You Might Also Like: Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb

**Hoda Kotb** (0:11)
Hey, guys, welcome to the Joy 101, the podcast. I'm so excited about our guest today. His name is Hasan Minhaj.
He's a comedian. Now, if you're a fan of the Daily Show, you probably know exactly who I'm talking about. If you watched the White House Correspondents' Dinner a few years ago, you may know who he is and who I'm talking about. If you like Netflix, he had a special called Homecoming King, but he's got something so cool. This comedian has something so cool that is coming out now, and it's called Best of the Best. Okay, so what I love about this show that's coming out is it's all about a coming of age when you go to college and you first get there. So think back if you went to college, what it was like when you first arrived. Okay, I remember mine so vividly, right? So I had a roommate, I didn't know who she was. So we walk into the room, me, my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister, and there's a girl named Kelly who's my roommate. And she walks in and she sees all of us in the room. And I remembered thinking to myself like, who's this family? And she's thinking, who's this family? And we are about to live in two twin beds in a single room.
And her name was Kelly Irwin. And the funny thing is, my brother and sister and I have a nickname that we call each other, which is Irwin. We call each other. When I call my sister, I say, Hey, Irwin. And when she calls my brother, she says, Hey, Irwin. And we put our notes on Christmas cards. It's to Irwin from Irwin. And the only way we know it's from us to us is because of the handwriting. Anyway, this girl's name was Kelly Irwin. So we, of course, burst out laughing and we knew it was meant to be. And Kelly and I lived together for two years there. And it was all of the things that happened when you start off in college. Like, how do you make it work? Who's this person? Well, Hasan is a guy who is playing a professor in this movie. It's a great one to see, but what's even more interesting about him is his life and his career and how he came to this particular place, how he came to this peak of comedy through his upbringing. And I'm so excited to talk with Hasan Minhaj.
So, I want to talk about Best of the Best with you, Hasan. I'm so happy you're here. I'm thrilled to be here. Because this is a movie that it's all about. It's about a ton of things. It's about coming of age. It's about going to college. It's about, it's about parents, about all the things, and I want to get into it. But first, I want to talk to you. So one of the questions I love to ask, one of my favorites, first of all is I didn't know you were this tall.

**Hasan Minhaj** (2:48)
I get this all the time.

**Hoda Kotb** (2:49)
How tall are you?

**Hasan Minhaj** (2:50)
I'm 6'1, with hair.

**Hoda Kotb** (2:51)
You're 6'1?
Why did I not know that? I've seen you on The Daily Show. I've seen you do many things, and nobody told me. Maybe you're not standing next to people who reflect.

**Hasan Minhaj** (3:03)
Or maybe I'm not standing with my shoulders back.

**Hoda Kotb** (3:05)
I don't know.

**Hasan Minhaj** (3:06)
But I get it a lot. Now what does that mean when people say that? How should I take that?

**Hoda Kotb** (3:10)
As a major compliment, because you give regular size guy, not tall guy, and when I meet you in person, it's like, wow. Okay, so anyway. One question I love to love that somebody from the Wall Street Journal asked me once, and I remembered going, oh, this is an interesting question. I've never been asked this. So he said to me, close your eyes, and he said, and imagine yourself walking into your childhood bedroom, the bedroom of your seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 year old self, and I want you to look around the room and I want you to describe what you see, what posters are on the wall, what sheets you had on the bed. Was there anyone else in the room? Was it neat or messy?
What was on your shelves? So what was yours?

**Hasan Minhaj** (4:00)
It's so funny as you were saying that, I literally was imagining mine. It was a very 90s kid. So it was extremely pop culture.

**Kelsey Patel** (4:11)