Words matter. These are the best Bassem Youssef Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
The Dark Satirist, like the Dark Knight – that could be a good name for a superhero.
What I hope to do in the States is to break up this stereotyping of Muslims and Arabs. I mean, we are basically the only sub-culture that is not represented in Hollywood. And it’s funny because everybody is talking about the Muslim world and the Arab world, and we are not represented.
I pity Americans for their very bad fruits. Your ‘mango’ is cucumber. The only thing I really miss about Egypt is mangoes.
We have dealt with the Arab/Muslim problem in the American media in every single way but through comedy. Hollywood has always been lagging behind comedy… We can make fun of ourselves, too, and I’m inviting us to laugh with us – and all the misconceptions.
The importance of satire is bringing more people to the table. There are a lot of average citizens who aren’t interested in politics and would be more interested if it’s brought to them in a comedic, funny, satirical way.
Theocratic and military authorities share one thing: they have no sense of humour.
The joke is mightier than the sword.
This is the conundrum of the present regimes in the Arab world. They still want to control youth; they want to be in control as they did in the 1950s and ’60s. But that doesn’t work anymore. Now with just a Wi-Fi link, you can understand what’s happening in the world.
A lot of people tend to glorify the role of satire and comedians. They put them up as role models, as fighters for the truth and against tyranny, and I think that’s overrated.
Egyptian comedy has a very, very old tradition. Our theater and our movies are just, like, amazing. And Egypt is kind of like the Hollywood of the Middle East. I mean, we had cinema maybe decades before the other Arab countries ever got independence.
When we overthrew Mubarak, we did this in 18 days. And because we were very naive and very unexperienced in revolutions, we thought that that was it. It is very difficult to imagine that you can actually get rid of a dictatorship that has been there for 60 years only in 18 days. So we were very naive.
It’s kinda me and Jon Stewart have a pact together – so he’s making me famous in the Western world and I’m making him famous in Egypt!
Islam’s not just about covering your hair. It’s about how you treat other people.
Part of the reason why people get radicalized is because they feel they are disenfranchised; that they not there; that they are bullied. But if they are represented, they can’t go and say to themselves: ‘Oh, this society hates us!’
Countries aren’t built by boring people.
I never thought of myself as a comedian. That is a label – make me laugh. I want to make you think.
There’s no glory and no respect in making fun of the weak, the powerless.
A revolution is not an event. It’s a process. And it takes its time.
The bigger you become of a celebrity, the bigger the expectations, the pressure on you – to make change, to say what people want, to target the people they want to target. Fame is toxic; it is quite toxic.
I’m not a revolutionary, and I’m not a warrior.
