Bassem Youssef almost lost his life for telling the “bad” jokes.
Youssef fled his native Egypt in 2014 after his ‘Daily Show’ style show got too close to the truth. His rise from a heart surgeon posting satirical take on state-controlled media to an exiled comic living in Los Angeles would make for a great movie.
This once earned him the nickname “Egyptian Jon Stewart”, although he was unable to replicate his Egyptian success in the United States. At one point, his program, “Al-Bernameg” (The Show), drew 30 million viewers. This represents about a third of the population of his country.
Now Youssef is mimicking Stewart in a new and unflattering way.
The comedian spoke to the Khaleej Times about his life, acting and Cancel Culture. It is the latter that stands out, given the position of the satirist on the liberticide movement.
In short, it does not exist.
Cancel culture is a myth. You find it on Twitter, it’s like a lot of loud voices. But in the end, who really got cancelled, you know? I mean, look at Louis CK, he was canceled for something that was supposed to be a felony, assault. He’s back and doing what he was doing, he sold Madison Square Garden a few months ago. Dave Chappelle, they tried to cancel it. Where is he now? So the whole cancel culture thing, I think it’s more like noises. But I think very few people get canceled. And if they do, they’re canceled because of something that’s so much more than they say.
These comments oddly mirror what Stewart said last year on the subject.
“People who talk about cancel culture never seem to shut up about it,” Stewart said. “Like, there’s more speech now than ever before. It’s not ‘you can’t say it’, it’s when you say it, look, the internet has democratized criticism. What are we doing in life – we talk shit, we criticize, we postulate, we opine, we make jokes, and now other people have their say And that’s not cancel culture, it’s doggedness We live in a relentless culture, and the internet system and all these other things have an incentive to find the pressure points of that and exacerbate them.
Here is the truth.
Cancel The culture exists. It’s a terrifying and relentless attack on freedom of expression that affects more than comedians. Stand-ups suffer most directly from this, however.
Need examples? Here is just a short list.
Maybe Youssef is worried about losing his professional connection with Stewart. It could also absorb the distorted reality of life in Los Angeles.
Either way, he does himself and those who care about political satire a disservice by echoing Stewart’s deep state of denial.
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