Bassem Youssef
speaker
1,048 appearances
3 recordings
3 series
first heard Apr 2024
last heard 5 Jun
Bassem Youssef’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
Appearances
And we, I've seen that. So that's why at a certain point, it's like, that's it. I can't.
And it is loved by the people, but it comes with a price because at a certain price, if the power is too strong and you're not into a situation or a system that allows that, that gives you that kind of safety. So what happened? What happened, I was, so the height of my fame, the Muslim Brotherhood was in power. And at that time, they had their media, and I had one show.
I had like one hour per week, and they had five channels, 24-7. And they were like, you know, John Stewart said it beautifully once. It's like, we say shit, and you say shit, and we just say shit better than you. This is exactly what Jon said. We're just better at saying shit back.
So basically I had one hour and they had like the five things that they were like, you know, they're calling me all kinds of names, not just me, like all their enemies, you know. And then I just had one hour and I would kind of like annihilate them in one hour a week. So at a certain point, they would even like kind of be the side with the army against me.
the kind of the liberal, secular, whatever you call it. And at a certain point, the army kind of like flipped everybody. Like kind of like they, yeah, they removed the Muslim Brotherhood, they came to power. And we, I have to say, I admit it, I supported that in the beginning because I had, daily threats I had, I was actually interrogated and arrested under the Muslim Brotherhood.
I was in an interrogation for six hours, and they were asking all my jokes, and I used that in my standup comedy, describing exactly what happened in the six hours, and it is so funny.
But what? You were interrogated by the Brotherhood.
The general prosecutor. The general prosecutor. And it was based because of complaints by the officials in the government. Because in order for the general prosecutor to do it, it has to have a high up mandate to bring that person to questioning.
Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it was official. It was legal. So I went there and I asked, and it's kind of like a bunch of insulting Islam, insulting president, spreading false rumors. And I went there and it was funny because I go into the building where there's police officers and there are judges and all of them are big fans of the show.
He's just reading your jokes back to you. He was reading my joke and he's reading the jokes and the junior judge is sitting there like cracking up.
It's like, guys. That's dark. It's kind of like, and I'm laughing, but in the same time, it's like the whole situation is ridiculous. But then at the end, I was released on bail. So I went back to my show and I make fun of that.
And you have to be honest, the Muslim Brotherhood were in power, but Egypt was like right out of the revolution for there was kind of like an equal spread of power between the people. There was not like someone who would come in and just like, the Muslim Brotherhood didn't have that power yet, but they were kind of, People saw that they were moving towards that. And then the tension rose.
And then there was like a kind of a confrontation between them and the army. And then a lot of people were killed in the street. It was terrible massacre. And then suddenly I am blamed for all of that. It's like, you made fun of us. So now it made it easier for people to kill. It's like, dude, come on. You're doing that to me too. I just did it better than you.
And the fact that you sided with the same people that flipped against you, that's not my fault. Did you criticize the army at all? Yeah. So after that show, I did like one episode against the army and I was canceled the next day. And then I went to another channel, did 16 episodes in a different season. And it was, I was walking on eggshells. And then that was canceled again.
And then the production company that was doing my show, that we severed ties because we didn't have the show. They had their offices raided. They have people having death threats. So I woke up one day, 11th of November, 2014, and my lawyer said, like, leave the country right now. There is this legal case that they're coming for you.
But they said like, you cannot, it was an arbitration case and I lost against the channel that basically canceled me. And they said like, but there's no jail time in arbitration. It's like, yeah, tell that to the judges, leave. So I jumped on a plane. The verdict was 12 noon, 11 November, five afternoon I was on a plane, left Egypt and I never came back since then.
I can tell you something. I was so stressed because of the show, because of everything. I sometimes I would wake up in the morning and I hope that the bullet will come and finish everything because I was so stressed. It's like, I would love because I'm too much of a chicken to kill myself. So I would like rather have someone else do it for me. So I, I, I, I was, I was so under so much pressure.
And I remember the day that like my show was canceled indefinitely the second time. under the army, and I was like, I don't have to worry about what kind of script I have to write next week. Because this is, you know, remember when you asked me about like that tweet, about like all of those, these accusations doesn't bother me. Infidel spy, secret Jew, Zionist, Islamo-Nazi, that's bullshit.
What is really, what really leaves a mark is the criticism to your craft and your work.
Maybe I'm not because I was put into that. It's like because that talks to your insecurities. Like I know, but you shouldn't say it out loud.
Showing 821–840 of 1,048 · page 42 of 53
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