In his new Netflix special, Hasan Minhaj touched on the fact-checked jokes scandal that led to him losing his job as the new host of the “The Daily Show.”
Minhaj’s dives into with a punchline about a “white BMW 3 Series,” where he corrects himself with, “I don’t own a white BMW 3 Series. I lease a 2023 Kia Carnival.” He went on to joke that he “has to do this now” following the backlash.
“I have to be factually accurate. Because — I don’t know if you saw this last year — The New Yorker fact-checked my standup comedy,” Minhaj said in his special, “Off With His Head,” which premiered Tuesday on Netflix. “They were just like ‘Ah! Ho-ho-ho! Breaking news. Magicians aren’t wizards.’ And now I have a controversies tab on my Wikipedia.”
In September 2023, The New Yorker published a profile reporting that Minhaj had fabricated several stories in his stand-up specials, specifically ones which outline hate crimes and acts of political violence. In “The King’s Jester,” Minhaj tells a story about how he was mailed an envelope of white powder which he accidentally spilled on his infant daughter. Fearing it was anthrax, he rushed her to the hospital, where the doctors told him the powder was completely harmless.
Minhaj revealed to The New Yorker that his daughter never came in contact with the powder and was never hospitalized. An envelope with white powder was mailed to his house, however, which eventually inspired the joke.
“It’s not even a good [controversy],” he said in the special. “I got caught embellishing for dramatic effect. Same crime your aunt is guilty of over Thanksgiving.”
Variety reported in August 2023 that Minhaj had emerged as a frontrunner to take over “The Daily Show” as permanent host following the exit of Trevor Noah. But after The New Yorker interview published a month later, it was reported that Comedy Central had opened up the search beyond Minhaj.
In a statement to Variety at the time, Minhaj said, “All my standup stories are based on events that happened to me … I use the tools of standup comedy — hyperbole, changing names and locations and compressing timelines to tell entertaining stories. That’s inherent to the art form. You wouldn’t go to a haunted house and say ‘Why are these people lying to me?’ The point is the ride. Standup is the same.”
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