Ramy Youssef

speaker

353 appearances 6 recordings 4 series first heard Apr 2025 last heard May 2025

Ramy Youssef’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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The Daily · 'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’ · 12 Apr 2025 podcast

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.

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.

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...

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.

There is big musical numbers.

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,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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