Meet another scumbag Leftist. Let’s consider this one the Indian Muslim equivalent of Jussie Smollett.
Hasan Minhaj received his bona fides by bashing America. The Indian-American Muslim hosts a comedy series on Netflix called “Patriot Act”. And as one might imagine in today’s “woke” culture, critics have declared the show as “entertaining”.
Sadly for comedy, platitudes abound for very non-funny “woke” comedy. Gone are the days when comedians observed the absurdity of life, no matter where, and they pointed their comedic wit in that direction. Practice actual comedy today, and you could get canceled, and viciously so.
Comedians like Don Rickles, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and many others simply could not work in today’s environment. And when you consider how comedy shapes culture by pointing that rapier wit at society, one can see the danger of censoring it.
But look at the comedy that stands the test of time, like the comedy of George Carlin. Listen to Carlin today, and you wouldn’t know that he didn’t write his material this year. The comedy greats used exaggeration for effect, but never to detract from the core message. That’s not true today.
Today, comedians have an agenda. Hasan Minhaj is one such comic.
It was revealed in The New Yorker, that Minhaj’s stories of racism and bigotry are almost all fabricated.
I haven’t seen his act, but I hear that he bases his material on his personal experiences as an Asian-American. I read that he tells stories of law enforcement entrapment, and relates personal threats that he has apparently received due to his ethnicity and religion.
The problems with his tales are that nobody can confirm them. These are stories he has told on stage; stories meant to evoke a visceral response from his audience.
One person reported,
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.”
As a comedian, I understand how comics create. The process varies from person to person. But for the most part, the audience understands when a comedian is stretching the story. I recall a bit where Dave Chappelle joked about a six-year-old kid who was out on the streets at 3am selling drugs or carjacking. Clearly, that was a joke. But Chappelle was making a bigger point of kids with no parental supervision.
Further, Chappelle pointed the finger at all deadbeat parents. And he didn’t lie for personal gain.
Minhaj mentioned, “seed of truth” and “emotional truth”. Holy Mother of Elizabeth Warren is that how Leftists define lying these days?
Comedians create scenarios all the time.
We talk about fictitious girlfriends, jobs, and so on. But I don’t know any reputable comedians who target groups of people, and for sport.
Minhaj’s “emotional truths” represent real lies. Lies about America, a country where he feasts daily, so much so he has a hit show. How racist and bigoted America is, right?
In one example from his special, Minhaj explains the fallout from “Patriot Act”.
During a particular segments, he discussed the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalism. According to sources, the show displays threatening tweets on the big screen that were apparently sent to Minhaj. He discusses a letter sent to his home in which the envelope was filled with white powder. For more dramatics, Minhaj explained that the contents of the envelope accidently spilled onto his young daughter.
The child was rushed to the hospital. Thankfully, the contents were not found to be anthrax. The story was conveyed as a sobering reminder that Minhaj’s comedic actions have real-world consequences.
According to Minhaj, the story didn’t end there.
Later that night, Minhaj detailed the fury of his wife. She was pregnant with their second child, and conveyed to him, “‘You get to say whatever you want onstage, and we have to live with the consequences.’”
Minhaj recalls her saying, “I don’t give a s**t that Time magazine thinks you’re an “influencer.” If you ever put my kids in danger again, I will leave you in a second.”
The incident never happened. None of it.
Another comedic lie came with Minhaj relating a story about Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Again, Minhaj blatantly lied about multiple aspects of a story. Why? Because at the time Jared Kushner made a great whipping boy.
Unbelievably, Leftists defend Minhaj. One writer discovered an apologist, writing:
On John Heilemann’s podcast earlier this year, Minhaj described his work as “the dynamic range that theatre and storytelling and comedy allow you to explore.” Does that mean audiences should expect his words onstage to stringently hew to the facts on the ground? The slipperiness of memoir finds a new dimension when it’s played for laughs in front of a crowd.
Sure. Like the slipperiness of Jussie Smollett’s tale of woe? Or perhaps the slipperiness of Joe Biden’s “tall tales”?
Tragically, bashing America has become a highly profitable industry. Many people want to teach America a lesson, despite having almost no evidence of the narrative they set. It’s so bad for Leftists, they must make stories up.
Like Smollett, Minhaj won’t apologize for his blatant lies. In fact, he will continue to cash in on them.
