WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.899 Welcome to the Deep Dive, where you're shortcut 00:00:02.899 --> 00:00:05.299 to understanding some of the most, well, complex 00:00:05.299 --> 00:00:08.560 figures shaping our world today. And today, we're 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:11.220 diving into someone whose career path is just. 00:00:11.740 --> 00:00:14.439 It's almost unbelievable. It really is. We're 00:00:14.439 --> 00:00:16.699 talking about Bassem Youssef, a man who spent 00:00:16.699 --> 00:00:23.239 13 years, 13 intense years, as a practicing cardiothoracic 00:00:23.239 --> 00:00:27.039 surgeon, saving lives, literally, with a scalpel. 00:00:27.390 --> 00:00:29.109 Yeah, high six stuff. Only to trade all that 00:00:29.109 --> 00:00:31.390 in for a microphone. Yeah. Becoming this political 00:00:31.390 --> 00:00:33.750 satirist whose voice didn't just comment on a 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:36.329 revolution. It arguably helped fuel it and then 00:00:36.329 --> 00:00:38.299 critique it. It's an incredible pivot, isn't 00:00:38.299 --> 00:00:41.299 it? The ultimate high stakes career change. Nassim 00:00:41.299 --> 00:00:44.640 Rafat Maramagisa, born back in 1974 in Cairo. 00:00:44.780 --> 00:00:47.079 Right. He's Egyptian -American now. Comedian, 00:00:47.079 --> 00:00:50.479 host, actor, and yeah, former physician. His 00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:52.759 whole story is just packed with these paradoxes. 00:00:52.820 --> 00:00:55.439 How does this, you know, super successful, meticulous 00:00:55.439 --> 00:00:57.740 doctor become a cultural icon, a revolutionary 00:00:57.740 --> 00:01:01.240 figure? And now, more recently, this really prominent 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:03.899 global voice, particularly advocating for Palestinians. 00:01:04.379 --> 00:01:06.280 So that's our mission today. We're going to trade. 00:01:06.310 --> 00:01:08.010 that journey. We'll pull out those key moments, 00:01:08.090 --> 00:01:10.989 those turning points that help explain how he 00:01:10.989 --> 00:01:14.489 navigated, well, frankly, extreme political chaos 00:01:14.489 --> 00:01:16.989 in the Middle East and then how he translated 00:01:16.989 --> 00:01:19.450 that really unique, sometimes brutal experience 00:01:19.450 --> 00:01:23.090 into this powerful voice is now aimed squarely 00:01:23.090 --> 00:01:25.540 at the West. And just to give you a sense of 00:01:25.540 --> 00:01:27.120 the kind of influence we're talking about. Yeah. 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:29.920 Back in 2013, you know, at the absolute peak 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:32.280 of his fame in Egypt, Time magazine named him 00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:35.159 one of the 100 most influential people globally. 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:38.200 Well, Time 100. Yeah. Yeah. And Foreign Policy 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:40.640 magazine put him on their list of 100 leading 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:43.439 global thinkers that same year. He was often 00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:45.379 called, maybe you've heard this, Egypt's Jon 00:01:45.379 --> 00:01:48.060 Stewart. I have heard that comparison. But we're 00:01:48.060 --> 00:01:50.019 going to dig into how he earned that title and, 00:01:50.060 --> 00:01:53.060 crucially, why his story absolutely did not end 00:01:53.060 --> 00:01:55.299 when Egypt basically forced him out. Okay, let's 00:01:55.299 --> 00:01:58.500 do it. Section one, then. I'm making a Dr. Youssef. 00:01:59.420 --> 00:02:02.140 Before the jokes, before the controversy, there 00:02:02.140 --> 00:02:05.069 was medicine. Deeply serious medicine. Yeah. 00:02:05.170 --> 00:02:07.030 And we're not talking about just any medicine. 00:02:07.170 --> 00:02:10.050 We're talking about the absolute top tier of 00:02:10.050 --> 00:02:13.090 specialized high stress surgical knowledge. He 00:02:13.090 --> 00:02:15.590 graduated from Cairo University's Faculty of 00:02:15.590 --> 00:02:18.289 Medicine. That was back in 1998. OK. And his 00:02:18.289 --> 00:02:21.189 specialty was cardiothoracic surgery. So heart, 00:02:21.349 --> 00:02:24.389 lungs, chest cavity, the kind of stuff where, 00:02:24.469 --> 00:02:26.729 you know, every single day the stakes are literally 00:02:26.729 --> 00:02:29.469 life and death. It's hard to imagine a higher 00:02:29.469 --> 00:02:31.689 pressure job, really. And he didn't just graduate. 00:02:31.729 --> 00:02:33.509 He pushed for international recognition, right? 00:02:33.569 --> 00:02:36.349 Absolutely. His qualifications are, well, they're 00:02:36.349 --> 00:02:39.409 pretty staggering. He passed the U .S. Medical 00:02:39.409 --> 00:02:42.629 Licensing Examination. That's the USMLE. It's 00:02:42.629 --> 00:02:45.389 notoriously difficult. Multiple steps. You need 00:02:45.389 --> 00:02:47.750 it to practice in the States. And he also became 00:02:47.750 --> 00:02:50.169 a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, the 00:02:50.169 --> 00:02:53.530 MRCS, in 2007. That's a huge deal in the British 00:02:53.530 --> 00:02:56.689 surgical training system. Shows real skill, real 00:02:56.689 --> 00:02:59.969 dedication. So 13 years he practiced this specialty 00:02:59.969 --> 00:03:02.810 in Egypt. 13 years. Think about that. Over a 00:03:02.810 --> 00:03:05.469 decade doing these incredibly complex, exhausting 00:03:05.469 --> 00:03:08.349 operations. And his training wasn't just in Egypt. 00:03:08.430 --> 00:03:11.229 It was global. He did highly specialized work 00:03:11.229 --> 00:03:14.030 in Germany focusing on cardiac and lung transplantation. 00:03:14.050 --> 00:03:17.069 Very advanced stuff. And he also spent about, 00:03:17.069 --> 00:03:20.349 I think, 18 months in the U .S. He was working 00:03:20.349 --> 00:03:22.550 for a medical equipment company there specifically 00:03:22.550 --> 00:03:26.409 focused on cardiothoracic. So this wasn't someone 00:03:26.409 --> 00:03:28.789 dabbling. This was a fully established, highly 00:03:28.789 --> 00:03:31.849 respected, probably pretty well -off, internationally 00:03:31.849 --> 00:03:34.610 recognized surgeon. Totally. Secure career path 00:03:34.610 --> 00:03:36.830 laid out. And it's interesting how he talks about 00:03:36.830 --> 00:03:39.009 that surgical training, how it shaped him beyond 00:03:39.009 --> 00:03:41.840 medicine. He said it made him... A much harder 00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:44.580 working person, a nerd, a perfectionist. Right. 00:03:44.659 --> 00:03:47.020 And you can see how that maps onto satire, can't 00:03:47.020 --> 00:03:49.099 you? Exactly. That perfectionism, that need to 00:03:49.099 --> 00:03:52.080 dissect arguments, spot the flaws, understand 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:54.780 the intricate details. It's kind of the same 00:03:54.780 --> 00:03:56.819 skill set, just applied differently. Yeah. The 00:03:56.819 --> 00:03:59.300 precision required is similar, I think. Surgery 00:03:59.300 --> 00:04:01.919 needs that cool logic. Efficiency thinks the 00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:03.580 problem right now. You have to suppress emotion. 00:04:03.939 --> 00:04:06.819 But with satire, he's suddenly using emotion, 00:04:06.979 --> 00:04:11.439 anger, humor. That shared frustration to diagnose 00:04:11.439 --> 00:04:14.659 and maybe treat a societal problem. The precision 00:04:14.659 --> 00:04:18.000 is still there, but the tool changes. The scalpel 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.180 becomes, I don't know, a rhetorical weapon. A 00:04:20.180 --> 00:04:22.839 very sharp one in his case. But the thing that 00:04:22.839 --> 00:04:25.860 actually triggered this massive life change wasn't 00:04:25.860 --> 00:04:28.399 some intellectual exercise in the sterile OR. 00:04:28.819 --> 00:04:33.160 It was chaos. It was Tahrir Square, January 2011. 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:36.079 Yeah. That's the absolute turning point. During 00:04:36.079 --> 00:04:39.019 the Egyptian revolution, things got violent very 00:04:39.019 --> 00:04:42.519 quickly. And Yusuf, Dr. Yusuf then, was physically 00:04:42.519 --> 00:04:44.879 there in the square using his medical skills, 00:04:45.060 --> 00:04:46.860 treating the wounded. So he saw it firsthand, 00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:50.300 the human cost. Directly. The immediate bloody 00:04:50.300 --> 00:04:52.959 reality of political upheaval. And that experience, 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:55.420 it seems, provided the unavoidable context for 00:04:55.420 --> 00:04:57.120 saying, OK, I need to do something else. It wasn't 00:04:57.120 --> 00:04:58.699 just about patching people up anymore. He saw 00:04:58.699 --> 00:05:01.079 the bigger sickness was political. Exactly. Maybe 00:05:01.079 --> 00:05:03.730 he felt that ethical duty shifted. Fixing the 00:05:03.730 --> 00:05:05.689 physical wounds wasn't addressing the root cause. 00:05:05.930 --> 00:05:07.470 That needed a different kind of intervention. 00:05:07.829 --> 00:05:10.990 And that intervention started improbably in his 00:05:10.990 --> 00:05:13.370 laundry room. Which brings us perfectly to section 00:05:13.370 --> 00:05:16.589 two, the breakthrough in Egypt. This is the rise 00:05:16.589 --> 00:05:19.550 and eventually the fall of his satire there, 00:05:19.670 --> 00:05:23.129 roughly 2011 to 2014. And yeah, the beginning 00:05:23.129 --> 00:05:26.009 is just wonderfully DIY. The ultimate accidental 00:05:26.009 --> 00:05:29.769 media mogul story, right? The B plus show. The 00:05:29.769 --> 00:05:31.850 idea apparently came from a friend, Tarek El 00:05:31.850 --> 00:05:34.009 -Khazaz. They were just watching the revolution 00:05:34.009 --> 00:05:36.730 unfold, frustrated with the official media coverage 00:05:36.730 --> 00:05:38.750 and thought, let's make our own. And the production 00:05:38.750 --> 00:05:42.329 values, or lack thereof, were key. Totally key. 00:05:42.389 --> 00:05:44.449 No fancy studio. He shot it in his own laundry 00:05:44.449 --> 00:05:47.329 room. One camera, the set, a table, a chair, 00:05:47.410 --> 00:05:49.670 and this homemade mural of photos from Tarrou 00:05:49.670 --> 00:05:52.480 Square that cost like... 100 bucks. Amazing. 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:55.439 Pure grassroots stuff bypassing all the gatekeepers. 00:05:55.560 --> 00:05:58.439 Completely. And the name, The B Plus Show, apparently 00:05:58.439 --> 00:06:00.639 named after his blood type, just adds to the 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:02.779 absurdity. Right. These were short, like five 00:06:02.779 --> 00:06:04.819 minute episodes uploaded straight to YouTube 00:06:04.819 --> 00:06:08.100 starting May 2011. Yep. Punchy, sharp, hitting 00:06:08.100 --> 00:06:10.600 hard. Using this platform, the regime couldn't 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:13.259 easily shut down, at least not initially. And 00:06:13.259 --> 00:06:16.100 it gave voice to so many Egyptians who felt ignored 00:06:16.100 --> 00:06:18.519 or misrepresented by traditional media. And the 00:06:18.519 --> 00:06:21.990 reaction. Did people notice? Notice. It exploded. 00:06:22.550 --> 00:06:24.649 Instantly. In just the first three months, it 00:06:24.649 --> 00:06:29.509 got over 5 million views. 5 million. Wow. Okay, 00:06:29.569 --> 00:06:32.470 that's serious traction. It showed this massive 00:06:32.470 --> 00:06:35.569 pent -up demand for critical voices, for humor, 00:06:35.709 --> 00:06:37.569 for someone just cutting through the official 00:06:37.569 --> 00:06:39.910 narratives about the revolution. It wasn't just 00:06:39.910 --> 00:06:42.829 a viral hit. It was like proof of concept. This 00:06:42.829 --> 00:06:46.009 guy had talent, he connected, and digital platforms 00:06:46.009 --> 00:06:48.370 could route around the old power structure. Absolutely. 00:06:48.889 --> 00:06:51.649 And that success, that massive online footprint, 00:06:51.870 --> 00:06:54.689 it couldn't be ignored by the old media. Which 00:06:54.689 --> 00:06:57.750 leads directly to the next phase. Al -Burnameg, 00:06:57.790 --> 00:06:59.949 the program. This is where it goes from laundry 00:06:59.949 --> 00:07:02.430 room to national spotlight. The first big internet 00:07:02.430 --> 00:07:04.730 to TV conversion in the region. That's right. 00:07:04.790 --> 00:07:07.709 The success was so undeniable that ONTV, owned 00:07:07.709 --> 00:07:10.490 by the Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, offered 00:07:10.490 --> 00:07:13.410 him a deal. A proper news satire show. And this 00:07:13.410 --> 00:07:14.970 is where he ditches the plans to move to the 00:07:14.970 --> 00:07:17.939 U .S. Exactly. He literally had plans, apparently, 00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:20.519 to move to Cleveland, Ohio to practice medicine. 00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:24.180 He scrapped them, signed the TV deal, became 00:07:24.180 --> 00:07:27.139 the first real YouTube star to make that leap 00:07:27.139 --> 00:07:29.500 to mainstream television in the entire Middle 00:07:29.500 --> 00:07:33.410 East. A huge moment. So, Al Burnamig. What was 00:07:33.410 --> 00:07:35.709 the scale like compared to the B -plus show? 00:07:35.970 --> 00:07:38.389 Oh, completely different league. It ran for 104 00:07:38.389 --> 00:07:41.410 episodes over three seasons. The initial budget 00:07:41.410 --> 00:07:43.410 was already significant, around half a million 00:07:43.410 --> 00:07:46.689 dollars, and it grew fast. And the format evolved, 00:07:46.850 --> 00:07:48.930 too. Yeah, it wasn't just him doing satirical 00:07:48.930 --> 00:07:50.689 monologues anymore. It became more like a variety 00:07:50.689 --> 00:07:53.269 show. He started hosting public figures, artists, 00:07:53.509 --> 00:07:56.389 musicians, diving into cultural issues alongside 00:07:56.389 --> 00:07:59.370 the politics. Much broader scope. And the production 00:07:59.370 --> 00:08:01.850 itself got bigger. They moved studios. They did. 00:08:01.949 --> 00:08:04.420 They started... in on tv's smallest studio apparently 00:08:04.420 --> 00:08:07.279 but the show got so huge they moved to the beautifully 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:10.120 restored radio theater in downtown cairo the 00:08:10.120 --> 00:08:13.399 radio theater that sounds impressive it was and 00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:15.620 it meant al burn mick became the first show in 00:08:15.620 --> 00:08:17.600 egypt to be taped in front of a live audience 00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:21.540 imagine that energy it wasn't just tv it felt 00:08:21.540 --> 00:08:24.459 like a weekly event a gathering point for dissent 00:08:24.459 --> 00:08:27.100 and laughter the numbers must have been incredible 00:08:27.100 --> 00:08:30.790 almost unbelievable honestly The show's commercial 00:08:30.790 --> 00:08:34.129 value reportedly increased eight times in just 00:08:34.129 --> 00:08:37.730 one year. Viewership. Forget about it. 40 million 00:08:37.730 --> 00:08:40.289 people watching on TV regularly. 40 million. 00:08:40.549 --> 00:08:43.269 In Egypt. Yeah. And the second season alone got 00:08:43.269 --> 00:08:46.970 over 184 million views combined on YouTube. His 00:08:46.970 --> 00:08:48.730 YouTube channel, by the way, was the first in 00:08:48.730 --> 00:08:50.649 the whole Middle East and North Africa region 00:08:50.649 --> 00:08:53.169 to hit a million subscribers. Got the gold play 00:08:53.169 --> 00:08:55.129 button and everything. So he wasn't just popular. 00:08:55.169 --> 00:08:57.960 He was defining the media landscape. creating 00:08:57.960 --> 00:09:00.399 this whole ecosystem around political comedy. 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:03.659 Totally. The B -plus show in al -Burnameg inspired 00:09:03.659 --> 00:09:06.519 tons of other people, amateur comedians, activists, 00:09:06.860 --> 00:09:09.379 to start their own social media channels, critiques, 00:09:09.379 --> 00:09:12.000 parodies. It really did feel like it democratized 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:14.360 political commentary in Egypt for a time. And 00:09:14.360 --> 00:09:16.320 this is when the international comparison started, 00:09:16.419 --> 00:09:19.070 especially with Jon Stewart. Exactly. Stewart 00:09:19.070 --> 00:09:21.610 himself was clearly watching and was very impressed. 00:09:21.970 --> 00:09:25.590 In June 2012, Yusuf flew to New York, was a guest 00:09:25.590 --> 00:09:28.629 on The Daily Show. Stewart praised Albernamik, 00:09:28.710 --> 00:09:31.929 called it sharp, smart, well -executed. High 00:09:31.929 --> 00:09:34.940 praise from the master. That's a massive endorsement. 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:37.799 Did Stewart ever appear on Yousef's show? He 00:09:37.799 --> 00:09:40.039 did. The connection went both ways. Stewart actually 00:09:40.039 --> 00:09:42.279 came to Cairo and was a guest on Al Burnameg 00:09:42.279 --> 00:09:45.580 in June 2013. That really cemented its status, 00:09:45.679 --> 00:09:48.759 didn't it? Not just a local hit, but a globally 00:09:48.759 --> 00:09:51.480 recognized platform. But doing this kind of sharp, 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:53.980 critical comedy, especially in a place like post 00:09:53.980 --> 00:09:55.779 -revolution Egypt where everything's unstable 00:09:55.779 --> 00:09:58.240 and power is shifting, that's inherently risky, 00:09:58.340 --> 00:10:00.720 right? Extremely risky. Which leads us straight 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:03.240 into the next part, section 2 .3. facing the 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:06.059 backlash the political heat and the legal challenges. 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:08.039 It sounds like he almost invited trouble from 00:10:08.039 --> 00:10:10.360 the start. Well, maybe unintentionally. In his 00:10:10.360 --> 00:10:13.600 very first season premiere on ONTV, he actually 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:16.539 parodied the channel's owner, Sarwirus, and some 00:10:16.539 --> 00:10:19.159 of his coworkers. His way of saying, hey, I have 00:10:19.159 --> 00:10:21.200 freedom of expression. Bold move. How did that 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:23.500 go down? Let's just say the political climate 00:10:23.500 --> 00:10:25.860 wasn't really conducive to that level of freedom 00:10:25.860 --> 00:10:29.059 for long. The pushback started fast. Okay. Just 00:10:29.059 --> 00:10:31.220 three episodes into his second season, when he'd 00:10:31.220 --> 00:10:33.899 moved to a different channel, CBC, the lawsuits 00:10:33.899 --> 00:10:36.139 began. And these weren't trivial complaints. 00:10:36.620 --> 00:10:38.940 What were the charges? Really serious stuff. 00:10:39.940 --> 00:10:43.299 Insulting Islam. Insulting the president at the 00:10:43.299 --> 00:10:46.500 time, Mohamed Morsi. Disrupting public order 00:10:46.500 --> 00:10:49.120 and peace. Basically, they used religion and 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:51.220 national security as weapons to try and shut 00:10:51.220 --> 00:10:53.860 him down. Standard authoritarian playbook, sadly. 00:10:54.039 --> 00:10:56.860 Did it escalate? Oh, yeah. Big time. In March 00:10:56.860 --> 00:10:59.080 2013, he was officially put under investigation 00:10:59.080 --> 00:11:01.820 for circulating false news likely to disturb 00:11:01.820 --> 00:11:05.240 public peace. And then the big one. An arrest 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:08.080 warrant was issued. An arrest warrant. For a 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:10.299 comedian. For allegedly insulting Islam and President 00:11:10.299 --> 00:11:12.600 Morsi. The state was making a very clear move 00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:15.399 to silence its most popular critic. How did Yousef 00:11:15.399 --> 00:11:17.539 react to the warrant? That must have been terrifying. 00:11:17.860 --> 00:11:20.779 His reaction was classic Bassem Yousef. Instead 00:11:20.779 --> 00:11:23.899 of hiding, he went on Twitter. And he joked about 00:11:23.899 --> 00:11:26.360 it. He tweeted something like, Unless they kindly 00:11:26.360 --> 00:11:29.080 send a police van today and save me the transportation 00:11:29.080 --> 00:11:33.240 hassle. Huh. That's gutsy. Defiant humor. Totally. 00:11:33.340 --> 00:11:35.500 And that tweet just exploded internationally, 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:38.700 drew massive media attention to his situation. 00:11:39.059 --> 00:11:41.220 So what happened? Did they arrest him? He turned 00:11:41.220 --> 00:11:43.539 himself in the next day, went in for questioning, 00:11:43.659 --> 00:11:46.740 and was eventually released on bail, 15 ,000 00:11:46.740 --> 00:11:49.440 Egyptian pounds. But the whole incident shone 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:52.179 a huge spotlight on the situation, got international 00:11:52.179 --> 00:11:55.259 support, including very publicly from Jon Stewart 00:11:55.259 --> 00:11:57.860 again. It really cemented Youssef as the symbol 00:11:57.860 --> 00:12:00.379 of free speech under pressure in the Middle East. 00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:02.879 And he wasn't just doing the TV show right. He 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:04.700 was writing, too. That's right. He had a weekly 00:12:04.700 --> 00:12:06.659 column in Al -Sharouk, an independent newspaper. 00:12:07.259 --> 00:12:09.159 And he used that platform to push boundaries 00:12:09.159 --> 00:12:12.799 even further. He tackled really sensitive taboo 00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:16.200 subjects head on, things like atheism. He even 00:12:16.200 --> 00:12:18.539 questioned the widely held view in conservative 00:12:18.539 --> 00:12:22.000 circles that leaving Islam apostasy should be 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:25.179 a crime punishable by death. He was poking the 00:12:25.179 --> 00:12:28.220 bear on every front, political, social, religious. 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:31.179 Fearless. But there was also an incident that 00:12:31.179 --> 00:12:33.080 damaged his credibility somewhat, wasn't there? 00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:35.860 The plagiarism accusation. Yes, that's important 00:12:35.860 --> 00:12:39.559 context, too. In March 2014, this came up. He 00:12:39.559 --> 00:12:42.340 published an article about Russia in his Al -Sharouk 00:12:42.340 --> 00:12:45.500 column. And pretty quickly, people online, especially 00:12:45.500 --> 00:12:48.100 on Twitter, noticed it was very, very similar 00:12:48.100 --> 00:12:50.440 to an article by a British writer, Ben Judah. 00:12:50.740 --> 00:12:53.159 Ouch. That's not good for a commentator. Not 00:12:53.159 --> 00:12:55.539 at all. He did issue an apology quite quickly 00:12:55.539 --> 00:12:57.519 in the newspaper, admitting he hadn't cited his 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:00.139 references properly. But in that supercharged, 00:13:00.360 --> 00:13:02.519 polarized environment... His opponents jumped 00:13:02.519 --> 00:13:04.980 all over it. Immediately. The state -backed media 00:13:04.980 --> 00:13:07.259 used it relentlessly to try and paint him as 00:13:07.259 --> 00:13:09.840 unethical, undermine his credibility. It was 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:11.820 a genuine mistake, it seems, but it showed how 00:13:11.820 --> 00:13:14.179 any slip -up could be weaponized against a powerful 00:13:14.179 --> 00:13:17.120 critic. The standard he was held to was impossibly 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:20.029 high. That fragility. That constant pressure, 00:13:20.169 --> 00:13:22.429 it sets the stage for the next dramatic turn, 00:13:22.529 --> 00:13:25.269 doesn't it? Section three, the political paradox 00:13:25.269 --> 00:13:29.649 and emigration. This is 2013, 2014. Things get 00:13:29.649 --> 00:13:32.289 even more complicated. Absolutely. This period 00:13:32.289 --> 00:13:34.450 is crucial for understanding his whole trajectory 00:13:34.450 --> 00:13:37.169 because his stance during and after the coup 00:13:37.169 --> 00:13:40.210 wasn't simple at all. OK, let's unpack that. 00:13:41.019 --> 00:13:44.000 2013, the military steps in. President Morsi 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:47.179 is ousted in a coup d 'etat. What did Youssef 00:13:47.179 --> 00:13:49.899 do when al -Bernabé came back on air? He did 00:13:49.899 --> 00:13:52.279 something incredibly brave or perhaps reckless, 00:13:52.539 --> 00:13:55.039 depending on your view. He didn't just keep criticizing 00:13:55.039 --> 00:13:57.299 the ousted Morsi administration, which would 00:13:57.299 --> 00:13:59.980 have been safe. He also started criticizing the 00:13:59.980 --> 00:14:02.659 massive wave of popular adoration for the new 00:14:02.659 --> 00:14:05.700 military leader, Abdel Fattah el -Sisi, who was 00:14:05.700 --> 00:14:08.049 then the defense minister. So he went after both 00:14:08.049 --> 00:14:10.409 sides, the Islamists and the military figure 00:14:10.409 --> 00:14:12.669 who was becoming a national hero. Exactly, which 00:14:12.669 --> 00:14:14.750 put him in an incredibly precarious position. 00:14:14.929 --> 00:14:17.110 He was alienating almost everyone with power. 00:14:17.389 --> 00:14:19.330 But, and this is the really complex part, right? 00:14:19.370 --> 00:14:21.250 Wasn't he actually supportive of the coup initially? 00:14:21.590 --> 00:14:24.649 Yes, and this is critical. Sources show he was, 00:14:24.850 --> 00:14:27.409 initially, a consistent and vocal supporter of 00:14:27.409 --> 00:14:29.509 the military intervention that removed Morsi. 00:14:29.629 --> 00:14:32.590 He even said publicly he was very glad it happened. 00:14:32.730 --> 00:14:35.309 He supported the coup and the media clampdown 00:14:35.309 --> 00:14:37.929 that came with it at first. Why? What was his 00:14:37.929 --> 00:14:40.529 reasoning? His opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood, 00:14:40.570 --> 00:14:43.889 Morsi's party, was intense, extremely intense. 00:14:44.029 --> 00:14:46.889 He used very strong language, reportedly calling 00:14:46.889 --> 00:14:51.009 the MB the new form of Nazis. Wow, that's strong 00:14:51.009 --> 00:14:53.809 language. Very. And there's more. When security 00:14:53.809 --> 00:14:56.309 forces killed dozens of MB supporters during 00:14:56.309 --> 00:14:58.230 protests, he apparently tweeted something to 00:14:58.230 --> 00:15:01.009 the effect that it was blood for publicity, essentially 00:15:01.009 --> 00:15:03.190 blaming the Muslim Brotherhood itself for the 00:15:03.190 --> 00:15:05.509 deaths. OK, that's a tough position to square 00:15:05.509 --> 00:15:08.000 with being a pure free speech advocate. How do 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:09.940 we understand that? Well, some analysis like 00:15:09.940 --> 00:15:11.960 Max Fisher writing for Vox at the time suggested 00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:14.879 that Yousef's rhetoric by framing Egyptians who 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:17.159 supported the Islamist government as internal 00:15:17.159 --> 00:15:19.860 enemies actually contributed to the dangerous 00:15:19.860 --> 00:15:22.000 polarization that was happening. It wasn't just 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:24.299 criticizing policy. It was arguably vilifying 00:15:24.299 --> 00:15:26.779 a segment of the population. So he supported 00:15:26.779 --> 00:15:30.539 the coup that removed one perceived threat, the 00:15:30.539 --> 00:15:33.259 Islamists. Right. But then almost immediately, 00:15:33.299 --> 00:15:35.860 he couldn't stomach the idea of the new power. 00:15:36.350 --> 00:15:38.809 the military under Sisi, becoming untouchable. 00:15:39.049 --> 00:15:41.429 He started applying the same satirical critique 00:15:41.429 --> 00:15:44.049 to them. He refused to accept a new strongman, 00:15:44.190 --> 00:15:46.649 even one he'd initially welcomed as an alternative. 00:15:46.909 --> 00:15:49.629 That uncompromising demand for accountability 00:15:49.629 --> 00:15:52.350 no matter who was in charge. That's what ultimately 00:15:52.350 --> 00:15:55.110 did him in, professionally speaking. It seems 00:15:55.110 --> 00:15:58.769 so. The TV network, CBC, clearly felt the political 00:15:58.769 --> 00:16:02.049 winds shift. Sisi was becoming incredibly popular, 00:16:02.110 --> 00:16:04.769 almost deified. They couldn't tolerate Youssef's 00:16:04.769 --> 00:16:06.950 criticism of the military anymore. They issued 00:16:06.950 --> 00:16:09.289 a statement distancing themselves and then, boom, 00:16:09.429 --> 00:16:11.789 terminated his contract. Censorship, plain and 00:16:11.789 --> 00:16:14.389 simple. Pretty much. And the legal pressure ramped 00:16:14.389 --> 00:16:17.470 up again, instantly. Over 30 new complaints filed 00:16:17.470 --> 00:16:19.070 against him. What were the charges this time? 00:16:19.389 --> 00:16:21.610 Now it was about insulting the Egyptian armed 00:16:21.610 --> 00:16:24.470 forces, the military itself, and insulting the 00:16:24.470 --> 00:16:27.769 interim president, Adly Mansour, and crucially, 00:16:27.809 --> 00:16:30.470 for describing the June 30th protests, which 00:16:30.470 --> 00:16:32.990 the state narrative framed as a purely popular 00:16:32.990 --> 00:16:36.090 uprising, as a military coup. That framing was 00:16:36.090 --> 00:16:38.809 completely unacceptable to the new regime. But 00:16:38.809 --> 00:16:40.980 he didn't stop even then. He moved the show again. 00:16:41.120 --> 00:16:43.840 Briefly, yeah. He managed to get Al Burnameg 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:47.639 picked up by NBC, MASR, another channel in early 00:16:47.639 --> 00:16:50.480 2014. And what did he do? He doubled down. Oh. 00:16:50.600 --> 00:16:53.080 He went after this bizarre claim the Egyptian 00:16:53.080 --> 00:16:55.120 military was making at the time that they had 00:16:55.120 --> 00:16:57.679 invented miracle devices that could cure hepatitis 00:16:57.679 --> 00:17:00.559 C and even AIDS. Seriously. The military was 00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:03.000 claiming that. Yes. And Yusuf just mercilessly 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:06.000 mocked it, used his comedy to expose how absurd 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:08.440 and potentially dangerous it was for the military 00:17:08.440 --> 00:17:10.849 to be making these suits. scientific health claims. 00:17:10.970 --> 00:17:13.069 That must have been the last straw. It absolutely 00:17:13.069 --> 00:17:16.049 was. Mocking the military's prestige, their supposed 00:17:16.049 --> 00:17:19.549 scientific prowess. That was unforgivable. The 00:17:19.549 --> 00:17:21.990 show was pulled off the air permanently in June 00:17:21.990 --> 00:17:25.369 2014. Yousef himself said later it was just too 00:17:25.369 --> 00:17:28.309 dangerous. The political climate made continuing 00:17:28.309 --> 00:17:31.890 impossible. Satire had hit a wall in Sisi's Egypt. 00:17:32.170 --> 00:17:34.190 And the state made sure he knew the game was 00:17:34.190 --> 00:17:39.000 over. Which takes us to section 3 .2. Exile and 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:41.140 the legal fallout. Yeah, the harassment wasn't 00:17:41.140 --> 00:17:43.420 subtle. Once the show was finally canceled for 00:17:43.420 --> 00:17:46.019 good, the Egyptian police, now firmly under Sisi's 00:17:46.019 --> 00:17:48.700 control, raided the offices of the show's production 00:17:48.700 --> 00:17:52.059 company. Arrested employees, confiscated computers. 00:17:52.279 --> 00:17:55.420 It was a clear message. We can get to you. We 00:17:55.420 --> 00:17:57.279 can get to your people. Pure intimidation. And 00:17:57.279 --> 00:17:59.299 targeted intimidation. The police apparently 00:17:59.299 --> 00:18:01.819 told the show's producer, Amr Ismail, directly. 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:04.599 This harassment won't stop if Bassam keeps speaking 00:18:04.599 --> 00:18:06.819 out, even at international conferences. They 00:18:06.819 --> 00:18:09.500 wanted total silence, domestic and global. So 00:18:09.500 --> 00:18:11.339 what did Yusuf do? He saw the writing on the 00:18:11.339 --> 00:18:13.660 wall. He knew arrest was likely inevitable if 00:18:13.660 --> 00:18:15.500 he stayed. Any voice of dissent was being crushed. 00:18:15.779 --> 00:18:18.619 So he fled. Left Egypt for Dubai on November 00:18:18.619 --> 00:18:22.359 11, 2014. And he hasn't been back. No. He's been 00:18:22.359 --> 00:18:25.450 very clear. He refuses to return to Egypt as 00:18:25.450 --> 00:18:29.329 long as Abdel Fattah el -Sisi is in power. Exile 00:18:29.329 --> 00:18:31.769 became his reality. Did the legal troubles follow 00:18:31.769 --> 00:18:34.609 him? They tried to make them. The Egyptian courts 00:18:34.609 --> 00:18:37.670 hit him with this enormous fine, 50 million Egyptian 00:18:37.670 --> 00:18:40.970 pounds, related to the broken contract with CBC. 00:18:41.250 --> 00:18:43.849 50 million pounds. That's a fortune. Yeah. Tens 00:18:43.849 --> 00:18:45.690 of millions of dollars. Exactly. It looked like 00:18:45.690 --> 00:18:48.430 an attempt to cripple him financially, even in 00:18:48.430 --> 00:18:51.220 exile. Was he forced to pay it? Fortunately for 00:18:51.220 --> 00:18:53.720 him, that specific judgment was eventually overturned 00:18:53.720 --> 00:18:56.240 by a higher court, the Court of Cassation, in 00:18:56.240 --> 00:19:00.059 2018. But the initial message was stark. Criticizing 00:19:00.059 --> 00:19:01.839 the regime would cost you your freedom, your 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:04.160 career, and potentially your financial future. 00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:06.960 The surgeon who relied on precision had to make 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:09.279 a very precise escape. And that escape didn't 00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:11.140 lead to silence. It led to a whole new chapter, 00:19:11.319 --> 00:19:14.640 Section 4, the American chapter, from 2015 onwards. 00:19:14.940 --> 00:19:17.000 He arrives in the U .S. not just as a comedian, 00:19:17.140 --> 00:19:19.920 but as something more. Definitely. He landed 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:22.079 on his feet, intellectually speaking, almost 00:19:22.079 --> 00:19:25.819 immediately. Spring 2015, he's appointed a resident 00:19:25.819 --> 00:19:28.720 fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics, 00:19:29.019 --> 00:19:31.839 the IOP at the Kennedy School. Harvard. That's 00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:34.400 a pretty prestigious landing pad. It showed that 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:37.539 top institutions recognize the value of his unique 00:19:37.539 --> 00:19:39.839 lived experience. He wasn't just talking about 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:42.160 political pressure. He'd survived it. And he 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:45.349 continued that academic path. He did. Fall 2016, 00:19:45.690 --> 00:19:48.450 he moved to the West Coast, visiting scholar 00:19:48.450 --> 00:19:50.849 at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, 00:19:51.150 --> 00:19:53.869 Development and the Rule of Law, CDDRL, they 00:19:53.869 --> 00:19:56.430 call it. And what was he researching there? Fittingly, 00:19:56.430 --> 00:19:58.569 he was researching the very topic that defined 00:19:58.569 --> 00:20:01.890 his career and exile, political satire and its 00:20:01.890 --> 00:20:04.349 role in disrupting political, social and religious 00:20:04.349 --> 00:20:06.670 taboos. So he was basically studying himself 00:20:06.670 --> 00:20:08.970 in a way, analyzing his own story through an 00:20:08.970 --> 00:20:12.009 academic lens. Kind of, yeah. Using his own chaotic 00:20:12.009 --> 00:20:14.279 high stakes history. as a case study, applying 00:20:14.279 --> 00:20:16.640 that surgeon's precision maybe to dissect why 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:19.859 satire works when it fails and exactly how political 00:20:19.859 --> 00:20:22.500 systems react to being mocked, why they sometimes 00:20:22.500 --> 00:20:24.759 need to crush humor. But he wasn't just hidden 00:20:24.759 --> 00:20:27.019 away in academia. He stayed visible in entertainment, 00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:31.299 too. Oh, yeah. November 2015, he hosts the 43rd 00:20:31.299 --> 00:20:34.240 International Emmy Awards in New York City. Still 00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:36.839 playing on that global stage. And his own story 00:20:36.839 --> 00:20:39.019 became a subject itself, right? The documentary. 00:20:39.339 --> 00:20:42.240 Exactly. Tickling Giants, the documentary about 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:44.660 his life and his time doing Al Burnameg, came 00:20:44.660 --> 00:20:47.579 out in 2017. It was directed by Sarah Taxler, 00:20:47.640 --> 00:20:49.420 who used to be a producer on The Daily Show. 00:20:49.640 --> 00:20:51.680 Ah, the Jon Stewart connection again? Right. 00:20:51.859 --> 00:20:55.839 That film really brought his story, the triumphs, 00:20:55.839 --> 00:20:59.029 the threats, the sheer danger. to a much wider 00:20:59.029 --> 00:21:01.490 international audience, showed people what it 00:21:01.490 --> 00:21:03.630 really meant to be a satirist under that kind 00:21:03.630 --> 00:21:05.730 of authoritarian pressure. He also wrote a book 00:21:05.730 --> 00:21:07.819 around that time. Yep. Revolution for Dummies, 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:10.720 Laughing Through the Arab Spring, also 2017. 00:21:10.980 --> 00:21:13.619 He was actively trying to translate the lessons 00:21:13.619 --> 00:21:17.000 of that period, both the successes and the, well, 00:21:17.079 --> 00:21:19.240 the failures of the Arab Spring for a Western 00:21:19.240 --> 00:21:21.759 audience that maybe only saw the headlines. Did 00:21:21.759 --> 00:21:23.819 he try to get back into satire about the U .S.? 00:21:23.819 --> 00:21:27.619 He did. In 2016, he developed a show called Democracy 00:21:27.619 --> 00:21:30.920 Handbook with Bassem Youssef. It was for Fusion's 00:21:30.920 --> 00:21:34.019 digital platform. And it was basically him applying 00:21:34.019 --> 00:21:36.819 that same critical lens he'd honed. in Egypt. 00:21:37.690 --> 00:21:40.410 you know, dissecting absurd political claims 00:21:40.410 --> 00:21:42.809 and hypocrisy, but turning it on to American 00:21:42.809 --> 00:21:45.849 politics. Oh, there you go. It was smart, but 00:21:45.849 --> 00:21:47.910 maybe didn't find the massive audience Albert 00:21:47.910 --> 00:21:50.670 and Mick had. It seems like after that, he pivoted 00:21:50.670 --> 00:21:52.650 again, diversifying his work in the U .S. quite 00:21:52.650 --> 00:21:55.230 a bit. Into acting. Yeah, increasingly into acting 00:21:55.230 --> 00:21:57.049 and voice acting, which is interesting. He's 00:21:57.049 --> 00:21:59.509 done voice work for animated shows like DuckTales 00:21:59.509 --> 00:22:02.369 and Apple and Onion, and he's had noticeable 00:22:02.369 --> 00:22:04.990 live action roles in some really well -regarded 00:22:04.990 --> 00:22:10.410 shows. Mo, Raimi. Special Ops, Lioness, Upload. 00:22:10.410 --> 00:22:12.650 That's quite a range. Does it suggest maybe political 00:22:12.650 --> 00:22:14.769 commentary in the U .S. was harder to break into 00:22:14.769 --> 00:22:16.809 or maybe just less appealing after his Egyptian 00:22:16.809 --> 00:22:19.509 experience? Could be either or both. Yeah. Maybe 00:22:19.509 --> 00:22:22.210 finding safer, different creative outlets felt 00:22:22.210 --> 00:22:24.150 necessary after everything he'd been through. 00:22:24.309 --> 00:22:26.109 It definitely shows his adaptability, though. 00:22:26.230 --> 00:22:28.710 Okay. Before we get to his most recent, very 00:22:28.710 --> 00:22:30.670 high -profile resurgence, let's just quickly 00:22:30.670 --> 00:22:32.569 ground things personally. He's settled in the 00:22:32.569 --> 00:22:36.039 U .S. now. Yes. He married Hala Diab back in 00:22:36.039 --> 00:22:38.279 2010. They have two children. They live in Los 00:22:38.279 --> 00:22:40.960 Angeles. And importantly, he became a naturalized 00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:43.779 U .S. citizen in 2019. Right. And there's a crucial 00:22:43.779 --> 00:22:45.660 detail about his wife's background, isn't there? 00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:47.779 One that connects directly to his current advocacy. 00:22:48.140 --> 00:22:51.990 Yes. Absolutely vital context. His wife, Hala, 00:22:52.130 --> 00:22:55.289 is half Egyptian and half Palestinian. Her family 00:22:55.289 --> 00:22:57.250 has a direct personal history with the Israeli 00:22:57.250 --> 00:22:59.970 -Palestinian conflict. They were displaced from 00:22:59.970 --> 00:23:02.950 Ramla, which is now in Israel, to the Gaza Strip 00:23:02.950 --> 00:23:05.849 during the 1948 Arab -Israeli War, what Palestinians 00:23:05.849 --> 00:23:08.490 call the Nakba, the catastrophe. So for him, 00:23:08.509 --> 00:23:11.089 the Palestinian issue isn't just abstract politics, 00:23:11.369 --> 00:23:14.160 it's... Family history. It's personal. Deeply 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:15.859 personal. And that brings us right up to the 00:23:15.859 --> 00:23:18.920 present. Section five, global advocacy and viral 00:23:18.920 --> 00:23:22.259 influence, mainly from 2023 onwards. He went 00:23:22.259 --> 00:23:24.519 from relatively quiet acting work back into the 00:23:24.519 --> 00:23:27.079 global spotlight. Hard. And it really kicked 00:23:27.079 --> 00:23:28.680 off with that Piers Morgan interview, didn't 00:23:28.680 --> 00:23:32.420 it? October 2023. Instantly viral. The timing 00:23:32.420 --> 00:23:35.059 was critical. The world was reeling from the 00:23:35.059 --> 00:23:38.500 October 7th attacks by Hamas. And Israel's immediate 00:23:38.500 --> 00:23:41.380 intense military response in Gaza was just beginning. 00:23:42.220 --> 00:23:45.039 Yusuf appeared virtually on Piers Morgan Uncensored, 00:23:45.059 --> 00:23:47.740 and he just unleashed. Unleashed how? What was 00:23:47.740 --> 00:23:51.240 his approach? He went back to his roots. Satire. 00:23:51.240 --> 00:23:54.539 Full -on satirical mode. But this time he was 00:23:54.539 --> 00:23:56.420 using it to try and explain the complexities 00:23:56.420 --> 00:23:58.720 of the conflict, the history, the power dynamics 00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:01.339 to a Western audience that maybe wasn't getting 00:24:01.339 --> 00:24:03.859 the full picture. What was the core of his critique? 00:24:04.099 --> 00:24:06.599 He was scathing about the Israeli military tactics. 00:24:06.900 --> 00:24:09.039 But the killer blow, the line that went everywhere, 00:24:09.220 --> 00:24:11.619 was when he rhetorically asked how the West would 00:24:11.619 --> 00:24:14.079 be reacting if the exact same military actions 00:24:14.079 --> 00:24:15.940 happening in Gaza were being carried out by, 00:24:16.059 --> 00:24:18.980 say, Russian troops in Ukraine. Ah, drawing that 00:24:18.980 --> 00:24:20.809 direct comparison. Harrison, given the West's 00:24:20.809 --> 00:24:23.309 unified condemnation of Russia's invasion. Exactly. 00:24:23.410 --> 00:24:26.529 It was designed to expose perceived double standards 00:24:26.529 --> 00:24:28.710 and Western reactions to international conflicts. 00:24:28.930 --> 00:24:32.170 It was provocative, sharp and incredibly effective 00:24:32.170 --> 00:24:34.809 messaging for the social media age. And it worked. 00:24:34.930 --> 00:24:38.109 The interview got noticed. Noticed is an understatement. 00:24:38.109 --> 00:24:42.430 That clip absolutely exploded online. 17 million 00:24:42.430 --> 00:24:46.420 views in just five days. It became by far the 00:24:46.420 --> 00:24:49.079 most viewed video on Piers Morgan's channel at 00:24:49.079 --> 00:24:51.740 the time. Wow. So he proved his satirical skills 00:24:51.740 --> 00:24:54.460 translated perfectly from Arabic in Egypt to 00:24:54.460 --> 00:24:56.940 English on a global platform. Seamlessly. He 00:24:56.940 --> 00:24:59.220 showed he could still craft those incredibly 00:24:59.220 --> 00:25:01.599 potent, shareable sound bites that cut through 00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:03.900 the noise. But he went back on Morgan's show 00:25:03.900 --> 00:25:06.220 again, didn't he? In person this time. Was the 00:25:06.220 --> 00:25:08.460 tone different? Completely different. Yes. That 00:25:08.460 --> 00:25:11.400 was in November 2023. He came back for an in 00:25:11.400 --> 00:25:14.000 -person debate. And this time, as Morgan himself 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:17.259 noted, Yusuf mostly refrained from satire. So 00:25:17.259 --> 00:25:19.880 what was this focus then? It was a much more 00:25:19.880 --> 00:25:22.599 serious, intense discussion. They got deep into 00:25:22.599 --> 00:25:25.599 really thorny issues, anti -Semitism versus anti 00:25:25.599 --> 00:25:28.000 -Zionism, the historical roots of the conflict 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:30.480 going back decades. He showed he could switch 00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:33.039 gears, use that surgeon's precision for intellectual 00:25:33.039 --> 00:25:35.740 argument, not just comedic effect. It proved 00:25:35.740 --> 00:25:37.480 he wasn't just a funny guy. He was a serious 00:25:37.480 --> 00:25:39.220 thinker who lived through political extremes. 00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:41.460 And since those appearances, he's kept up the 00:25:41.460 --> 00:25:44.140 advocacy. Relentlessly, he's become arguably 00:25:44.140 --> 00:25:46.720 one of the most prominent voices offering a pro 00:25:46.720 --> 00:25:49.160 -Palestinian perspective and historical context 00:25:49.160 --> 00:25:51.940 in Western media. He's been on major platforms 00:25:51.940 --> 00:25:55.440 constantly, the PBD podcast, Lex Fridman's podcast, 00:25:55.980 --> 00:25:59.319 ABC News Australia, BBC's Hard Talk. He's really 00:25:59.319 --> 00:26:01.759 positioned himself as a key translator of the 00:26:01.759 --> 00:26:04.039 conflict for English -speaking audiences. Has 00:26:04.039 --> 00:26:06.460 this translated into specific political stances, 00:26:06.460 --> 00:26:09.660 say, in the U .S.? Yes. He made waves regarding 00:26:09.660 --> 00:26:12.980 the 2024 U .S. presidential election. He stated 00:26:12.980 --> 00:26:14.920 very clearly he didn't care if Donald Trump won, 00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:17.640 but he actively did not want President Joe Biden 00:26:17.640 --> 00:26:20.200 to be reelected. Why specifically Biden? What 00:26:20.200 --> 00:26:22.119 was his reasoning? It boiled down to one core 00:26:22.119 --> 00:26:24.259 issue for him, the handling of the Gaza war. 00:26:24.420 --> 00:26:27.220 His quote was direct. All we asked him Biden 00:26:27.220 --> 00:26:29.779 for was a ceasefire. Stop the killing. Stop the 00:26:29.779 --> 00:26:32.259 killing. So connecting his advocacy directly 00:26:32.259 --> 00:26:34.900 to U .S. electoral politics, seeing the lack 00:26:34.900 --> 00:26:37.500 of a ceasefire as a disqualifying issue for Biden's 00:26:37.500 --> 00:26:40.319 presidency. Pretty much. It reflects that perspective 00:26:40.319 --> 00:26:42.380 of someone who's seen the human cost of political 00:26:42.380 --> 00:26:45.660 decisions up close. For him, the immediate humanitarian 00:26:45.660 --> 00:26:48.720 demand, stop the killing, outweighed other political 00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:51.460 calculations like the lesser of two evils argument. 00:26:51.720 --> 00:26:54.319 It's a stark ethical position. Has his renewed 00:26:54.319 --> 00:26:56.420 prominence led to any other forms of recognition 00:26:56.420 --> 00:27:00.039 or activity? Yes, quite a bit. Echoing those 00:27:00.039 --> 00:27:02.839 accolades from 2013, he's been active and recognized 00:27:02.839 --> 00:27:06.140 again. He signed the Artists for Ceasefire open 00:27:06.140 --> 00:27:09.920 letter back in October 2023. Then in May 2024, 00:27:10.519 --> 00:27:12.859 Trinity College Dublin awarded him their gold 00:27:12.859 --> 00:27:15.099 medal for outstanding contribution to public 00:27:15.099 --> 00:27:17.000 discourse. And he's getting involved in building 00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:20.039 new media platforms, too. Right. In April 2024, 00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:22.660 he teamed up with Mehdi Hassan, another journalist 00:27:22.660 --> 00:27:25.099 known for sharp critique, at Hassan's new media 00:27:25.099 --> 00:27:28.539 company, Zeteo. Yusuf is co -hosting a podcast 00:27:28.539 --> 00:27:31.259 called We're Not Kidding. Interesting. Seems 00:27:31.259 --> 00:27:33.099 like he's trying to build spaces for the kind 00:27:33.099 --> 00:27:35.299 of independent commentary that got him exiled 00:27:35.299 --> 00:27:38.059 from Egypt, but this time in the West. That seems 00:27:38.059 --> 00:27:39.960 like a fair reading. Having experienced the vulnerability 00:27:39.960 --> 00:27:42.480 of relying on established media that can bow 00:27:42.480 --> 00:27:44.539 to political pressure, maybe he's focused on 00:27:44.539 --> 00:27:47.200 building something more protected, more independent. 00:27:47.519 --> 00:27:49.559 And his commitment extends to his acting work 00:27:49.559 --> 00:27:54.099 as well. Apparently so. In September 2025, note, 00:27:54.319 --> 00:27:58.140 outline date likely meant 2024 or earlier, he 00:27:58.140 --> 00:28:00.359 reportedly signed the film workers for Palestine 00:28:00.359 --> 00:28:03.640 Open Pledge. That pledge commits signatories 00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:06.000 to not working with Israeli film institutions 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:09.680 that they deem implicated in genocide and apartheid. 00:28:09.700 --> 00:28:12.180 So carrying his political convictions right into 00:28:12.180 --> 00:28:13.799 his professional choices in the entertainment 00:28:13.799 --> 00:28:16.680 industry. No separation. It demonstrates a real 00:28:16.680 --> 00:28:19.099 consistency, applying his beliefs across the 00:28:19.099 --> 00:28:22.619 board. Art and activism deeply intertwined. Okay. 00:28:22.779 --> 00:28:24.720 We've covered an incredible amount of ground. 00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:27.920 The surgeon, the reluctant activist, the superstar 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:30.559 satirist, the exile, the academic, the actor, 00:28:30.660 --> 00:28:33.420 and now this global advocate. It's time to try 00:28:33.420 --> 00:28:36.599 and make sense of it all. Section six. So what 00:28:36.599 --> 00:28:38.880 does this all mean? For me, the thing that just 00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:41.140 keeps resonating is that central paradox we started 00:28:41.140 --> 00:28:44.220 with. The guy trained for meticulous, life -saving 00:28:44.220 --> 00:28:47.039 precision in surgery and then chose this path 00:28:47.039 --> 00:28:50.200 of maximum political risk. He gave up a life 00:28:50.200 --> 00:28:53.319 of real comfort, security, prestige in Cairo, 00:28:53.339 --> 00:28:56.680 a life healing tangible wounds for the completely 00:28:56.680 --> 00:29:00.039 unpredictable, dangerous path of political commentary. 00:29:00.299 --> 00:29:02.759 It's extraordinary. And his adaptability is just 00:29:02.759 --> 00:29:06.029 undeniable, isn't it? how he took that very specific 00:29:06.029 --> 00:29:08.950 local critique he was doing in Arabic during 00:29:08.950 --> 00:29:12.210 the revolution and then pivoted to deliver the 00:29:12.210 --> 00:29:14.569 sophisticated, often still funny, but deeply 00:29:14.569 --> 00:29:17.470 serious global commentary in English about Gaza, 00:29:17.609 --> 00:29:20.150 about U .S. politics, about global power dynamics. 00:29:20.549 --> 00:29:23.490 He proved that the core method of satire, the 00:29:23.490 --> 00:29:26.269 dissection, the finding hypocrisy, the ridicule 00:29:26.269 --> 00:29:28.529 that works anywhere, the language changes, the 00:29:28.529 --> 00:29:31.589 context changes, but the tool is universal. And 00:29:31.589 --> 00:29:33.069 we have to circle back to how he got started. 00:29:33.319 --> 00:29:36.109 the Internet YouTube. That B -plus show. It's 00:29:36.109 --> 00:29:38.089 such a powerful example of how independent digital 00:29:38.089 --> 00:29:40.309 media can just bypass everything. Absolutely. 00:29:40.609 --> 00:29:43.049 The speed at which YouTube launched him from 00:29:43.049 --> 00:29:46.769 total obscurity to national then regional fame. 00:29:47.390 --> 00:29:50.130 It shows how those platforms could, at least 00:29:50.130 --> 00:29:52.710 for a time, break the stranglehold of state media. 00:29:53.009 --> 00:29:55.710 His whole career is basically a case study in 00:29:55.710 --> 00:29:58.250 how one person, armed with wit and a webcam, 00:29:58.609 --> 00:30:01.690 could challenge powerful regimes. Not just one, 00:30:01.829 --> 00:30:04.599 but two, Morsi's government and... Sisi's military 00:30:04.599 --> 00:30:07.700 state. And even after being forced out, he finds 00:30:07.700 --> 00:30:10.779 a way to remain relevant, to keep provoking debate 00:30:10.779 --> 00:30:13.599 on a global scale. It really validates the idea 00:30:13.599 --> 00:30:16.099 that laughter, satire can be a revolutionary 00:30:16.099 --> 00:30:18.640 force, even if, as happened to him, the revolution 00:30:18.640 --> 00:30:20.900 eventually eats its own comedians. His story 00:30:20.900 --> 00:30:22.839 definitely forces you to think about the real 00:30:22.839 --> 00:30:25.140 cost of speaking truth to power. Constantly. 00:30:25.279 --> 00:30:27.200 Okay, so to wrap up this deep dive, we want to 00:30:27.200 --> 00:30:29.299 leave you, the listener, with a final thought 00:30:29.299 --> 00:30:31.660 to chew on. a provocative question building on 00:30:31.660 --> 00:30:33.380 everything we've discussed about Bassem Youssef's 00:30:33.380 --> 00:30:35.980 journey, given his direct experience being censored, 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:38.859 threatened, ultimately exiled, after he criticized 00:30:38.859 --> 00:30:41.420 both an Islamist regime and a military dictatorship. 00:30:43.019 --> 00:30:45.059 What really is the fundamental difference between 00:30:45.059 --> 00:30:47.200 doing political satire in a place like that, 00:30:47.299 --> 00:30:50.559 a volatile autocracy where the consequences are 00:30:50.559 --> 00:30:53.200 immediate and physical. Right. Jail, exile. Versus 00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:55.460 trying to do it in a place like the United States, 00:30:55.599 --> 00:30:58.440 a system that's nominally democratic but intensely 00:30:58.440 --> 00:31:00.960 polarized. Think about it. In Egypt, crossing 00:31:00.960 --> 00:31:03.539 the line meant police raids, arrest warrants, 00:31:03.599 --> 00:31:06.140 fleeing the country. In the West, crossing a 00:31:06.140 --> 00:31:08.619 line, especially online, often means facing cancellation, 00:31:09.119 --> 00:31:11.559 getting deplatformed, maybe losing sponsors or 00:31:11.559 --> 00:31:13.200 just getting dragged. ground out in the sheer 00:31:13.200 --> 00:31:16.319 noise and outrage from opposing sides. So the 00:31:16.319 --> 00:31:19.259 question is, where does effective free expression 00:31:19.259 --> 00:31:21.900 face the bigger challenge today? Which kind of 00:31:21.900 --> 00:31:24.220 pressure is ultimately harder for truth or even 00:31:24.220 --> 00:31:28.119 just critical satire to survive? Is it the autocrat's 00:31:28.119 --> 00:31:30.859 fist, that immediate violent threat? Or is it 00:31:30.859 --> 00:31:33.880 the slow grind of polarized outrage, algorithmic 00:31:33.880 --> 00:31:36.160 suppression, and maybe institutional capture 00:31:36.160 --> 00:31:38.980 in a democracy? That's the question Bassem Youssef's 00:31:38.980 --> 00:31:42.180 life forces us to grapple with. Where are the 00:31:42.180 --> 00:31:44.799 real boundaries and the real dangers for free 00:31:44.799 --> 00:31:45.619 expression now?