beginning and i said in the past, and i m saying now, satire should not be some sort of a social war statement. we have to be. and i think, like, putting too much ideology in satire and comedyjust spoils it. yes, you come from a place of ideology, but there s also the quality of comedy and satire, and i enjoy it. i go to in the middle of america, in realamerica, in the midwest, and i sayjokes about republicans and trump, and i have some people sometimes heckle me and walk out of the seat, but nobody will come and arrest me, which is great. yeah let me ask you about a different aspect of what you did in egypt and what it meant. you were one of the first entertainers, comedians to launch your career, really, on social media, particularly youtube was very important to you. and it was then that, once you picked up millions of followers on the internet, that you crossed over and became a tv star. at that time, in 2011, 2012, there were so many people writing incredibly optimistic pieces a
it s time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. the world s autocrats do not like to be laughed at. now, that is a political reality my guest today, bassem youssef, understands all too well cos he made his name and won an audience of tens of millions with a satirical comedy show during egypt s popular uprising more than a decade ago. but that revolution quickly morphed into authoritarianism, and youssef fled to the us, taking his gift for comedy with him. did he and do we still expect too much from political satire?
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you seem to have made a very conscious decision, when you got into the us with your family, to continue comedy, but to say to yourself, ok, i m no longer in egypt, i m not going to spend all of my time sort of reassessing what happened to me and my country, i m going to actually find humour in this situation as an immigrant coming to a new country, trying to make a new life. was that a very deliberate decision? absolutely, because comedy is a reflection of your truth. when i was in egypt, i was an egyptian living in egypt, being affected by the political powers and the political decisions and discourse of egypt. when i am in the united states, my comedy has to reflect my truth. i m now an immigrant who came to america as trump, who had very, very strong positions against immigrants and against muslims and against people like me, so my comedy reflected that. i still do political comedy, but i do it in the form of stand up, and i do it in a way
much ideology in satire and comedyjust spoils it. yes, you come from a place of ideology, but there s also the quality of comedy and satire, and i enjoy it. i go to in the middle of america, in real america, in the midwest, and i sayjokes about republicans and trump, and i have some people sometimes heckle me and walk out of the seat, but nobody will come and arrest me, which is great. yeah. let me ask you about a different aspect of what you did in egypt and what it meant. you were one of the first entertainers, comedians to launch your career, really, on social media, particularly youtube was very important to you. and it was then that, once you picked up millions of followers on the internet, that you crossed over and became a tv star. at that time, in 2011, 2012, there were so many people writing incredibly optimistic pieces about the power of the internet to help