 One month later, after Hasan Minhaj was accused and roasted on the internet for fabricating fake stories for his own personal career gain, he finally has come back with a very, very detailed response and he's bringing the receipts. Yeah, I mean, he's clapping back at the New Yorker, you know, they wrote a hit piece against him for what reason, I'm not sure. But long story short, Andrew, the truth is like more in the middle or maybe even like obviously he did exaggerate some of the stories, but he has receipts showing that those stories were more true than the New Yorker article said they were. Yeah, and obviously we made a video about it a month ago when it first broke. It's fair for us to also cover his response. So please hit that like button, check out other episodes of the hot pot boys. And also, you know, what goes great with hot pot is Smala Sauce. Check it out on the Instagram, Smala Sauce, lots of great content. I'll tell you this, man, a lot changes in a month. You know, a month ago, I thought that this was like realistically in my mind. I thought it was like a two out of 10 story. They got magnified to like a six out of 10 story because it was a slow news week, Andrew. Obviously in the past month, it seems like the world is on fire. It's probably dropped way down on people's like attention totem pole, right? Yeah, for sure. And so listen, we're going to go through the main points that he covers. But obviously if you want to watch that full detailed Hasan Manaj style response, check it out the link down below. But we're also going to talk about why we think maybe the New Yorker even wanted to write a hit piece. Right, because the New Yorker is more theoretically a left-leaning publication. I don't know. Maybe somebody didn't want him to be the next host of the Daily Show. Conspiracy theories. So real quick, what are the main points of his rebuttal? Because he does have a lot of evidence going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm not this crazy liar that the New Yorker said that I was. Yeah, he says he's not a psycho because people were saying, oh, man. He's like the Jesse Smollett of comedy. There was a lot of backlash. But basically the three main stories, okay, being rejected from prom for being brown, being Indian, right? Or being South Asian. So obviously that story is actually true. He stands by that story. He's got the email receipts between him and the girl about what happened over the years. He sent those emails to the reporter and the journalist, but they didn't. Maybe they didn't take it into consideration. Maybe they skipped it. And it's kind of a ridiculous thing to think that we're even debating such a trivial thing. But I guess it's because like Hassan had a career as like a journalistic comedian, but he also had an emotional storytelling career and they were separate and they have separate standards and thresholds. But they kind of got, I guess the wires or the just it got confusing. Yes, I think Hassan, to be fair, has a confusing career because he has one side that's based more in fact, and then one side that's based way more in feeling. But he's always been like that, but it is a duality that's interesting. But anyways, the mosque story he has, he did come in contact with FBI informants that were trying to infiltrate his mosque. That is true, whether it was exactly this guy, brother Eric, that's not true, but he tied the two together. But basically he did go through that anthrax powder. He did go through that. He thought it was anthrax powder that poisoned his family. He opened it in his house. He got very scared. He ended up needing security for the next like few months to roll around with him in New York City. Basically, he wraps it up as saying like, Hey, I got misrepresented in the New York article. I had given them all the evidence I possibly could. I was completely transparent. They chose to overlook stuff and write things in a way that made me look like I only made up all these stories. Right. Right. Well, he also said that most of his stories are true and some of them are not true. Right. Whereas the article more makes it sound like almost all his stories are not true with maybe like a shred of truth in there. Now, here's the thing. In comedy in storytelling in theater, which comedy is falls under theater, you know, it's whether it's a one man show, I think that it's like you can expect things to be embellished. But I just think it's the duality that Hassan has that people were like, they just assumed that it was lying because they were like, Oh, what? He stands for truth. But then his own personal one man show stuff is more theatrical. So I could see that being confusing. But David, my overall takes are this. Listen, I don't know why this girl Claire Malone chose to write such a biting article, which ended up hurting Hassan's career public opinion. People thought now we lost the daily show hosting gig, right? Yeah, because first mover advantage, that first story gets really big, even if he has this response and he proves his innocence. Nobody not. But it may have also been playing like I had a feeling like moderate or kind of like more like middle right comedians. They were kind of like waiting to pounce on him. Yeah, and I think it's because I don't know, Hassan style. Maybe it's like a little cheesier, but then like that doesn't mean he's a liar. You know what I mean? So anyways, also like I wish that he came out with this response earlier. I think that would have been helpful. You know, yeah, I mean, obviously guys, like I said, I mean, the this is sort of dropped on the news ranking list. Maybe like 600 points. Yeah, yeah. Maybe he meant, hey, perhaps he wanted to drop it earlier, but then global things happen and he felt like he had to push it back. But anyways, guys, basically, you know, I think it's fair that Hassan has a rebuttal and I think that this just calls in question to be honest. A lot of other like maybe future hit pieces, you know, that other journalists are going to have because it's like, when is it fact? When do we know it's fact? Hassan has evidence that he's showing right now. He has the audio recordings. He has the email screenshots. He has text messages. He has transcript of the interview that he did with New Yorker. So it's like he has he's laying out the evidence for us. Is the New Yorker going to be like, no, we stand by our article. Of course they are probably right. So I guess like should people question in the future when they see a hit piece about somebody? I mean, honestly, I just think the faith in the media has been shook in in 2023. Like just people do not believe anything anymore because everybody wants to go viral. It's almost like the tick tockization of even more mainstream print media, which is like obviously the New Yorker used to be a magazine. Obviously now it's more online just because of technology. But like even the New Yorker, which is a traditional magazine is now having to adapt and wants to get views and this is maybe part of it. And I think people are using their like Harvard English degrees to like have a certain tone to make things sound like the worst thing ever. Like when you read that article, it sounds like he's like a sadistic psychopath. Yeah, due to the syntax and sort of like the dark foreboding like vocabulary choice. And that's how I think the regular average person took it. Right. And I think that that's why at that time until obviously since the world has like exploded with like way more way, way, way, way more serious stuff. Since then at that time, it just seemed like everybody's reaction was like 10 out of 10. Yeah. But also that whole controversy got politicized as we said in our video a month ago. Yeah. I mean, I think it's sad because, you know, at the end of the day, though, I guess what can you only rely on the court of law? Like if Trump gets and die, like you can't. I don't know, man. Can you even believe in the law anymore? Like I just think when it comes to the attention economy, the New Yorker put out an article. They're trying to get clicks and views. They wrote it a certain way. People took it another way and now Hassan has to basically prove his essentially innocence. But anyway, guys, let us know what you guys think in the comments section below. Yeah. I mean, this is just happening to, you know, we're kind of like comedy adjacent. So this is something that is noteworthy because it's happening to one of the biggest Asian comedians. Yeah. So anyways, you guys let us know in the comments down below, would you believe his response? I mean, are you going to even get a care? Do you even care? Are you still a fan of Hassan or did all that controversy not bother you at all? Let us know in the comments down below. And until next time, we out. Peace.