supposed to be the truth. It’s kind of like someone who writes a novel versus someone who writes a fake memoir. Both are made up, but in the latter case the issue is that the person writing it is claiming it to be the truth, so they don’t then really get to turn around and insist on artistic license or ‘emotional truth’ or whatever when they’re exposed as a bullshit artist. If that’s what you’re going for, it’s on you to make it clear that what’s happening is made up or fictionalised/exaggerated for effect.
Expecting a comedian to be telling the truth is like thinking Da Vinci was painting actual last supper.
At some point, are we going to find out which other Daily Show contender leaked this to the investigative journalists?
I’m nearly positive Bill Hicks never crippled a guy by pulling his chair out from under him, or put another guy’s eye out with a pencil.