Fellow comedian Whoopi Goldberg defended Hasan Minhaj's embellished comedy that was exposed in a New Yorker profile last week. The profile brought to light that Minhaj conjured up lies surrounding some true or some completely false stories for his Netflix stand-up specials. He called the fictional stories "emotional truths."
But Goldberg defended Minhaj's fabrications during Monday's broadcast of "The View." The moderator and co-host said "that's what [comedians] do, we tell stories and we embellish them."
"If you're gonna hold a comic to the point where you're gonna check up on stories, you have to understand, a lot of it is not the exact thing that happened because why would we tell exactly what happened? It ain't that interesting," she said.
Goldberg continued: "There's information that we will give you as comics that will have grains of truth, but don't take it to the bank. That's our job, a seed of truth. Sometimes truth and sometimes total BS."
The performer also shared with the audience that when she used to perform as a comedian, she dealt with a report fact-checking her stand-up, inquiring whether she had a degree from New York University. She said she never said she had a degree from NYU but realized the reporter was referring to a comedy bit she had told.
In the profile, Minhaj was also accused of fostering a toxic and misogynistic workplace environment for female staffers of color behind the scenes of his now-canceled Netflix commentary show "Patriot Act."
