Bassem Youssef and Sara Taksler on 'Tickling Giants'

The Business

KCRW

Tv & Film

4.6 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2017

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Known as the "Jon Stewart of Egypt," Bassem Youssef hosted a satirical news show that was the first of its kind in the Middle East. The show was immensely popular, until the military-backed government forced Youssef off the air and out of the country. Youssef and director Sara Taksler tell us about their documentary Tickling Giants, which profiles Youssef’s leap from heart surgeon to super star satirist.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business.
0:04.8	I was bringing them the biggest ratings in the history of the airport, so they dropped the most popular show, because at the end of the day, they don't care about the money. They're all part of the one big system.
0:16.5	Tickling Giants is a new documentary about Basim Youssef, a heart surgeon turned comedian who's known as the John Stewart of Egypt.
0:23.9	Yusuf's satirical news program, modeled on the Daily Show, was the first of its kind in the Middle East and immensely popular, until the military-backed government forced him off the air and out of the country in 2014.
0:36.5	Yusuf and Daily Show producer and Tickling Giants director, Sarah Taxler,
0:40.6	tell us about the perils of producing satire in Egypt
0:43.4	and why they were accused of being spies for the CIA.
0:47.0	But first on the news banter, will the writers strike?
0:50.0	Stick around. It's the business from KCRW.
0:57.2	I am joined by my associate in banter, Matt Bellany of the Hollywood Reporter from New York this week.
1:04.0	Hello, Matt. Hi there.
1:05.8	So, Matt, people in town are very worried. A lot of people who work in this industry in the entertainment field,
1:10.9	we want to know if there is going to be a writer's strike. And as we have reported, the Writers Guild
1:16.7	is far apart from the studios right now. It's a negotiation, but they're looking at a $535 million
1:23.4	contract over three years. The studios are at about 180 million, and this would be the
1:28.3	cost across all of the studios to pay for the enhanced benefits that the writers are asking for.
1:34.0	There is a strike authorization vote on April 24th, and then the strike could happen if things
1:40.0	don't go the right way as soon as May 2nd. So some people are wondering, why are the writers upset when there's so much going on in
1:49.5	entertainment right now?
1:50.9	So I will hand it to you, Matt, to explain why the writers are upset.
1:54.4	That is a good question, but I think if you look closer at this so-called peak TV age that we are in with 500 scripted shows,
2:03.5	and you say, well, there's so much opportunity, why are the writers upset about that?
	...

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