Hasan Minhaj Says The New Yorker Story About His Stand-Up was "Needlessly Misleading" | THR News Video - video Dailymotion

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In the profile it was alleged that he fabricated or exaggerated elements of stories he tells in his stand-up comedy, a bombshell story that raised questions about his public persona. Get the full story in this video.

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00:00I've also been asked, wait a second, aren't you a liar?

00:05Hasan Minhaj is speaking out about his New Yorker profile, saying it was needlessly misleading.

00:10In the profile, it was alleged that he fabricated or exaggerated elements of stories he tells in a stand-up comedy,

00:17a bombshell story that raised questions about his public persona.

00:20In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, he says,

00:22There were omissions and factual errors in the New Yorker article that misrepresented my life story,

00:27so I wanted to give people the context and materials I provided The New Yorker with full transparency.

00:33In a lengthy video, Minhaj provided more context on three stories from a stand-up act that drew scrutiny in The New Yorker.

00:40Being rejected from prom because of racism,

00:42his run-ins with undercover law enforcement surveilling the Muslim community in his hometown,

00:47and an anthrax scare he had at his home.

00:49I'm aware even talking about this now feels so trivial,

00:53but being accused of faking racism is not trivial.

01:00It is very serious, and it demands an explanation.

01:02He noted,

01:03The reason I feel horrible is because I'm not a psycho,

01:06but this New Yorker article definitely made me look like one.

01:09It was so needlessly misleading, not just about my stand-up, but also about me as a person.

01:14Racism, FBI surveillance, and threats to my family happened, and I said this on the record.

01:21In Minhaj's Netflix special, Homecoming King, he tells a story of asking a white girl to prom,

01:26only to show up at her house and be told by her mother that she won't go with him

01:30because her family doesn't want their daughter in pictures with a brown boy.

01:34The New Yorker noted that the story was not factually accurate and led to the woman's identity being exposed.

01:39Bethany's mom did really say that.

01:43It was just a few days before prom,

01:46and I created the doorstep scene to drop the audience into the feeling of that moment,

01:51which I told the reporter.

01:53Minhaj said he and his team provided the New Yorker with emails and texts that corroborated the story,

01:58and yet they misled readers by excluding all of that

02:01and splicing two different quotes together to leave you thinking that I made up a racist incident.

02:05This whole paragraph makes it sound like I got friend-zoned by Bethany,

02:10and then I turned into an angry insult, and then faked racism to get back at her.

02:14Regarding the other stories from his stand-up, Minhaj admits,

02:17Anne has never denied that he embellished parts of the stories.

02:21I thought I had two different expectations built into my work.

02:26My work as a storytelling comedian,

02:28and my work as a political comedian,

02:31where facts always come first.

02:33He continued,

02:34But in my work as a storytelling comedian,

02:36I assumed the lines between truth and fiction were allowed to be a bit more blurry.

02:41He then closes the video with the longer version of the quote the New Yorker story ended on.

02:45He told me the emotional truth is first, the factual truth is secondary.

02:50The latter, the truth comes first.

02:52Comedy sometimes comes second to make the infotainment the sugar on the medicine.

02:57In this, the emotional truth is first, the factual truth is secondary.

03:02For more on this story, head to THR.com.

03:05And for the latest entertainment news and updates,

03:08keep watching The Hollywood Reporter News.

Hasan Minhaj Says The New Yorker Story About His Stand-Up was "Needlessly Misleading" | THR News Video

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