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?
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/hasan-minhajs-emotional-truths
I can definitely empathize with why he did this, but I simply cannot condone it. If he had simply concluded each performance by revealing that some of his stories were exaggerated and/or fabricated while explaining his reasoning for having done so, as is the case with many narrative works/performance art pieces, that would have lent gravitas and credibility to his performances as a whole, but this? This is huxterism, and his admitting to it now - no matter how openly - and without and shred of remorse makes him look all the worse for it.
Well, there goes the Daily Show gig. Pretty disappointing, he's a great comedian but this article just gets worse and worse for him as it goes.
Shoot. I think he's one of the few funny comedians left and was really hoping he'd get the gig.
But unfortunately, this is his Brian Williams moment.
Having read some of the specific stories he's exaggerated; I feel I can empathize with some of them. For example he talks about how he felt when he was receiving death threats, and constructed a story that would be indicative of that feeling. however, in other stories he exaggerated events involving real people (his prospective date to the prom, for one) that his fans have identified and subsequently harassed.
celebrities have to be cognizant of this brigading effect they tend to have, even if they don't condone it, and it seems like Hasan has no remorse for the ways his exaggerations have hurt the real people involved in his stories.
I don't necessarily think this is malicious. When everyone acts like they don't hear people of color, Hasan using his platform to bring those experiences to a wider audience seems like a good thing. Are we sure he didn't hear these experiences from others and choose to spread them so more people can get the message?
I don't think one should get credit for broadcasting the under-listened-to stories of others, while not clearly stating that is what one is doing until called out.
I thought he said that he made some of them up though, at least to some extent, not that he borrowed from others' experiences
As a fan of his show, this is a shame. Patriot Act was the best thing in late night over the past ten years, and while this doesn't diminish how good it is as entertainment, it does decrease his credibility, and people will take him less seriously now.