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Laughter the Best Medicine: Muslim Comedians and Social Criticism in Post-9/11 America

AMARNATH AMARASINGAM

Abstract

This paper explores the role that Muslim standup comedians are playing in breaking

down cultural barriers, promoting inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue, as well

as tackling the misperceptions about Muslim and Arab Americans in the United

States. I argue that Muslim comedians are increasingly taking on the role of

Gramscian “organic intellectuals” capable of successfully participating in a quintes-

sentially American activity—standup comedy—on behalf of their respective

communities. Some scholars of Islam may argue that Muslim comedians, if they

have any significance at all, are confined to the periphery of any meaningful

discussions regarding Islam and Muslims after September 11. I will show that

this is not only false, but fails to fully grasp the multifaceted responses that have

arisen to combat Islamophobia and Arabophobia in the United States since the

events of September 11, 2001.

I don’t know any terrorists, I’ve never met one or talked to one, not even acci-

dentally. I’ve never been home late one night and gotten a phone call and heard:

“Hello Hassan, it goes down tomorrow at midnight”, “Who is this?” “Oops

sorry, wrong number”.

Maz Jobrani

Our hope is that like other ethnic groups and races before us, we can use

comedy to foster understanding about who we are and redefine ourselves in

an accurate, positive way.

Dean Obeidallah

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship.

Oscar Wilde

Introduction

In the days after September 11, 2001, there was in the United States what Andrew Stott

called a “voluntary moratorium on humor” during which joking and laughter of any kind

was deemed inappropriate. 1

The Late Show with David Letterman and the Tonight Show

with Jay Leno stayed off the air for weeks following the tragedy. When they did return,

they did so without their opening monologues. Political humor, above all, retreated

out of sheer respect for the tragedy that had been inflicted on the American people.

Jokes about the American President George W. Bush’s intelligence and his twisting of

the English language came to an abrupt end. Instead of mocking him, the American

Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 30, No. 4, December 2010

ISSN 1360-2004 print/ISSN 1469-9591 online/10/040463-15 # 2010 Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs

DOI: 10.1080/13602004.2010.533444

people rallied behind him and looked to him for guidance and comfort. When the Daily

Show with Jon Stewart returned on September 26, 2001, it was a serious, uncomfortable,

and emotional reminder of what had taken place. The visibly shaken Stewart began the

show, with his voice cracking, by saying, “Our show has changed, I don’t doubt that.

What it has become, I don’t know. “Subliminable” is not a punch line anymore. One

day it will become that again and Lord willing it will become that again, because it

means that we have ridden out the storm”. 2

After 9/11, the ability to laugh, at themselves

as well as their elected leaders, became for Americans a symbol of their freedom and the

value of their democracy. As Stott points out, “Laughter – the pleasure, dissent, and first

amendment freedom to express oneself freely that it seems to assume – came to stand in

opposition to the fundamentalist dogmas and joyless religious strictures that were

believed to characterize those responsible for the attacks”. 3

Comedy, then, as a signifi-

cant cultural activity, was integral to the coping process for many in the United States.

Similarly, Muslim comedians are inserting themselves into the dialogue, helping the

Muslim community cope with the backlash brought on by 9/11, and attempting to

repaint the public perception of Arab and Muslim Americans as unpatriotic and

hostile to the United States. Even though scholars of religion have rarely taken the cul-

tural importance of comedy seriously, there is much evidence to suggest that it is a sig-

nificant social force. For example, during a CNN roundtable discussion focusing on

whether the Canadian sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie would be successful in the

United States, many participants noted that comedy could be enormously useful in com-

bating ignorance, intolerance, and suspicion of Muslims in the post 9/11 world. As this

paper will show, the call for Muslim comedians to become more involved in inter-cultural

and inter-religious dialogue is being forcefully answered. For instance, in December

2007, British journalist and documentary filmmaker Sarfraz Manzoor wrote an

opinion piece in The Washington Post entitled, “It’s Time for Muslim Comedians to

Stand Up”. He noted that although the West rarely associates the Muslim world with

comedy, there are several Muslim comedians attempting to change this perception. 4

They have come to the fore with such undertakings as the “Allah Made Me Funny

Comedy Tour” and the “Axis of Evil Comedy Tour” as well as television shows like

Little Mosque and the now cancelled Aliens in America. In May 2008, PBS aired an

hour-long documentary entitled, “Stand-Up: Muslim American Comics Come of

Age”, which explored five comedians and their routines in a post-9/11 world. Although

the presence of Muslim comedians in the public sphere is only increasing, to date there

has been little to no academic examination of their cultural and religious significance.

This paper attempts to fill this gap in the study of contemporary Islam.

In this paper, I explore the role that Muslim standup comedians are playing in breaking

down cultural barriers, promoting inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue, as well as

tackling the misperceptions of Muslim and Arab Americans in the United States.

I argue that Muslim comedians are increasingly taking on the role of Gramscian

“organic intellectuals” capable of successfully participating in a quintessentially American

activity—standup comedy—on behalf of their respective communities. Some scholars of

Islam may argue that Muslim comedians, if they have any significance at all, are confined

to the periphery of any meaningful discussions regarding Islam and Muslims after

September 11. I will show that this is not only false, but fails to fully grasp the multifaceted

responses that have arisen to combat Islamophobia and Arabophobia in the United States

since 9/11. I will first provide an overview of Gramsci’s writings on hegemony and the

organic intellectual before undertaking an exploration of Muslim comedians and their sig-

nificance in today’s world. The latter will be done with the use of short interviews I have

464 Amarnath Amarasingam

completed with some Muslim comedians, several interviews these comedians have

completed with journalists, as well as some scenes from their on-stage performances.

Gramsci, Hegemony and the Intellectual

Antonio Gramsci’s (1891 – 1937) work on “hegemony” and the intellectual have their

foundation in earlier Marxist writings on base/superstructure and ideology.5 Under

Gramsci, these notions were reconceptualized and supplemented with a discussion of

the importance of culture. For Marx, the arena in which economic activity takes

place, which he terms the “base” or “structure”, determines and influences everything

that happens in the “superstructure” (the law, education, politics, etc). As Jones

notes, for Marx the “economic base is the most powerful and crucial level of social

life. It is the base that brings the superstructure into being and which gives it its charac-

ter”. 6

For Marx, if society is to change, it must begin at the structural level, because

changes in the superstructure do not ultimately affect the exploitation of the working

class and thus cannot be truly revolutionary.

For Gramsci, the relationship between the base and the superstructure was more com-

plicated. Instead of the linear relationship between the two that Marx had developed,

Gramsci proposed a dialectical interaction, with the base and superstructure constantly

impacting “upon each other with no level assumed to be the primary level of determi-

nacy”. 7

Gramsci also divided the superstructure into two further categories: the state

and the civil society. The state consisted of coercive and state-funded endeavors like

the police force, the army, and the civil service. The civil society, on the other hand, con-

sisted of organizations that existed apart from the base (economic production) and the

state, “but which are relatively long-lasting institutions supported and run by people

outside of the other two major spheres”. 8

These organizations could range from religious

institutions and women’s groups to youth groups and sports clubs. For Gramsci, any par-

ticular collective may shift from one category to another, or could belong to more than

one at any given period. The interrelationship between these three categories has been

widely debated. As Bocock has noted, “Either the economic element does operate in

some determining and specifiable way to affect the activities of the state and the organ-

izations of civil society, or the state, and/or the components of civil society, can produce

changes in the economic area”. 9

For Gramsci, then, society is made up of three elements: the base, the state, and the

civil society. Marxist thought was a form of “economism” in that it was believed that

“the economic base determines the ideological superstructures of religion, politics, the

arts, law or education”. 10

Gramsci’s emphasis on the other two aspects of society effec-

tively distinguish him from traditional Marxism, which, according to Gramsci, over-

emphasized the economic sphere and assumed that once “a change in the ownership

of the main economic means of production, distribution and exchange has been accom-

plished there will be no major obstacles to a truly democratic, and free, society”. 11

Gramsci did not argue that the economic sphere of activity was irrelevant, but believed

that it was necessary to understand how power was exercised in the state and civil society

as well. This exploration of the interaction between the three elements of society forms

the basis for his writings on hegemony. 12

Although an adequate definition of the term is

elusive, 13

Renate Holub provides a superb attempt:

Hegemony is a concept that helps to explain, on the one hand, how state appa-

ratuses, or political society—supported by and supporting a specific economic

Muslim Comedians and Social Criticism in Post-9/11 America 465

group—can coerce, via its institutions of law, police, army and prisons, the

various strata of society into consenting to the status quo. On the other hand,

and more importantly, hegemony is a concept that helps us to understand . . .

how and where political society and, above all, civil society, with its institutions

ranging from education, religion and the family to the microstructures of the

practices of everyday life, contribute to the production of meaning and values

which in turn produce, direct and maintain the “spontaneous” consent of the

various strata of society to that same status quo. 14

What is fundamentally important to understand about Gramsci’s writings on hegemony

is that it is not maintained solely through institutions, beliefs, and ideologies. Rather,

hegemony works through the “common sense” functioning of everyday life. As

Raymond Williams has noted, “Hegemony is a lived system of meanings and values,

not simply an ideology, a sense of reality beyond which it is, for most people, difficult

to move, a lived dominance and subordination, internalized”. 15

Hegemony, then, is dif-

fused throughout society in a system of values, morals, and attitudes. As the status quo is

upheld by the mere functioning of everyday life, the ruling values take on a “natural” or

“common sense” quality and become more difficult to challenge. For Gramsci common

sense is not a unified set of values instituted by every new group that comes to power, but

rather consists of “stratified deposits” left from previous philosophies containing “Stone

Age elements and principles of a more advanced science, prejudices from all past phases

of history at the local level and intuitions of a future philosophy which will be that of a

human race united the world over”. 16

One of the ways in which the fragmentary, yet powerful, nature of common sense can

be challenged is by introducing counter-hegemonic ideas as “new sedimentations”. 17

Muslim comedians, for example, repeatedly attempt to infuse new sedimentations into

the common sense functioning of American society. As will be argued below, by (inter

alia) critiquing popular culture representations of Muslim and Arab Americans, as

well as American views of the hijab, Muslim comedians attempt to siphon new ideas

and new opinions into society’s “common sense”. As Landy states, “New meanings

and new attitudes are in the process of being created alongside the old: change is con-

stantly in the state of becoming just as dominant and traditional practices are constantly

exerting their power”. 18

If a group wishes to challenge the prevailing common sense, in

other words, they need to work on creating a counter-hegemony. Since the majority of a

given society accepts the current hegemony as common sense and as “the way things

are”, counter-hegemonic struggle can be very difficult. This leads us into the discussion

of intellectuals, who, for Gramsci, were crucial for the creation of a counter-hegemony.

The Organic Intellectual

An exploration of Gramsci’s writings on the intellectual is fundamentally important for

understanding his entire project. 19

His thoughts on the intellectual, however, are not

uniform as they were developed throughout his life. 20

Gramsci begins by noting that

“all men are intellectuals” but “not all men have in society the function of intellec-

tuals”. 21

He humorously states in a footnote that just because “everyone at some time

fries a couple of eggs or sews up a tear in a jacket, we do not necessarily say that everyone

is a cook or a tailor”. 22

For Gramsci, there are two types of intellectuals: traditional and

organic. Traditional intellectuals are those who consider themselves to be withdrawn

from the mundane complexity of social life and functioning outside of the influence of

466 Amarnath Amarasingam

the dominant social group. The clergy, professors and painters are good examples of

traditional intellectuals. For Gramsci, however, traditional intellectuals may believe

that they are working outside of the dominant social group, but are in fact always perpe-

tuating their values. As he states, “The intellectuals are the dominant group’s “deputies”

exercising the subaltern functions of social hegemony and political government”. 23

Thus, for Gramsci, traditional intellectuals are not as independent from the ruling

group as they would like to believe. It is important to note that traditional intellectuals

were once organic to a particular group but “now appear to be autonomous of that

class” and they may again become organic “to a class or cause if conditions threaten

its autonomy”. 24

In other words, as new issues arise in society, traditional intellectuals

may wish to become involved with them. In fact, Gramsci argues that one of the first

tasks of a counter-hegemonic initiative should be to “win over” the traditional

intellectuals.

Organic intellectuals, on the other hand, arise within a new group and provide this new

class of individuals with “homogeneity and an awareness of its own function not only in

the economic but in the social and political fields”. 25

Organic intellectuals must have the

ability to convey the needs and desires of the community they represent and must recog-

nize that they are products of this community, which has a vested interest in their repre-

sentative ability. Organic intellectuals must voice the interests of the group, defend the

perception of it in public and “inspire its self-confidence as an historical actor and to

provide it with social, cultural, and political leadership”. 26

The education of a new

“human mass” depends on the ability and leadership of organic intellectuals. As the

group begins to organize itself, attempts to defend itself in public, or fight for recog-

nition, it depends on its intellectuals for “conceptual and philosophical elaboration of

ideas”. 27

These individuals could be scholars and writers but, in contemporary

society, could, as Adamson notes, be “journalists, publishers, television personnel,

and everyone else associated with what is now sometimes called the ‘culture industry’”. 28

For example, as the American war in Iraq declines in popularity, anti-war groups and

individuals do indeed depend on scholars to articulate their viewpoints, but also turn

to elements of popular television such as The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Real

Time with Bill Maher to obtain an “elaboration of ideas” with which to criticize the

United States government. 29

Having examined Gramsci’s writings on hegemony and

the intellectual, I now turn to an analysis of how Muslim comedians are taking on the

role of organic intellectuals who, through comedy, are attempting to combat the prevail-

ing negative stereotypes and common sense beliefs surrounding Muslims and Arabs in

the United States.

Muslim Comedians and Social Activism

The comedian is particularly well positioned to serve as an organic intellectual, capable

of satirically challenging the hegemonic common sense that exists around issues of race,

gender, religion, etc. 30

Comedians like Chris Rock, Paul Mooney, Russell Peters, Mar-

garet Cho, and Dave Chappelle are a few examples of organic intellectuals who challenge

the stereotypes and common sense beliefs held about their respective ethnic groups. 31

The use of comedy to highlight injustices experienced by the Muslim community is

common among all of the recent Arab and Muslim American comics. As Dean Obeidal-

lah, co-founder of the Arab-American Comedy Tour, states, “For all the comics I know

that are of Middle Eastern heritage, the idea of using their craft as a way of activism is a

thread that unites all of us”. 32

Muslim Comedians and Social Criticism in Post-9/11 America 467

Comedians like Obeidallah can be activists particularly because they reside in a

separate cultural sphere in which certain kinds of expression are expected and permitted.

This does not mean, however, that these “jokes” lack social consequence. In fact, it is

precisely because comedians communicate through what Mintz calls a “publicly

protected” mode of expression that they have the potential to say what the politician

cannot. 33

The comedian, as organic intellectual, can use humor “to expose chauvinism,

to expose ineptitude, to expose oppression, and to expose pretentiousness”. 34

Majken

Sorensen has even gone so far as to argue that comedy could be a “powerful strategy

of nonviolent resistance to oppression . . . in a different way than traditional resistance”. 35

An example of such non-violent resistance has been the Muslim comedian’s response

to the subtle racism that has permeated the discourse around Arabs and Muslims,

especially during the 2008 election. Dean Obeidallah, for instance, expressed that he

was becoming nauseated with the way that Muslims and Arabs were being talked

about in the election campaign (recall the now famous “Obama is an Arab” comment

made by a John McCain supporter in Minnesota). Obeidallah states that these dis-

courses are “a big part of my act and it shows that there exists in America, unfortunately,

this acceptance that somehow Muslims or Arabs (and people use those terms inter-

changeably) . . . that somehow it would disqualify him from office”. 36

Uneasiness

about Arab and Muslim Americans does not seem to have died down over the years.

A 2006 Gallop poll, for example, found that 39% of Americans admit to having feelings

of prejudice against Muslims living in the US, 39% said that they may support an initiat-

ive to have Muslims carry around special ID cards, and 34% stated that they believe

Muslims in America are sympathetic to groups like al-Qaeda. 37

Muslim comedians believe that such distrust and fear can be combated through

comedy. As female comedian Tissa Hami stated in an interview with PBS, “I don’t

think that I would have ever gone into standup comedy if it hadn’t been for 9/11 . . .

Living through 9/11 as an Iranian who had lived through the hostage crisis . . . I just

wanted to do something this time”. 38

Dean Obeidallah also speaks of 9/11 as a

turning point that altered the way he was viewed and changed his comedic performance:

“Before 9/11, I’m just a white guy living a typical white guy life. All my friends had

names like Monica, and Chandler, and Joey, and Ross. I go to bed September 10th

white, wake up September 11th, I’m an Arab!” 39

Obeidallah, a light-skinned, Palesti-

nian-Italian American, is very honest that he can be a spectator in these discussions if

he wishes. He does not “look Muslim”. Other comedians, like Ahmed Ahmed or

Azhar Usman, do not have this “luxury”. However, Obeidallah takes his role as an

organic intellectual very seriously and believes that he cannot sit on the sidelines. As

he notes, the United States has “a great tradition of using comedy to deal with social,

religious and racial issues . . . and that’s the goal with my comedy . . . it’s not a class,

I’m not teaching Arab 101 or Islam 101, but when you come away I hope that the audi-

ence sees a different side to who we are and it makes them think a little bit”. 40

The post-9/11 public interest in Islam and Muslims has also carried over to interest in

Muslim comedy. As Azhar Usman notes, after 9/11 the American public “suddenly

wanted to know more [about Islam], and that’s probably why our Muslim comedy

tour has been so popular”. 41

The comedy club has always been a haven of risk-free dis-

course, and Muslim comedians all speak of the comedy club as an ideal place to chal-

lenge assumptions. Comedians, in a sense, have the audience right where they want

them. As Obeidallah states, comedians have “a great opportunity to talk to people

when they are there to have fun, and their guard is down, and their laughing and their

having a nice time. You’re showing them through subtle things the positive side to

468 Amarnath Amarasingam

who we are and then even more expressed things through your statements in your

comedy show, explaining what we are really about, what the religion is really about,

attacking the stereotypes that have so unfortunately caused a backlash against us – the

innocent Muslims and Middle Easterners across America”. 42

Combating the common sense depictions of their fellow Arabs and Muslims in the

media is a dominant concern for these comedians. Maz Jobrani, an Iranian-born come-

dian and actor, is weary of the ways in which Middle Easterners are portrayed in the

media. During his routine on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, he notes,

“Every time they show us on TV, they always show the crazy guy burning the flag,

going like ‘Death to America!’ It’s always that guy. Just once, I wish they’d show us,

I don’t know, baking a cookie. Just once!” 43

Jobrani states that he has gotten into the

habit of turning down all acting roles that depict the Arab as a terrorist. He states that

he may accept these roles in the future when the climate of America has changed to

the point where these popular culture characterizations do not have such an effect.

He often singles out one film that he believes has had a particularly negative impact

on the way in which Arabs and Muslims are viewed in the United States: “People base

their assumptions about Middle Eastern men and relationships on the Sally Field film,

Not Without My Daughter”. 44

The film, released with (perhaps unintended) impeccable

timing five days before Operation Desert Storm, is about an Iranian doctor, Moody,

living in the United States with his American wife, Betty, and their daughter, Mahtob.

Moody convinces his reluctant family to take a trip to Iran, telling them that he wishes

to see his homeland again. Although Betty is hesitant, she ultimately agrees. Once in

Iran, however, the situation turns ugly. Moody declares that Iran is their new home.

As acclaimed critic Roger Ebert writes, the film then “plunges us into a world of

Islamic fundamentalism, which it depicts in shrill terms as one of men who beat their

wives, of a religion that honors women by depriving them of what in the West would

be considered basic human rights, of women who are willing or unwilling captives of

their men”. 45

Such depictions, Jobrani argues, do nothing to promote mutual under-

standing or tolerance. Instead, they depict Muslims and Islamic countries as hotbeds

of fanaticism, teeming with Muslim men who enslave their wives (who themselves do

not practice anything other than compliance). Films such as Not Without My Daughter

serve to warn American women about the dangers of inter-racial marriage, as well as

to fortify beliefs surrounding the need to export freedom and democracy to these

countries.

Muslim comedians operating today are dedicated to combating such negative

portrayals. They often discuss the ignorance they encounter during interviews. As

Obeidallah notes, “I’ve had people say ‘You’re Arab, but you look so normal’. I’ve

heard that many times. I was on Fox News Radio and the guy actually said, ‘You’re

Arab, so how many terrorists are there?’ Like, I would know – because we have meetings

or something. I didn’t know what to tell the guy – I said 83”. 46

Obeidallah’s sarcastic

response to the radio show host, as opposed to a political one, does much to point out

to him the ridiculousness of his question. Such comedic responses do not put the inter-

viewer on the defensive. Rather, it gives them the space to recognize their own ignorance

and their own prejudices. These comedians, in their role as organic intellectuals, seem to

understand that such questions point to a lack of understanding, and acceptance of the

hegemonic common sense about Muslims, rather than malevolence on the part of the

public. From this standpoint, their humorous responses often disarm a potentially

tense situation and create the space for planting “new sedimentations” for mutual under-

standing.

Muslim Comedians and Social Criticism in Post-9/11 America 469

As discussed earlier, ignorance of Islam was highly prevalent during the 2008 election

campaign in the United States. There was much talk, often bordering on open racism,

about Presidential candidate Barack Obama being a Muslim, about “terrorist fist

bumps”, and “madrasas”. As Azhar Usman states:

Remember several months ago: “Barack Obama, when he was a child in Indo-

nesia, attended a madrasa”, Ooooooh. Turns out “madrasa” is just the Arabic

word for school. The media was upset because Barack Obama went to school?

Proving once again that many Americans prefer their politicians uneducated. 47

Such ignorance has put Muslim comedians into overdrive – they tour excessively, do

dozens of interviews every week, and are dedicated to promoting a better image of

Arab and Muslim Americans. As Obeidallah states:

I hope to attract as many average Americans to the show so we can build bridges

and foster understanding. I hope that people will come to the show and laugh

and also understand a little bit more about who we really are as opposed to

being afraid of all people who look Middle Eastern or have an accent. 48

Muslim comedians often note that the use of comedy for political and social activism is

not a novel concept. Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Chris Rock, and others

have done it for years. As Obeidallah points out:

Stand-up is truly an American invention . . . [and] as Americans we use what we

know to relate to other Americans. The thing we don’t have in common that

makes us more unique – we also want to change the world. And that’s our

goal through comedy. We want to change people’s perception of Arabs, who

we are in America and that we’re a force to understand. 49

In interviews, Azhar Usman often repeats the late actor Peter Ustinov’s statement that

comedy is simply a funny way of being serious. For Usman, who sports a long beard

and a skull cap, racial profiling and media stereotypes need to be discussed openly as

the “unnecessary evil of life after 9/11”.50 For Usman “stand-up is an art of protest, fun-

damentally. When you study the history of stand-up, you see how often it gets used as a

tool, an art form for the underdog. Black American comedians, Jewish-American come-

dians, Latino comedians, women comedians, gay comedians, blue-collar Americans, Jeff

Foxworthy and that whole hillbilly comedy tour . . . time and time again, you find that

groups that are written off by mainstream America use comedy as a weapon. This is a

way for them to speak truth to power—that quintessentially American thing to do.

And that’s what we’re doing as well”. 51

Aside from their immediate comedic material,

then, part of the success of Muslim comedians is their participation in a quintessentially

American cultural activity. The format of the standup comedian—on stage with a micro-

phone providing cultural commentary—is one that is familiar to most Americans. Once

the audience enters the comedy club, they knowingly enter a cultural space where their

beliefs, tastes, and outlook may come under scrutiny. 52

Since, according to Gramsci, the

status quo is upheld by the mere functioning of everyday life, where the ruling values take

on a “natural” quality, the comedy club is the perfect venue for siphoning new ideas into

society’s “common sense”. As Koziski has pointed out, standup comedians can be

thought of as cultural anthropologists who “pattern their comic material close to every-

day reality, making obvious behavioral patterns, explicit and tacit operating knowledge

and other insights about American society objects of conscious reflection”. 53

The

comedian as organic intellectual can serve as a representative for their respective

470 Amarnath Amarasingam

ethnic group, and use the comedy stage to voice grievances and pinpoint the faults of the

majority.

Muslim Women in Comedy

Female Muslim comics—like Shazia Mirza, Tissa Hami, and Maysoon Zaid—are also

coming to the fore as strong organic intellectuals providing commentaries on women

and Islam. Shazia Mirza, a British comedian, routinely starts her performances with

“I’m pleased to be here, because my dad has let me out for the night . . . he thinks I’m

at the library” or “My name is Shazia Mirza, or at least that’s what it says on my

pilot’s license”. 54

The latter joke, told three weeks after 9/11 during a performance at

a club in Soho, elicited a period of uneasy silence before the laughter erupted. As journal-

ist Geraldine Bedell noted after watching Mirza perform:

You can see [the audience] trying to work it out: does she want them to laugh at

Islam? Is that OK? Is she even for real, this deadpan person with a light,

Brummie drawl? How should they respond to this small, neat, demure and

self-confessedly devout woman telling them that all men are pigs, especially

Muslim men, “but that’s no use to me because I don’t eat pork”? 55

Of all the female Muslim comics working today, Mirza is by far the most personal. Her

material expresses a deep-seated ambivalence about her own past, her fellow Muslims, as

well as her Pakistani heritage. As she states:

It’s too soon for me. I don’t feel ready to talk about being a Muslim woman in

depth yet. People have expected a lot of me. They want more, they want me to

go deeper, but I can’t. It’s hard enough to crack jokes. Our culture doesn’t

encourage women to speak, never mind do stand-up. It has been a long

journey to come this far. 56

She has experienced a lot during her career as a comedian: immigration tends to hold her

back, believing that there is no such thing as a female Muslim comedian, and her father

has told her to stop what she is doing and get married (“But he knows he can no longer

control me, so he has stopped talking about it. Now he tells [people] I’m doing research,

or that it’s only a hobby”). 57

The main target of Mirza’s comedic wrath is not her religion. As she states, “I’m quite

devout. I would never make jokes about the Koran. I really believe in my faith”. 58

Rather,

she focuses the full force of her ire on her own community, many of whom she believes to

be hypocrites. 59

She states that she is now resolutely committed to combating the hypoc-

risy that plagues some members of the Muslim community, as well as challenging cul-

tural notions of what Muslim women can and cannot do. In critiquing what she

believes to be the poor treatment of women in certain Muslim countries, she notes

that she is often asked why Muslim women walk several steps behind their husbands.

She responds, “actually, these days the women are walking five steps in front of the hus-

bands . . . because of the landmines”. 60

She also often accuses Muslim men of being

absurdly afraid of Muslim women’s sexuality. One of her routines states: “I went to

Afghanistan recently. In Afghanistan, the women, they’re not allowed to wear high

heels because the click of the heels is meant to attract men”, and without missing a

beat, she closes with “all goats have now been locked up”. 61

One of the fundamental con-

cerns of Muslim women comics is, like their male counterparts, the negative stereotypes

surrounding Arab and Muslim Americans in the United States. However, they are also

Muslim Comedians and Social Criticism in Post-9/11 America 471

somewhat uniquely critical of their own communities and their treatment of women.

As Mirza states, “I feel that I’m making a difference just by standing on that stage.

Voicing Asian women, voicing Muslim women and representing another section of

society, giving an insight to people about how it really is”. 62

Maysoon Zayid, another female Muslim comic, regularly introduces herself as a

“Palestinian Muslim virgin with cerebral palsy from New Jersey”. She provides keen

comedic insight into the Palestinian – Israeli conflict, Muslim identity, as well as life as

a disabled woman. She played a role in Adam Sandler’s recent film You Don’t Mess

with the Zohan (2008), and also runs Maysoon’s Kids, an organization providing assist-

ance to disabled, wounded, and refugee children in the West Bank. Like her male

comedic counterparts, Zayid also discusses the difficulties of being an Arab-American

attempting to travel in the United States: “I walk in and they see an Arab trying to

board a plane . . . but I have cerebral palsy, which means I shake all the time. So, they

don’t just see an Arab, they see a shaking Arab and think ‘That bitch is nervous!’” 63

She notes that it is not a necessity for comedians to advertise the fact that they are

Muslim. However, she argues that once a comic makes his/her religion known to their

audience, their comedy automatically becomes political. Audiences will demand com-

mentary. Zayid states that she felt an obligation to talk about Islam and being Muslim,

because of the negative stereotypes that pervade the media, especially with respect to

Muslim women. “So I was like okay, I’m a Muslim woman and I’m very spiritual and

proud of who I am and who my family is and where I come from, so let me talk about

it so that people can see that Islam has different faces”. 64

Unlike some of the negative responses that Shazia Mirza has received, Zayid states that

members of her own community, as well as her parents, are enormously supportive. She

notes that the only time she has ever been censored is during her appearance on ABC’s

20/20 where Zayid got into a heated exchange with co-anchor John Stossel. As she notes:

He said to me: in your country you would never be able to do this. So I

responded by saying that I was born in Cliffside, New Jersey. This is my

country, but if you mean my ancestral country, I’ve done it there too. And he

was like you can never do this over there. I’m like, I have! I have done

standup over there. He’s like, well you could never talk about politics and

Yasser Arafat the way you do here. I’m like, I have. And he’s like, well, you

can never say, and I’m like, but I have. And he was like, well you could never

say, and I’m like, but I have! and then I was like, do you want to see the video

tape! 65

In the end, the entire exchange was edited out of the program.

All three female comedians under discussion have also had to deal with issues sur-

rounding the hijab. Zayid notes that she does not wear the hijab or a burqa on stage

and feels that this alone provides a different idea of what Muslim women are supposed

to look like in public. Tissa Hami and Shazia Mirza, on the other hand, have at times

incorporated the hijab into their acts. Hami often starts off wearing the hijab and

removes it half way through her act to illustrate that she is the same woman regardless

of what she wears on her head. By using the headscarf in her routine, she wants to

show that:

. . . not all veiled Muslim women are silent or oppressed or subservient or ter-

rorist. That, a veiled woman isn’t someone to revile or fear . . . that whether

I’m veiled or not, I am the exact same person. 66

472 Amarnath Amarasingam

This is her not-so-subtle attempt to siphon new ideas into society’s common sense beliefs

about Arab and Muslim women. As one commentator noted, “Hami’s comedy is meant

to encourage viewers to look beyond appearances. She dresses in all black, from her

shoes to her hijab, and then comes out with lines like: ‘I’ll be honest with you.

I should have worn a long coat, but I was feeling kind of slutty tonight’”. 67

Muslim

women have had mixed reaction to Mirza’s and Hami’s strategy. Some reader comments

on the Muslimah Media Watch website sums up the nature of the criticism they at times

receive. One reader wrote,

What I don’t like about either comedian’s act is that they both wear hijab as a

type of stage garb, neither of them are muhajabat [hijab wearers], which I find

kind of demeaning. If they don’t wear it, that’s fine, just don’t turn it into a type

of fancy dress to catch people’s attention. 68

It seems, however, that comics like Tissa Hami have given their use of the hijab more

thought than simply using it as a “fancy dress” or “stage garb”. As she stated in a

recent interview with Public Radio International:

The way I treat the veil is from a very Iranian perspective. The Iran I was born

into, a woman could dress however she wanted. Post-revolution, a woman has

to veil when she goes out in public . . . Every single day as a woman, you end up,

multiple times a day, putting the veil on, taking it off, putting it on, taking it off

. . . It really felt like a mockery. It felt like a sham . . . and we were not the ones

mocking it. I felt like the mullahs, with their laws, that they were making a

mockery of the veil . . . So when I decided that I would go onstage veiled and

at the half-way point, take it off, I was mimicking what I did multiple times a

day when I was living in Iran. And I wanted, in a place where I could do

that, where I had the freedom to do that, to take the veil off publicly and on

stage to show, one, that I could do it and, two, that whether I have the veil

on or not, that I am the exact same person. 69

In other words, the taking off of the veil in public serves, for Hami, a two-fold political

purpose: firstly, she attempts to take back control over her own life and control over the

decision to wear the veil. Secondly, she communicates to a Western audience that

Muslim women who wear the veils are not an exotic “other”, incapable of being under-

stood. Muslim women in comedy, then, are not only attempting to overturn negative

perceptions of Arab and Muslim Americans in the United States, like their male counter-

parts, but are also challenging the common sense beliefs about Arab and Muslim women

by providing the West with a different conception of the Muslim woman as someone who

is neither oppressed nor in need of saving. 70

Conclusion

I have argued in this paper that Muslim comedians are increasingly taking on the role of

Gramscian organic intellectuals in their efforts to combat stereotypes and promote inter-

cultural dialogue. They are dedicated to repainting the image of Arabs, Muslims and

Islam that exists in the West. As Moz Jobrani stated, “I think that I’m just someone

who’s putting forth an image that hasn’t been seen before. When we did our Axis of

Evil comedy special, and it aired on Comedy Central, I actually read a conservative

blog where the writer was saying, ‘I never knew these people laughed’. That, to me, is

huge. To show us as we’ve never been shown before”. 71

Comedian Ahmed Ahmed

Muslim Comedians and Social Criticism in Post-9/11 America 473

concurs. As he tells PBS, “we can’t define who we are on a serious note, because nobody

will listen. So the only way to do it is to be funny about it”. 72

Muslim comedians, as

organic intellectuals, voice the interests of their communities, defend the perception of

them in public and aid the community in its fight for recognition. As Dean Obeidallah

argues, Arabs and Muslims themselves must craft the public face of their community

in the United States. “It’s up to us to go forward and tell people who we really are.

The burden is on us, and we should be the ones telling our own story. I don’t want

some other person telling the story about who Arabs are in America and who Muslims

are. We should tell that story”. 73

In attempting to change the way Arab and Muslim Americans are viewed from the

outside, Muslim comedians as organic intellectuals also hope to uplift individuals

from their own community. These comedians believe that Arab and Muslim Americans

can gain confidence and self-respect from their comedy as well. As their community is

negatively depicted in the media, and the public responds to them with suspicion,

Muslim comedians attempt to provide cultural leadership and urge members of their

community to see themselves as equal citizens. Muslim comedians also hope to

provide members of their community with new ideas about what it means to be

Muslim in America. Many of these comedians note that Muslims who attend their

shows are not only overwhelmingly supportive but also grateful to them for painting a

new image of their faith. As comedian Azeem, a former member of the Allah Made

Me Funny Comedy Tour, states:

The group of people that I’ve noticed that come out are those persons who, for

some reason have felt spiritually disenfranchised . . . But, to be honest, what I’ve

noticed is as they leave, it’s like they just came from a spiritual revival . . . They

are seeing us and they’re saying, ‘Man, they are having fun with their Islam’ 74

NOTES

1. Andrew Stott, Comedy, New York: Routledge, 2005, p. 103.

2. Jon Stewart (host), In D. Javerbaum and J. Stewart (Executive Producers), The Daily Show with Jon

Stewart, New York: Comedy Central, September 26, 2001.

3. A. Stott, Comedy, op. cit. p. 104.

4. Sarfraz Manzoor, “It’s Time for Muslim Comedians to Stand Up”, The Washington Post. December

16, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/12/16/ST2007121601854.

html, accessed October 20, 2008.

5. Steve Jones, Antonio Gramsci, London: Routledge, 2006, p. 27.

6. Ibid., p. 29.

7. Ibid. p. 34.

8. Robert Bocock, Hegemony, Sussex: Ellis Horwood, 1986, p. 33 – 34.

9. Ibid. p. 35.

10. Ibid. p. 33.

11. Ibid. p. 35.

12. Steve Jones, Antonio Gramsci, op. cit., p. 32.

13. See, Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, Q. Hoare and G.N. Smith (ed. and trans.),

New York: International Publishers, 1971, 206 – 276; Perry Anderson, “The Antinomies of Antonio

Gramsci, New Left Review, Vol. 100, November – December, 1976, pp. 5 – 78; Derek Boothman, “The

Sources of Gramsci’s Concept of Hegemony”, Rethinking Marxism, Vol. 20, No. 2, 2008, pp. 201 –

215; Bates, “Gramsci and the Theory of Hegemony”, Journal of the History of Ideas. Vol. 36, No.

2, 1975, pp. 351 – 366.

14. Renate Holub, Antonio Gramsci: Beyond Marxism and Postmodernism, London: Routledge, 1992, p. 6.

15. Ibid.

16. A. Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, op. cit. p. 324.

474 Amarnath Amarasingam

17. Walter Adamson, Hegemony and Revolution: A Study of Antonio Gramsci’s Political and Cultural Theory,

Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980, p. 150.

18. Marcia Landy, Film, Politics, and Gramsci, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994, p. 25.

19. Giuseppe Vacca, “Intellectuals and the Marxist Theory of the State”, in A.S. Sassoon (ed.),

Approaches to Gramsci, London: Writers and Readers Publishing, 1982, pp. 37 – 69; Jerome

Karabel, “Revolutionary Contradictions: Antonio Gramsci and the Problem of Intellectuals”, Politics

& Society, Vol. 6, 1976, pp. 123 – 172; Carole Elliot, “Representations of the Intellectual: Insights

from Gramsci on Management Education”, Management Learning, Vol. 34, No. 4, 2003, pp. 411 –

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pp. 205 – 220; Robert Fatton Jr., “Gramsci and the Legitimization of the State: The Case of the Sene-

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Dani Filc, “Physicians as ‘Organic Intellectuals”, Acta Sociologica, Vol. 49, No. 3, 2006, pp. 273 – 285;

Charles Kurzman and Lynn Owens, “The Sociology of Intellectuals”, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol.

28, 2002, pp. 63 – 90.

20. See: R. Holub, Antonio Gramsci, op. cit., pp. 151 – 170.

21. A. Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, op. cit., p. 9.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid. p. 12.

24. S. Jones, Antonio Gramsci, op. cit., p. 89.

25. A. Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, op. cit., p. 5.

26. W. Adamson, Hegemony and Revolution, op. cit., p. 143.

27. A. Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, op. cit., p. 334.

28. W. Adamson, Hegemony and Revolution, op. cit., p. 143.

29. See, for example, Julia Fox, Glory Koloen, and Volkan Sahin, “No Joke: A Comparison of Substance

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Aaron McKain, “Not Necessarily Not the News: Gatekeeping, Remediation, and The Daily Show”,

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31. Author, “Gramsci, Selling Out, and the Politics of Race Loyalty: Exploring Chappelle’s No-Show”,

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33. Lawrence Mintz, “Humor and Popular Culture”, in P. McGhee and J. Goldstein, eds. Handbook of

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35. Majken Sorensen, “Humor as a Serious Strategy of Nonviolent Resistance to Oppression”, Peace &

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36. Author, personal communication, July 2, 2008.

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38. G. Baker, “Stand-Up”, op. cit.

39. Maz Jobrani, Dean Obeidallah, Aaron Kader, Ahmed Ahmed (actors), The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour

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40. Author, personal communication, July 2, 2008.

Muslim Comedians and Social Criticism in Post-9/11 America 475

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54. Geraldine Bedell, “Veiled Humour”, The Observer, 20 April 2003, http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/

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55. Ibid.

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57. Ibid.

58. G. Bedell, “Veiled Humour”, op. cit.

59. Jonathan Curiel, “Funny, Shazia Mirza looks Muslim . . .”, The San Francisco Chronicle, May 14,

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60. “Shazia Mirza – Standup Comedian”, YouTube, October 12, 2008, http://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=OOpGlNFJLGI, accessed November 30, 2008.

61. Ibid.

62. “Muslim Comic Sees the Funny Side”, BBC News: Showbiz, October 19, 2001, http://news.bbc.co.

uk/2/hi/entertainment/1608650.stm, accessed November 20, 2008.

63. “Maysoon Zayid Performs at Stand-Up for Democracy”, Google Video, November 4, 2005, http://

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64. Emma Richardson, “Maysoon Zayid: Comedian Without Borders”, Punchline Magazine, May 26,

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65. Sadik Kassim, “Muslim Wakeup! Meeting with Maysoon”, Muslim WakeUp! MMU!, October 4,

2004, http://www.muslimwakeup.com/main/archives/2004/10/meeting-with-ma.php, accessed

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23, 2008.

66. Fatemah, “She’s Funny That Way: Interviews with Muslim Comedians Tissa Hami & Maysoon

Zayid”, Muslimah Media Watch, 12 May 2008, http://muslimahmediawatch.org/2008/05/12/shes-

funny-that-way-interviews-with-muslim-comedians-tissa-hami-maysoon-zayid/, accessed December

2, 2008.

476 Amarnath Amarasingam

67. Fatemah, “Funny Business: Muslim Women in Comedy”, Muslimah Media Watch, October 23, 2007,

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68. Ibid.

69. Clark Boyd, “PRI’s The World: Marco Werman interviews Tissa Hami, Muslim-American come-

dian”, PRI: The World, October 28, 2008, http://vimeo.com/2038563?pg=embed&sec=203856,

accessed December 1, 2008.

70. Haleh Afshar, “Can I see your hair? Choice, agency and attitudes: the dilemma of faith and feminism

for Muslim women who cover”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 31, No. 2, 2008, pp. 411 – 427; Lila

Abu-Lughod, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural

Relativism and Its Others”, American Anthropologist, Vol. 104, No. 3, 2002, pp. 783 – 790.

71. Author, personal communication, July 7, 2008.

72. G. Baker, “Stand Up”, op. cit.

73. DNC Comedy Coverage, op. cit.

74. Azhar Usman, Azeem, Preacher Moss (actors), Allah Made Me Funny Comedy Tour, [Television

Program]. United States: Arietisav, 2004 – 2005.

Muslim Comedians and Social Criticism in Post-9/11 America 477

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