According to a recent New Yorker profile, Hasan Minhaj, a talented standup comedian, has exaggerated and invented some autobiographical details about the racism he has faced in his life, especially as one of the few brown kids in a very white high school.
Of course, in that profile, Minhaj defended his comedic approach:
“Every story in my style is built around a seed of truth,” he said. “My comedy Arnold Palmer is seventy per cent emotional truth—this happened—and then thirty per cent hyperbole, exaggeration, fiction.”
Plenty of journalists are now vilifying Minhaj for his emotional truths (which can be more accurately described as emotional untruths and half-truths) but I think those same critics are pretending to be disappointed and angry. I think they’re exaggerating and inventing shit, too.
And what are we to do when a journalist shares their emotional truths?
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