- Comedian Hasan Minhaj has admitted that he embellished in stories featured in his stand-up.
- In one stand-up special, Minhaj told a story about his daughter being exposed to a white powder.
Comedian Hasan Minhaj has admitted that stories he told during his stand-up acts and repeated — including one about how one of his kids was hospitalized after opening an envelope that contained white powder — weren't actually true.
"Every story in my style is built around a seed of truth," the former "Patriot Act" host told The New Yorker in a profile piece published on Friday. "My comedy Arnold Palmer is seventy percent emotional truth — this happened — and then thirty percent hyperbole, exaggeration, fiction."
In Minhaj's 2022 Netflix comedy special, "The King's Jester," he recounts a story about how a letter was sent to his home filled with white powder and that the substance spilled onto his young daughter, who then was rushed to the hospital.
But Minhaj told The New Yorker that his daughter was never exposed to the white powdery substance and that she was never hospitalized.
Instead, Minhaj said he opened a letter sent to his apartment and saw it contained white powder, according to the magazine.
"Holy shit. What if this was anthrax?" Minhaj said he joked to his wife at the time.
The comedian told Insider in a statement that his jokes are rooted in actual events.
"All my standup stories are based on events that happened to me," Minhaj told Insider in a statement sent through his representative. "Yes, I was rejected from going to prom because of my race. Yes, a letter with powder was sent to my apartment that almost harmed my daughter. Yes, I had an interaction with law enforcement during the war on terror. Yes, I had varicocele repair surgery so we could get pregnant. Yes, I roasted Jared Kushner to his face."
He continued: "I use the tools of standup comedy— hyperbole, changing names and locations, and compressing timelines to tell entertaining stories. That's inherent to the art form. You wouldn't go to a Haunted House and say 'Why are these people lying to me?' — The point is the ride. Standup is the same."
Minhaj appeared on "The Daily Show" as a correspondent from 2014 to 2018 before departing to launch his Netflix comedy talk show "The Patriot Act," which ran until 2020.
In addition to his television work, Minhaj has had small roles in films including "The Spy Who Dumped Me" and "No Hard Feelings." He has two children — a boy and a girl — with wife Beena Patel.