Hasan Minhaj Lost ‘Daily Show’ Host Gig Amid Jokes Scandal; Jon Stewart Called Him and Questioned the Backlash: ‘Why the F— Are They Doing This?’

Hasan Minhaj spoke to Esquire magazine for a new cover story and remembered having a long conversation with John Stewart amid the jokes scandal that cost Minhaj one of his dream jobs: hosting Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” It’s a gig Stewart knows well considering he served as the show’s host from 1999 until 2015 and is currently back behind the desk once a week through the 2024 presidential election.

Minhaj confirmed to Esquire that “The Daily Show” job was his, saying: “We were in talks, and I had the gig, and we were pretty much good to go.” Then controversy erupted after The New Yorker published a profile of Minhaj and fact-checked some of his jokes. It was revealed that Minhaj had embellished several stories for his stand-up acts and in the resulting backlash “The Daily Show” hosting gig “went away. That’s part of showbiz.”

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Per Esquire: “In the aftermath of the story, Minhaj spoke with other comedians who are friends and mentors. Mike Birbiglia and Ramy Youssef reached out. So did John Mulaney and Jon Stewart. He spent hours on the phone with them.”

“I remember Jon [Stewart] called, and he said, ‘Why the fuck are they doing this? And who does this benefit?’” Minhaj said.

“It was painful, there’s no doubt about it,” the comedian said about the backlash. “It was the first time I saw the speed and velocity of the internet, how quickly a story can take off. That part of it was very new to me and disorienting.”

“The most painful thing is my wife and my parents,” Minhaj added. “To see them hurt, to see them engage with ‘So I’m reading on the internet…’—that is so painful. I’m the eldest. I feel really, really sad that I let my parents down…I’m very lucky that they got to see many beautiful highs of my career. Watching them experience a painful moment, an embarrassing moment in your career, I wish I didn’t put them through that. That’s the tough part.”

Variety exclusively reported in August 2023 that Minhaj had emerged as a frontrunner to take over “The Daily Show” as its permanent host following the exit of Trevor Noah. Minhaj was one of several guest hosts who filled in after Noah’s exit as Comedy Central execs searched for a permanent host. The New Yorker interview published in September 2023, and by later that month Variety reported that Comedy Central was opening up the search beyond Minhaj in the wake of backlash against him.

In a statement to Variety made right after the story’s publication, Minhaj said, “All my standup stories are based on events that happened to me … I use the tools of standup comedy — hyperbole, changing names and locations and compressing timelines to tell entertaining stories. That’s inherent to the art form. You wouldn’t go to a haunted house and say ‘Why are these people lying to me?’ — The point is the ride. Standup is the same.”

Head over to Esquire’s website to read Minhaj’s cover story in its entirety.