Hasan Minhaj was recently hit with one of the biggest scandals in comedy. Minhaj, a comedian from Davis, California, has been making the rounds for lying in his stand up shows, Homecoming King and The King’s Jester.

Hasan Minhaj has been a rapidly growing comedian which has opened doors in not just comedy, but also the TV and movie world. He even got his own Netflix show titled Patriot Act. He was also the front runner for hosting The Daily Show until this scandal happened.

Born in Davis, California, Hasan Minhaj grew up a normal life for a kid in the Sacramento area. He grew up Muslim and still is to this day. Post 9/11, he  experienced acts of Islamophobia in and around Davis.

On September 15th, 2023, an article by Clare Malone of The New Yorker was published. It stated that his comedy was “Seventy percent emotional truth and thirty percent hyperbole, exaggeration, fiction.”  She also said Minhaj faked acts of Islamophobia.

When Minhaj found out that Malone was writing about his comedy shows, he provided her with evidence that backed up his claim saying he didn’t fake the stories that she was highlighting in her article.

She still published the article saying that he faked events that happened to him, so Minhaj immediately put together a video describing what truly happened.

Minhaj took it personally when they said that he “faked racism.”

He states early on in the video saying that “Talking about this now seems so trivial…but being accused of faking racism is not trivial. It is very serious.”

Minhaj noticed that The New Yorker didn’t use the information he had given them. He focuses on this a lot in the video at one point even saying, “It was so needlessly misleading.

Not just about my standup, but also me as a person. Truth is racism, FBI surveillance, and threats to my family happened.”

Minhaj also stated, “Why did The New Yorker fact check my standup special, but not properly fact check their own article?”

He addresses the three stories in the article: the Anthrax scare with his daughter, the FBI informant story, and the Prom story.

He speaks mainly on his Prom. He quickly states he could care less about prom, as he is 38 years old with a wife and two kids.

The reason he focused on it, not just in his stand up special Homecoming King (Weird name choice I know) but also in combatting the article, is that they said race was not a factor in his rejection.

In the show Minhaj talked about how he was turned down by Bethany’s Mom on prom day. The reason for this is was due to Bethany’s mom didn’t want her family in another state to see her pictures of her daughter with a brown boy.

Minhaj expressed frustration towards The New Yorker, saying “It makes it sound as if I got friend-zoned by Bethany, turned into an angry incel, and faked racism to get back at her.”

Later in the video Minhaj called Malone out for faking evidence. He showed an email between him and Bethany, talking about her wedding, where she married a brown man, congratulating them for defying the barriers that were put in place.

In the email, Bethany confirmed in writing that race was a factor to his rejection saying, “My parents have come a long way too.”

The New Yorker also said Hasan didn’t protect her anonymity, which he came back and said he would help Bethany take down tweets that could expose her as the one who was about talked in the story.

Malone and her editors also spliced two different quotes together making it seem as if Minhaj was still mad about the rejection.

He does admit to not being fully truthful on the Anthrax story, saying that the fake Anthrax never landed on his daughter but right next to her.

So, was fact checking Hasan Minhaj’s standup needed? No, it wasn’t. Comedy is a form of storytelling that obviously isn’t meant to be 100% truth.

I asked Abby Klein, a Junior, if they think it was needed to a deep dive into Minhaj’s comedy. They said, “Comedy isn’t supposed to be fully truthful. A lot of the time it’s not made to make sense, it’s just supposed to be funny.”

While it is unfortunate he did change elements of the story, I do believe he shouldn’t be called out, as this is what comedians do.

For example, when you look up “Comedy Definition” on Google, it comes up with some examples. The one that stands out the most is “depiction of amusing people or incidents, in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity,” something that Malone and The New Yorker obviously don’t understand.

“That’s what we do, we tell stories then we embellish them,” says Whoopi Goldberg, the famed comic who quickly came to the defense of Mr. Minhaj.

In the end, Hasan Minhaj will still have a prosperous career, even announcing his next tour titled Off With His Head. While the scandal did put him out of the running to host The Daily Show, he will still be a loved comedian.