Last month, comedian Hasan Minhaj was the target of a New Yorker exposé that claimed he had a habit of embellishing stories in the name of laughs, with the piece saying he concocted instances of racism that were ultimately damaging to his subjects. Now, Minhaj – who previously said that his stories tend to be 70% truth and 30% hyperbole – is doubling down on his response, saying, “With everything that’s happening in the world, I’m aware even talking about this now feels so trivial…But being accused of ‘faking racism’ is not trivial. It’s very serious, and it demands an explanation.”
In a 21-minute video sent to The Hollywood Reporter, Hasan Minhaj lays out his defense, claiming that the piece in question has far too many errors to ignore. But this isn’t just the comedian shooting a video on his computer and trying to save face; Minhaj has a set, graphics and pull quotes, showing he’s completely serious about what he’s saying and the accusations against him. And rightfully so, as his reputation as a comedian and storyteller has been at stake since.
While Hasan Minhaj – a former The Daily Show correspondent and guest host following Trevor Noah’s departure – does offer an apology to anyone who may have been harmed by any of his stories, his real beef is that the New Yorker piece allegedly paints him as someone he is not. “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.”
Hasan Minhaj specifically cites three stories he tells in his routine: asking a white girl to prom (from Homecoming King), run-ins with the law surrounding a mosque visit and a letter containing anthrax. On the prom story itself, Minhaj provides actual correspondences between himself and the subject which shows her thanking him. In contrast, the New Yorker piece claimed that the woman was harassed and, according to Minhaj, failed to provide proper context, thus constructing the story in a misleading and damaging way.
As Hasan Minhaj puts it in his video, “I just wish the reporter had been more interested in their own premise. Someone genuinely curious about truth in stand-up wouldn’t just fact check my specials. They would fact check a bunch of specials. They would establish a control group, a baseline, to see how far outside the bounds I was in relation to others. They wouldn’t just cherry pick a few stories.”
The entire situation raised issues of ethics within stand-up comedy: does each story the comedian tells have to be entirely based on fact or is embellishing part of what they do as storytellers?
What do you think of Hasan Minhaj’s response to the New Yorker piece? Does he make a good case? Do you think he will be completely redeemed? Give us your thoughts below.