This is the Last Laugh. I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast.

So last fall, just 10 days after October 7th, Bassem Yusuf went on Pierce Morgan's YouTube show

and briefly broke the internet with what his interviewer referred to as dark humor

about the early days of Israel's military assault on Gaza.

You know, it's just like those Palestinians, they're very dramatic.

Ah, Israel killing us.

But they never die.

I mean, they always come back.

You know, they're very difficult to kill, very difficult people to

pill. I know, because I'm married to one. I tried many times. Couldn't kill her. I mean,

there's a dark humor there, and I understand why. Oh, it's not dark human. I really, I try to get

to her every time, but she uses our kids as human shields. I can never take her out.

Almost five months later, that interview has been viewed by more than 22 million people.

Clearly, it struck a nerve. And as the heart surgeon turned comedian, commonly known as the

Egyptian John Stewart, tells me in this week's episode, it has also transformed his career,

for better and worse.

Bassem has a truly fascinating life story, which was chronicled in the 2017 documentary

Tickling Giants, in which he is currently telling on stage as part of his global Middle Beast

tour. But for this conversation, I really wanted to focus on his incredibly strong

opinions about both the war and President Joe Biden's complicity in it, a sentiment that is being

loudly echoed in both polls and at the primary ballot box in recent weeks. We don't necessarily

agree on all of it, but I think it's an important conversation to have, especially

...