At a time when the five biggest names in late-night television have come together in an unprecedented sense of solidarity, Bill Maher ended his second new episode since the end of the WGA strike by eliminating one of his own.
Maher’s final “New Rule” of the night centered on comedian and former Patriot Act host Hasan Minhaj and the made-up stories — both onstage and off — that were recently revealed in a New Yorker profile. The moderator first equated the conspiracy theories of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement with the “emotional truth” of the left. But he could actually only think of one, maybe two, examples.
“That brings me to Hasan Minhaj, the comedian, who answers the question, ‘What if Jussie Smollett stood up?'” Maher joked.
The fact that “the stories that Mr. Minhaj tells in his act to generate sympathy for himself as a Muslim and a person of color are completely fabricated,” Maher argued, means that Muslim Americans may face less discrimination than that want to make progressives believe .
After running through the list of stories Minhaj exaggerated on stage, Maher said, “If you want to speak truth to power, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you have to include the truth part.”
Then it got personal.
“Because he’s done this to me before,” Maher continued. “To accuse me of saying that Muslims should be put in internment camps is something I have never even come close to thinking about, let alone saying.” Maher went even further in his criticism, comparing Minhaj to Donald Trump. “How is this different from this guy?” he asked, referencing the clip of the former president falsely claiming he saw thousands of people in New Jersey cheering on 9/11.
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Minhaj’s dislike of Maher’s Islamophobic tendencies helped him land his job as a Daily Show correspondent under Jon Stewart.
“I think younger generations have a real problem with wanting to build their identity on victimhood,” Maher added. “They want to fight racism – not fight racism, fight racism – so much so that when it’s not there they invent it. And there is enough real racism in the world that inventing more doesn’t help.”
According to Maher, Minhaj “seems to feel literally betrayed by progress – the progress that has denied him any good stories about man’s oppression,” adding, “Dude, America is far from the worst.” You’re a Muslim married to a Hindu. If you lived in India, she would have to murder you.”
In the weeks since Minhaj was exposed by The New Yorker, he hasn’t garnered much sympathy from the comedy community — and may have even missed out on a coveted gig as host of The Daily Show. But if anything could make people sympathize with Minhaj, it might be that he’s on the wrong side of Bill Maher.
For more information, check out Hasan Minhaj’s The Last Laugh podcast.