The comedian Hasan Minhaj released a 21-minute video on Thursday, addressing a New Yorker article that chronicled fabrications of personal experiences he recounted in his stand-up specials, and apologizing to those who felt “betrayed.”Minhaj, whose politically-minded Netflix show “Patriot Act” ran from 2018 to 2020, posted the video — which he called a “deep dive on my own scandal” — nearly six weeks after the magazine published its article.
In it the reporter, Clare Malone, parsed the details of his biographical comedy around growing up as a Muslim American and an Asian American.
“I took a beat before responding because, like you, I have been paralyzed by the news coming out of the Middle East, and I have been processing all the criticism that has come my way,” Minhaj said in the video.
“And I just want to say to anyone who felt betrayed or hurt by my stand-up, I am sorry.
I made artistic choices to express myself and drive home larger issues affecting me and my community, and I feel horrible that I let people down.”But Minhaj said he felt as if he came off as a “psycho” in the article, and he defended fictionalizing parts of his stand-up anecdotes as a way to emphasize truths about racism and threats that he had experienced.
Persons:
Hasan Minhaj, “, ” Minhaj, ”, —, Clare Malone, Minhaj
Organizations:
Yorker, Netflix
Locations:
American