Comedian Hasan Minhaj responds directly to 'The New Yorker' and claims that some of his material was embellished.
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00:00 I know the news coming out of the Middle East right now feels devastating and hopeless.
00:07 And I've been asked by a lot of people to give my perspective on what is happening in
00:12 the region.
00:14 I've also been asked, "Wait a second.
00:18 Aren't you a liar?"
00:19 Now, for those of you who don't know, back in September, The New Yorker ran a piece on
00:23 me called "Hasan Minhaj's Emotional Truths," in which a reporter fact-checked my stand-up
00:28 specials and found some factual inaccuracies that they wanted to ask me about.
00:32 So I sat down with them to explain my writing process and why I make certain creative choices
00:37 in my stand-up.
00:38 Now, when the article came out, it got picked up by almost every single news outlet, all
00:45 of them basically saying the same thing.
00:47 Critics are raising questions about Hasan Minhaj and whether he and other comedians
00:52 should be more truthful with their materials.
00:54 One of Mr. Minhaj's stories is about a white girl he asked to the prom who spurned him
01:00 on the big day when her parents didn't want pictures taken with a brown boy, except it
01:05 never happened.
01:06 Now, with everything that's happening in the world, I'm aware even talking about this now
01:11 feels so trivial.
01:13 But being accused of faking racism is not trivial.
01:19 It is very serious, and it demands an explanation.
01:22 So to everyone who read that article, I want to answer the biggest question that's probably
01:26 on your mind.
01:28 Is Hasan Minhaj secretly a psycho?
01:32 Underneath all that pomade, is Hasan Minhaj just a con artist who uses fake racism and
01:37 Islamophobia to advance his career?
01:40 Because after reading that article, I would also think that.
01:44 So I took a beat before responding, because like you, I've been paralyzed by the news
01:50 coming out of the Middle East, and I've been processing all the criticism that has come
01:55 my way.
01:56 And I just want to say to anyone who felt betrayed or hurt by my standup, I am sorry.
02:06 I made artistic choices to express myself and drive home larger issues affecting me
02:10 and my community, and I feel horrible that I let people down.
02:15 And the reason I feel horrible is because I'm not a psycho.
02:20 But this New Yorker article definitely makes me look like one.
02:23 It was so needlessly misleading, not just about my standup, but also me as a person.
02:30 The truth is, racism, FBI surveillance, and threats to my family happened, and I said
02:38 this on the record.
02:39 So I'm going to do the most Hasan Minhaj thing ever.
02:44 I'm going to do a deep dive on my own scandal with graphics, because there was so much evidence
02:49 I gave the New Yorker that they ignored that I want to show you.
02:53 So buckle up, because it's about to get tedious.
02:55 There are three stories from that article that I want to address.
02:59 The anthrax scare, the FBI informant story, but first I want to talk about how and why
03:04 I was rejected from prom.
03:06 Now let me first say this.
03:08 I am 38 years old with a wife and two kids.
03:12 I do not give a shit about prom.
03:16 But it's a big story from my first standup special, and the New Yorker implied that I
03:20 made it all up and that my race wasn't a factor in my rejection.
03:25 But it was, and I have the evidence to prove it.
03:29 So in Homecoming King, I told a story about how I was supposed to go to prom with a white
03:33 girl named Bethany Reid.
03:35 Her real name is not Bethany.
03:37 I changed it to protect her anonymity.
03:40 I say that I show up at Bethany's house on prom night, but at the doorstep, her mom tells
03:43 me they don't want her to go to prom with me because they'll be taking a lot of pictures
03:47 and they don't want their family back home to see her with a brown boy.
03:52 Bethany's mom did really say that.
03:55 It was just a few days before prom.
03:58 And I created the doorstep scene to drop the audience into the feeling of that moment,
04:04 which I told the reporter.
04:05 Is the doorstep moment true?
04:07 No.
04:08 Did that happen?
04:09 No, it didn't.
04:10 It didn't happen anymore.
04:11 But the emotional truth remains the same.
04:12 Her mom going, "Hey, sweetie, we take photos and we don't want people to see we have family
04:16 back home."
04:17 Did she sort of give that as the reason of like, "My parents aren't comfortable with
04:20 going to prom?"
04:21 Yes.
04:22 And it just destroyed me.
04:23 Yeah.
04:24 Sure.
04:25 That's understandable.
04:26 The reporter said it's "understandable."
04:29 But none of what I explicitly said makes it in the article.
04:32 This is what they wrote instead.
04:34 She told me that she turned down Minhaj, who was then a close friend in person days before
04:37 the dance.
04:38 Minhaj acknowledged that this was correct, but he said that the two of them had long
04:41 carried different understandings of her rejection.
04:44 This whole paragraph makes it sound like I got friendzoned by Bethany and then I turned
04:49 into an angry incel and then faked racism to get back at her.
04:53 And I think this sentence is the reason why people believe that.
04:56 He said that the two of them had long carried different understandings of her rejection.
05:02 This sentence is incredibly misleading and implies the exact opposite of what I meant.
05:08 Let me explain.
05:09 Okay.
05:10 Over a decade after prom, in August of 2014, Bethany and I met at a restaurant called Sarah
05:14 Betts in New York and we cleared the air on what her mom said to me at prom.
05:18 Now I talk about this in Homecoming King and I also told the New Yorker about this meetup.
05:23 She had an understanding that we were like totally cool and like I had been carrying
05:27 something completely different.
05:29 And I just told her what it meant.
05:31 Like it's like, "Do you understand what it's like being like a skinny Muslim desi brown
05:35 kid in Davis, California?"
05:37 And you know, we're always told to put our head down and just take it.
05:40 And I did.
05:41 And I carried this water for like years and years.
05:44 When the article says we had different understandings, what I clearly meant was that Bethany never
05:49 knew how much her family being racist had affected me.
05:53 That's why we had different understandings, not because Bethany denied this happened.
05:57 In fact, Bethany basically confirmed in writing that racism was a factor in the prom rejection.
06:04 In 2015, I sent Bethany an email congratulating her on her wedding to a man of color saying,
06:10 "I know I told you about sharing the story about us not being able to go to prom together
06:14 with kids and communities to talk about forgiveness and perseverance, but this ending, you guys
06:19 getting married is proof that love conquers all.
06:22 It's a testament to the way the world truly can be.
06:25 Wishing you guys the absolute best and here's to a life filled with gorgeous Zayn Malik
06:29 mixed race babies."
06:30 Yep, I'm aware.
06:33 I write emails the way Lin-Manuel Miranda talks.
06:36 I'm not proud of it, but let's stay focused.
06:38 Bethany then replied saying, "I do think love conquers all.
06:41 And while it might always be challenging, true love is worth the fight.
06:45 We also had the unique opportunity to showcase both our cultures at the wedding with a ceremony
06:49 for each.
06:51 I think my parents have come a long way too."
06:53 And what would her parents have to come a long way from?
06:56 Racism.
06:58 Again, I don't care about prom.
07:00 I mean that.
07:02 And Bethany didn't do anything wrong and I wish her and her family nothing but the best.
07:07 Her parents have grown.
07:09 My parents have grown.
07:10 That's the point of the whole show and that should be celebrated.
07:14 Love conquers all.
07:15 But I do not appreciate the New Yorker implying that I made up racism.
07:21 My team and I repeatedly try to give them the emails that you just saw.
07:25 "As early as, you know, I believe fall 2014."
07:29 "I have these a few."
07:30 "Yeah, and then we have email correspondence in 2017, which we can give you."
07:34 "Okay."
07:35 "Then I now shift to email correspondence, which she can give you."
07:37 "I have it.
07:38 I can send it to you."
07:39 "Yeah.
07:40 So there's all.
07:41 And happy to give you all these emails."
07:42 "Sure."
07:43 Not only that, we confirmed the emails were sent to the reporter and their fact checker
07:46 before the article came out.
07:49 Therefore, they knew my rejection was due to race.
07:52 I confirmed it on the record and provided corroborating evidence.
07:56 And yet, they misled readers by excluding all of that and splicing two different quotes
08:03 together to leave you thinking that I made up a racist incident.
08:08 Now, the article also implies that I humiliated Bethany and got her doxxed with my carelessness.
08:15 So I want to show you evidence that shows that that isn't true.
08:19 Back in November of 2015, when Homecoming King was running off Broadway, Bethany came
08:22 to the show.
08:23 And this is how the New Yorker reported it.
08:25 The woman said that Minhaj had invited her and her husband to an off-Broadway performance.
08:30 She had initially interpreted the invitation as an attempt to rekindle an old friendship,
08:33 but she now believes the move was meant to humiliate her.
08:36 I promise it was never my intention to humiliate Bethany at the show.
08:40 But this reporting is false.
08:43 I looked back at our emails and I found out that I didn't invite Bethany to that show.
08:47 She emailed me out of the blue and told me that she was coming because her friends saw
08:51 the show and said they loved it.
08:54 After the show, Bethany also texted me that it was awesome and we kept in touch for years.
08:58 I included her in the journey with full transparency.
09:01 I put her in touch with fact-checkers from This American Life.
09:03 I invited her to the Netflix premiere party.
09:05 I even emailed her to take down a tweet that might reveal her identity.
09:10 Bethany then responded with a really nice email that ended with her saying, "P.S.
09:14 Thanks for the heads up on the tweet.
09:16 I deleted the other ones but this one escaped me.
09:18 It's shockingly hard to resurface old social media apparently.
09:21 Thanks too for always protecting me and my family.
09:23 I don't think I've ever formally thanked you for that and I do sincerely appreciate it."
09:28 Even in the Netflix special, I don't use any real photos of Bethany or her family.
09:33 Those are actors and their faces are blurred.
09:36 Maintaining Bethany's anonymity has always been a priority for me.
09:40 I would never want her to get doxed or harassed and if there were any negative consequences
09:45 that came your way, Bethany, I am sorry about that.
09:49 I am not perfect but I promise I am not needlessly cruel.
09:53 Even though that's what the New Yorker wants you to believe despite the evidence.
09:58 I was an open book.
10:00 I sat down in good faith.
10:02 They had my testimony and four years of correspondence backed up with receipts all on the record
10:07 that showed my race was a factor in my prom rejection.
10:10 I wasn't careless with Bethany's privacy and she thanked me for keeping her family's identity
10:15 safe so how could the New Yorker imply the opposite?
10:20 But here's the bigger question.
10:22 Why did the New Yorker fact check my standup special but not properly fact check their
10:28 own article?
10:29 If you're still here, I have two more stories that I want to address.
10:33 Now in my second special, The King's Jester, I tell a story about how I met and was harassed
10:37 by an FBI informant named Brother Eric.
10:39 I talk about how he tried to entrap me at a gym and when I made fun of him, he slammed
10:43 me against the hood of a cop car.
10:45 The truth is I did have altercations with undercover law enforcement growing up and
10:50 that experience formed the basis of this story but it didn't go down exactly like this.
10:57 So I understand why people are upset.
11:00 People face real danger at the hands of the police and false stories can undermine real
11:03 stories and I am sorry I added to that problem.
11:07 My intention wasn't to take away from these stories.
11:11 It was to spotlight them through my special.
11:13 That's why I used this story to talk about Hamid Hayat.
11:17 Hamid and I were part of the same NorCal Muslim community.
11:20 When he got entrapped, it rocked our community and he spent 14 years in prison.
11:24 We were the same age, same background and like him, I also had run-ins with undercover
11:30 agents.
11:31 I was even physically harassed by them while playing basketball.
11:33 Now you're probably wondering, why not just say that?
11:37 So this is not an excuse.
11:38 It is an explanation of my process.
11:41 When I am storytelling, every beat has to do multiple things in a funny and impactful
11:47 way.
11:48 With the story, I had to set up three plot points.
11:50 The moment I realized authority figures hate being made fun of, why I named my show Patriot
11:56 Act and spotlight the story of Hamid Hayat.
11:58 The problem is 99% of people watching Netflix have no idea the FBI spied on Muslims at mosques
12:05 or they don't even believe it was real.
12:07 And I know this because when I performed earlier versions of the story in front of audiences,
12:11 they had no idea what I was talking about.
12:15 FBI agents embedding in mosques and entrapping young Muslims through basketball or weight
12:20 lifting or whatever, it sounds insane.
12:23 But it was happening all over the country, even in my mosque in my hometown.
12:28 It was infiltrated.
12:30 And the footage that I used in the special proves that it was very real and very stupid.
12:36 I wanted to recreate that feeling that only Muslims felt for a broad audience, the feeling
12:43 of paranoia and vindication, tension and release.
12:47 That is why people laugh at this part.
12:49 You don't get the release without the tension.
12:52 That was my artistic intent, which I told the New Yorker.
12:55 If you notice something about even in the show, we pop out of it.
12:59 And this is actually the point I was trying to make.
13:02 My dad goes, that's not brother Eric.
13:04 His name is not Eric.
13:05 His name is Craig.
13:06 And the the the the moment that the the reaction the audience is having is nudged me.
13:13 You're missing the point.
13:15 The point is, is that it doesn't matter if his name was Eric, Craig or Adam.
13:19 The point is, is that there is now a pattern here at large.
13:22 And that was the thing that I was trying to do.
13:24 And ultimately, the emotional truth of trying to point a spotlight on my community story
13:30 and Hamid story is important to me.
13:32 And he reached out to me after the article came out and he wanted me to share these texts.
13:37 He said that he had nothing but love for me and that I hadn't diminished his story.
13:42 That's what I was trying to do.
13:44 But the reporter was far more concerned about the FBI informant I talked about in the special,
13:49 which honestly felt very weird.
13:52 In the story about the informant, actually, the bulk of the story is about Craig Monty.
13:58 And so did you reach out to him?
13:59 No.
14:00 Do you feel like you owe him anything?
14:01 I've heard some things and I'd rather not speak on that.
14:02 So you feel like you don't owe him?
14:03 You didn't owe him like a heads up?
14:04 As a Muslim, am I supposed to apologize to an ex-con who tried to entrap Muslims for
14:05 the FBI?
14:06 Yeah, maybe if he gave us a heads up, I would owe him a heads up.
14:07 Now the last story I want to talk about is the anthrax care.
14:08 My last special, I talk about how I received a letter in the mail that said, "I'm sorry
14:09 I didn't know you were a Muslim.
14:10 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
14:11 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
14:12 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
14:13 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
14:14 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
14:40 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
14:47 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
14:56 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
15:02 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
15:08 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
15:15 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
15:22 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
15:28 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
15:34 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
15:44 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
15:54 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
16:14 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
16:34 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
16:54 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
17:14 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
17:34 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
17:54 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
18:14 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
18:34 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
18:54 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
19:14 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
19:34 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
19:54 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
20:14 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
20:34 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.
20:54 I'm sorry I didn't know you were a Muslim.