Comedy v. reality
Truth and lies in standup, plus my weekly shareables: Banned book battles, stunning ocean photos, and holding hands with your heart to see you
A quick note for Charlotte-area Shedheads: I’ll be joining my friend Joe Posnanski as co-host at the event for his book WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL at Park Road Books on Oct. 18. The book debuted at no. 2 on the New York Times bestseller list, and he’s been drawing huge crowds all over the country—he also appeared on CBS MORNINGS yesterday!—so call or email the store and let them know you’re coming so they can be sure to have enough books. This will be a blast.
I remember the first time I felt like a comedian had lied to me.
Louis CK had a viral bit back in 2009 about the miracles we live with now—like high-speed internet on a plane—and how we instantly feel entitled to these miracles and complain the instant something goes wrong.
You probably know that Louis CK had his own issues a few years later … it’s hard for me to watch him at all now, knowing what I know, even though for a few years I thought he was the funniest comedian alive. But that’s not the part I want to talk about. What I remember most about this bit was the interviews he did about it later. He revealed that he made up a key part of the story. The jerk who complained about the internet going out? That wasn’t the guy sitting next to him. There was no guy sitting next to him. It was Louis himself.
That might seem like a small distinction, just an embellishment to make the story a little funnier (and to not make Louis the bad guy, which might have been a bit of foreshadowing). But it left a sour taste with me. I don’t expect everything comedians say to be gospel. I know Steven Wright didn’t really go to the 24-hour grocery, see the manager locking up, and complain: “The sign says OPEN 24 HOURS.” “Yeah, but not in a row.”
But I guess I assumed that when a comedian was telling something that felt like a real story, from his or her real life, that it was the truth. In my mind those stories were the funniest kind, because the comedian had to find the humor in the reality, instead of bending it for the sake of the bit.
I mention all this because the New Yorker’s Clare Malone had a big piece this week on Hasan Minhaj, whose routines over the years have featured terrifying stories about the harassment he and his family faced as Muslims in America. He had one routine about his family getting an envelope filled with white powder. Another described his interaction with a man he called Brother Eric, who turned out to be an FBI informant investigating Muslims. Minhaj admits in the New Yorker story that neither of those things ever happened. He says it doesn’t matter, because his stories serve a bigger emotional truth.
A lot of the reaction I’ve seen to the story online comes from people who are dumbfounded anybody would think, or care, that a comedian’s stories would be true in the first place. A comedian made up a story? Who would have thought? That sort of thing.
Maybe it’s that simple to other people. It’s possible that I’m too sensitive to this as somebody who writes nonfiction for a living. I remember being so disappointed in MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL once I found out that author John Berendt changed the names of characters, created composite characters, and even inserted himself into scenes where he never appeared in real life. The book is based on a true story, but to me it will forever carry a stain.
I’m not sure how to process the same moves when it comes to comedy. I guess where I come down for now is that Hasan Minhaj isn’t being honest with his audience (and maybe with himself) when he talks about “emotional truths.” Would a normal person, after seeing his act, believe that the stories he told were true? I suspect they would. I also suspect Minhaj would be fine with them believing that.
I’d love to hear what all of you think about this … it’s possible there might even be a couple of professional comedians amongst the Shedheads, and if you’re out there, I’d really be interested in hearing from you. I think for me, the upshot has been that it’s harder for me to enjoy that type of comedy. I’m constantly wondering what’s real and what’s made up. It can still be funny, but it’s not as much fun. And in some ways in makes me gravitate to comedians who just tell jokes. They might not make me think as hard, but they earn an honest laugh.
I still watch this Brian Regan clip at least once a month. I don’t worry about how closely it hews to reality.
10 things I wanted to share this week:
My weekly for WFAE was about what happened when they had an election and (almost) nobody came.
DVR alert: ABC’s 20/20 is doing an episode tonight based on my friend Kim Cross’ upcoming book IN LIGHT OF ALL DARKNESS, about the kidnapping of 12-year-old Polly Klaas murder in 1993. Here’s a trailer:
Another friend, Tom Haberstroh, wrote a lovely celebration of his mom after her death from ALS. (The Finder)
A South Carolina teacher got reported by her students for teaching books that made them uncomfortable about race. Now she goes back into the classroom, unsure who or what to trust. Great work by Hannah Natanson. (Washington Post) … and also check out my WFAE colleague Ann Doss Helms on a battle over banning books in Catawba County, NC, featuring opposing sides: the Mama Bears and the Freedom Readers.
DOG NEWS: From now until DOGLAND comes out (April 2024!), I’m devoting this slot to dog stories. This week: A dog sniffs for survivors after the Morocco earthquake. (NPR)
I could look at Sutton Lynch’s drone photos of ocean life for hours … and have, on his Instagram feed. (NYT)
Austin Kleon on comparing and despairing (and he comes up with a new acronym: SHITT, or Should I Try This?) (Austin Kleon’s Substack)
Olivia Laing on navigating the pandemic, and learning about life and death, with the help of Detective Columbo. (WePresent)
Speaking of comedy … you know what has really made me laugh these last couple of weeks? Dad jokes from DockTok. (YouTube)
Yesterday was the 21st day of September. In other words: EARTH, WIND AND FIRE DAY! Do you remember?
Have a great week, everybody.
The worst part to me about the Minhaj lies is that it makes harder for the next person who really is a victim of racism to be believed. It sure seems like he's not being honest about his motives. All comedians lie and embellish for comedic effect, but you can't put yourself in someone else's hate crime. And you certainly shouldn't be so reckless as to use the names of real people and falsely accuse them of such things. Did he he not expect them to correct the record? Did he not expect someone to check into the anthrax threat? That's incredibly easy to verify. He may as well said somebody dropped a bomb on his house.
Oh that's a tough one, Tommy. I most definitely hew to the "if it's non fiction, it needs to be non fiction" but is comedy fiction or non fiction? I think if you tell the story as a story and claim it happened to you, it should be true. There are ways to tell a joke that let your audience know you are embellishing, inflating, etc. ... the explanation that it's your "emotional truth"? No. That isn't one of the ways.