Everybody grows up with comedy. I mean, Egyptian comedy has a very, very old tradition. Our theater and our movies are just, like, amazing.
BASSEM YOUSSEF
BASSEM YOUSSEF
Bassem Youssef on growing
“Everybody grows up with comedy. I mean, Egyptian comedy has a very, very old tradition. Our theater and our movies are just, like, amazing.”
More Bassem Youssef quotes
This transcends any kind of religion and any kind of belief. This is actually an offense and attack on human values. He’s just saying out there I will shoot people in the face and people wouldn’t care.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef I always tell people that a revolution is not an event, it’s a process. It is a struggle. And it doesn’t usually go smoothly.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef We have Internet now and people are not stupid. But it seems that some people are trying to push the same agenda of the Cold War of conspiracy theories and amazing achievements that are very easily traced and validated.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef People would believe propagate, spread rumors or conspiracy theories in order to protect their own system of denial.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef People went out there and they wrote articles and went on television shows saying that I am an operative that the CIA who used Jon Stewart to recruit me. So Jon Stewart, who actually – a guy from America was used by the CIA in order to recruit me for the CIA and be.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef There are people who believe in Egypt that I – I’m actually – I’m getting paid by external powers and external intelligence entities in order to use satire to bring down the government.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef What I saw day-to-day is like people who are actually asking for freedom, calling for freedom – protesting, singing, chanting, calling for the removal of the regime – plain and simple.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef Egypt is kind of like the Hollywood of the Middle East. I mean, we had cinema maybe decades before the other Arab countries ever got independence.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef Satire has its limits. It is really up to the people to make the change. The satirist’s role ends at the screen.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef And of course there were clashes there because people, they tried to remove those protesters from Tahrir. And I was, like, doing my job as a doctor treating them.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef It is very difficult to imagine that you can actually get rid of a dictatorship that has been there for 60 years only in 18 days.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef It doesn’t matter if the truth is right there out in front of your eyes. You will find a way, a mechanism, in order to keep your own system of denial. So as I always say it, denial is a river that runs in the – in Egypt. So we became very good in that.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef I was accused of insulting the president, insulting Islam, insulting – spreading rumors, disturbing the peace.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef By the way, I follow the American elections, and I have never seen someone who is that offensive. I have seen people who are stupid. But stupid and offensive, that’s new.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef I don’t care about Donald Trump himself. I care and I worry about the very big base that supports him because this kind of language would have been absolutely nonexistent maybe 15, 20.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef I’m sure even in America, where you have, like, free speech people self-censor themself. And it’s not – it happens because of different reasons. Because maybe it’s politically incorrect, it doesn’t have to really to be put in jail.
Bassem YoussefBassem Youssef