Ramy Youssef Wants Everyone to Laugh

Engagement Party

CNN

News, Entertainment News, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 986 Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2026

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ramy Youssef has spent the past decade building a career that spans TV, stand-up, film and has even landed some big awards. Now, with the release of his third comedy special, In Love, he joins Audie to reflect on what it means to tell Arab American stories today vs seven years ago and why aiming to make everyone laugh is both a choice and a challenge. Then, Audie’s longtime friend and soon-to-be-coworker Ari Shapiro stops by to talk about Ramy— and also what's ahead for The Assignment. ===== Producers: Jesse Remedios, Lori Galarreta and Graelyn Brashear Senior Producer: Dan Bloom Technical Director: Dan Dzula Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. This is The Assignment. And in just the last few years, Rami Yousaf has been in an Oscar-nominated film. He's earned a Golden Globe for his Hulu comedy. He even has launched a new comedy special on HBO Max. It's called In Love. And he's hung out with Elmo.
0:22.9	Mr. Rami, what does Salam al-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a. Oh, cool! Oh, Salam-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-bye. Which did not go over as well as you might think. Next, Bert and Ernie will be praying five times a day on Sesame Street facing east.
0:39.1	By the way...
0:40.0	And that's probably because he's... over as well as you might think. Next, Bert and Ernie will be praying five times a day on Sesame Street facing east.
0:39.0	By the way...
0:40.0	And that's probably because he's Muslim and Egyptian American and frankly a high profile
0:45.4	advocate for the plight of the Palestinian people.
0:48.4	And while he's not a household name yet, he is getting there.
0:52.4	I mean, he popped into the assignment on the way to appear on the
0:55.3	view. And I think simultaneously, meeting you felt almost as special as meeting the boat.
1:01.4	So that means things are changing, right? The spotlight is hotter and I wanted to know what that's like.
1:06.8	Because the assignment is changing too. That's right. This is one of our last shows in this format, but I want you to stick around because we have a special guest to talk about what is next.
1:18.2	That's at the end of this episode.
1:20.0	So here's the conversation with Rami and then stay with us.
1:31.7	Security program on spreadsheets,
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1:55.1	to prove trust. Get started at vanta.com slash calm. I think for a time, like most comedians coming up, you're like the
2:03.8	outsider, right? And then after a while, you're not the outsider. You're like an Oscar darling.
	...

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