Hassan Minaj was a comedian "correspondent" with The Daily Show under Jon Stewart back when it was still funny. Later, after Stewart left the show, Hassan was revealed to be a stand up comedian with a couple of Netflix specials (which I found more preachy than funny) and also had a Daily Show style political show which I found incredibly stupid and unfunny. Still, the guy was getting work so he must have had some audience somewhere. As a leading contender to replace Trevor Noah as the host of The Daily Show....The New Yorker decided to interview Hassan. This was incredibly unfortunate for Hassan, because The New Yorker still does some actual journalism.
www.newyorker.com
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.
Now, like all or most comedians, Hassan tells made up stories. Some are complete falsehoods, some are exaggerations or hyperbolic stretches of the truth. This is normal in comedy....since the goal is to get people to laugh, it's a harmless thing to tell s funny story that never happened. Hassan however, has told stories not for laughs...but for self aggrandizement and in at least one case, to harm a real person. This has caused the comedy community to turn on him rather harshly, yet justifiably.
The common theme of Hassan's lies are part of his left wing political beliefs. The idea that the US is an awful, racist, bigoted nation that treats him and people who look like him or share his beliefs reprehensibly. In one story, he tells of sniffing out an undercover FBI informant at his mosque...which leads to his mistreatment at the hands of police. This never happened...at all. Since there's no punchline, it comes off as a real story of police abuse as well as overreach and persecution by the federal government. To lend it an air of credibility, he even shows an article about the alleged informant from 4 years later than his fictional story occurred. In another story, he receives a letter filled with anthrax...which gets on his daughter....and he has to take her to the ER. It's also entirely false, and without a punchline....the message is again clear that the US is a terrible bigoted nation to Muslims and non-white people. In a third story....he asks out his high school crush to prom (even showing her picture during the story). This girl he claims to have shared romantic feelings for, was told yes by the girl, only to arrive on prom day to find her going with a white date....because her evil family is bigoted and wanted to hurt him as deeply as possible. The girl is real, and though she was only ever friends with Hassan...she told him no to prom when he asked, and since she later married a man of Indian descent....there's no reason to believe the accusations of bigotry and racism which according to her didn't happen and resulted in her family receiving death threats since he dragged her and her family through the mud in a fictional account of racism.
There's nothing funny about these stories and at least one has caused real harm to the real victims of the story. Why do this? The answer is apparent in the themes of the story. The political left (Hassan's audience) likes victims. They especially like minority victims with tales of success or fighting back against the evil racism and bigotry which has dogged their lives. Sadly, these tales are often in short supply. It's not that racism doesn't exist of course, but it's rarely significant enough to destroy anyone's lives or vicious enough to make us feel good about the victim's ability to simply continue on with their life. Someone calling you a racist slur for cutting them off at a traffic light for instance....hardly makes your decision to go to work that day something heroic.
That's why Hassan told these lies. They aren't funny, but they feed into the political narrative his audience believes and make himself seem smart, or strong, or brave just for living through them. When the Jussie Smollet incident happened...many people couldn't imagine why someone so successful would ever ochestrate such a hoax. They didn't understand why there was money in it. As a gay, black, successful man in the US who came from money and privilege....there's no real struggle to cash in on for Jussie in a time when being gay and black were widely considered by an ignorant public to be things that were extremely difficult to be in the US. That simply isn't true though. They may be difficult for certain individuals at certain times...but not for everyone and many have no tales of struggle or strife to sell. In those cases, because there is a huge incentive to sell such stories.....there's a huge temptation to simply fabricate them.
After all, many believe it racist or bigoted to even question such stories. That's why this keeps happening imo.
Thoughts?
Hasan Minhaj’s “Emotional Truths”
In his standup specials, the former “Patriot Act” host often recounts harrowing experiences he’s faced as an Asian American and Muslim American. Does it matter that much of it never happened to him?
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.
Now, like all or most comedians, Hassan tells made up stories. Some are complete falsehoods, some are exaggerations or hyperbolic stretches of the truth. This is normal in comedy....since the goal is to get people to laugh, it's a harmless thing to tell s funny story that never happened. Hassan however, has told stories not for laughs...but for self aggrandizement and in at least one case, to harm a real person. This has caused the comedy community to turn on him rather harshly, yet justifiably.
The common theme of Hassan's lies are part of his left wing political beliefs. The idea that the US is an awful, racist, bigoted nation that treats him and people who look like him or share his beliefs reprehensibly. In one story, he tells of sniffing out an undercover FBI informant at his mosque...which leads to his mistreatment at the hands of police. This never happened...at all. Since there's no punchline, it comes off as a real story of police abuse as well as overreach and persecution by the federal government. To lend it an air of credibility, he even shows an article about the alleged informant from 4 years later than his fictional story occurred. In another story, he receives a letter filled with anthrax...which gets on his daughter....and he has to take her to the ER. It's also entirely false, and without a punchline....the message is again clear that the US is a terrible bigoted nation to Muslims and non-white people. In a third story....he asks out his high school crush to prom (even showing her picture during the story). This girl he claims to have shared romantic feelings for, was told yes by the girl, only to arrive on prom day to find her going with a white date....because her evil family is bigoted and wanted to hurt him as deeply as possible. The girl is real, and though she was only ever friends with Hassan...she told him no to prom when he asked, and since she later married a man of Indian descent....there's no reason to believe the accusations of bigotry and racism which according to her didn't happen and resulted in her family receiving death threats since he dragged her and her family through the mud in a fictional account of racism.
There's nothing funny about these stories and at least one has caused real harm to the real victims of the story. Why do this? The answer is apparent in the themes of the story. The political left (Hassan's audience) likes victims. They especially like minority victims with tales of success or fighting back against the evil racism and bigotry which has dogged their lives. Sadly, these tales are often in short supply. It's not that racism doesn't exist of course, but it's rarely significant enough to destroy anyone's lives or vicious enough to make us feel good about the victim's ability to simply continue on with their life. Someone calling you a racist slur for cutting them off at a traffic light for instance....hardly makes your decision to go to work that day something heroic.
That's why Hassan told these lies. They aren't funny, but they feed into the political narrative his audience believes and make himself seem smart, or strong, or brave just for living through them. When the Jussie Smollet incident happened...many people couldn't imagine why someone so successful would ever ochestrate such a hoax. They didn't understand why there was money in it. As a gay, black, successful man in the US who came from money and privilege....there's no real struggle to cash in on for Jussie in a time when being gay and black were widely considered by an ignorant public to be things that were extremely difficult to be in the US. That simply isn't true though. They may be difficult for certain individuals at certain times...but not for everyone and many have no tales of struggle or strife to sell. In those cases, because there is a huge incentive to sell such stories.....there's a huge temptation to simply fabricate them.
After all, many believe it racist or bigoted to even question such stories. That's why this keeps happening imo.
Thoughts?
