EEighteen minutes into his new Netflix special, Get rid of his head, Hasan Minhaj delves into the controversy that rocked the comedy world last year and spilled over into the mainstream, raising questions about the role of truth in storytelling and the very nature of the artistic process. When Minhaj finally addresses the topic here in his third special, the live Bay Area viewers sit a little straighter in their chairs. Some even exchange a knowing look.

“I don’t know if you saw that,” Minhaj says with a grin. “Last year The New Yorker I fact-checked my stand-up comedy.” Then he pantomimes a journalist typing on the keyboard and starts laughing. “They just said: Ahahaha. Breaking news: Magicians are not magicians,” he says.

That's not quite what happened. In September 2023, The New Yorker published an article questioning the authenticity of personal stories Minhaj told in his first two stand-up specials: Returning King (2017) and The King's Jester (2022). Minhaj quickly confirmed that he had taken artistic liberties with the facts, but that the stories involving racism he faced as an American of Indian descent and Muslim faith after 9/11 contained and relied on “emotional truths.” based on lived experiences. He called the reporting – which the magazine defended – misleading.

The coverage and Minhaj's reaction seemed to test the limits of what a guy John Oliver could be Daily Show Graduate once described as the “inner logic” of comedy: “You'll do anything for a laugh, like a sociopath.” But that was in July 2016, before phrases like “alternative facts” and a new golden age of disinformation became the bigger one Media ecosystem dominated.

At the time of the scandal, Minhaj was best known as a former correspondent for The Daily Show and later hosted his own Netflix show, Patriot Act. As an artist known for his insightful, comedic interpretations of current events, often in the style of investigative journalism, being labeled a factory owner seemed like a huge blow. Minhaj said the scandal led to the cancellation of a near-final offer to host The Daily Show After Trevor Noah's departure, Comedy Central apparently felt that viewers no longer trusted him to deliver even the funny news.

Since then, audiences have been waiting for Minhaj to address the controversy head-on in his comedy. The special's title certainly seems like a gesture toward the backlash. But inside Get rid of his head, Minhaj devotes surprisingly little time to the article and the resulting controversy — perhaps feeling that the 20-minute video defense he posted last October was sufficient. In the special, Minhaj finds a new word to describe the scandal: “idiotic.” “It’s not even good. I didn't fuck a porn star. I didn’t cheat on any boy,” he says. “I was caught embellishing for dramatic effect. The same crime your aunt committed on Thanksgiving.”

While the controversy is only a part of the hour-long special, its presence is felt in the overall structure and tone. When Minhaj defended himself last fall, he made a distinction between what he does on comedy news shows and his work on stage during a stand-up show. The former is “political comedy” that must be based on truth and rigorously fact-checked, he said. The latter is, in his words, “comedic storytelling” where emotions are at the forefront.

Minhaj's outlines of the comedic spectrum, Get rid of his head operates more in the tradition of political comedy. It looks like a classic stand-up set and forms a strong contrast to it Returning King And The King's Jester. These two specials played like one-man shows, off-Broadway shows, or an evening at The Moth. The specials featured dynamic camera movements that panned back and forth on the stage, sometimes directly into Minhaj's face, allowing him to address the non-theatrical audience directly, enhancing the dramatic impact of his stories.

In Get rid of his head, Instead of captivating his audience with grand stories, Minhaj instead opts for a more observational mode, a series of jokes strung together to convey his opinion on topics like politics, race, and Zillow, with a collection of personal anecdotes scattered throughout are. It's as if Minhaj is exceeding his audience's expectations for an epic retelling of ” The New Yorker Saga, only to briefly mention it and continue to showcase his craft in a different comedic style. The new special feels like an implicit answer to anyone who doubted his stand-up skills in the wake of the scandal: He may have embellished, but it wasn't a crutch. Get rid of his head is just as good, if not a lot better, than any of his previous works. Critics of Minhaj's sincere demeanor must resign.

Underlying much of Minhaj's special is the perspective of a Millennial American, a perspective largely absent from the anchor chairs of American late-night comedy, with the notable exception of the rotating host lineup The daily show, who have to be more impersonal as part of their shared duties. Here, however, Minhaj can put the personal in the foreground. He vents the deepest frustrations of his generation with poignancy. Take the coronavirus for example. While some saw disaster, Minhaj saw a missed opportunity. For years, millennials have complained about the housing shortage in the United States. “And then in March 2020, God thought, here,” Minhaj said in the voice of God, “here is a disease that specifically kills old people.”

But perhaps the biggest contrast between Get rid of his head and the first two specials are Minhaj's own disposition on stage. In the earlier work, you could feel every beat of the performance, the delivery of every joke impeccable, but noticeably the byproduct of rehearsal. In the new special, Minhaj feels relaxed and confident in a way that conveys more experience. With controversy and dozens of stories from his past behind him, the special focuses on his own thoughts on where we are now and where we're going – and boy, can we use all the help we can get.