Hasan Minhaj Under Fire for Alleged Lies About Muslim Life In America Revealed in New Yorker Profile

AP Photo/Kathy Willens

Comedian and television host Hasan Minhaj, who is known for weaving personal stories of being both Muslim and South Asian into his comedy, is facing criticism after a New Yorker report revealed some of the stories he tells about his life are untrue.

In a new profile in The New Yorker by reporter Clare Malone, Minhaj was confronted on the lack of evidence for some of his tales of racism and social injustice — and he made something of a confession. Malone wrote:

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. But, after many weeks of trying, I had been unable to confirm some of the stories that he had told onstage. When we met on a recent afternoon, at a comedy club in the West Village, Minhaj acknowledged, for the first time, that many of the anecdotes he related in his Netflix specials were untrue. Still, he said that he stood by his work. “Every story in my style is built around a seed of truth,” he said. “My comedy Arnold Palmer is seventy per cent emotional truth—this happened—and then thirty per cent hyperbole, exaggeration, fiction.”

Examples of Minhaj’s tall tales included a harrowing scene when he said he feared his daughter was exposed to anthrax. Another revolved around an FBI informant at his mosque, as well as a takedown over a rumored “jihad” that he said involved police slamming him onto the hood of his car. Neither incident actually happened.

“The punch line is worth the fictionalized premise,”  Minhaj told Malone.

Minhaj had been touted as a frontrunner to assume the seat on The Daily Show vacated by Trevor Noah in 2022.  He recently sat for a lengthy interview with former President Barack Obama and was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people in 2019.

Minhaj has yet to publicly respond to the revelations in The New Yorker article, even as he faced criticism on Twitter.

Read The New Yorker article here.