Best Of: Ramy Youssef / Danny McBride

Fresh Air

NPR

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ramy Youssef's new animated comedy series, #1 Happy Family USA, is about an Egyptian American Muslim family living in New Jersey, after 9/11, trying to blend in and doing everything they can to avoid being seen as a threat. Youssef spoke with Terry Gross about the series and his own experience during that time.

Also, Danny McBride talks with Tonya Mosley about his HBO series The Righteous Gemstones, about a wildly dysfunctional family of televangelists fighting for power, influence, and their father's approval.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from Subaru.
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0:07.2	giving you a total range of up to 581 miles per tank.
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0:15.1	Discover more at Subaru.com slash Forrester Hybrid.
0:19.7	From W.HYY in Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Tanya Mosley.
0:25.4	Today, Rami Yusuf, his new animated comedy series, number one Happy Family USA, is about an Egyptian, American Muslim family, living in New Jersey after 9-11, trying to blend in and doing everything
0:39.5	they can to avoid being seen as a threat. At the heart of the story is a middle schooler
0:44.6	dealing with a double dose of paranoia. Is Courtney the popular girl talking about me behind my back
0:52.0	and are the phones tapped? Yeah.
0:54.2	You know, and usually people just have to deal with the Courtney part.
0:59.0	Also, Danny McBride talks about his HBO series, The Righteous Jimstones,
1:04.4	about a wildly dysfunctional family of televangelists fighting for power, influence, and their father's approval. We get into what keeps drawing
1:13.1	him to these hilariously flawed, emotionally stunted characters, and he shares the surprising
1:18.8	inspiration behind the signature swagger his characters always seem to carry. George Jefferson,
1:24.3	he honestly is like one of my favorite characters when I was a kid. Like, I just thought he was so funny and how mean he was and funny he was and that little bit of a swagger he had.
1:34.5	That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend.
1:38.6	I'm Tanya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air.
1:41.3	At a time of sound bites and short attention spans, our show is all about the deep
1:46.2	dive. We do long-form interviews with people behind the best in film, books, TV, music, and journalism.
1:53.8	Here our guests open up about their process and their lives in ways you've never heard before.
1:59.6	Listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and W. HYY.
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