Ramy Youssef
Appearances
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
Good. It's too much distance, but I feel like we should have been closer. But what are we gonna do?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
No, and it still really shocks me. Like there are definitely moments where people are talking about the show a lot. It's getting a lot of recognition. People are excited about it. And I'm like, guys, this is a show about like an Arab Muslim dude that watches too much porn. Like I can't believe that this many people are looking at it.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
The thing that's probably most overwhelming is the international love. Because I think like here it's like awesome, you know, whatever. We got publicists and all this. But for me, when my aunt calls me and she's like, Egypt watching the show. And I'm like, have you seen it? And she's like, not yet. And I'm like, thank God. But she's like, I hear the kids are watching it. I'm like, good.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
Just let them watch it. That's really special.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the-the tightrope walk that we're constantly walking with this show, because we-we haven't really had any chance at seeing ourselves on screen, um, in a story that doesn't involve explosives or national security. To your question about was I nervous, well, I'm really nervous, because I know that Muslims are such a vast group of people.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
People even say like, what does the Muslim community think about your show? And I'm like, it's not a pop band. Like there are a lot of different Muslim communities. Like it's not just this one thing.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
this one thing and so um we you know kind of made the choice pretty early on that like we're not going to try and check all the boxes you know this isn't a census this isn't a totality of something that can't be encompassed really this is just the story um of this family and and we're really going to kind of humanize them by watching them deal with their problems in the way that everyone does
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
I remember being in the back of a cab in Cairo in 2015 and this guy just being like, he's a strong man. And I was like, whoa, all right. I think we're just used to dictators and he just kind of matches the vibe. But he's not what we need. We know he's not. And I think most of us feel that on a certain, you know, with a certain clarity.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
And I think something that I really wanted to do in making a story about a family we hadn't seen before was, I wanted to be clear that I'm not trying to make something that's some sort of like PR hit to make us look good and make it seem like, hey, we deserve to be in this country. Give us a shot. Like, look how cute we are on Rami on Hulu. That's not a real portrayal.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
That's like propaganda in and of itself. For me, it's how do I make something that is challenging my character, that is putting him in situations where he's seeing his own biases, he's seeing his flaws, and that really gets highlighted when he goes to Cairo.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
Because I think the show is more about someone trying to fill the gap between who they want to be and who they actually are than it is a show about Muslims.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
Well, in terms of him getting his own show, that was just straight up him bullying me into it. He was like, you have the power to produce something now. And this is going to be the first thing you do. And so that that there's not really there's no option there for me. But, you know, I've known Steve since we were in third grade. You know, we grew up five minutes from each other.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
We went to school together. We actually learned how to make things together in high school. And I think what was really exciting for us in the show is so many times in sitcoms you see an ethnic best friend. And in this show, we're predominantly with an Arab cast that's speaking Arabic. And we're like, all right, I guess we're gonna have to have the white best friend.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
But it was really funny to kind of pitch him as the white best friend. And he also has muscular dystrophy, but really what he is is he's the white best friend. And also in a show where the lead character believes in God, it's really interesting to have someone who doesn't and his reasoning is very rooted in something where he's like, well, why would I believe that if this is how I am?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
And then in making something for him, what's really cool is Again, flipping this idea where, OK, now we have in my show, I think he's a disservice. I love my show. And I'm also like, we don't do enough for him. He's just the disabled best friend. I want to make a show where what would it look like where able bodied people are the side characters.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month
And now we get to flip this again and we get to see a totally wholly new perspective. And so we're putting together we're developing the show with Apple. And so, yeah, it's a world that we're really excited to crack open.