Roy Wood Jr. Was Confused by the Hasan Minhaj ‘Daily Show’ Controversy

I’ve been here for almost five years, and the biggest thing I’ve had to get used to is how quickly the news cycle moves. I knew it moved quickly before, but being steeped in it exemplifies how jarring that can be. Something can feel like an enormous story, take up so much space in my brain, and then, within weeks (or even days), it’s gone. Not only is it gone, but I won’t even realize it is until I’m reminded of it later, and even then, it may take me a second to recall what was happening. For example, do you remember that Hasan Minhaj almost became the host of The Daily Show?!

I really like Minhaj and have seen him live a couple of times. Specifically, I saw him perform his special Homecoming King in a small theater when he was still working it out. It was a lot of fun, and as I sat there laughing, I had no idea how it would later cause his career to unfold. Minhaj was accused of fabricating details of the autobiographical special in a New Yorker article (something The New Yorker stands by), but Minhaj claims that readers were misled. Regardless, it cost Minhaj a chance to replace Trevor Noah as host of The Daily Show, something Minhaj and Roy Wood Jr. reflected on during a Hollywood Reporter round table.

Wood Jr. is no stranger to almost hosting The Daily Show (though it sounds like Minhaj came a lot closer). After it was reported that Minhaj was out, Roy Wood Jr. seemed like a favorite to take the reins. It seemed like a natural fit, but Paramount kept dragging its feet and trying to rotate celebrity replacements. The working correspondents were given a chance, but it started to feel like the network would never trust them to lead the show themselves (until Jon Stewart decided to come back, but only for one night). The whole thing sounds like a confusing headache, and Wood Jr. says as much in the round table.

“[W]hen that came out and they were like, ‘Yeah, Hasan’s not going to be the host,’ nobody would give any details and we were all trying to figure out, ‘Well, if it’s not going to be Hasan, who’s it going to be? Should I stay? Well, what happened to Hasan?’” the comedian explained. “It was just, ‘We’re going to reopen the search.’ Nobody could even put into words what it was you were being accused of.” Roy Wood Jr.’s statement makes me wonder if Paramount tried to avoid accusing Minhaj as well. Instead of explaining why they were doing what they were doing, they just did it, leaving folks at The Daily Show in the dark.

Regardless, it sounds like Minhaj is over the whole thing as he chimed in with jokes I have heard him tell elsewhere. “One of the first jokes that came to me was when I called a buddy, and I was like, ‘How bad is it?’ And he was like, ‘The article is bad, but the photos are good.’ I was like, ‘That’s f***ing hilarious,’” he told the table. “It’s also very funny to fail so bad that you bring back Jon Stewart. That’s objectively funny.” He would go on to say, “I think everything in life, good or bad, is fodder.”

Hasan Minhaj and Roy Wood Jr. have moved past The Daily Show, and while folks like me have had to move on to the next shin story, this whole ordeal had a clear impact on their lives. Perhaps, in a few years, when Paramount has been reduced to rubble thanks to numerous lawsuits, The Daily Show is shuttered, and Comedy Central becomes a state-sponsored channel that plays Trump’s military parade on repeat, the two former anchors will get to be even more candid, and I will once again need to take a minute to say, “wait, when did that happen?”