jens stoltenberg was speaking as leaders of nato countries prepare to meet at a summit in madrid on tuesday. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i m stephen sackur. what i find funny, you might find offensive. comedy challenges taste and convention and it can rouse strong reaction, as we saw at this year s 0scars when a joke earned comedian chris rock a slap in the face from the actor will smith. my guest today has spent more than 25 years finding laughs in sometimes unlikely places. 0mid djalili was born in london to iranian parents. he has thrived as a cross culture comedic chameleon, but is it possible to be funny without being mean? 0mid djalili, welcome to hardtalk. stephen sackur, my friend, my fellow presenter in the business of show, man who is so unbelievably good looking and thin that he walks into snooker hall, they start chalking his head. i am so happy to be here, this is one of my favourite shows. well, if you carry on like that, this won t be a
in sometimes unlikely places, omid djalili was born in london to iranian parents. he has thrived as a cross culture comedic chameleon, but is it possible to be funny without being mean? omid djalili, welcome to hardtalk. stephen sackur, my friend, my fellow presenter in the business of show, man who is so unbelievably good looking and thin that he walks into snooker hall, they start chalking his head. i am so happy to be here, this is one of my favourite shows. well, if you carry on like that, this won t be an interview, it will be a monologue! let me ask you this, you have been doing comedy for almost 30 years, do you find the same stuff funny today as you did back then? what a tricky question! what a way to start. that is such a tricky question. look, at the end of the day, it is a big subject now because we saw the oscars and we saw will smith smack chris rock. can i just tell you, just to speak personally, i saw the video the day after, and i bleary eyed woke up on monday
We can be ajew, or you can be lgbtq or you can be whoever you are, as long as we understand we are all fundamentally one. if we understand that, then the comedy will be easier to do. you are currently making comedy in farsi. how is your farsi? not very good. well, it better improve, because you want to win a big audience in iran on bbc persian, you are doing a comedy chat show. and i am just wondering whether you think the humour that is fundamentally, you know, it is about 50 odd years living in london, being brought up in this cosmopolitan and diverse city, is that humour going to work in iran? well, apparently it has. it is now. these are not my figures but the bbc figures, it is now the most watched comedy show on earth. they told me it was a minimum of 12 million people watched it. the only negative comment we have seen is that 0mid djalili s persian is similar to the english
Because it is not about making fun of racism, religions, it is about absolutely saying the oneness of humanity is a fact, it is not even a nice idea. so, all the stuff about identity politics is interesting because of course we can be ajew, or you can be lgbtq or you can be whoever you are, as long as we understand we are all fundamentally one. if we understand that, then the comedy will be easier to do. you are currently making comedy in farsi. how is your farsi? not very good. well, it better improve, because you want to win a big audience in iran on bbc persian, you are doing a comedy chat show. and i am just wondering whether you think the humour that is fundamentally, you know, it is about 50 odd years living in london, being brought up in this cosmopolitan and diverse city, is that humour going to work in iran? well, apparently it has.
Whoever you are, as long as we understand we are all fundamentally one. if we understand that, then the comedy will be easier to do. you are currently making comedy in farsi. how is your farsi? not very good. well, it better improve, because you want to win a big audience in iran on bbc persian, you are doing a comedy chat show. and i am just wondering whether you think the humour that is fundamentally, you know, it is about 50 odd years living in london, being brought up in this cosmopolitan and diverse city, is that humour going to work in iran? well, apparently it has. it is now. these are not my figures but the bbc figures, it is now the most watched comedy show on earth. they told me it was a minimum of 12 million people watched it. the only negative comment we have seen is that 0mid djalili s persian is similar to the english of 0svaldo ardiles, a tottenham hotspur player who came over from argentina,