Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Sunday, July 31, 2011
Bassem Youssef, an Egyptian heart surgeon turned media celebrity, will begin his new show Al Barnamag (the Show) on private channel On Tv tomorrow, the first day of Ramadan. The Show, a satirical take on news a la Jon Stewart, follows a remarkably successful show on Youtube Youssef hosted in his Cairo apartment in March in which he exposed the hypocrisy of political life and mocked the reaction of celebrities during the revolution. Youssef will have to thread carefully as he attempts to restore the accountability of politics and media in Egypt, but his contribution will certainly make a difference in a society where all ideologies can finally participate (not equally) in the political process.
I was born and raised in Morocco. My research focuses on the intersections between Islam, Arab popular culture and the media. I'm currently an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder.