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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Oh, thank you for the, you know, just incredibly thoughtful questions. It's always just so exciting. So I thank you, Terry.
The Daily Show: Ears Edition · TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month · 27 Apr 2025
podcast
Good. It's too much distance, but I feel like we should have been closer. But what are we gonna do?
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 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.
Just let them watch it. That's really special.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Showing 101–120 of 353 · page 6 of 18
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