Are you ready for a Hasan Minhaj comeback?

[thebadunkadunk]

Introducing our October digital cover star, #HasanMinhaj. The comedian and actor felt the wrath of the Internet and lost a career-defining job amid the controversy. Now he’s back with a YouTube interview series, a Netflix special, and a fresh perspective. https://t.co/IKz9JlWiOR pic.twitter.com/FUtp20LHmA
- Esquire (@esquire) September 25, 2024
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Comments

[epicdonald]

I actually got to see this show while he was touring because one of my friends had a spare ticket. We had to lock up our phones & he was very upfront that he was workshopping material and it was definitely rocky. This was in February or March so I don’t remember all the specifics that well but at the time my friend and I said we should watch the special when it comes out to see if we can spot any changes he ended up making. However I don’t have Netflix and I don’t think either my friend or I will remember the show well enough at this point to notice any differences!

[primimproper]

Did he riff on brown people being racist? I liked Patriot Act a lot, but idk, with the way white men consume comedy, you can't really open this door even a crack.

[epicdonald]

Yeah that was definitely part of the show. Iirc the idea was that brown people are racist but only against other brown people. I can’t remember most of the specific bits of it though unfortunately

[chll51]

I get comedians tell stories that might be farfetched or inspired by real life, but his creativity in those stories got some real life consequences? Like the girl he said her parents were racist got hate even though they weren't racist? His non-apology apology rubbed me the wrong way.

Adding onto that, women writers on his show came out saying they were disregarded, mistreated, and discriminated again so like... idk.

Let's not act like he was burned at the stake because half of these scandals were blown over. Either way, he sorta soured for me so I'll keep myself away from his shit.

[frejasface]

Ikr. He lied. And treated his staff crappily.

[bleuvelvet]

I'm not sure why some ONTDers are running with him lying about the racism. In her own text messages she admitted her parents were and "had come a long way". White people slowly (or begrudgingly) accepting their child's partner of color is hardly a novel concept.

I think the major flaw of the New Yorker article remains that the author was more sympathetic to the white people she believed were misrepresented by Hasan (including the FBI surveillant) than any of the staff of color she could have been aiding instead.

[deja_vu822]

the thing that he's saying about beige guilt and "fighting the problem while being the problem" is interesting considering the claims writers made on his show about it being a hostile workplace, because of him, to South Asian women.

i can't believe that new yorker article only came out a year ago though.

[theleveebroke]

Idk if ONTD watched The Patriot Act but I did (loved it at the time), and framing his stories as stand-up is wildly misleading imo. While his stories would always have humorous moments, they were objectively serious and the audience was expected to take them at face-value as serious because he tied them into the show's topic.

The outrage was incredibly disproportionate and I don't think he should've lost job opportunities over it, but people were rightfully pissed off.

He absolutely deserves another chance. He's insanely talented and charismatic. But I think it would be unfair to sweep his shit under the rug tbh

[deja_vu822]

yeah, saying you had to take your child to the ER because you thought you got sent anthrax is not necessarily the same thing as making up parts of a conversation to have a good punchline. iirc he also kept up that lie off-screen with his staff, although admittedly i don't remember what his response about that claim was after the new yorker article came out, but i know that regardless, it wasn't a true story.

[theleveebroke]

Your comments + the others pointing out the mistreatment of his staff are making me lean toward just writing him off. I havent kept up with him like that but if he hasn't apologized to his staff and made things right with them after all the alleged shit by now then I don't see any need to support him moving forward

[deja_vu822]

to be fair the workplace claims never amounted to much beyond some tweets from his writers because while the new yorker could've investigated that, they didn't!

god I hate esquire

[hyperpop]

Hasan had strange and to joke

Minhaj a year, lived about it