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Remade in America with Bassem Youssef

Free Speech in Comedy: A Live Podcast with Jason Ross, Kendrick Sampson and Guy Branum

Remade in America with Bassem Youssef

CAFE

Society & Culture, Egypt, Immigration, Jon Stewart, Comedy, Muslim, News, Muslim Americans, Immigrants, Muslim Ban

4.71.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2018

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jason Ross is a comedian and writer best known for his work on “The Daily Show” and “The President Show.”

Kendrick Sampson is a comedian and actor who has been on shows like “How to Get Away with Murder” and “The Flash.”

Guy Branum is a comedian, actor, writer and producer best known for “Talk Show The Game Show” and “Chelsea Lately.”

Bassem and his guests talk about whether certain jokes are funny or tasteless, what counts as hate speech and how to deal with it, and the effect of President Trump on comedians in America.

There is also some discussion of Bassem’s beautiful blue eyes.

If you have questions or comments for Bassem, tweet them to him at @Byoussef with the hashtag #askbassem, email remade@cafe.com, or call 785-422-7736 (785-4-BASSEM) and leave a voicemail.

Go to SUN BASKET dot com slash REMADE today to learn more and get $35 off your first order!



Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Many years ago I visited the Daily Show with John Stewart in New York to learn more about making political satire.

0:07.5

I met some of their producers including Sarah Taxler.

0:11.5

And a few hours after we first met, Sarah asked me a question, one that I never expected.

0:17.0

Bessim, can I make a documentary about your show?

0:21.0

Surprised and a little excited, I said yes.

0:25.0

Sarah came to Egypt and she filmed me.

0:29.0

She filmed my family, she filmed the staff of my show and she filmed my city Cairo.

0:34.6

She hired a local crew and then went back and forth between New York and Cairo for the next few years.

0:40.6

Sometimes we had to ask her to stay out of view. You see having a white American lady around might rev up the crowds outside protesting the show.

0:48.5

And that might even feed the conspiracy theorists who thought I was an American spy. But it was great to have this smart

0:54.8

person around, observing something that my team and I knew was very important to Egyptians.

1:01.0

After filming, Sarah went and made the documentary. It's called Tickling Giants. And even though I hate watching

1:07.6

myself on screen or even hearing my voice on the podcast, I have to say, she did a damn good job the movie is about al-Brenamic my show in Egypt.

1:17.0

Well earn my bernamic

1:20.0

ill-Brenamic my bershuse but it's also about free speech and what can happen when it's compromised. The movie

1:28.6

focuses on the ways in which Elbrinamig was threatened and eventually shut down. How our signal was jammed, how our voice was silenced.

1:37.7

I'm so proud of this project and everyone who made it happen, especially my director and my friend Sarah Taxler.

1:46.5

So we recently organized a screening of tickling giants in Los Angeles, and since we had just

1:52.0

shown a bunch of people a movie about the

1:53.8

importance of free speech and comedy we figured they might be interested in

1:58.6

hearing a conversation about the topic so we invited three guests up on stage with me and we recorded that conversation

2:06.5

and that's what I'm going to play for you today. In the Biz, they call this a live podcast. I had three guests who are comedians and much more.

...

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