879: A Christian and a Muslim Walk Into a Bar
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What challenges did comedians face under Assad's regime?
A quick warning, there are curse words that are unbeaped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org. Sharif Homsi is a stand-up comic in a place that's not really known for its comedy scene, Damascus, Syria. As maybe you've heard, the place was run by a dictator for a long time, Bashar al-Assad. Back then, there were a lot of jokes that Sharif was not able to tell on stage. Definitely nothing about Assad or Assad's family. Nothing about politics at all. Those kind of jokes could get you killed or disappeared into one of Assad's infamous prisons. So during those years, Sharif kept jokes like that in a folder on his computer labeled Lebanon.
because he pretty much only felt safe telling them when he would take trips abroad.
There is one joke, I want to bring it back. There is one joke I used to say when I go to Lebanon, like, listen, we have a lot of problem, but you don't have a president. And our problem is that we have one. So maybe if you take him and you can rent him for a bit, and if you like him, you can keep him, you know. You cannot say anything like this, man.
How did the comedians navigate their newfound freedom in post-Assad Syria?
That joke, if I say it over here, we will get killed. There is no joke with that.
Bashar al-Assad's family ruled Syria for 53 years, the last 13 of which were a brutal civil war. Over 300,000 Syrian civilians died. Then, a year ago, to everybody's surprise, a bunch of rebel groups overthrew the regime in just 12 days. Assad, his wife Asma, and their family flew to Russia. The rebels were led by an Islamist group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, HTS for short. And then the new people in power surprised everybody again by not immediately becoming another repressive regime. HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharah says he's acting as interim president and has promised to hold elections in the next few years. And Syrians have been experiencing a freedom that they have not experienced before. I had dinner a couple weeks ago with somebody who was just there, and they were talking about how kind of inspiring it is to be there right now.
She met lots of people who were moving back, ready and excited to rebuild their country. But at the same time, parts of Syria are still violent. There was fighting this month in and around Aleppo. Over 150,000 people were displaced.
What happened during the comedians' tour in conservative cities?
In July, Sharif had to cancel a show in a city called Soweta because of a massacre there. 800 people were killed. And then in October, In the middle of this chaos and hope, Sharif and the other comedians in his comedy group, the group is called Styria, decided to go on tour. They planned 16 cities in 21 days all over Syria, in conservative regions, in liberal areas like Damascus, areas under Kurdish control, and areas that were once under ISIS control. And they really weren't sure how this was going to go. Nobody had ever done this. And this is the tricky part. Under the dictator, it was clear what they could not say on stage. But now there seemed to be no rule book at all. If anything, the new government was saying, go ahead.
You can make jokes about us. We're different from the old regime. But the comedians didn't know if they could trust that. And then beyond that, there are lots of just very conservative, very religious people around Syria.
How did local officials react to the comedians' performances?
Some of them are figures of authority in towns and provinces. The comedians wondered how they would react to things that they heard on stage. They worried about random hotheads hearing about them and things they said, deciding to show up with a gun. Even before they left, they got death threats in their DMs.
Stuff like... If you ever talk about the revolution, we're going to come kill you one by one and blah, blah, blah, blah.
These messages freaked Sharif out, but he got where they were coming from. The country's been through 13 years of war. He and most of the other comedians are from Damascus, a city that saw the least of the fighting because it was controlled by the regime. By Syrian standards, they're the soft liberals.
I understand because some people, man, they see what we do as a luxury.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What challenges did comedians face under Assad's regime?
0:01–1:15
2
How did the comedians navigate their newfound freedom in post-Assad Syria?
1:15–2:29
3
What happened during the comedians' tour in conservative cities?
2:29–3:31
4
How did local officials react to the comedians' performances?
3:31–4:32
5
What strategies did the comedians use to keep their shows going?
4:32–5:35
6
Why was the show in Hama at risk of cancellation?
5:35–7:11
7
What lessons did the comedians learn about freedom of expression?
7:11–8:02
8
How did social media impact the comedians' ability to perform?
8:02–58:30