thank you so much for having me on bbc hardtalk. it is a great pleasure. i think it s fair to say, bassem, a lot has happened in the last seven years or so since you left your home country, egypt. when you consider your life today, how much emotional pull does your home country have on you as you sit there in california 7 well, much less than in the past. i think this was an interesting journey for me. the past ten years, i have gone into changes in my life that i have never thought i would ever go through. i was a heart surgeon, and then i found myself hosting the biggest show in the middle east and then having to leave all of that behind and come to reinvent myself and start all over again in a country that is not mine, performing to an audience that s not mine, with a language that s my second language. so i m kind of like, i m in a place now that i m kind of like looking forward instead of looking back. well, i m sad to say i m going to make you look back a little bit bef
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? bassem youssef in los angeles, welcome to hardtalk. thank you so much for having me on bbc hardtalk. it is a great pleasure. i think it s fair to say, bassem, a lot has happened in the last seven years or so since you left your home country, egypt. when you consider your life today, how much emotional pull does your home country have on you as you sit there in california? well, much less than in the past. i think this was an interesting journey fo
The dangers that might come with a restoration of military authoritarian power. cos a lot of your very dark, biting humour was directed at the brotherhood and at mohamed morsi in particular. well, a lot of people don t really. they miss a little bit about the timeline because the first year of the show, the military council was still in power and a lot of my show kind of poked fun towards that. and then, the islamists came for a year, and then, i poked fun at them at the authority. and then, the military came, and they were extremely popular. they were loved. i always say, if you think in egypt that religion is sacred, the military is holy. a lot of people, they put the military in a much, much higher place. and when i did it with the muslim brotherhood, their channels were attacking me, they were calling me an infidel, they were like calling for me to be killed. and then when the military came, which are popular, i tried to do myjob too, and i
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That reflects my truth as an immigrant. because if i go out to theatres and comedy clubs and start to talk, this is what happened to me, please feel sorry for me, that is, first of all, that s not comedy. and last of all, that is not a reflection of my truth. and at the end of the day, i am right now, i m a citizen of the united states. what happens in the united states affects me much more than what happens in egypt. it affects my kids, it affects my children of colour, it affects me as an immigrant. the local elections in california affects me much more than the political situation in egypt. it doesn t say that i care about egypt less, but like right now, i m in a phase where i have to have my comedy being reflected by my truth and my lifestyle and my everyday life. i just wonder whether your commitment to satire is as strong as ever, because, you know, we discussed the limitations of satire in the face of power. do you still believe it is worth engaging in satirical comedy? absolu