On 15th September, the New Yorker published an extensive report titled Hasan Minhaj’s “Emotional Truths”, revealing how the Indian-origin stand-up comic Hasan Minhaj had made up stories of racial harassment to peddle false narratives of victimisation. The report highlighted that Hasan Minhaj had, on multiple occasions, recounted harrowing experiences he claimed to have faced as an Asian/Muslim American.
The news magazine, through extensive research and first-hand experience with the involved stakeholders, added that the majority of these stories never actually happened to Hasan Minhaj, including the infamous ‘Anthrax scare’ story involving his daughter; his prom night saga story; meeting with Saudis on the same day when Jamal Khashoggi was killed in Saudi Embassy and others such stories of victimisation were fabricated. In fact, Minhaj himself confessed that he fabricated/twisted stories after he was confronted by the New Yorker Journalist about the authenticity of his stories.
Now, several clips of a recent podcast based on Hasan Minhaj’s “Emotional Truth” have begun to surface online. In the podcast, American comedians, including Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh (son of Indian immigrant parents) revealed that comedian Hasan Minhaj had also lied to them in real life, even in private conservations, to peddle “political agenda” and false stories of ‘victimisation’ to present himself as ‘hero’.
American comic Andrew Schulz began the podcast by taking a jibe on Hasan Minhaj for defending his fabricated stories and claiming that they had 70% emotional truth. Based on that, Schulz sarcastically said how do we even know Hasan Minhaj is ‘Minhaj’ adding that he thinks that Hasan Minhaj’s name is 70% emotionally true referring to what Hasan Minhaj said about his work.
Schulz then pointed out that there is this New Yorker article revealing that Hasan Minhaj may have been fabricating some things in his Netflix specials. He added that the report highlighted that based on his so-called ‘emotional truth’, Minhaj had been lying in his specials and selling those fabricated stories as his own real-life happenings. Schulz sarcastically added that Minhaj should also appropriate and sell stories of rowing in a boat with a tiger (shown in the movie Life of Pie) and how he made his money (as shown in Slumdog Millionaire) as his own experiences.
However, on a serious note, Schulz noted that Comedians do makeup stories all the time, but added that they usually do it to make things funnier, not to make things more racist and sad or emotional.
Schulz added, “It is not that in his stories, he (Minhaj) was using these exaggerations or hyperboles as punch lines, he was using them to kind of make the audience feel worse about him and then it turns out that these things didn’t actually happen.”
Adding to that, Akaash noted that Minhaj had made life worse for other people in real life citing the example of the prom night story which Minhaj had used repeatedly to claim that he faced racism for his Indian roots.
Akaash said, “Basically the homecoming story is based on the story that he (Minhaj) was supposed to be prom with a white girl. Then he went to her door, where she was putting a corsage on another guy, a white guy because her parents didn’t like the fact that Hasan was Indian and that’s a terrible story.”
However, Akaash noted that the lady later revealed that Minhaj’s story was false adding that he had asked her a few days before the prom to take her daughter but she said no. She also emphasised that the charge of being a racist against her and discriminating against Hasan Minhaj for being an India doesn’t stand as she had been married to an Indian.
Hitting out an Minhaj for the same, Andrew Schulz asserted, “I need that level of confidence bro where if you don’t like me you are racist, the only way you couldn’t like me, objectively is that the other side has a problem, that they are racist.”
Akaash continued further saying, “Why say I went to the door, he didn’t go to the door, this was crazy, he told me that story a few years ago.”
Apart from his sarcastic interjections, Andrew on a serious note asked Akaash whether Hasan Minhaj told him that story in real life as well? To which Akaash responded affirmatively.
Narrating the incident, Akaash said, “I am talking about 2012 when he and I used to be friends. I didn’t know this was a lie. We were sitting at a diner and he told me this story as a trauma story, I was dead serious. I believed the story the whole time…we were eating, why did he had to lie to me.”
He added, “I felt like saying to him that your family would have said the same thing that you two are not a good fit, you two do not come from the same country, not the same race, not the same faith, you are not good fit.”
Andrew again reiterated that comedians do change or twist some parts of their stories, and exaggerate things citing one of his own examples of doing the same. But he asserted that its a different thing to do it to make jokes funnier and totally different to make when you are lying about victimisation.
A little tweak or exaggeration should be done to make jokes funnier, not to push political agenda, Akaash noted
Schulz added, “What he (Minhaj) is doing is not comic, he is not lying about funny parts.” He then goes on to highlight Minhaj’s Antrax and his daughter’s story in which he had claimed that someone had sent a letter to his home which was filled with “white powder”.
However, New Yorker’s research found that neither the New York Police Department, responsible for investigating possible Bacillus anthracis incidents (the bacteria that causes Anthrax), nor local hospitals have any record of an incident matching Minhaj’s description.
Interestingly, during his interaction with the author of the New Yorker article, Clare Malone, Minhaj admitted that his daughter had never been exposed to a “white powder” and that she hadn’t been hospitalised.
Regarding Minhaj’s antrax and his daughter story, Schulz emphasised why would he (Minhaj) write that and think something like that.
During the podcast, Schulz further added that Minhaj’s story around the White House correspondence dinner was full of lies.
Highlighting Minhaj’s fabrication around the Saudi meeting story, Schulz stated, “He (Minhaj) conflated the timelines to make what he went through a little more serious. He was having a meeting with Saudis to schedule an interview with Crown Prince MBS. After the meeting, everybody left and later they were freaked out because he said that the same day Jamal Khashoggi was chopped up at the Saudi embassy in Turkey.”
Responding to it, Akaash noted that the lie was not to make it funny, it was to make him appear as a hero and then a lot of other lies were to push “political agenda”.
He, however, added that certain stories even if fabricated do no harm but it should not be done to push political agenda. He asserted that Minhaj’s fabrication was a big deal because the woman’s life (mother in the prom night story) really became hard, and her family received death threats.
