Coined Egypt’s Jon Stewart and named one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People by Time magazine, social satirist Bassem Youssef folded his hit show El Bernameg (“The Program”) in 2014, after deeming it too dangerous to produce under the country’s political climate. He talks to “Daily Variety” about his plans, including moving to the States and breaking stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs —
“We are basically the only sub-culture that is not represented in Hollywood. And it’s funny because everybody is talking about the Muslim world and the Arab world, and we are not represented. It happened with everybody: with the Jews, with the African-Americans, with the Hispanics. There was a time when these people were excluded. But they made it. And now they have changed the perspective. Now you can have a very lucrative African-American movie — in fact, they are a genre. Or movies that talk about Hispanics, or even movies that talk about Chinese and Indians. They are everywhere. The only sub-culture that’s not there are the Arab Muslims, and there are some amazing talents.”
