Alumni ‘Social Justice Comedian’ Mines Jokes both Highbrow and Low Stories You May Like Award-Winning Author Mines Humor from Academic Absurdity Prankster’s Legendary Exploits Enthralled Cornellians for Decades Andrea Savage ’94 Makes ’em Laugh A star of NPR’s ‘Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!,’ Negin Farsad ’98 has steadily gained fame across radio, TV, movies, podcasts, and more By Lindsay Lennon “I am an Iranian-American Muslim female—like all of you,” Negin Farsad ’98 proclaims in her 2016 TED Talk, delivered to a mixed-gender audience that appears to be predominantly white. Titled “A Highly Scientific Taxonomy of Haters,” Farsad’s eight-minute presentation is packed with decidedly nonscientific facts. For instance: a pie chart depicts Americans as 90 percent “wonderful people,” 7 percent “haters” … and 3 percent “Florida.” Or a line graph showing, on a scale from “comedy” to “brochure,” that the average American prefers to learn new information while laughing. As she asserts: “You could be hearing an interesting treatise on income equality that’s encased in a really sophisticated poop joke.” Once the audience is on board—which hardly takes long, given Farsad’s rapid-fire delivery and bubbly disposition—it seems that her line graph may actually ring true, as evinced by the many belly laughs. A self-described “social justice comedian,” Farsad hosts a podcast, Fake the Nation, and is a frequent panelist and guest host on NPR’s popular weekly comic quiz show “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” Performing standup in Brooklyn. (Provided) (She recently guest-hosted the program from its home studio in Chicago; in mid-December, she was on the panel for a “Wait Wait” live show at NYC’s Carnegie Hall.) Over the past decade or so, Farsad has become a familiar face—and voice—in nearly every medium of American political and topical humor. She has written for, and appeared on, TV shows on Comedy Central, HBO, Hulu, and more. Her byline has run in a range of publications, from The Guardian to Oprah Magazine. Farsad has become a familiar face—and voice—in nearly every medium of American political and topical humor. (In a recent piece for Afar magazine, Farsad chronicled her experience taking magic mushrooms as part of a weeklong "healing retreat" in Jamaica.) Farsad’s 2016 book, How to Make White People Laugh—a collection of essays about growing up Iranian-American and her ongoing quest to fight racism with jokes—was nominated for the prestigious Thurber Prize for American Humor. In 2014, she directed and produced The Muslims Are Coming!, in which she and fellow Muslim comedians embarked on a standup tour of America, including conservative states like Alabama and Tennessee. (A sequel is in the works.) Giving a TEDx Talk at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Stephanie Berger) She wrote, directed, and starred in the romantic comedy 3rd Street Blackout, appeared in 2022’s Not Okay on Hulu, and co-directed the documentary Nerdcore Rising, featuring Weird Al Yankovic. One of her favorite gigs, she says, is voiceover work—particularly her role on Adult Swim’s “Birdgirl” as Meredith the Mind Taker (also streamed on Max). She even lends her voice to video game characters. “I have the most fun acting, and it’s not the thing I’m known for,” reflects Farsad. “To be a standup comedian requires eating an incredible amount of dirt, testing new jokes all the time. The amount of output required is endless. In the minutes I’m onstage, and it’s working, it’s incredible—but it’s very difficult.” To be a standup comedian requires eating an incredible amount of dirt, testing new jokes all the time. The daughter of Iranian immigrants, Farsad was born in Connecticut and spent most of her childhood in the desert resort town of Palm Springs, CA. Stories You May Like Award-Winning Author Mines Humor from Academic Absurdity Prankster’s Legendary Exploits Enthralled Cornellians for Decades Driven academically, she was always interested in politics and governance, but caught the theater bug in middle school. She got her first big laugh on stage when her high school drama teacher cast her as a nameless kitchen wench—“arguably, the least important of the kitchen wenches,” she recalls—in a production of Once Upon a Mattress. “It felt pretty miraculous,” Farsad says, sitting on the sunny balcony of her NYC apartment, where she lives with her husband and daughter. “I think I understood, subconsciously, that I could say literally anything in that moment, and people would listen, because I had just made them laugh so hard.” The enchanting power of humor was apparent to Farsad from a young age. When her mother’s sisters would visit from Iran, she’d spend hours sitting and cooking with them, listening to them gossip in Azeri, a Turkish dialect. (Though Farsad speaks Farsi to her parents, Turkish and Farsi are spoken in the Iranian province from which they emigrated.) “It had so many idioms and expressions,” she recalls. “I was fascinated by the chatter and storytelling, and I remember enjoying how funny they were.” On the Hill, Farsad double-majored in government and theatre arts in the College of Arts & Sciences. She was a National Scholar and wrote for the Daily Sun—but it was her time as a member of a sketch comedy group, the Skits-O-Phrenics (now known as the Skits), that “ended up cementing a bit of a path for me.” After stints teaching English and waiting tables in Europe, she followed her fellow Skits to NYC to form a new sketch comedy group—while earning dual master’s degrees in African American studies and public policy from Columbia. On the "Wait Wait" panel with fellow comics Brian Babylon and Tom Papa. (Tyler Core) She interned with then-Sen. Hillary Clinton and former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel while at Columbia; after graduating, she worked as a public policy advisor for NYC’s Campaign Finance Board. All the while, her heart was in the NYC comedy scene—but her mind wouldn’t entertain the idea of doing it full time. “I couldn’t accept this about myself,” she says, “because it felt like a really narcissistic profession.” One day, she recalls, friends staged an “intervention of sorts,” urging Farsad to plunge into her comedy career. Young and unattached, she took the risk. Says Farsad: “It took me getting two additional Ivy League degrees and being a serious adult professional—wearing pantsuits, in charge of crazy data sets for campaign finance for the City of New York—to realize, ‘I don’t think this is what I was supposed to do.’” It took me getting two additional Ivy League degrees and being a serious adult professional to realize, ‘I don’t think this is what I was supposed to do.' She has gone on to make a name for herself in the political humor landscape—from her regular NPR appearances to an animated New York Times op-ed on “The Secret History of Muslims in the U.S.” to being featured in an episode of Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s 2022 Apple TV+ series “Gutsy.” And, she notes, she also does a fair amount of non-political comedy—about everything from “nepo babies” and episodes of “The Golden Bachelor” to the time she discovered her mom had never tasted a taco. “Something I believe in strongly,” she says, “is that smart people also want to talk about dumb things.” Top: Farsad on the set of "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" (Rob Grabowski) Published December 12, 2023; updated December 15. Comments Matt Sagal, Class of 1957 17 Dec, 2023 Didn’t know Negin was a Cornell grad. My son, Peter Sagal, is the host of WWDTM. Sadly, Peter strayed to that other Ivy in Cambridge. Reply Teresita Seminario Dillon, Class of 1980 18 Dec, 2023 Happy that such talented Cornell graduate is successful in the comedy business. Will like to attend a show. I am also a Peruvian immigrant Cornell graduate, MPR. Please let me know your shows location. Reply Omeda, Class of 2006 9 Jan, 2024 Thank you so much for sharing this ! I love NPR and I love comedy! I will be checking out her work! Reply Christian Miller 12 Jan, 2024 Great article. I have a new person to add to my “coolest people I’ve heard of” list. Reply Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. 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