-Welcome back to "Late Night." We're here with Hasan Minhaj.
Your special talks about -- the episode of your show
"The Patriot Act," where you talked about Saudi Arabia
and the killing of the journalist Jamaal Khashoggi.
Can you just remind people a little bit who might not
remember exactly how that went down?
-Yeah, so, "Washington Post" journalist Jamaal Khashoggi went
into a Saudi embassy, got murdered, not good.
-Nope. -Had a very hot take on my show
"Patriot Act" -- you know, murder is bad.
[ Light laughter ]
Saudi Arabia didn't like that.
They banned the episode.
-Right, so this was --
You could not stream it in Saudi Arabia.
-Okay. I am a practicing Muslim and I come to find out
I violated their cybercrime law and I was sentenced to
five years in Saudi prison.
I know. I've always wanted to be an international villain.
[ Laughter ]
It's been a dream of mine.
I just didn't want to be for the dorkiest [bleep] ever.
But I then found out my Hajj visa was denied.
So, Muslims around the world, once in our life,
we have to make our pilgrimage to Mecca --
not Madison Square Garden, the real Mecca.
[ Laughter ]
And I was denied.
And it really, like, hurt me,
this big part of my faith I now can't complete.
But God is pretty amazing, and he has this loophole for Muslims
that if you can't complete your pilgrimage,
someone can make it on your behalf.
So I called Nathan Fielder.
-Good call.
[ Laughter ]
-Because we know he's committed to bits.
-That's a real good bit.
-And I go, "Nate, I know you're committed to comedy."
Have you ever thought of committing yourself to Islam?"
[ Laughter ]
And we had this bit where there was like my emam I grew up with.
"He's here. You can just accept the one true faith.
And you can go to Mecca, make your pilgrimage, come back,
we'll do an episode about that.
It will be this amazing spiritual cheat code."
And Nate, I could see him just kind of doing the math,
and he goes, "That's really funny."
[ Laughter ]
"Would this get me killed?"
[ Laughter ]
And I go, "Nate, I have a question for you.
How committed are you to comedy?"
[ Laughter ]
"Because everyone says you're a genius."
How funny would it be if I -- Well, it's not funny.
But if he did die... [ Laughter ]
...and then I accepted the Emmy on his behalf.
[ Laughter ] And I was like, "Nathan Fielder
died doing what he loved -- converting to Islam."
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah, that would have been special television.
Do people still -- I imagine people still talk to you,
ask you about Saudi Arabia all the time.
-All the time. Yeah.
I'm like, "Why?" I mean, I'm dressed like the flag.
But -- [ Laughter ]
So, Adam Levine DMed me. -Okay.
[ Laughter ]
-Not like that, not like that, not like that, not like that.
Not like that, okay? -Definitely not the answer
I was expecting. -Okay.
So, a year ago, he DMs me and he goes, "Hey, can we talk?"
And I go, "Yeah," and I call him, and he goes,
"Should I perform in Saudi Arabia?"
Like, all of a sudden, I'm the Middle East expert.
[ Laughter ]
And he goes, "They're offering me a lot of money.
Should I go do it?"
And I didn't know what to do,
so I called one of my comedy mentors.
I'm a Padawan, he's a comedy Jedi.
I go, "What do I tell Adam Levine?"
He goes, "Okay, well, just ask him,
'Do you really need the money?'"
[ Laughter ]
"If not, you should probably, like, stand up for what
you believe, and, you know, move forward that way."
And I gave Adam Levine this huge speech.
I'm like, "If you don't need the money, Adam, stand up for what
you believe and do the right thing.
I hope to hear from you soon."
[ Laughter ]
And then a few weeks ago, I was on stage, I was just working on
material and Beena was backstage and she goes "Oh, my God,
did you hear about Adam Levine?"
And I look at my phone, and I'm like, "Oh, thank God."
[ Laughter ]
"He's just a pervert."
[ Laughter ]
-Thank God. -At least he's not a sellout.
-Kind of all in, yeah.
Hey, thanks so much for being here.
Congrats on the special. Hasan Minhaj, everybody.
"The King's Jester" is streaming now on Netflix.
We'll be right back with Tony Hale.