Earlier tonight I watched ‘The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour’ on Comedy Central. It’s 4 American-Middle Eastern dudes - An Irani (Maz Jobrani), an Egyptian (Yeah baby!) (Ahmed Ahmed), a Palestinian- Italian (Dean Obeidellah) and a Palestinian-Mormon (huh??) (Aron Kader). (and they are looking for a North Korean.)
Was absolutely GREAT.
For those interested, it’s playing again on Tuesday March 13 at 10:00. Otherwise, you can check their website and you can always look them up on YouTube, lots of clips. And the DVD will be out soon!!
The basic topic of their show is how it’s become awkward being of Arab heritage in America; since September 2001 people we are no longer ‘Americans’ but ‘Arabs’. And we’re being ‘randomly searched’ in the airport, ‘even if you just went there to drop a friend’ :) And people look at us funny. And how GWB is so implausible as a president that ‘anytime I expect Ashton Kutcher to come out and say ‘you’ve all been punked!!’ and Osama will come running from a cave, saying ‘I was on it too!’
And how ‘Arabs are the new Blacks’ which Dean seems to like: he’s hoping kids will start ‘Acting Arab’, calling each other ‘Yo A-rAb’, showing chest hair and wearing traditional headgear!
Well, you know how it is :)
So their message is: hey, I have a funny name but I’m just as American as you are! Pretty classy message, in my opinion. And they’re excellent comedians!
There’s a bunch of brilliant Arab-American Comedians out there. I’m just starting out but a good resource to begin with is here.
The only downside of my evening was the show that played afterwards - a stand up comedian named Carlos Mencia. The guy is funny: but he is just such a racist son of a bitch! The kind of guy who makes cheap jokes in the name of political incorrectness... including a loooong long one about a handicapped guy in a wheelchair. Sorry, but there are things, and people, who deserve some respect.
So our friend Mencia goes on this 10-minute skit on terrorists but in his version, there is the terrorist - named Akhmad (with a KH, otherwise it doesn’t sound Arab) on one side; and all other Americans (that is, white, black, hispanic, chinese, etc) on the other. And the Akhmad dude tries to attract other minorities to his (evil) side but the others remain patriotic.
That’s America according to him: it doesn’t include Arabs who are, by default, terrorists. Screw you, Mencia. Isn’t it a crime to incite to racist hatred or something?? Someone should report this ignoble person!
Boycott racist humour!
And go Watch the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour!
UPDATE: Other great comedians I've been recently made aware of (thanks Shaykhspeara, Sherif):
"Allah Made me Funny" : Three American Muslims, non-Arabs -- which is even better! Because Muslims are mainly non-Arab, and Blacks are a main pillar of it - there are Black Muslims of 4th, 5th generation...
"Funny Sherif": my homeboy! Geat comedian on the rise, keep an eye on his work!!
