Someone Seriously Mistook Her For Malala Yousafzai

Even though it's probably too late to suggest a revision for Mindy Kaling's second book Why Not Me, it's really too bad that this story involving the awesome comedic writer won't be included when the book's released next April. But that's OK — it still doesn't take away from the hilarity of what happened to The Mindy Project star after she took part in a Q and A for the New Yorker Festival earlier this month. Apparently, during a party for the event, a visibly drunken elderly man mistook Mindy Kaling for Malala Yousafzai. Seriously.

Given the extreme absurdity of the situation, Kaling pretty much handled the mix-up the same way she does everything else — with grace and a sense of humor.

As Kaling recounted to the New York Times, the guy who'd clearly had one too many drinks and who also appeared to be in his 80s, approached and the actress and began complimenting her before telling her, "Congratulations on your Nobel Prize." He then proceeded to ask Kaling about recovering from being shot by the Taliban.

But the best part actually came after: When the man left and was out of earshot, Kaling was in a bit of disbelief. "Did he really think I’m Malala?" she said. "And that if I were, I’d be at the Boom Boom Room?"

While that's pretty far up there on the cringe-worthy meter (not to mention racist, because, seriously bro?) I suppose it's not the worst thing in the world to be mistaken for Yousafzai, the youngest-ever Nobel Peace winner who's accomplished an extraordinary amount of humanitarian and global peace work at the age of just 17.

Except for a moment where she was rendered speechless, Kaling didn't seem to be too thrown by the incident. A large part of that is probably owed to the fact that she's admitted to being pretty comfortable in her own skin. Plus she earns her living from finding the humor in uncomfortable situations such as this unbelievable case of mistaken identity, so the way she summed up the incident shows just how good she is at her job.

"That's the best thing that's happened to me all night," Kaling reportedly said after the incident.

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