879: A Christian and a Muslim Walk Into a Bar
This American Life
This American Life
4.5 • 91.3K Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2026
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When a joke could get you killed, should you say it anyway? A group of Syrian comedians test the limits of their newfound freedom, a year after the fall of the brutal Assad regime.
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- Prologue: Under the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad, comedian Sharief Homsi knew which jokes were too dangerous to say on stage. Now that Syria is under the control of a new government, Sharief and the other comedians of “Styria” set out on a national tour to see how far their comedy can go in this new Syria. (6 minutes)
- Act One: The comedians test out risky material and get big laughs on early tour dates. It’s going smoothly until they find out that their show scheduled in the conservative city of Hama is in danger of being cancelled. (13 minutes)
- Act Two: The comedians go to battle with local officials. (18 minutes)
- Act Three: The comedians try everything they can think of to keep their shows from being cancelled. (20 minutes)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A quick warning, there are curse words that are unbeaped in today's episode of the show. |
| 0:05.3 | If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, This AmericanLife.org. |
| 0:11.8 | Sharif Holmesie is a stand-up comic in a place. It's not really known for its comedy scene. |
| 0:16.3 | Damascus, Syria. As maybe you've heard, the place was run by a dictator for a long time, Bashar al-Assad. |
| 0:22.9 | Back then, there were a lot of jokes that Sharif was not able to tell on stage. |
| 0:26.9 | Definitely nothing about Assad, or Assad's family, nothing about politics at all. |
| 0:32.6 | Those kind of jokes could get you killed or disappeared into one of Assad's infamous prisons. |
| 0:38.6 | So during those years, Sharrife kept jokes like that in a folder on his computer labeled |
| 0:43.3 | Lebanon because he pretty much only felt safe telling them when he would take trips abroad. |
| 0:48.5 | There is one joke, I rave the joke, I want to bring it back. |
| 0:53.2 | But there is one joke I used to say when I go to Lebanon, like, listen, we have a lot of problems, but you don't have a president. |
| 1:03.2 | And our problem is that we have one. |
| 1:06.0 | So maybe if you take him and you can rent him for a bit. |
| 1:10.8 | And if you like him, you can keep him. |
| 1:12.9 | You cannot say anything like this, ma. |
| 1:15.6 | That joke, if I say it over here, we will get killed. |
| 1:19.8 | There is no joke with them. |
| 1:21.8 | Bashar al-Assad's family ruled Syria for 53 years, |
| 1:25.2 | the last 13 of which were a brutal civil war. Over 300,000 Syrian civilians died. |
| 1:31.1 | Then, a year ago, to everybody's surprise, a bunch of rebel groups ever threw the regime |
| 1:36.1 | in just 12 days. Assad, his wife Asma, and their family flew to Russia. The rebels were led |
| 1:43.6 | by an Islamist group called Hayet Terrier al-Shan, HTS, for short. |
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