“It’s so wild. And it’s, in a lot of ways, one of the craziest things I’ve gotten to be a part of, and one of the most inappropriate things I’ve gotten to be a part of.” [UPBEAT MUSIC] In the trailer for the new animated series ‘#1 Happy Family USA,’ there’s a tagline that reads, ‘From the childhood nightmares of Ramy Youssef,’ but the show itself is really very funny. “There’s a certain Egyptian sarcasm, dark humor.” It follows the fictional Hussein family as they try to fit in to a changing America in the aftermath of 9/11. “OK, it’s not a good time to be at the airport when you look like us.” “Youssef was himself 10 years old when the terrorist attacks happened. He often refers to the dislocation and fear he experienced at that time in his stand-up comedy and his self-titled Hulu show, ‘Ramy.’ But when I caught up with him, we first began our conversation talking about his move into film. After a role in Yorgos Lanthimos’s ‘Poor Things,’ he’s been cast in a buzzy new HBO movie about billionaires during a financial crisis.” “I’m Lulu Garcia-Navarro, and here’s my interview with Ramy Youssef.” [CLAP] [ELECTRONIC MUSIC] “Thank you so much for joining us. I’m really excited to sit down with you.” “Thank you for having me.” “You are in Utah right now, right?” “Yes.” “And you’re filming a movie, and it’s directed by Jesse Armstrong — the Jesse Armstrong, who created ‘Succession,’ one of my favorite shows?” “Yes.” “Correct me if I’m wrong. It’s about a group of billionaire friends who get together during the financial crisis.” “It’s not exactly the financial crisis, but it’s a financial crisis, and getting to work with Jesse Armstrong, who I’ve been a fan of forever. I mean, I think when I was in high school, it was we were illegally downloading ‘Peep Show.’ And then now, obviously, I’ve been such a huge fan of ‘Succession.’ And to get to be, you know, in this really small cast of his first film that he’s directing, it’s really special. It’s super surreal. Yeah.” “Yeah. I mean, one of the things that I absolutely love about his work is just how sharp the dialogue always is. And the characters are drawn so beautifully, and with so much nuance.” “Yeah, there’s just so much depth. I mean, I think that there’s — he’s someone who is brilliant at that mix of wit and being topical, talking about things that could feel really dense news headlines, and somehow making them about character dynamics, making them about friendships, making them about families. And it’s the kind of work I’m very attracted to. And then it’s been an even richer experience, obviously, getting to help bring one of his scripts to life.” “So you, yourself, have a new project.” “Yeah.” “It’s called ‘#1 Happy Family USA,’ which is a great name.” “Thank you.” “It’s an animated show, and it centers around a Muslim American family during 9/11. And it’s really very, very funny. And I found it almost hopeful, somehow, that something like this can now be made — a comedy about one of the most terrible days in American history, from the perspective of a Muslim American family. Why did you want to make this show now?” “I think that the thing that compelled me is the family in this show, they already have a lot going on before that happens. And I think one of the things that was really important to me about the show, and the pilot, is that pretty much the entire pilot, it’s just this family comedy about a family you’ve never really seen in an animated space. And for me, though, to bring in the events of the early 2000s felt important in the sense that it’s something we talk about all the time. It’s invoked daily. It is part of what we’re currently experiencing. It’s never gone away, and it’s also never really been explored in media outside of a few points of view. And so, when I think about how long these themes have been directly a part of my life, and the lives of people that I know — to get to step into a period of time that I don’t think has escaped us in any way, unfortunately. And so, for me to get to do it in a style that is somewhat familiar, in terms of trodding on political things that can feel a little difficult. And it undercuts them, right, and doesn’t make them feel so volatile? To get to give this kind of family that treatment is really exciting. And to go into this and at this through a totally unexpected and very silly lens. And maybe that’s where that hope feeling comes from. Because it’s so unfiltered, and it’s so wild. And it’s one of the craziest things I’ve gotten to be a part of, and one of the most inappropriate things I’ve gotten to be a part of. Yet, there’s a lot of love and care, I think, for the subjects involved, and for pretty much everybody involved, right? Because it’s meant to be something that finds the heart in the midst of all the stuff.” “I tell you what resonated for me as someone who also comes from an immigrant family, came to this country. So I think it speaks to something wider than the Muslim American experience, because the dad in the show is desperately trying to prove his loyalty to America. And it keeps literally, in some cases, blowing up in his face. And it’s the theme I see in a lot of your work, the idea that a big part of the immigrant experience is trying to figure out what it means to be American. And I feel like every generation grapples with that differently. And I’m wondering if you saw that in your own family. I’m really lucky that I grew up with strong parents who did have a sense of self. And it was almost because they did have a sense of self. I was able to see this piece of it that felt kind of scared and desperate, right? And I don’t think that was the defining experience. It’s almost because it wasn’t. I’m able to look at it from the side and go, Oh, wow — it’s really interesting how pervasive that is in my community. I see it come up in my family. I see it come up mainly in myself. And I’m usually interested in making self-reflective work, because it’s the only thing I can speak for. Making work about other people or joking about other people has never really been funny to me. Because it’s like, I don’t even know who you are, really. Like, I know who you present, and I know who I present, and I know the gap — those gaps. And I think this show — one of my favorite things about wanting to do an animated thing is, I initially had this idea that it would be amazing to see an animated family that looked different when they were inside the house and when they were outside the house, which I think is just universally human — I mean, like yourself being like, Oh, it reminds me of my immigrant family. But then, really, just people who are Italians from New Jersey being like, Man, I really know that feeling that’s like, I feel like I got to be a different person the second I step out my front door, the second I get on my front lawn, and show the world something, and hide something about who I am. Yeah, the young, the young character who, I think, is based off you — has a similar name — yeah, there’s this whole scene where he’s code-switching, and basically — but literally changing his clothing to talk to ——” “Changing his clothing, changing his voice. And then the family kind of does this through the whole series. If they’re leaving the house, the daughter, her curly hair becomes straight immediately. She’s got to straighten it. And our dad’s beard turns into a mustache immediately, because, Oh my God, I can’t be viewed as this fully-bearded man. Rumi immediately hides all his curly hair with a hat, which I always did as a kid and continue to do into adulthood out of habit. But it’s like that presentation that you’re kind of picking up on. It’s a very human thing. And I think that’s what excites me about the show. And if you asked me, really, what the show is about, it’s about people trying to figure out how to be themselves in the middle of all of that. It happens to be set in the early 2000s, but it is about right now. In this really eerie way, it is about right now. And it’s about people who are in a lot of ways, also, too, dealing just with the financial burdens of capitalism. And just, Man, I got to stretch who I am in order to make a living. And I got to stretch who I am in order to move forward and move through. And to get to do that in such a silly way, with music, and jokes and crazy characters ——” “There are some good musical numbers in this. There are ——” “—— big musical numbers.” “You just said something that is really interesting, which is that all of your work is self-reflective in some way. Because you understand yourself or are trying to understand yourself better than you could, perhaps, somebody else. And that that is the wellspring of your comedy. How do you then try and make that universal?” “It’s kind of just how any conversation works, right? I’ve always felt things kind of open up when you’re willing to be vulnerable with people. And I think the act of just making it clear that you’re putting yourself under the microscope is universal in and of itself. Because I think people are really genuinely good, and introspective, and walk around all day going, Should I have said that? Should I have done that? Should I have worn this shirt? And I think that’s what ends up making it a connection point.” “In ‘Happy Family Number 1,’ there’s this little title card at the top of every episode that warns that the characters should not be taken as representation. Why are you so uncomfortable with representation?” “I think I’m reacting to so much of — when we put out ‘Ramy’ on Hulu, I remember seeing a headline that was like, ‘Muslims, here’s the show for you.’ And then my heart sinking and going, no, no. This is not — we are two billion people. And a lot of them are not going to like what I’m doing. And they shouldn’t, because I am a guy from New Jersey who thinks this type of thing is funny. And I think putting the representation warning, for me, was a really cathartic thing of just being like, Listen, this is not speaking en masse at all. I’m not like, I know you guys didn’t elect me, and there’s no, I’m just — this is stuff that makes me laugh in a way of expression that a lot of people that I worked with all really dug. But putting that card there was very cathartic for me. Because, almost to just be like, Hey, I agree with you. I don’t think this, this is not a slice of what it’s like for everybody, but it is a slice of what it’s like for some people. And it is the sense of humor that it is for some people. And I think part of the conversation that I’m trying to crack open a little bit here is, like, we have really great writers in my rooms, and who bring amazing perspectives to the female characters on any of the shows that I’ve worked on. But it’s also we haven’t had media that’s being fully driven by a female voice. That’s going to crack open a whole other slice of this. We haven’t had media that happens mainly in, let’s say, the Gulf, or mainly in the Middle East that cracks through into the Hollywood point of view in a meaningful way. And so I think those things are all going to continue to foster a global conversation. And so part of the representation card is like, I’m really aware of how small the global conversation is when it is radiating from New Jersey.” “You’ve talked a lot about specificity in your work, and it made me wonder about — because you’re clearly saying, I do not speak for the Muslim American community, certainly not the global Muslim community — which I totally get. But is there something particularly Egyptian about your work that you feel people haven’t quite picked up on, Egyptian American? I mean, because the Cuban American experience, of which I am, is very different than the Mexican American experience than ——” “You know what? I think it is pretty Egyptian. And I think and I think that 100 percent. And actually, I don’t think any of our representation warnings said that it doesn’t represent Egyptians. So yeah, it probably does represent Egyptians. It’s probably there’s a certain Egyptian sarcasm, dark humor that is all over my family, that everything’s said through the lens of a joke. And everything is like, has this, it’s like, nothing — there’s no moment that can go by. It’s like, Grandpa, I love you so much. I can’t wait to see you next week, if I’m alive.” “I wonder what the flip side of that is. Because I do know from some of my Muslim American friends, that because their community has suffered so much scrutiny, they are really wary of opening themselves up to the eyes of broader culture. Are you thinking or worrying about that perception when you’re writing or when you’re trying to portray your experience?” “I think my way of handling that kind of goes back to the work being self-reflective above all. I’m never really, like, I’m not satirizing the culture so much as I am looking at the way people behave, right? So it’s like, I think the father in our show is a lot of people’s fathers. We open up our pilot with him handing out his family these small electrical bills that show the output that everyone is spending in the house, that shows how much shower water they’re using and how much GameCube is being played and all these things. And he’s just so worried about getting his family through under budget. And I think that the things that hit on the sensitivities that you’re talking about, I try to take a more tender approach towards while kind of surrounding it with a lot of other, you know ——” “I like that word, ‘tenderness.’” “Yeah, I think — I don’t, you know, I started in stand-up, where things can be really caustic. And there’s literally an entire genre of stand-up that’s, like, people roasting each other and going for the darkest thing, and jokes about other people, and really to their expense. And as a fan of comedy, a lot of that stuff at various levels has made me laugh, and has given me a release. But when it comes to what I participate in, and what I do, there’s just always a level of implication that I’ll put myself through to say, Hey, please don’t ever think I’m laughing at you. I’m laughing at myself. And so I think that’s where it’s also very liberating, because it’s like, you’re going to watch it if you dig it, and if you don’t, you’re just going to watch something else.” “Does it feel like tender comedy is harder to get made than caustic comedy?” “I mean, I think that’s kind of like the velocity of anything, right? Like, bad news spreads faster than good news. No one’s like, Hey, we recycled a lot. It’s not really a headline. I mean, talk to any Netflix executive. Any Netflix exec secretly will be like, Hey, can you throw a murder into your show? Can you throw some sexual assault in? Because then people are going to click through. And you’re like, OK. But it’s also people, you know, people used to get together to watch public hangings. I don’t know, we’re like, we’re sick.” “Is that really a thing that someone said to you about, Can you throw a murder in there?” “I mean, they’re not explicitly asking, but they would never mind.” “So for you, it’s like a conscious choice not to engage in that.” “Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that’s, that — yeah, for sure. Because I could be a fan of it, and I can kind of see it. But it’s just not interesting to me.” “You talked to my co-host, David Marchese, in 2020, right around the time of ‘Ramy’ Season 2. And you told him about what you called ‘The Daily Show’ effect — that Jon Stewart was so good at blending politics and comedy and commentating that it became almost expected for comedians to become political and have something to say about the news. And at that time, you really recoiled at that idea. But a lot of your work is inherently political. So I’m wondering how you think about that part of being a comedian.” “Yeah, well, I think that. I am always dancing around it. I think, at the end of the day, it’s like, I’m an entertainer who works with entertainers, and there is this obligation to, for me, there’s an obligation to be very emotionally correct. My obligation, above all, is to try and hit what something feels like right on the head. Like, that’s my nail that I’m trying to hit. The nail I don’t want to be asked to hit is to spread facts and information. I don’t want that obligation. So it’s like, in my stand-up special, I talk about Palestine. Am I, like, going through every single thing and debunking, Hey, this thing you heard in the news is false? Hey, this thing was worded wrong? Hey, this thing — no, that’s, I’m actually talking, actually, about my dating life. And while I’m doing that and talking about that emotional experience, I’m also bringing in this really big thing. Because it’s always kind of about the emotional thing first and foremost, and then how that fits into the larger thing. And that’s a very clear line for me.” “I mean, relatedly, I was wondering about ‘Mo,’ the show you co-created that’s about an undocumented Palestinian refugee living in Texas. You worked on the second season while the war in Gaza was going on. What was that like?” “Incredibly, incredibly surreal. Because when we started making that show, the average American did not know the difference between Palestine and Pakistan. It all kind of just sounded the same. And now it’s the global conversation. So I think there’s that level of being surreal. And then the clear line for us was, we’re going to keep this about the characters. And to the thing we said earlier, I’m not about to get into a news debate about it. It’s just like, this is what these guys are going — this is what it looks like when you don’t have your papers. We’re going to show you what these courts look like. And it’s funny, because it’s tender. And we’re going to show you what it looks like to fight so hard to go back to your homeland, and then what ends up happening that’s totally out of your control, in a way that’s really tender. And so it only just refined our guiding principles in terms of, OK, more people are at the table for the conversation. We actually can do less explaining and we can just do more character work. And we don’t have to round it out as much because everyone is aware on a level — at least, everyone who’s going to tune in kind of has an idea going in.” “In your most recent comedy special, ‘More Feelings,’ you talked about how everyone wanted you to do something for their cause — Iranian women, Pakistani floods. You called yourself the Mayor of Muslim Disaster, which is very funny. How do you decide what you do want to talk about with all those expectations coming on you?” “A lot of times, it’s just like, people that I know who — I mean, places I’ve been, places I have a personal connection to. I have so many friends in Palestine, it would just be — I’ve been there so many times. It would be — it just doesn’t make sense. It’s like as if something was happening in your hometown. It’s like, how do you not talk about it? And my best friend in the world is disabled and has muscular dystrophy. And we’ve done so many things for the Muscular Dystrophy Association over the years. And there is this part of the way that I was raised where I saw my parents, even when they were struggling financially, always gave charity. That’s just how I was raised. It was like, that was never a question. That was a expense in the way that food was. It was like, yeah, we also have to do charity. And so you’d see your — it’d be — it’s a really funny thing. Like, my dad has such an open heart. All right. We got to give charity. And he’s kind of stressed about it. But it’s like, it’s just the reality of it. And there’s something about that that is very intertwined with how I view the world. Like, that’s a given. And I think part of the joke, though, is just that feeling of the pressure of every, every, every single thing.” “Yeah, I mean, you hosted ‘S.N.L.’ last year. And at the end of your monologue, you made a plea to please free the people of Palestine. And you also said, please free the hostages. Were you nervous about that moment?” “No. It’s more nerve-racking to not say something. It’s more nerve-racking to try to shield yourself from whatever criticism is going to come. And plenty of it has come. But I get more tense if I’m sitting quietly trying to stay safe. And what I said is completely inoffensive. That’s the other thing, is, like, people are sensitive about it. Or people might say, Well, why didn’t you say this?, or Why didn’t you do that? But on the whole, there’s nothing controversial about any of it.” “Well, to say ‘free Palestine’ on live national television wasn’t common.” “No, no. It’s not common. No.” “Yeah. And talking about the hostages at the same time does anger some on the far left. I mean, one of the directors of the Oscar-winning doc ‘No Other Land’ recently got a lot of blowback for something similar.” “Yeah, I mean, look. There are false equivalencies in terms of power. That’s what people are talking about. They’re talking about dynamics of power. And so when you look at Gaza, you’re talking about a place where their water and electricity are controlled. So even the framing of the earlier question of calling it a war — I’m like, all right, whatever. Call it whatever you want to call it. It’s like — it’s, yes, there are two sides who are fighting. But there is a massive power imbalance. And that is just unequivocally true. And so, and even me saying ——” “How would you frame it? What would be the — how would you describe it?” “I mean, I just said it. It’s literally literal power. Like, they could literally turn off the electricity. They could turn off the water. They can turn off what aid is getting in. So it’s like being in a wrestling match with someone where you’re controlling the other guy’s calories and how much water he gets. And it’s like, OK, he sneaks a few power bars in that you didn’t know about. It’s not, it’s just its own thing. But where I stand from is like, I know so many people with kids, I hope to have kids. So for me to say all of that in one sentence — nobody wants there to be people getting bombed indiscriminately, and nobody wants there to be hostages. So there is nothing controversial for me in saying it. It is just, when you’re not saying everything that everyone wants to hear, they get upset. But anything I’ve said — I mean, jokes are one thing. But anything I’ve said, sincerely, it’s just like, I could tattoo it to myself. Because it’s not even — there’s no problem. Like, I don’t have — that’s why I’m not afraid. Because it’s like, What did I say, stop killing kids? Oh my God, this guy’s crazy. What? It’s not, like, it’s not a thing.” “Do you think comedians have more political power now than they used to? And what do you think about that?” “Well, I mean, it’s interesting to even think about what comedy even is anymore, right? Because more people are watching TikTok and Instagram Reels than a sitcom. Look, you’re interviewing me, and there are people who wouldn’t interview who have way more views than I do, like, literal views of people watching their stuff, because they kind of specifically go with the online game, right? And I’m not even being self-deprecating. More the point, more the point that I’m — the point that I’m more trying to make is that the individual voice has more outlets than ever. So it’s like, the individual, whether it’s the individual podcaster or the individual comedian or the individual online content creator, is having their moment right now. And so I think that does spill into comedy. I think that does spill into comedians. But if you look at the comedians, too, who people are really, like, feel that big catharsis with, it’s still kind of our legacy people who have been doing it for so long, who have — whether it be Jon Stewart, Oliver, Chappelle, guys — people who’ve really been around, that people are like, Oh, wow, yeah, they’re still talking about this stuff. I’m really curious what they think about this thing.” “Last questions. You’re now making movies. You’re directing. You were in ‘Poor Things.’ You’ve got this new Jesse Armstrong project coming on. This is the kind of stuff that most actors and entertainers would dream of. Do you find it harder to connect to your old life, you know, that wellspring that we started talking about at the beginning of this conversation, that kind of has fed so much of your work?” “Honestly, no, mainly because I still, I live in New York. I still live near all my friends who grew up — like, I grew up with. I’m in a group chat with 15 of my buddies who I went to high school and college with. Only two of them have seen ‘Poor Things’ or seen half of my work. Like, they don’t, they’re just like, they’re not — I’m around a lot of people who are like, Dude, like, Oh, cool, do your thing, or whatever. But I also think the nature of Hollywood, the nature of — I don’t think that television and film is as much of a separator in terms of experience as before. And I think I mostly view that as there’s a lot of pros to that. Like, a lot of people have access to creativity. A lot of people have access to cameras. A lot of people — again, the social media stuff we were talking about.” “Everyone now can be a star on social media.” “Yeah.” “This is what you’re pointing out.” “And I think that that’s interesting. I mean, it’s like, I don’t — and I purposely use the word ‘interesting,’ which is a word that, it can mean many things. It can mean nothing, even. But I will say I’m curious about it. I find it, I like, I’m more piqued towards something positive than judgmental. Because the possibilities for conversations that we’ve gotten to have are just undeniably larger. And I think that that’s always good, and even if it’s bumpy in the middle. But, yeah, I feel just as connected. And again, I think when, some of what we were talking about earlier, I just know too many people going through really, really real things. And you just try to be there for them and empathize with them. And you also really just sit in the reality of, like, anyone who’s got anything good going on knows the reality that it could not be that way tomorrow.” “Are there parts of your life that you still feel like you’re trying to understand through your art, or things that you haven’t quite worked out yet?” “Yeah, a lot. I mean, it’s really interesting just — I just started, my wife and I are just kind of being like, Oh, we — should we have kids? And just even, as we start to, so many of my friends are having kids. And you think about being in charge of another person’s entire livelihood.” “You’re in your 30s, right?” “Yeah, I’m in my 30s. And so it’s just kind of like you go, oh, wow. That, the idea of not being a kid, and just someone’s kid, but, like, all of that, as I kind of start to really broach that and start to really be like, Oh, yeah — when I started making my show, I was 26. And I’m 34 now. So it’s like, that’s a lot of time. But then I’m like, Oh, yeah, I think I still kind of view myself as a kid, but not really. Like, I am an adult. And so there is that aspect of it is really so new. And just kind of really like figuring out, Oh, yeah, like, when does self-discovery — I mean, arguably, it’s always happening. But at a certain point, it’s got to transition into like, Hey, this is what I do. And this kind of is who I am. And there’s something about the solidifying of at least parts of it that feel necessary. And so I think that is something I’ve really been exploring a lot on stage that has been very fun and different and new for me. Yeah.” “Are we going to have Ramy Youssef dad jokes? Is that where this is all headed?” “100 percent. Yes, on the way. It will happen. Yeah, brace yourself. [CHUCKLING]:” [ELECTRONIC MUSIC] After the break, and an unexpected delay between our two conversations due to my appendix bursting, I call Ramy back. We talk about some lighter stuff, including why teamwork is at the heart of his creative process. [ELECTRONIC MUSIC] “Hey, Ramy.” “Hey, are you all right? I heard you were not feeling well.” “There was a series of unfortunate events ——” “Oh my gosh.” “—— that ended up with me and my sister being operated on by the same surgeon.” “Whoa.” “Yeah, it was totally bizarre.” “Oh my God, I’m so sorry.” “It’s totally fine.” “I’m hoping it was an elective surgery that was cosmetic that you both wanted.” “Yeah, wouldn’t that be lovely? We got matching nose jobs. So, anyway, it was a lot.” “Well, I’m glad you’re better.” “All right. I was thinking about you this week when I saw all the turmoil in the markets. And I was wondering what it was like to have life imitate art. Because you’re filming the story about billionaires in a crisis, and we are seeing billionaires in a crisis IRL. I mean, does it help the performance? Were you talking about it? Like, were there any rewrites in real time? What does that do?” “You’re kind of, like, right on the money. Because it’s like, I think that, without giving away too much, there’s this video tech on our shoot, Andre, who actually loads our phones so they feel like real phones with real headlines. And I’ve been having this experience where it’s like, I go home at the end of the day, and I’m looking at my phone. And I’m like, wait, is this Andre’s phone? Like, are these headlines? So much of, yeah, so much of what’s occurring in real life, and how this confluence of government and tech and all these things — yeah, is, again, without going too much into it, is, like, what’s happening in what we’re portraying. And so it’s been so, yeah, so surreal.” “We’ve talked a lot about the self-reflective nature of your work, and you’ve spent a lot of this first part of your career making your own stuff, telling your stories. But now you’re also in other people’s projects much more prominently. Is there something freeing about that?” “Yeah, it’s amazing. I mean, I think on one level, from a technical point of view, to get to be an actor for someone with a vision, like Yorgos or Jesse, It’s just really cool. Because you’re only doing one thing. And I think a lot of the opportunities that I have been able to have, I’m very much doing so many different parts of it because that was just how it went. I tried many years just being an auditioning actor, and that wasn’t exactly — no one ever knew what to do with me. It was always kind of like, Well, you’re not in, you’re not this Indian character we wrote. We don’t know if you’re the friend or the leading guy. It was always all of that stuff. And so I kind of was very much feeling like I wanted to create a specific frequency. And I’ve been very lucky to get to do that — again, with a lot of support. But then to get to now be at a place where people understand what it is that I do, and are excited to do it, it is very freeing to show up and focus on one thing, and also to help somebody else’s vision. And I really like that. And not even just as an actor, but as in the creative process. I just really like seeing pieces of art that should exist get to exist. And so I just, there’s this kid part of me that gets really lit up of, Oh, whoa, like, I could do something on that in some way? Cool. Like, whatever need. Like, what do you need?” “It struck me, in thinking both about the projects you’ve created and the projects you’ve chosen to be a part of, that they’re really group projects in a lot of ways. Jesse Armstrong, Yorgos Lanthimos, who directed ‘Poor Things,’ are really known for their emphasis on ensemble casts. And the way you talk about your work seems really similar. I’m curious, first, if that impression seems right to you. And, if so, can you just talk a little bit about why that kind of communal creative work appeals to you so much?” “I think one of the strangest things, when we were making my first show, ‘Ramy,’ it was called ‘Ramy’ truly out of, like, lack of a better option that any of us could find. I mean, I really did not want that, mainly because I also knew half the people would pronounce it Rammy. But I was really like, something about this isn’t exactly how I work. And I think the best stories are serving a philosophy. And I’ve certainly felt that with Yorgos, and I felt that with Jesse. And it’s the way that I like to work as well, where you’re not feeling this — there’s none of this ‘I’m the director’ energy or ‘I’m the star’ energy. It’s a bunch of people kind of almost coming together saying, OK, we got together to talk about this one idea. That’s what’s exciting about making something, is that process, is, like, the reach. And I think that’s also what’s kind of been this really interesting thing. I have friends in tech who’ve messaged me lately with some of the stuff saying, Dude, look at this, AI movies. You can make the entire movie with AI. It’s like, I want to make the movie. Like, I want to struggle with it, and I want to reach. And I want to do it with a group of people because there’s this spiritual connection that just does something totally different. And I think, yeah, that link, you’re drawing, I don’t know that I would have even framed it that way. But as you asked the question, I’m like, oh, yeah, there is this kinship in all of these things. And certainly this animated show that we’re about to put out was maybe even the biggest group effort I’ve been a part of because so much of it was out of my hands in terms of the design stuff and the animation stuff. To get to work with Mona Chalabi, to get to work with all these animators who kind of, they — so many of the best jokes we have are visual ones that I was surprised by when I was watching back things that they interpreted from the script. And so, yeah, that style of working is kind of the only way I want to work ever.” “We didn’t actually talk about this, but one of the collaborators you just mentioned on ‘#1 Happy Family USA’ is Mona Chalabi, who I actually know is a journalist. She’s a data journalist. I mean, she’s won a Pulitzer, illustrator. But she’s also an executive producer on the show. She takes very complicated ideas, and she manages to make them entertaining and digestible and understandable to regular people. How do you feel like her journalism background shows up in the series at all?” “Honestly, there probably wouldn’t be a project if she didn’t say yes. Because I was like, I had written, at that point, I had written the pilot with Pam, who came from the ‘South Park’ world, and is such a great comedic collaborator. And then I felt, OK, but as we go into making this the visual world that we want, when I look at Mona Chalabi’s work, she’s so good, like you said, at breaking down these really wild statistics or questions and actually making them really poppy and colorful and something that you want to look at before you even know what you’re looking at. It just kind of grabs your eye. And I felt there was already this kinship with what she was doing to what I thought the medium of animation could do for this particular story. And so I try to really, as much as possible, be in a position of, OK, here’s what I know. Here’s the larger thing I’m trying to solve. And then, honestly, kind of beg people to help me. And just be like, please, please help me. How do we do this? Can we do this together? That’s actually how we even got the soundtrack for our show. There’s this kid, [unclear] I mean, I call him a kid. He’s my age. But he scored the entire show from his apartment in Alexandria, Egypt, and would drive into Cairo to find session musicians to fill the pieces that he didn’t know. But I had heard one track of his, and I said, Dude, you can do this whole thing. And he was like, no, I can’t. And I just kind of begged him. And then he kind of created this sound that was unbelievable.” “I’m glad you mentioned the music because you wrote a lot of these songs also. Why did you have these big animated musical numbers? Have you written music before? I mean, tell me. Tell me how this came about.” “So yeah. So the music happened in two parts. There’s the score of the show, and then the other piece of the music was I was doing these voices, which I’ve not done a lot of character work. I tend to play things, even in my stand-up, more grounded and conversational. And then I got in the booth, and I really found these voices. And then, while I was there, we were doing the voiceover work in a variety of studios as I was traveling. But one particular studio in Brooklyn had a bunch of guitars there in-house and a piano in-house. And I had played music in high school. I mean, I grew up in the New Jersey emo scene. So we all kind of picked up a guitar, and wore tight pants, and tried to do that thing for — at least everyone had a stint. And so I knew some guitar. But I kind of picked it up, and I had just found the voice of the dad, Hussein Hussein. And I was like, you know, what would it sound like if Hussein made music? And this was, like, between setups. And I just started playing. And then I wrote this song kind of spontaneously about him at his halal cart and how he used to be a doctor. But now he can’t be a doctor in America, and he just has to sell meat. And I wrote this track, ‘Money for the Meat.’ And then it became this element of the show that is really, truly one of my favorites. And I ended up writing like ——” “I love ‘Spies in the Mosque.’” “Yeah, ‘Spies in the Mosque,’ you know? A Backstreet Boys bop about surveillance, basically. And then we kind of made an album. It added a really funny, just a fun element. And, I actually was like, I was talking. I had this really fun day where I got to do a bucket-list goal of playing basketball with Adam Sandler. And I was talking to him about ——” “Is he good?” “He’s amazing. I mean, he’s great. I mean, he fouls a lot, and he’s very aggressive. But he’s great. He’d probably tell you I foul too much, too. But I was talking to him about how, when I was a kid, hearing his Hanukkah song and hearing all that music that he made was so wild because it was out of the pattern of just hearing Christmas songs. And so when I was telling him about this thing, almost in a way feeling — it felt very exciting to me to get to make these songs. And in our second season, we actually have, like, we make a bit of a Ramadan Eid song that kind of comes out. But this idea of hearing these animated jingles from a totally different perspective, a different voice — I remember seeing that Sandler Hanukkah stuff and just going, Whoa, this is very different. And then it was very exciting to get to tap into something like that here, and also totally by accident. Again, not a goal going in, but then felt like this really organic thing that the character found.” “What did Adam say?” “I mean, he was so hyped and so supportive. And, yeah, it was really, yeah, it was so cool. I mean, I’ve been a fan for him forever — of him forever.” “Who won?” “It was a two-on-two game. And I wasn’t on his team. I think we split games. But I think, ultimately, I think he might have, I think he might have won. But I must have lost because I can’t remember. Because I think I would — I think if I had won, I’d be, I’d confidently say I won. I’m pretty sure I lost.” [ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
