Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports/Reuters
In a New Yorker article published Friday, comedian and former Daily Show correspondent Hasan Minhaj—whose comedy is often based on his identity as an Indian Muslim-American—admitted to embellishing personal anecdotes that he has repeatedly shared on stage.
“Every story in my style is built around a seed of truth,” Minhaj said. “My comedy Arnold Palmer is 70 percent emotional truth—this happened—and then 30 percent hyperbole, exaggeration, fiction.”
According to reporter Clare Malone, Minhaj, who often tells a story about being mailed anthrax by a listener who was outraged by him speaking out against the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, simply made the story up. Malone also reported that Minhaj was not rejected as a high school prom date because of his race, as he tells it in one of his stand-up specials, but because the girl he asked simply wasn’t interested in him and turned him down in person. Malone tracked down his would-be date, who told her the comedian’s narrative is not accurate.