“With everything that’s happening in the world, I’m aware even talking about this now feels so trivial,” Minhaj said in the video. “But being accused of ‘faking racism’ is not trivial. It’s very serious, and it demands an explanation.”
The New Yorker touched on three of Minhaj’s stories, all of which are featured in his 2017 and 2022 Netflix comedy specials: one about his daughter being rushed to the hospital out of fear of a potential anthrax exposure, another about inviting a white friend to prom and experiencing racism from her family, and a story about his family’s mosque in Sacramento being infiltrated by a white undercover FBI informant named Brother Eric who pretended to convert to Islam.
The New Yorker interviewed the subjects of these stories, including the woman Minhaj invited to prom and the FBI informant, revealing that the comedian’s accounts included details that did not happen. The article also noted that Minhaj admitted to fabricating or exaggerating his stories.
For instance, in his 2017 Netflix special, “Homecoming King,” Minhaj talks about how he asked a white friend — whom he refers to by the fake name “Bethany Reed” — to prom. When he showed up at her house on prom night, Minhaj claims that her mom told him they didn’t want her going to prom with him because they didn’t want her taking pictures with a brown boy.
“Bethany’s mom did really say that; it was just a few days before prom, and I created the doorstep scene to drop the audience into the feeling of that moment, which I told the reporter,” he said in his YouTube rebuttal. He proceeded to play a clip from the interview in which he and Malone discussed that scene.
Regarding the FBI story, Minhaj says he had “altercations” with undercover law enforcement while growing up but did not detail what those altercations were about. He said he embellished the story to “recreate” the feeling of “paranoia and vindication, tension and release” experienced by Muslim communities who endured government surveillance after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“To everyone who read that article, I want to answer the biggest question that’s probably on your mind: Is Hasan Minhaj secretly a psycho? Underneath all that pomp, is Hasan Minhaj just a con artist who uses fake racism and Islamophobia to advance his career? Because after reading that article, I would also think that,” he said in Thursday’s video.
“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.”
In a statement posted on Thursday, Malone said she and The New Yorker stand by her story and that it contains carefully reported and fact-checked information based on interviews with more than 20 people, including former “Patriot Act” and “Daily Show” staffers, members of Minhaj’s security team and people who have been the subject of his stand-up work.
This content was originally published here.
