Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef released a three-minute promotional video for his upcoming digital satirical series, in which the former television personality mocks the rise of Islamophobia in the United States. The sketch revolves around an imaginary device, Breathe Easy, that promises consumers to detect “radical enzymes” in whoever uses the device and determine whether they are “safe” on a spectrum of “loves hummus” to “ISIS supporter.” “Xenophobia and discrimination against others because of their skin, religion, gender, views, orientation and ethnicity is a plague that the whole world has. I hope there would be similar attempts in my own part of the world because we do have our own prejudices and intolerance. Satire is a great remedy for this and I hope we keep using it to bring people together,” Youssef said in a Facebook post. In the video, Youssef pays homage to running jokes from his time as the host of Al-Barnameg in Egypt, including the infamous “Complete Cure Device” that a military doctor had once promised would cure Hepatitis C. As he speaks in English, the subtitles shown at the bottom of the screen translate the dialogue into colloquial Arabic…
Bassem Youssef Returns to Satire With Promotional Video on ‘Detecting Muslim Threats’
June 2, 2016
