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.”

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

“I remember Jon [Stewart] called, and he said, ‘Why in the world are they doing this? And who benefits from this?’” Minhaj said.

“It was a difficult experience, no doubt about it,” the comedian admitted regarding the criticism he received. “It was the first time I really saw how quickly a story can spread online and gain traction. That aspect of it was completely new to me and left me feeling disoriented.”

“The most difficult thing is seeing my wife and my parents hurt,” Minhaj said. “To see them struggle with ‘So I’m reading online…’—that is really hard. I’m the oldest. I feel incredibly sad that I let my parents down…I’m very fortunate that they got to experience many wonderful moments in my career. Watching them go through a painful, embarrassing moment in my career, I wish I hadn’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 article’s publication, Minhaj said, “All my standup stories are based on events that happened to me … I use the tools of standup comedy — exaggeration, changing names and locations and compressing timelines to tell entertaining stories. That’s intrinsic 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 experience. Standup is the same.”

Head over to Esquire’s website to read Minhaj’s full cover story.