Comedian Hasan Minhaj Admits He Lied About Being Victim of Racism

Comedian Hasan Minhaj is the latest celebrity to fabricate his experiences with racism in the U.S.

"In Minhaj’s approach to comedy, he leans heavily on his own experience as an Asian American and Muslim American, telling harrowing stories of law enforcement entrapment and personal threats. For many of his fans, he has become an avatar for the power of representation in entertainment," writes Clare Malone in a profile in the New Yorker.

"But, after many weeks of trying, I had been unable to confirm some of the stories that he had told onstage."

When the author confronted him, Minhaj admitted the stories he tells on stage are often exaggerated or made up.

However, Minhaj suggests there's no harm in his lying about racism because he is a comedian:

“Every story in my style is built around a seed of truth,” he said. "My comedy Arnold Palmer is seventy percent emotional truth — this happened — and then thirty percent hyperbole, exaggeration, fiction."

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 14: Hasan Minhaj attends the "Death, Let Me Do My Show" opening night at Lucille Lortel Theatre on September 14, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by John Nacion/Getty Images)

Specifically, Minhaj references a story he fabricated in which an undercover FBI agent investigated his mosque.

“The punch line is worth the fictionalized premise,” he tells the New Yorker.

In that case, sure. It was worth the exaggeration. But Minhaj's dramatizations are not always as harmless as he claims.

One of his anecdotes claims a white woman from high school stood him up for prom because her family didn't want her to take pictures with a brown boy. Minhaj disclosed identifiable details about the woman during his telling of the story, prompting his fans to harass her.

Per The New Yorker:

Minhaj often talks about his immigrant upbringing and the social alienation that sometimes came with being a racial minority in his home town. The central story of his first Netflix special, “Homecoming King,” which was released in 2017, is about his crush on a friend, a white girl with whom he shared a stolen kiss and who accepted his invitation to prom but later reneged in a humiliating fashion; Minhaj showed up on her doorstep the night of the dance, only to see another boy putting a corsage on her wrist. Onstage, Minhaj says that his friend’s parents didn’t want their daughter to take pictures with a brown boy, because they were concerned about what their relatives might think. “I’d eaten off their plates,” Minhaj says. “I’d kissed their daughter. I didn’t know that people could be bigoted even as they were smiling at you.”

The woman reportedly addressed the threats with Minhaj, who then told her to scrub her social media presence to deter more threats.

He didn't care. Minhaj had no sympathy for the danger, the emotional distress he inflicted upon her and her family.

And therein lies the importance of the profile.

It's fine to exaggerate and fib during a comedy bit. Most comedians do. The objective is to be funny. Comedians frequently embellish stories about their lives on stage.

However, Minhaj previously referred to his bits as "emotional truths" about his experiences as a Mulsim in America.

He wanted his listeners to believe the stories he told them were real.

Minhaj didn't just try to be funny on stage. He also tried to frame himself as a victim and his targets as perpetrators of racism.

He wanted his listeners to believe the stories he told them were real. He asked his audience to view America's treatment of Muslims negatively. Many of them did.

Comedian Sarah Harvard put Minhaj's type of "comedy" into perspective:

"Yes, comedians are allowed creative liberties. But Hasan Minhaj brands himself more than just a comedian. He branded himself as a truth teller with journalistic integrity. So telling lies that exploit the traumas of our communities and masquerading it as truth is gross."

The New Yorker profile revealed Hasan Minhaj to be as much of a fraud as he is a comedian.

AMERICAN CULTURE IS SATIRE AND WE AREN’T ALLOWED TO LAUGH: BURACK