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Faux Comedy Feud Pits East Asian Against South Asian
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 17 Jul, 2025
Hasan Minhaj and Ronny Chieng's joint comedy tour is drawing battle lines between Minhaj's South Asian identity and Chieng's East Asian background.
Don’t Stop Asian Hate” read one Instagram comment that accurately describes the faux-feud between comedians Hasan Minhaj and Ronny Chieng.
This week, the two announced their latest joint-venture: a 19-city tour that’ll feature Indian American Minhaj debating Malaysian-born Chieng. It’s called “Hasan Hates Ronny / Ronny Hates Hasan.”
Per the event website “Many people believe that open dialogue and discourse are the only tools to mend a divided nation. Comedians Hasan Minhaj and Ronny Chieng believe the opposite: Hatred is the answer.”
While it’s focused specifically on the two comics, the tour and its marketing are both implicitly and outright meant to parody a societal feud — real or imagined — between East and South Asians.
The promotional video that the two shared this past Tuesday was akin to a campaign style attack-ad from each.
Minhaj hit Chieng for capitalizing on his Asian status as a means to advance his career. He even did an impression of him: “I can’t say the letter ‘R.’ Look how far my career can go.”
Chieng punched back with his own impression: “I like to point and yell about how I’m oppressed because I’m brown.
Minhaj responded by accusing Chieng of pretending to be from an Asian country that’s not his own. “He’s Chinese blackface.”
During an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night, Chieng talked about first getting to know Minhaj when they worked together on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. “When I joined the show, the only two people…from the continent of Asia were me and him in the building.” Chieng continued “People Assume we're friends. But that’s racist because we hate each other."
Chieng went on to ridicule Minhaj for several reasons including the fact that “He’s an uneducated dude.” Chieng scoffed at Minhaj’s political science degree from UC Davis, pointing out that he himself has a law degree in addition to his bachelors.
The event format alone, billed as “a debate to the death” is a nod to a prominent Asian trope. According to The National Speech and Debate Society, a whopping 26% of participants are Asian or Asian American, second only to the 44% of participants who are White.
To be clear, while we can very safely assume that the alleged hatred is all a comedy bit given that the two have long been pals, neither has acknowledged as much.
Numerous Asians celebrities like Lisa Ling, Poorna Jaganathan, Asif Ali, and Eric Nam took to the Instagram post’s comments section to join in the fun.
Some comments included “Beef Season 2?” “Harold and Kumar reboot?” and “I put soy sauce on my biryani.”
The pre-sale code for tickets is literally “HATE.”
The format alone, billed as “A debate to the death” is a nod to Asian participation in high school debate. According to The National Speech and Debate Society, a whopping 26% of participants are Asian or Asian American
Promotion image from Hasan Minhaj / Ronnie Chieng's IG
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