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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Appearances
The Daily · 'The Interview': Ramy Youssef Is Just Trying to Be ‘Emotionally Correct’ · 12 Apr 2025
podcast
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?
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.
I mean, they're not explicitly asking, but they would never mind.
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.
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 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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
No.
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.
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.
Showing 281–300 of 353 · page 15 of 18
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