Ramy Youssef
Appearances
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
This comes at the end of an episode where we've seen him probably be his most performative. And then he has this moment when everyone's asleep and he goes out into the driveway and... sits by his halal cart. He's a halal cart vendor in the city, and it's always parked in the driveway. And I love that image because it sticks out in this suburb that they can barely afford.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And he sits at it, starts playing guitar. And at a certain point, there's like a piano line in which he hits the area of the cart where the sodas are stored, and it opens up into a keyboard. And there's a piano that comes out of the cart. And And so he's singing this thing that sounds sad, but at the same time visually is, I think, quite funny.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
I think I'm scared But I'm sitting with my family Got to show them that I'm brave Sometimes I'm quiet But I think it's just because I might scream I've got to be Mr. Tough Guy I'm the dad But sometimes Oh, oh the darkness Comes for me And I don't know what to do Yeah, the darkness Oh, it comes for you too And what do you do?
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
I think I'm gonna fight for the light Yeah I think I'm gonna fight for the light I think I'm gonna fight for the light Baby, I'm fighting the fight
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
Somebody called it Kebab Dylan. Somebody else was like, wait, this is like War on Drugs. This is like some sort of like Arab Jeff Buckley thing. Yeah, it's totally this like folk thing that is so fun to do as this character because it is. It kind of sneaks up on you. And he, again, he's so crazy the whole episode. And then all of a sudden you go, oh, my God, this guy is so tender.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And there's this tenderness in him. And that is the experience of so many of the men that I know where you go, oh, man, this dude is like kind of intense. And then you get him alone and you go, wait, is this the most emotional person on earth?
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
I was very bad at school, and so I ended up leaving. I was always in high school – really middle school and high school, I was fascinated with cameras and I was always making things. And then in the back of my head, I said, this is
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
what I love doing the most but there's no way I'm going to be able to actually live doing this and and I didn't see a path to it being a career because I didn't know anyone who'd ever done that so I just thought I had to go to school and become a lawyer you know because that was kind of the only thing I could imagine myself doing even if I had no real connection to like the law I just said well I know how to talk and it seems like those guys talk and then they're able to feed their families by talking and
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
So that was kind of all I could see. There's some books you got to read in the middle. And then this comedy thing comes up and you go, oh, well, you could talk here too. And this is way more in line with what I love about art and filmmaking. And so, yeah, it just became inevitable at a certain point.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
Well, this is a great thing. There's so many great features that are built into it. You can do traveler's prayers or you can combine. I mean, it's amazing.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
You can combo. You can combo and shorten. But I think the thing you're talking about, though, in terms of like fitting it in in certain places, this is where I actually think – an artistic lifestyle is so interesting because, so my father, you know, worked managing hotels, always on his feet, always dealing with people. Hey, where do I pray? Like the broom closet, you know, there's that.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And it's just like, where's that going to happen? And then, you know, when you're an artist, it's like everyone assumes you're going to be 20 minutes late. You know, there's this whole other, you know, kind of way. And I always think, you know, I'm surrounded by spiritual people, you know, whether they are, you know, part of any sort of practicing thing or not.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
Because Hollywood is basically, hey, I have this 130-page, you know, thing, and I know you don't see it yet, but I see it. I believe in the unseen of these words on this page. Come with me and let's all believe in it together and make it, right? It's such a spiritual place. You know, everyone is tapping into, you know, the unseen of
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
We do. Yeah, it's on our call sheet.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
Well, I mean, first of all, it's always kind of baffling just because I have firsthand experience that any of the business acumen that he relies on was built up by immigrants. I mean, I think on one hand, people go, his father gave him a huge check. But on the other hand, it's whatever did punch through was these are businesses built on immigrants, especially the hotel business in New York.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
So that's always crazy. And then I think in terms of, you know, it almost goes back to what we were talking about earlier of whose turn is it in this country. And right now, everyone's having a lot of turns. So on one hand, he's looking at the South immigration border stuff. But then I also think that the censorship around the conversation with Palestine is
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And the way that he's really legislating, you know, with, you know, globally Islamophobically is incredibly heightened and frightening. And it's almost like he's taking it to new levels. I mean, he's posting the craziest things about just leveling out an entire, you know, culture. So, you know, yeah, he's really he's given everyone a go.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
It was somebody else, but, you know, my father's relationship with his family was always, my father's always categorized it as incredibly positive.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
I don't know. You know how like there's all these conversations where people go, oh, man, that Republican senators out there bashing gay people. And we all know he's gay. And it's like, oh, man, Trump's out there and he's just bashing immigrants. And we know he's really likes them and works with them. And they helped him with everything.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And so it's like you're just watching something that defies the experience that you've had.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
October 10th, I get a call from a guy I know. And he goes, yo, bro, where you at with Hamas? Where am I at? Am I a member? You think any of us like what happened on October 7th? It's awful. We hate seeing people die. It's inhumane. It made me cry. And it always does. It's why we've been talking about Palestine our whole lives. We hate what's happening there. We want justice. We want peace.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And we do. So of course I don't like it. Now I gotta prove to you that I'm not violent? You think that's what's in my heart? You know me, you think I'm Hamas? Bro, I'm a Taliban guy. That's a real group. They've been going for 20 years, you know what I'm saying? They're strong.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
Yeah, I mean, I think that there's a balance of threading what needs to be said with diverting expectation. And so the expectation, obviously, in this joke, it's all just like tension release. It's like, OK, what am I going to say? What am I going to say? What's he going to say? And then it just you swerve right into just. It's like, oh, my God, you think I support a terrorist group?
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And so that's the misdirect, right? And so, yeah, for me, it's, you know, how do you kind of thread that stuff and do it? And then you also know that you're not hitting everything, right? Because it's like there's so much on the table in that joke that's just not discussed because it's a joke. And I'll never be able to get at it, you know? And that's just...
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
part of the cost of what it is that I do. And I'm also I'm not really qualified to there's so many unbelievable Palestinian authors and historians and people who do these things in a way that it's so much more eloquent because they know and my thing is like, not that I'm necessarily like a poet, but
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
You know, if you read poetry from the Middle East, it's so beautiful in how it can capture so much in its brevity. And that's my hope with a joke is in its brevity, it can kind of hold a lot of feelings. So, you know, the misdirect at the end of the joke holds the frustration that you're even putting me in this framework of yours.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And the idea that you think that I am not upset is insane because you've known me my whole life. You know, so all those things are kind of carried while trying to, you know, just hit the target of what my actual job is.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
At the end of the day, I'm wired to go near. Don't touch that. Don't touch that. I'm like a little child. I go, well, why not? No, I could touch it. Let me prove to you that I can at least hover around it. That is just, that is just, I'm just like a little kid who's just like, no, don't tell me. No. Yes. Because I don't want there to be this elephant in the room. Then what am I doing?
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
It feels so dishonest. It feels so, look, what is the point of even being up here? You know, like I can't, I can't let that go.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
First off, that show, getting to be a part of it and do an episode, it was amazing because those guys are so genius in their satire, Seth and Evan, and I think what they get at so well...
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
Bussarumi, a lot happened today. Many people got hurt. This is the worst thing I have ever seen. Things are going to change for us. People are going to look at us differently just because of who we are. And what we must do now more than ever is... Find our face and be strong. No! We must blend in and change our values as much as possible. We will change everything about who we are to fit in.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
is why it's called the business and why it's called the industry you know because it feels almost industrial it's like this is where you're going to show up and this is what you're going to do and these are the people you need to talk to and i've always found this part of it and i think they obviously relate to it you have to be like you have to be incredibly sensitive
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
in order to tap into yourself to make something artistic that will resonate with people. Immediately when you are done with this really sensitive process, it's almost like you need to harden everything about yourself that made you able to make that thing to then put up with a barrage of the criticism that's going to come about the project because no one will ever be happy.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
You never make something that everyone loves. in order to be in a bunch of rooms with people where you kind of, you know, and look, for me, I love meeting new people. I can't say that it's always this crazy strain, but certainly you go to the point of exhaustion where if you kind of don't harden yourself up a little bit, like you're just going to feel terrible.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And so I've always been really fascinated by we need the most sensitive people to suddenly be business people. And that is captured really well in that episode.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
It was actually really wild because I did fast that whole week. In a way, SNL's hours are a bit Ramadan friendly because everyone is up until these really, you know, it's almost like they could all do Ramadan all the time because they leave the office at like three in the morning and then they sleep in until, you know, like noon or whatever and then come and they work really hard.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
I'm not saying that like they're slacking, but in an odd way, it works. It did work, but it was certainly a strain because you can't have that coffee to start the day. And I felt like I probably had a more calm week because I was fasting because stuff would be going down. And I go, you know, this is probably just Ramadan brain and it's not actually a big deal.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And so I got to kind of lean into that. But I'm pretty sure if I had just been eating, I would have been like, this is crazy. This is so nuts. Yeah. But so much fun. I had so much fun. It was really a group of people. And when you go through that week with them, too, when you see them later, you just feel like you're seeing family because you went through that week.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
Oh, thank you for the, you know, just incredibly thoughtful questions. It's always just so exciting. So I thank you, Terry.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
We must always be cheerful. We will never stick out. We, from today, have no culture. When people see our family, they won't think Arab. They will think they are happy. They are perfect. We are number one happy family USA.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
It's really, it's really great to be back after many years. I really appreciate it. And yeah, you know, it was, you know, it was this idea of really tapping into how, you know, it's almost kind of it is really funny. And it's it's so cool that it gets to be funny.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
But it's obviously there's the other part of it that's really sad, which is, hey, maybe if I try to erase as much of myself, I'll be able to fit in. And I think that's the idea that I'm obsessed with – there's obviously all the conversations about overt racism, Islamophobia, all these things on the outside.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
The parts that I always tend to hone in on is, well, what is the person doing to themselves amidst all that pressure?
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
Yeah, I mean, I don't know that it was exactly hit the erase button, but it really was, OK, you know, because it's such a sad, terrible thing. And we were just near, you know, the site of death of so many people who, you know, innocent people died. So there's that piece where you're just as sad as everyone else, but then it turns towards you and who you are.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And so you kind of go, okay, we should be quiet or something. It's incredibly confusing. It's incredibly disorienting. And I think within my family, we were always proud of who we were and why. where we come from. And at the same time, you kind of don't want to rock the boat. And I think my father was very pragmatic about it all.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And I remember him kind of being like, you know, my family is really well read. They really, you know, I grew up with books all over the house. And my dad was just like, yeah, Japanese people went through a lot after Pearl Harbor happened. He was already kind of saying almost there was this feeling of this might be our turn right now. And, you know, that was at the time.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And then now it's kind of like, so when does the turn end exactly? What's what's going on? Yeah. You know?
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
Yeah, I mean, I grew up in New Jersey, and there was this burgeoning emo rock scene, and I was so jealous of my friends who had the straight hair and wore the tight pants, and I had this curly fro, and I tried to hide it with a hat. I was always wearing hats, and even in my older age, it's such a holdover from being a kid and trying to just stuff it under a hat. But, you know...
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
The beauty of this series for me has been that I think everyone code switches, you know, and I think we leaned into this animated style where the family literally looks different when they're inside the house and when they're outside the house. And I think to an extent, everybody does that, you know, and what becomes...
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
You know, the larger pressure cooker is that there is this performance that this family is literally doing for the FBI agent who moves in across the street. But at that core underneath all of it, I think this is what everybody does. And I think it's certainly what kids do. And so in so many ways, it really feels like this quintessential just middle school experience.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
But you add on to it, you know, the creation of Homeland Security.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
It's yeah, it's very much OK. Is Courtney the popular girl talking about me behind my back? And are the phones tapped? You know, and usually people just have to deal with the Courtney part. And now this kid has has both of them. And that's where the series lives.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
Well, you know what it was? It was my sister Reem. She was a producer on the animated show with me and she had pulled up all these videos when I was a kid because I was struggling really finding these voices. I've never done this kind of acting before. And when I was a kid, I used to make these videos and I'd do them sometimes when my parents were sleeping.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And so I'd kind of like whisper and I'd kind of be raspy, you know, and I'd be in that place. And so I just copied what I actually sounded like as a kid there. And then I was trying to find the complete opposite and go really deep into my stomach and find the anxiety and find it in the bottom of the throat, you know. And then that became the dad.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
Totally. I mean, I think there's this father who, you know, I think in both cases, being the head of a household in the ways that they think they are in the ways that they totally aren't. And they end up banging their head every direction that they move. The father in this show, Hussein Hussein is his name. His anxiety takes him over in this way that is almost vulnerable.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And it's certainly very vulnerable because he does these musical numbers throughout the show. that kind of tap into what's really going on with him and he kind of became the star of the show where I went oh yeah wow I mean he's he's the one that is most split by this and is probably furthest into this idea of a code switch kind of splitting you right down the middle
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
My father's really cool. I mean, I think part of my and my mother's is so cool. I mean, I'm really lucky. I mean, I feel part of why I've been able to explore these feelings in my work artistically is that they gave us the space as parents to to understand our feelings. And so it's not like these elements didn't exist in our communities and in our families.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And so this kind of constant fear and paranoia is actually not exaggerated. I would just say that my family saw it. Even if they were experiencing it, they were actually able to see, well, maybe we should turn the volume down. And then I think the fun thing with making something, especially a cartoon, is you never have to turn the volume down because it's a cartoon. And so...
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
I think that my parents, when they watch my work, I kind of painstakingly go through making sure that a lot of details are different enough. And we also write these, you know, shows in writers rooms where we're drawing from other writers and their families and kind of what they went through. So I think my parents, they're pretty good about kind of going, who cares?
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
You know, especially at this point, too. My dad's really funny about this stuff. He just is like, I'm seven years old. Like, who cares?
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
My grandparents never lived with us. I mean, this is trying to kind of create something that's more emblematic of that generational thing than my actual grandfather, who was quite different and was also, you know, my grandfather is really interesting because he grew up in a village. He was one of two people who could read.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And then he took that and became one of the only ones there, again, who went to college and then actually became an interpreter there. For the United Nations, he interpreted between Arabic and French and English for, you know, over 20 years. So he's kind of this totally different mold, I think, of that, Jen, because he was such a... It is so much more impressive.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
Sometimes people will say to me, oh, dude, you were just like a kid in New Jersey and now you have this whole Hollywood thing. And I go, man, in terms of arcs within my family, that's not really. It's like, yeah, I should have. Of course I have to look at what what came before me. I mean, he he set the bar.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
Oh, hello, neighbors. You're afraid of us near you. But the only blood we want is to bleed red, white, and blue. I know you think we're scary, but I swear to you, we're fun. We will prove to you our love. We will be number one, number one. So what made you think you should turn part of this into a musical?
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
So, yeah, that song comes out of the earlier clip that you played where he kind of proclaims out of peak anxiety to his family that they're going to erase their identity. And then he bursts the door open and starts singing this proclamation to the neighborhood. Yeah.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
And, you know, I felt this it's either going to be we're making something depressing or something so insane that you have to laugh at this depressing subtext. And so it had to be the latter. And that's where music just started to feel like such a fun extension.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
In high school, I was in a band and played backup guitar, backup vocals, and always fiddled around with guitars. And then I kind of had put the music thing down as I kind of went into comedy and performing and all of that. And then...
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
We were doing these voices at a sound studio that had all these instruments, and I probably picked up the guitar for the first time after many, many years and started singing these songs as the dad and had so much fun, and then we ended up baking it into the show.
Fresh Air
Ramy Youssef Animates A Muslim Family's Post-9/11 Life
It was originals, and if you go back and listen to the originals, you'd probably encourage us to do covers. Ha!
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
Do I detect a very slight Lou Reed influence in that? There is.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
Yeah, okay. And I want to point out again that that was my guest Rami Youssef singing on that song. Is that your guitar also?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
Good for you. And that was an excerpt from Rami Youssef's new animated series, Number One Happy Family USA. You started out in college studying political science and I think economics as well. I'm not sure where that came from considering where you've ended up. But how did you go from that to comedy?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
It seems to me the stand-up comedy world is so different than what the life of a faithful Muslim would look like. Because, you know, I don't know what circles you traveled in, but you think of stand-up comics, first of all, of, you know, just being on the road all the time. and having really bad eating habits and drinking a lot.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
So were there parts of your life, especially early on, when you probably had less control of your life early on when you started in stand-up? Even things like, is it five times a day? Yeah. Yeah, praying five times a day as a young comic on the road.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
I'm sure there were some very inopportune times that you wanted to pray and you were on like a bus or a plane or doing a set. How do you manage that? Do you have to make certain compromises?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
Here's our first interview with Terry Gross. My guest Rami Youssef started as a stand-up comic. Then he created and starred in the semi-autobiographical comedy-drama series called Rami, about a 20-something Egyptian-American Muslim trying to make sense of how his life, including his sex life, fit with his commitment to Islam.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
Do you have prayer breaks for everybody who wants it on your sets?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
Rami Youssef, it's really been such a pleasure to have you back on the show. Thank you so much.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
The series won a Peabody Award, and he won a Golden Globe for his performance. Youssef co-created the comedy-drama series Mo, starring his friend Mo Amr as an undocumented Palestinian-American. Last year, Youssef hosted Saturday Night Live and had an HBO comedy special called More Feelings. His acting career is taking off.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
He stars with Steve Carell and Jason Schwartzman in the new HBO movie Mountainhead, which debuts May 31. It was written and directed by Jesse Armstrong, the creator of HBO's Succession. In 2023, Youssef co-starred in the film Poor Things, which won a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
Rami Youssef has a new animated series set just before and after 9-11. It's about an extended family of Egyptian-Americans in New Jersey. The parents and grandparents are immigrants. The children were born in America. Each of them is trying to figure out how to respond to the Islamophobia that's resulted from the terrorist attack on 9-11.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
Rami Youssef was 11 years old, and in fifth grade on 9-11, that's about the same age as the boy in the series. The series is called Number One Happy Family USA, and that's streaming on Amazon Prime.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
In the father's attempt to prevent people from noticing they're an immigrant family and Muslim, he does his best to blend in by doing his best to construct the image of a happy, average American family. But because he doesn't quite understand American culture, just about everything he does to fit in is wrong, which only makes him stand out even more. The mother wants to stand up and defend Islam.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
This is a scene from the first episode, which takes place on 9-11 when the father and mother clash over how to respond. Rami Youssef does the voices of the father and the son. Salma Hindi voices the mother.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
Remy Youssef, welcome to Fresh Air. It's such a pleasure to have you back on the show. That scene is so funny. I love it when the father says, from now on, we have no culture.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
What were the discussions like in your family living in New Jersey after 9-11? Were there conversations in your family about whether to stand up and defend diversity and defend Islam or whether to just, like you said, erase part of themselves?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
Yeah. Did you code switch a lot when you were 11 after 9-11, like the cartoon version of The Sun does? Part of the code switching is not just the way he talks. It's also like what he wears to try to look like all American, right?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
Right. A good reason to be paranoid. Like you have every reason to to feel like you're sticking out. You're not fitting in. And maybe that means prison.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
So there's briefly a grandfather in the series. And he is very sexist. Like he is the man and he has control, especially control over his wife. He's grumpy. He orders people around. And at one point he says, I sacrificed everything for this family. Most men of my generation hit. And he's referring to hitting women. And he says, I only yell. I didn't even take a second wife.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
So did you have a grandfather who was like that? And if so, how did you deal with it? Like, did you say anything?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
Yeah. That's amazing he was one of two people in his village who could read and became a UN translator. Yeah.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
So you write and sing songs for the series. And I want to play one that's, I think you can describe it as the theme song. And it ends the first episode of number one, Happy Family USA. So let's hear it. And then we'll talk about writing songs. So this is in the voice of the father.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
So what made you think you should turn part of this into a musical?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
Well, in addition to like the number one happy family song that we just heard, you write some dark songs. And I want to play a dark song. This is a father singing. One of the lines he sings is sometimes the darkness comes for me. This is his like deep internal feelings, not the facade he's trying to put on. So let's hear that. Do you want to say anything about it before we hear it?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride
And it's the kind of thing you can only do in animation. Yes. Yeah. Okay, let's hear it.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Those sound like core needs. Those are wants.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
You know what it is? It's like everything is selfish in the sense that on a human level, you're just trying to stay alive. And then all these things kind of are tangentially tied to that. So it's like I always try to think, okay, there's this selfish self-preservation, but what selfish act... would be the most encompassing of as many people with me as possible.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
This is how it hit me. Oh, wow. You are infected. You're not. You are not COVID. You have COVID. Right. You are not infected. greed and hatred and all these things, but man, you are fully, fully infected by them.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
What would actually bring in more people? What would make them feel good? What would actually be helpful for them? What could entertain them while I'm being selfish? What could feed them while I'm being selfish? You know, because, you know, like Subway takes right now. Oh, there's three people working on this. Someone's going to be editing. You're doing something for yourself. Yeah.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
But I'm a job creator. I'm a job creator, right? So it's like, what can I do that invites the most people, that spreads something positive? But let's not get it twisted. It's selfish.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Three. And I do think you and I make justifications like that all the time. Don't bring me into this. Don't bring me into this. Come on, buddy. I know this is like a little Japanese number right here. This is a nice little piece. I know what's going on.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Yeah, Arabs look at you in a good shirt and they go, wow, this is really solving a lot of the crisis in the Middle East.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
No, you're so good at that, though. Truly, all jokes aside, people watch your stuff, and the way that you're bringing all sorts of people together, I find very inspiring. Because you're like, and doing it here on the subway, it's like, it's very cool. I mean, and it's very, and it makes people feel like they're part of something. Like they're all part of, we're all part of this thing. This thing.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
And you want to put positive things out, mainly because fundamentally, everyone's a good person. Yeah. Everybody. Yeah.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
So what's your take? Fundamentally... Everyone is a good person. Every single person on earth is a good person. 100% disagree.
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How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Oh, all sorts of things. I mean, I think like capitalism, the military-industrial complex. I mean, these are all very serious infections. They pack money. These are all like really serious. Being infected by capitalism is hilarious.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Oh, boy. I have to take the picture of the food. This is unbelievable.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
And where do you hang out? Cairo, in all my family members' living rooms. Tourists have seen more of Egypt than I have. Right. Because I go... This is family missions. You just hang out. Day after day, hanging with the fam, seeing everybody, checking on people, all of that. By the time you leave, you're like, didn't see a museum. What was the best part about making the show, the new show?
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
It was just tapping into the really nitty-gritty stuff that you don't think about, but was such a big part. For me, I don't know if you had this. We have this whole sequence where it...
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
the parents in the show are trying to get the kids to talk to the family back home in Egypt on the phone but they have a really short amount of time before the phone card expires and it is the most specific tension of dad went got a phone card at a discount did the guy rip him off we don't know it's supposed to be 10 it might be 7 hey talk to the family in Egypt and it's like an audition it's like show them that life is going great
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
He's not a good person. At the core, there is an argument to be made that some people might not be people. And that's where we kind of get into, like, aliens, we get into djinn, we get into ghosts. We get into ghosts and that kind of thing. But I don't know. I don't know if a ghost or a djinn could become a president. I'm not sure.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
I remember being a kid and feeling like this is the most nerve-wracking phone call ever. And to get to do stuff like that. We have this whole scene of my family going through phone card alley and trying to find out who ripped them off on the phone cards. And they're going through Patterson, New Jersey.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
We've got the tense phone call, like calling Egypt back home, where you're like, you don't even remember the relative you're talking to. And you're trying to scrounge up the Arabic that you might remember to not seem like a total disappointment. So we get to zone into all these things that are just so... specific and then, you know, you're doing animated, so it's like there's no limits.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Are they bored with me? Do they hate me? What is my existence? I just want to play Game Boy. Like all these things kind of like, you know, go through your head. You know who hit me with the Inshallah ones?
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
He knows, bro. It was cool. I was like, that's a real one. He knows what's going on. But that's the thing. It's like, and this goes back to like Muslims think everyone's Muslim. Because now if your mom sees that, she's like, John C. Reilly, you know. Stepbrothers, they're Muslim. And she'll make Will Ferrell Muslim too. The whole thing will be Muslim.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Yeah. What do you think so far? Amazing. People don't realize how good an Egyptian French fry is. What do you think makes them Egyptian? I think they're just Egyptian. It's kind of an intangible.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
I have a take on how you only agree 100% or disagree 100%. There's no moderation with you. Yeah, because it's a black and white world. It's giving extremist love. It's giving extreme American love. You think Americans are like 100%?
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
It's very possible. I think possession is possible, but I think that there is... I mean, BB's even kind of... You just said it. It's kind of a cute name. So there's this little, like, oh, BB. You can kind of see there was something there. And now I would argue Benjamin Netanyahu is... the most infected person on Earth. He's the most infected person on Earth.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Oh, 100% agree. 100% agree. I think I've noticed it. It's really interesting. It's like, I mean, so there's two. I think it's about a full average, right? So I think like gay high fashion is obviously super inspirational and everyone's kind of trying to do it. But then when gay men don't pay attention to fashion, it's like... It's like bad theater, right?
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Good theater, you're like, oh my god, this theatrical experience was amazing. I love the theater.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
And it is a mentality that affects everything and flows into everything. Yeah, it is a raw dog type perspective. Yeah, because I raw dog life. Absolutely. No insurance. You have no health insurance? Of course not. You don't get it from subway tax? Of course not. I think the MTA should cover any sort of like oxygen related thing you might get from being down on the subway so much.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
I just think it's a distraction. Yeah, I don't want to feel like I want you to like my story. Exactly.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Right. There's already a predisposition to want to be liked, to want to be loved, because we're all fundamentally good people. Stop bringing it back to the original take, man. And then you add the hot level. Yeah, and it's like... Because then it's just a date. Because at the end of the day, what's a date if not being in front of a hot person bearing your soul? Yeah.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
I mean, for me, I'm on 100% agree. I can't have a hot therapist because I have a wife. Sure. That's just cheating. That's like me. I can't have a hot nanny. At a certain point. No, you can't. You can't have a hot nanny. Can't have a hot nanny. Can't have a hot wife. You shouldn't have a hot wife. I agree. It's horrible to have a hot wife. Well, we're both committing sin, brother.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
He's the sickest, the sickest person on Earth. And the bottom there is good. What about Elon? Alien. Straight up, that is an alien. And I think you know he's an alien because of how obsessed he is with going to space. He wants to go home. So Elon's like, guys, can I go home? And everyone's like, dude, you're kind of crazy.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
And he's like, I'm going to take over the entire government just to go home. I mean, Elon is like an E.T. story. He basically just wants to be with his family on Mars. And I wish that everyone could see that. Like, that's actually what's happening.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
I mean, dude, I am from New Jersey, and there are so many things I've done to go back to Jersey. And you'd be like, dude, you're in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Why do you want to go back to Jersey? It's my home, right? So Elon is here, he's got all the spoils and the riches of Earth, and all he's talking about is Mars. Yeah. It's where he's from. He wants to go home.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
He wants to go home. He wants to go home. Yeah, he wants to go home. Elon phone home.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Well, I was thinking about this this morning. I was like, what do I talk to Kareem about? This is something I felt like if you really, really, you know, when you really have to pee like really bad and then you finally get to do it. That feeling is better than any sexual experience.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
You're down with like a studio apartment in heaven. I'm fine. You're just like, I'll just get a little spot. Bro, I'm a B-plus. I go visit some of my friends with bigger cribs. As long as I'm in the heaven realm, I'm good.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Ads, ad tier stuff. I'm trying to get a little bit higher than ad tier, but I don't need 4K. I just need... I need no ads, and then give me quality that matches my connection. Okay, okay. That's kind of where I'm at.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
People are not bad. They're infected. Infected with what? With whatever it is. They're infected with hatred, with greed, with lust, whatever it is that takes them away from being good. But I would argue that they're only able to go through with how much bad things that they do because they contain good. So people pick up on the good, right? No, no, no, no.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Yeah. Well, imagine being on the subway. And this happens to me. I'll be on the subway and I really got to pee. And then... you're like dying to get home. And then you do it. And then right when you finish peeing, you've accomplished such a great thing. You're chilling. You're on the couch and you're like, I actually hit all my goals. Like I'm good for the day. I was productive.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
I didn't pee my pants. Like we really... When's the last time you peed your pants? I pooped my pants. No, no, no, no. Come on. I did. I had a pant. I thought it was a fart. No. And it was more, this happened a month ago. No. No, no, no, no. No, it didn't. It did. No, it did not. I had one of those probiotic coconut yogurts. This did not happen to you. I had one of those probiotic things.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
It was an Erewhon thing, I think. And they were like, oh, my God, you know, this thing's going to change your gut. And it did. And it changed it so much that I put my pants for the first time in years.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
So this is the thing, though, like, about, like, when you hold, like, the feeling you get, like, that feeling of warmth you get after you use the bathroom, after you've been holding it. Yeah. It's like... It's like companionship, it's so, if you're lonely, you know, and you don't have anyone in your life,
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
No, you feel your soul. There's something about peeing where you feel your soul. It's beautiful.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
doing this yeah well you don't know I mean there's a period there's a piece of it I mean we worked on it with Mona Shalabi yeah she's amazing amazing such a great artist and then so there's this period of like you're seeing you get stuff back and it's so out of your control it's actually amazing because you're like oh my god this is so it's so I feel like an audience member because so much of it I didn't do so I do the voices I do the writing all that stuff but so much of it you feel this awe of what's coming back and so that's really fun was it your first time voice acting?
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
First time voice acting. How many characters did you do? I don't know. I didn't count. You were just everywhere. Yeah, I was doing a bunch.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
We're going to put out some booth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you just see me put on a serious face when I'm playing the dad. Did you play your dad? I played the dad. Or not your dad. I played the dad. The dad that we all have. I played everybody's dad, who was like a manifestation of stress. Right, right. And care. That's what a dad is. It's like manic, I call it manic love. Yes.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
They pick up on the good that's in them, and then they think, okay, well, maybe this is a good plan. And then, boom. But I can make an argument that anyone deep down has that good core. They're just covered in layers of sickness. Let's play a little game. Hit me. George Bush. Have you seen his paintings? I mean, you can see the good coming out of them.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Do you feel like you have that now that you're a father?
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
just like frozen, you know, like just the doughy. We bring that, we bring beans, just like suitcases of beans.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Just canned beans, some bagged and some canned. And then you just, you know, you're watching the attendant pick it up and put it on the scale. And they're like, what's in here, beans? And you're like... And then you're like, but yeah.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
It requires a bit of lying, and I think lying at the airport right now is not the move. No. But yeah, because now at the airport, they'll be like, what's in your bag? Do you have beans? And you go, dude, I don't have beans. They open up the bag, they see beans. you're going back to Egypt. You know, and that's kind of the world that we're living in now.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Then there is like the mass, mass killing, right? And how did that happen? Because people probably saw his side hustle with the painting and they go, this is a good guy. And then he goes, well, before I launched the painting thing, I got another idea. Iraq. Let's just do that. Now we're in Iraq.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
It used to be that they'd open it up and they'd go, buddy, you said there weren't beans here, but I'll let you go.
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How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
They confiscate it, and then you go to that TSA kitchen and it smells like beans. And they're eating beans.
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How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Yeah, Kareem, you know, gave a couple thoughts, and we honed in.
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How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Oh, yeah. I did ask you for an editorial. I think I said put it in the beginning. You said put it in the beginning. Did you put it in the beginning? We did not take your note. No, I did a totally different thing. No! Yeah. And it was really helpful to know where you stood as I kind of shifted very far away from that. But I appreciated the feedback. Oh, man.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Okay, what is up with the original music in that show? So I play the father, and he's very stressed, and he yells, and he's kind of in this thing that dads do. But then...
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
I wanted this tender side to him, and one day while we were recording, in the booth there were these guitars, because we were recording in a music studio, and I picked it up and I was like, what would it be like if he made a jingle to get people to go to his halal cart? Because the dad has a halal cart. I was always fascinated growing up.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
We lived in Queens, and then we went to Jersey, but my dad worked in the city, so we're always in Manhattan. and I go to Midtown, and you see the big Fox News building, and the news tickers saying all this crazy stuff about Muslims, and then you just look down, and there's a halal court.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Right on the corner is this halal court, and this guy just slinging platters to all the guys in the suits from the Fox building. And I was like, I want to follow. Who is this guy that the entire world is spinning this narrative around him? And he's like, I got to feed them. And so that's the dad in our animated show.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
And so he's always holding all this tension because he's got to pretend to not be who he is. And so I started writing this jingle for the Halal Cart. And then it grew into this dad folk rock album. I mean, we put out a couple songs now. People call it Kebab Dylan. But he has this tender side to him. that no one sees.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
But when he's alone, he kind of bursts into song, and there's this whole emotional thing going on with him, and it's one of my favorite parts of the show.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
I sang and wrote them, yeah. How did that feel? Oh, so fun. Grammy? What? Were you going for a Grammy? You know, I think... For Kebab Dylan? I think, look, look, I mean, if you look at the Music Academy, historically... They have a tough time sometimes with, like, brown mega artists, you know, probably myself, Beyonce, that kind of thing. We don't always get the recognition.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
And some of that comes off of, I'm sure Cheney and Rumsfeld and all these dudes. Are good guys. They're good. They are good people. And they're heavily infected. I don't want to be anywhere near them. Right. And I had this unlock during COVID. Right. Where, you know, you love someone, but they've got COVID. So I was like, well, I can't be near you. Right. This is a revelation.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
But Bad Bunny has, like, paved the way for us. The thing with Bad Bunny, bro, is he kind of, like, a lot of people come up and be like, dude, you know, oh, I saw Bad Bunny and you look like him or whatever. But I was doing the... People say that? Oh, dude, I was doing the backwards cap with the beard way longer than Bad Bunny. People think you look like Bad Bunny.
SubwayTakes
How Ramy Youssef Became Kebob Dylan | Uncut
Everyone thinks I'm Puerto Rican, and then they think I'm bad buddy. I don't think you look like bad buddy. Pull up a side-by-side. I think it's, you know, he's obviously taller or whatever. Who is the celebrity doppelganger?
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Yeah, well, I think that I'm always dancing around it. I think at the end of the day, it's like I'm an entertainer who works with entertainers. And there is this obligation... to, for me, there's an obligation to be emotionally correct. My obligation above all is to try and hit what something feels like right on the head. Like that's my nail that I'm trying to hit.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
The nail I don't want to be asked to hit is to spread facts and information. I don't want that obligation. So it's like, you know, in my stand up special, I talk about Palestine. Am I like going through every single thing and like debunking, you know, hey, this thing you heard in the news is false. Hey, this thing was worded wrong. Hey, this thing.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
It's not exactly the financial crisis, but it's a financial crisis.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
No, that's I'm actually talking actually about my dating life. And while I'm doing that and talking about that, you know, emotional experience, I'm also bringing in this really big thing because it's always kind of about the emotional thing first and foremost, and then how that fits into the larger thing. And that's a very clear line for me.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Incredibly, incredibly surreal because when we started making that show, the average American did not know the difference between Palestine and Pakistan. It all kind of just sounded the same. And now, you know, it's the global conversation. So I think there's that level of being surreal. And then the clear line for us was,
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And getting to work with Jesse Armstrong, who, you know, I've been a fan of forever. I mean, I think when I was in high school, it was, you know, we were illegally downloading Peep Show, you know, and then now, you know, obviously I've been such a huge fan of Succession and to get to be, you know, in this really small cast of his first film that he's directing, it's really special.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
We're going to keep this about the characters and to the thing we said earlier. I'm not about to get into like a news debate about it. It's just like, this is what these guys are going. This is what it looks like when you don't have your papers. We're going to show you what these courts look like. And it's funny because it's tender.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And we're going to show you, you know, what it looks like to fight so hard to go back to your homeland. And then, you know, what ends up happening that's totally out of your control. in a way that's really tender. And so, uh, it only just refined our guiding principles in, in terms of like, okay, more people are at the table for the conversation.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
We actually can do less explaining and we can just do more character work and, you know, like we don't have to round it out, uh, as much because, you know, everyone's is, is, is aware on a level, at least everyone who's going to tune in, you know, it kind of has an idea going in.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
A lot of times it's just like, you know, people that I know who, you know, I mean, places I've been, places I have a personal connection to. I have so many friends in Palestine. It would just be, I've been there so many times. It would be, it just doesn't make sense. It's like, it's like as if something was happening. It's like, how do you not talk about it?
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
You know, my best friend in the world is disabled and has muscular dystrophy. And we've done so many things for the Muscular Dystrophy Association over the years. And, you know, there is this part of the way that I was raised where I saw my parents, even when they were struggling financially. financially, always gave charity. That's just how I was raised. It was like, that was never a question.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
That was a expense in the way that food was. It was like, yeah, we also have to do charity. And so you see you're like, it'd be it's a really funny thing. Like, my dad is such an open heart. So we got to give charity. And he's kind of stressed about it. You But it's like it's just like the reality of it. And there's something about that that is very intertwined with how I view the world.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Like that's a given, you know. And I think part of the joke, though, is just that feeling of the of the pressure of, you know, every, every, every single thing.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
No. It's more nerve-wracking to not say something. It's more nerve-wracking to try to shield yourself from whatever criticism is going to come. And plenty of it has come. But I get more tense if I'm sitting quietly trying to stay safe. And what I said is... Completely inoffensive.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
That's the other thing is like people are sensitive about it or people might say, well, why didn't you say this or why didn't you do that? But on the whole, there's nothing controversial about any of it.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Yeah. I mean, look, there are false equivalencies in terms of power. That's what people are talking about. They're talking about dynamics of power. And so when you look at Gaza, you're talking about a place where their water and electricity are controlled. So even the framing of the You know, I'm like, all right, whatever, call it whatever you want to call it.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
It's super surreal. Yeah. Yeah.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
It's like it's yes, there are two sides who are fighting, but there there's a massive power imbalance. And that is just unequivocally true. And so and even me saying.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
I mean, I just said it's literally literal power. Like they could literally turn off the electricity. They could turn off the water. They can turn off what aid is getting in. So so it's like, you know, it's like being in a wrestling match with someone where you're controlling the other guy's calories and how much water he gets.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And, you know, it's like, OK, he sneaks a few power bars in that you didn't know about. You know, it's not it's it's just it's its own thing. But where I stand from is like. I know so many people with kids. I hope to have kids. So for me to say all of that in one sentence, nobody wants there to be people getting bombed indiscriminately and nobody wants there to be hostages.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
So there's nothing controversial for me in saying it. It is just when you're not saying everything that everyone wants to hear, they get upset. But anything I've said, I could, you know... I mean, jokes are one thing, but anything I've said sincerely, it's just like, I could tattoo it to myself because it's not even... There's no problem.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Like, I don't have... That's why I'm not afraid because it's like I... What did I say? Stop killing kids? Oh my God, this guy's crazy. What? Like, it's not like... It's not a thing.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Well, I mean... It's interesting to even think about like what comedy even is anymore, right? Because more people are watching TikTok and Instagram reels than a sitcom.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Look, you're interviewing me, and there are people who you wouldn't interview who have way more views than I do, like literal views of people watching their stuff, you know, because they kind of specifically go at the online game, right? And I'm not even being self-deprecating. No, I know. The point that I'm more trying to make is that, you know, the individual voice that
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Yeah, there's just so much depth. I mean, I think that there's, you know, he's someone who is brilliant at that mix of, you know, wit and being topical, talking about things that, you know, could feel like really dense news headlines and somehow making them about, you know, character dynamics, making them about friendships, making them about families.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
has like more outlets than ever and is in a way trusted more than ever. So it's like the individual, whether it's the individual podcaster or the individual comedian or the individual online content creator, is having their moment right now. And so I think that does spill into comedy. I think that does spill into comedians.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
But if you look at the comedians too, who, um, people are really like feel that big catharsis with, it's still kind of our like legacy people, like who, who've been doing it for so long, who have, you know, whether it be like John, you know, Stuart, Oliver, Chappelle, you know, guys, you know, people who've like really been, um,
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
around, you know, that people are like, oh, wow, yeah, you know, they're still talking about this stuff. I'm really curious what they think about this thing.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Honestly, no. Mainly because, you know, I live in New York. I still live near all my friends who I grew up with. I'm in a group chat with like 15 of my buddies who I went to high school and college with. Only two of them have seen poor things or seen...
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
half of my work like they don't they're just like they're not like I'm around a lot of people who are like dude like oh cool like do your thing or whatever but I also think the nature of um Hollywood, the nature of, you know, I don't think that television and film is as much of a separator in terms of experience as before. And I think I mostly view that as there's a lot of pros to that.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Like a lot of people have access to creativity. A lot of people have access to cameras. A lot of people, again, like the social media stuff we were talking about.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Yeah. And I think that that's interesting. I mean, it's like, you know, I don't, And I purposely used the word interesting, which is a word that like... Can mean many things. It can mean many things. It can mean nothing even. But I will say I'm curious about it.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
I find it... I'm more peaked towards something like positive than judgmental because the possibilities for conversations that we've gotten to have are just undeniably larger. And I think that that's always good. And, you know, even if it's bumpy, you know, in the middle. But yeah, I don't... I feel...
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
you know just as connected and and again i think like when some of what we were talking about earlier i i just know too many people going through really really real things and and you just try to be there for them and empathize with them and and you also really just sit in the reality of like anyone who's got anything good going on knows the reality that it could not be that way tomorrow you know
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Yeah, a lot. I mean, I'm, you know, it's really interesting. Just I, you know, just started my wife and I just kind of being like, oh, we, you know. should we have kids? And just even the, you know, as we kind of start to, so many of my friends are having kids and you think about being in charge of another person, like entire livelihood. You're like in your 30s, right? Yeah, I'm in my 30s.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And so it's just kind of like you go, oh, wow, like that, the idea of not being a kid and just someone's kid, but like all of that, as I kind of start to, you know, really broach that and kind of start to really be like, oh yeah, like... You know, when I started making my show, I was 26. And I'm 34 now. So it's like...
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
that's a lot of time, but I, and then I'm like, oh yeah, like, I think I still kind of view myself as a kid, but not really. Like I am an adult. And so there is that, that aspect of it is, is really so new and just kind of really like figuring out, you know, oh yeah, like when does self-discovery, I mean, arguably it's always happening, but at a certain point it's got to transition into like
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
hey, this is what I do. This kind of is who I am. And there's something about the solidifying of at least parts of it that feel necessary. And so I think that is something I've really been exploring a lot on stage that has been very fun and different and new for me.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And it's the kind of work I'm very attracted to. And then it's been an even richer experience, obviously, getting to help bring one of his scripts to life.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Yes. On the way, it will happen. Yeah. Brace yourself. Yeah.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
I try as much as possible to be in a position of, okay, here's what I know. Here's the larger thing I'm trying to solve. And then honestly kind of like beg people to help me. Just be like, please, please help me. How do we do this? Can we do this together?
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Hey, are you all right? I heard you were not feeling well.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Oh my God, I'm so sorry. It's totally fine. I'm hoping it was elective surgery that was cosmetic that you both wanted.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Well, I'm glad you're better.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
You're kind of like right on the money because it's like I think that without giving away too much, there's like this video tech on our on our shoot, Andre, who actually loads our phones. So they feel like real phones with real headlines. And I've been having this experience where it's like I go home at the end of the day and I'm looking at my phone and I'm like, wait, is this Andre's phone?
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Are these headlines real? So much of, yeah, so much of what's occurring in real life and kind of how this confluence of, you know, government and tech and all these things, yeah, is, you know, again, without going too much into it, is like what's happening, you know, and what we're portraying. And so it's been so, yeah, so surreal. Yeah.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, I think, you know, on one level, like from a technical point of view, um, to get to be an actor for someone with a vision like your ghost or Jesse, it's just really cool because you're only doing one thing, you know? And I think, um,
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
A lot of the opportunities that I have been able to have, I'm very much doing so many different parts of it because that was just how it went. I tried many years just being an auditioning actor and that wasn't exactly... No one ever knew what to do with me. It was always kind of like, well, you're not... You know, you're not in, you know, you're not this Indian character we wrote.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
We don't know if you're the friend or the leading guy. It was always all of that stuff. And so I kind of was very much feeling like I wanted to create a specific frequency. And I've been very lucky to get to do that, again, with a lot of support. But then... To get to now be at a place where people understand what it is that I do and are excited to do it.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
It is very freeing to kind of show up and focus on one thing and also to help somebody else's vision. And I really like that. Not even just as an actor, but as in the creative process. I just really like seeing... pieces of art that should exist, get to exist.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
You know, I think one of the strangest things, you know, when we were making, you know, my first show, Rami, it was called Rami truly out of, like, lack of a better option that any of us could find. I mean, I really did not want that, mainly because I also knew half the people would pronounce it Rami. But I was really like, something about this isn't exactly how I work.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And I think the best stories... are serving a philosophy. And I've certainly felt that with your ghost. And I felt that with Jesse. And it's the way that I like to work as well, where you're not feeling this. There's none of this. I'm the director energy or I'm the star energy. It's a bunch of people kind of almost coming together saying, okay, we got together to talk about this.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
this one idea, you know, that's, what's exciting about making something is, is that process is like the reach, you know? And, and, and, and I think that's also what's kind of been this really interesting thing.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
You know, I have friends in tech who've messaged me lately, you know, with some of the stuff saying, you know, dude, like, look at this, you know, AI movies, you can make the entire movie with AI. You know, I was like, I want to make the movie. Like I want to struggle with it and I want to reach, and I want to do it with a group of people because like,
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
You know, there's this spiritual connection that just does something totally different. And I think, you know, yeah, that link you're drawing, I don't know that I would have even framed it that way. But as you asked the question, I'm like, oh, yeah, there is this kinship in all of these things. And, you know, certainly this animated show that we're about to put out was...
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
maybe even the biggest group effort I've been a part of because so much of it was out of my hands in terms of, you know, the design stuff and the animation stuff.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
You know, to get to work with Mona Chalabi, to get to work with all these animators who kind of, you know, so many of the best jokes we have are visual ones that I was surprised by when I was watching back things that they interpreted from the script. And so, yeah, that style of working is kind of the only way I want to work ever.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
You know, I think that the thing that compelled me is, you know, the family in this show, they already have a lot going on before that happens. Pretty much the entire pilot, it's just this family comedy about a family you've never really seen in an animated space. And for me, though, to kind of bring in the events of the early 2000s felt...
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Honestly, like there probably wouldn't be a project if she didn't say yes. Because I was like, you know, I had written, at that point I had written the pilot with Pam who came from the South Park world and is such a great comedic collaborator. And then I felt, okay, but as we go into making this, the visual world that we want, when I look at Mona Chalabi's work, she's so good at,
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
like you said, at breaking down these really wild statistics or questions and actually making them really poppy and colorful and something that you want to look at before you even know what you're looking at. It just kind of grabs your eye. And I felt there was already kind of this kinship with what she was doing to what I thought was the medium of animation could do for this particular story.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And so, you know, I try to really kind of As much as possible, be in a position of, okay, here's what I know. Here's the larger thing I'm trying to solve. And then honestly kind of like beg people to help me. Just be like, please, please help me. How do we do this? Can we do this together? That's actually how we even got the soundtrack for our show. There's this kid, Moaz Dawad.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
I mean, I call him a kid. He's my age. But he scored the entire show. from his apartment in Alexandria, Egypt, and would drive into Cairo to find session musicians to fill the pieces that he didn't know. But I had heard like one track of his, and I said, dude, you know, you can do this whole thing. And he was like, no, I can't. And I just kind of begged him.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And then he kind of created this sound that was, you know, unbelievable.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
um so yeah so the music happened in kind of two parts there's the score of the show and then the other piece of the music was um you know i was doing these voices which i've not done a lot of character work you know i tend to play things even in my stand-up more grounded and conversational and then i got in the booth and i really found these voices and then while i was there
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
We were doing the voiceover work in a variety of studios as I was traveling. But one particular studio in Brooklyn had a bunch of guitars there in-house and a piano in-house. And I had played music in high school. I mean, I grew up in the New Jersey emo scene. So we all kind of picked up a guitar and wore tight pants and tried to do that thing for at least everyone had a stint.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And, you know, so I knew some guitar, but I kind of picked it up and I had just found the voice of the dad, Hussein Hussein. And I was like, you know, what would it sound like if Hussein made music? And this was like between setups and I just started playing. And then I wrote this song kind of spontaneously about Hussein.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
you know, him at his halal cart and how he, you know, used to be a doctor, but now he can't be a doctor in America and he just has to sell meat. And I wrote this track, Money for the Meat, and then it became this element of the show that, you know, is really, you know, truly one of my favorites. And we kind of, you know, I ended up writing like
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Yeah, Spies in the Mosque, you know, like a Backstreet Boys bop about surveillance, basically. And so, you know, we and then we kind of made an album and added a really funny, like just a fun element. And, you know, I actually was like, I was I was talking, I had this really fun day where I I got to do a bucket list goal of playing basketball with Adam Sandler.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And I was talking to him about. Is he good? He's amazing. I mean, he's great. I mean, he fouls a lot and he's like very aggressive, but he's great. Okay. He'd probably tell you I foul too much too.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
important in the sense that, you know, it's something we talk about all the time. It's part of what we're currently experiencing. It's never gone away. And it's also never really been explored in media outside of a few, you know, points of view. And so when I think about how long these themes have been directly a part of my life and the lives of people that I know to get to, you
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
But I was talking to him about how when I was a kid, you know, hearing his like Hanukkah song and hearing all that music that he made was so wild because it was like out of the pattern of just hearing Christmas songs. And so, you know, and I was telling him about this thing almost in a way like feeling like it felt very exciting to me to kind of get to make these songs.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And in our second season, we actually have like, we make a bit of like a, you know, Ramadan Eid song that kind of, that comes out. But this idea of hearing these animated jingles from a totally different perspective and different voice, I remember seeing that Sandler Hanukkah stuff and just going, whoa, this is very different.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And then it was very exciting to kind of get to tap into something like that here. And also totally by accident. Again, like not a goal going in, but then felt like this really organic thing that the character found.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
I mean, he was so hyped and so supportive and like, yeah, it was really, yeah, it was so cool. I mean, I've been a fan of him forever. Who won? It was a two-on-two game and I wasn't on his team. I think we split games, but I think ultimately, I think he might have won, but I must have lost because I can't remember because I think I would, I think if I had won, I'd be, I'd confidently say I won.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
I'm pretty sure I lost.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
a period of time that I don't think has escaped us in any way, unfortunately. And to get to do it in a style that is somewhat, you know, familiar in terms of trotting on political things that can feel a little difficult and undercuts them, right, and doesn't make them feel so volatile. To get to give this kind of family that treatment, is really exciting.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And to go into this and at this through a totally unexpected and very silly lens. And maybe that's where that hope feeling comes from because it's so unfiltered and it's so wild. And it's one of the craziest things I've gotten to be a part of and one of the most inappropriate things I've gotten to be a part of. Yet, there's a lot of love and care, I think, for the subjects involved, right?
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Because it's meant to be something that finds the heart in the midst of kind of all the stuff.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
You know, I think that, you know, I'm really lucky that I grew up with, you know, strong parents who did have a sense of self. And it was almost because they did have a sense of self. I was able to see this piece of it that felt important. kind of scared and desperate, right? And I don't think that was the defining experience.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
It's almost because it wasn't, I'm able to kind of look at it from the side and go, oh, wow, it's really interesting how pervasive that is in my community. I see it come up in my family. I see it come up mainly in myself. And I'm usually interested in making self-reflective work, you know, because it's the only thing I can speak for.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
You know, making work about other people or joking about other people has never really been funny to me because it's like, I don't even know who you are, really. Like, I know who you present. And I know who I present and I know the gap, those gaps.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And I think this show, you know, one of my favorite things about wanting to do an animated thing is, you know, I initially had this idea that it would be amazing to see an animated family that looked different when they were inside the house and when they were outside of the house, which I think is just. universally human. I mean, like yourself being like, oh, reminds me of my immigrant family.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
But then, you know, really just people who are Italians from New Jersey being like, man, I really know that feeling. That's like, I feel like I got to be a different person. The second I step out my front door, the second I get on my front lawn and show the world something and hide something about who I am.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Changing his clothing, changing his voice, you know, and then the family kind of does this like through the whole series. If they're, you know, leaving the house, you know, the daughter, her curly hair becomes straight immediately, you know, like she's got to straighten it.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And, you know, our dad's beard turns into a mustache immediately because, oh, my God, I can't be viewed as this, you know, fully bearded man. You know, Rumi immediately hides all his curly hair with a hat, which I always did as a kid and continue to do into adulthood out of habit. But it's like that that presentation happens. you know, that you're kind of picking up on.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
It's a very human thing, and I think that's what excites me about the show. And, you know, if you ask me, like, really what the show is about, it's about people trying to figure out how to be themselves in the middle of all of that. It happens to be set in the early 2000s, but it is about right now in this really eerie way. It is about right now, and it's about people who are...
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
you know, in a lot of ways also to dealing just with the financial burdens of capitalism and just, you know, man, like I got to stretch who I am in order to make a living. And I got to stretch who I am in order to kind of like move, move forward and move through and, and to get to do that in such a silly way with like music and jokes and, and crazy, you know, characters.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
There is big musical numbers.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
It's kind of just how like any conversation works, right? I've always felt things kind of open up when you're willing to be vulnerable with people. And I think the act of just making it clear that you're putting yourself under the microscope is universal in and of itself because I think, you know,
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
I think people are really genuinely good and introspective and kind of walk around all day going, should I have said that? Should I have done that? Should I have worn this shirt? And I think that's what ends up making it a connection point.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Uh, I think I'm reacting to, uh, when we put out Rami on Hulu, I remember seeing a headline that was like Muslims, here's the show for you. And then like my heart sinking and going, no, no, this is not, we are 2 billion people. And like a lot of them are not going to like what I'm doing and they shouldn't because I am, you know, a guy from New Jersey who thinks this type of thing is funny.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And I think, you know, putting the representation warning for me was a really cathartic thing of just being like, listen, I, this is not funny.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
speaking in mass at all i'm not like i know you guys didn't elect me and there's no like i'm just this is this is stuff that you know makes me laugh in a way of of expression that a lot of people you know that i worked with all really dug um but putting that card there uh you know was very cathartic for me, almost to just be like, hey, I agree with you.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
You know, I don't think this is not a slice of what it's like for everybody, but it is a slice of what it's like for some people. And it is the sense of humor that it is for some people. And I think part of the conversation that I'm trying to crack open a little bit here is like,
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
we have really great writers in my rooms and who bring amazing perspectives to the female characters, you know, on any of the shows that I've worked on. But it's also like, we haven't had media that's being fully driven by a female voice. That's going to crack open a whole other slice of this.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
We haven't had media that, you know, happens mainly in, let's say the Gulf or mainly in the Middle East that cracks through into kind of like the Hollywood point of view in a meaningful way. And, And so I think those things are all going to continue to kind of foster a global conversation, you know.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And so part of the representation card is like, I'm really aware of how small the global conversation is when it is radiating from New Jersey.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
You know what? I think it is pretty Egyptian. And I think that 100%. And actually, I don't think any of our representation warnings said that it doesn't represent Egyptians. So yeah, it probably does represent Egyptians. It's probably, there's a certain Egyptian sarcasm, dark humor that is all over my family that, you know, everything's Everything said through the lens of a joke.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And, you know, everything is like, has this. It's like, you know, nothing. There's no moment that can go by. It's a grandpa. I love you so much. I can't wait to see you next week. If I'm alive.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
I think my way of handling that kind of goes back to the work being self-reflective above all. You know, I'm never really like... I'm not satirizing the culture so much as I am looking at the way people behave, right? So it's like, I think the father in our show is a lot of people's fathers.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
You know, we open up our pilot with him handing out his family these small electrical bills that show the output that everyone is spending in the house, that shows how much shower water they're using and how much GameCube is being played and all these things. And he's just so... worried about getting his family through under budget, you know?
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
And I think that the things that hit on the sensitivities that you're talking about, I try to take a more tender approach towards, um, while kind of surrounding it with a lot of other, you know, uh, I like that word tenderness.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Thank you for having me.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
at various levels has made me laugh and has given me a release but when it comes to what i participate in and what i do uh there's just always a level of implication that i'll put myself through uh to kind of say hey like i please don't ever think i'm laughing at you i'm laughing at myself and so um i think that's where it's also very liberating because it's like you know you're gonna watch it if you dig it and if you don't you're just gonna watch something else
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
I mean, I think that's kind of like the velocity of anything, right? Like bad news spreads faster than good news. You know, no one's like, hey, we recycled a lot. There's not really a headline. You know, I mean, talk to any Netflix executive. Any Netflix exec secretly will be like, hey, can you throw a murder into your show? Can you throw some sexual assault in?
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Because then people are going to click through. But it's also like, you know, people used to get together to watch public hangings. I don't know. We're like, we're sick.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
I mean, they're not explicitly asking, but they would never mind.
The Daily
'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's that. Yeah, for sure. Because I could be a fan of it and I can kind of see it. And but but I kind of it's just not interesting to me.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
I'm so happy to be here with you. Thank you for having me.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
Yeah, of course.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
The show's hilarious. Thank you. No, I, you know, it was something that we felt was only possible to do in animation. It's actually, it's really wild, too, because we've been making the show for so many years. And I don't think there's ever been a week in America's history where immigrants feel the need to say, hey, we are number one happy family USA. Right.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
And that is what this family feels compelled to do in 2001. And we kind of have this show coming out in this moment where it's all colliding in this wild way.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
We started making it during, we pitched it during Trump 1. And then it's coming out now in the sequel.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
He seemed happier back then, yeah? He did? He did. He was, like, smiling more. Like, he seems really stressed now. Like, all the clips you were showing, I was like, you know, you're like, oh, man, he looks kind of sad. Like, I don't think he likes what he's doing either. That may be the most charitable thing I've ever heard. I always try to see it from the other point of view, even if it's his.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
And I'm like, he looks stressed. Like, he doesn't look good.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
I think he might. I mean, they're kissing his ass, and he obviously has, like, body image issues. He's lying about the weight and the height. And then, like... No. And then... And then, like, you know, Jon Stewart's over here talking about a front butt and stuff. No.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
No, I don't think you did. And he's going through, I believe he's going through something physical. And he happens to be the president of the United States. And I think we got to just kind of look at it from every angle.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
Dude, I think, I mean, that Putin shot, it's got to hurt. I think there's a reason he got off X and created his own social media platform. Right. Where he could, you know, control how people are seeing him. Just say, are you on, truth? Oh, yeah, I got at Rami from the beginning just to make sure that... And you actually, any Arab name you can just get on Truth. It's really easy.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
Like, as of... Like, it's available. Like, you can... Cheap. They get them cheap. You could get at Muhammad right now. 100%. Every spelling is available on Truth, yeah. It's pretty... I am really hoping... It's a very limited audience base that's on there, yeah.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
I mean, it's really hard. I mean, you know, like, being creative, and we've talked about this with, like, stand-up and stuff. It's like, I love being in rooms with people, and so being online can feel, yeah, really crazy, and so... No, I go on and look at, like, sports stuff, like LeBron stuff, but that's pretty much it, yeah.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
You know what's crazy is that I get called a Jew. Do you really? Yeah. Like, I put, I had this, like, New York Times thing, and, like, it was, like, the thing, and there's stuff where people are like, oh, why do you have a, and then someone just writes, another Jew. And I was like, whoa. That's how much Jews control show business.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
Yeah, he's like an undercut. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And now I'm here with you.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
Yeah, but we got, like, a really bad end with our, like, Islamophobia is so weak. It's phobia. Well, yeah, because it's like arachnophobia. It just sounds like, oh, yeah, you had a weird Islamic experience as a kid, huh? You got a little Islamophobia.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
No, no, but you can get over it. Just, like, try some halal meat. And then, like, you'll get over it. Like, you know, it's like Islamophobia. It's like a shellfish allergy. It's like, oh, yeah, no, like, no, he doesn't want any. He has Islamophobia. Like, it sounds so benign. Anti-Semitism is like, whoa, like, dude, like, what? What are you on about?
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
You know, so I think even from just on a real word language level, we're at an incredible disadvantage. I never thought of it that way. Yeah. And that's because you're Islamophobic. And that's like wild. That's wild because it's just wild because we know each other.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
Yeah, I mean, going out, I mean, it's the best. It's so fun, and then it becomes, you know, we made this animated show that's, like, filled with, you know, those, like, thoughts you have in a notebook when you're going to do stand-up, and you're like, maybe this will work, maybe it won't.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
And then we get to make this incredible show with so many characters that get to say all this stuff that, you know, You don't need, like, the rate is so fast, and that's what's been so fun.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
It's such a great detail. It's, like, loaded with so many little details and music and kind of the ability to, like, you know, do things that, you know, when I grew up, my grandmother was always watching TV. Like, you try to talk to her, and she's just at the TV watching her shows.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
And then you go to make an animated show, and it's like, okay, so the grandmother is always going to have her TV with her everywhere. And we build this show where everywhere she goes, she's dragging this cart that has her television. Like, she's at a funeral. And she's watching her shows. And that's the kind of stuff you can't do in live action.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
Oh, yeah. I mean, like, I always had this fascination. My dad grew up in the city, you know? I grew up with my dad working in the city. And it was so funny to me when you go through Midtown and you see the news ticker on the Fox News building and it's saying all these horrible headlines about Muslim countries and Muslim people.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
And then you kind of look right down and there's the halal cart right on the corner of it. And you see all the guys with the Fox badges buying food from the halal car guy. And I was like, man, this guy's got the best hustle. Because he knows, like, they're in there and they're saying all this stuff about Muslim people.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
But then there's that, like, guilty part of them on their lunch break that's like, let me try a little halal. And he's right there to make the buck. And so when we started making this show, I had always been so fascinated by that guy there. And that becomes the dad in the show. He is the guy who's selling Halal meat.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
I play the dad as well. Yeah, yeah. And the music. Do you do music? Yeah, I write these songs.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
I am music. Are you music? Yeah. And I think that's important.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
I don't know. In high school, I played guitar, but I never really, you know... You didn't know each other for a long time.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
Dude.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
It's really, it was so much fun. Yeah, it is like one of my favorite parts of the show, getting to do that.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
Why don't you just say, isn't it wonderful that we're keeping criminals out of our country? Why can't you just say that? Why do you go over and over? And that's why nobody watches you anymore.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
We got the show coming out this week. I got to do this crazy cool movie, Mountainhead, that's coming out next month, written by Jesse Armstrong. We did Succession. It was so fun. Yeah, it's very, very fun. It's a very... Multi-hyphenate. It's really exciting. And, yeah, our friend Steve Carell's in it, and he's, like, honestly such a joy.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
He told me he likes so many stories about you that, yeah, I'm very...
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
No, I loved it.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
No, and it's like, he's just, yeah, he's so inspiring. And he's like, the way he kind of picks up a character, and he's like such a true film actor, too. Right. So you get to bounce off him, and it's just unbelievable.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
Your moment is now. This is a first. We've had women, but we've never had three of them right here. Four and three men. Look who we have. You guys feel a little bit mistreated? That's good. I like it.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
If it's a homegrown criminal, I have no problem. I'm talking about really bad people, really bad people.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
Is that from Mar-a-Lago? That's actually their gold, all gold. Look. And you know, it's angels. They're angels.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
Throughout the years, people have tried to come up with a gold paint that would look like gold, and they've never been able to do it. Can't do it. You've never been able to. Look at that look. You've never been able to match gold with gold paint. That's why it's gold.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
We're pulling all that out and putting the money toward the infrastructure, not the social movement from the last administration.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
Good steel, right, as opposed to green paper mache. LAUGHTER OK, thanks. Great job. LAUGHTER LAUGHTER
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
I took a cognitive test and I don't know what to tell you other than I got every answer right. Can you tell us about the cognitive test? Is that a man, human, person, camera, TV? It's a... I think it's a pretty well-known test. Whatever it is, I got everyone. I got it all right.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition
Jon Stewart on Wrongful Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | Ramy Youssef
A congresswoman introduced a bill to add President Trump to Mount Rushmore.
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.