The afternoon before Ramadan starts, Ramy Youssef is sitting in a restaurant in downtown Manhattan, dressed in sweats and a black Nike snapback hat. Hes loading up on food: a hearty stack of lemon curd pancakes, a side of turkey sausage, ketchup he liberally seasons with pepper. The 28-year-old has just finished performing downstairs at the Comedy Cellar, where he started out in typical slacker-bro comedian style, bemoaning the fact that he doesnt have a girlfriend with whom he can grab fro-yo. Then he segued into a bit about watching Surviving R. Kelly and feeling increasingly anxious that the documentary would reveal the R&B singer had converted to Islam. I was just waiting for them to find the Quran, he deadpanned. Episode Five it was going to be like, the R actually stands for Rahman.'
A devout Muslim, Youssef is the sort of stand-up who seamlessly weaves together piety (I believe in God. Like God, God. Not yoga.) and obscenity (I slipped in once without a condom for like a second it felt so good, but the second I slipped in I had a fucking mortgage. My son needed braces.), occasionally at the same time (I remember the moment I really believed in God. This girl texted me two minutes after I jerked off to her Facebook photo). Its a mix evident in his first stand-up special, Feelings, which debuts on HBO on June 29th. And its definitely there in Ramy, his semi-autobiographical series about a Muslim-American named Ramy Hassan whos living with his family in New Jersey and in the midst of a quarter-life crisis spurred on by a desire to better adhere to his faith. The first scripted TV comedy about the Muslim-American experience, it immediately became a critical darling, praised for being quietly revolutionary and profound after its premiere in April. (Hulu has already announced its picking up the show for a second season.)
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You go into TV, especially if you havent made a season of something before, and youre like, Am I going to get out on the other end of this thing still looking like me? he says. And I think I do.
The thing about starring in show about an Arab Muslim millennial named Ramy when youre also an Arab Muslim millennial named Ramy is that, publicly at least, you can end up being perceived as exactly like your character. TV Ramy is more than a little stunted and still lives at home with his parents (played by Hiam Abbass and Amr Waked). TV Ramys start-up gig never quite starts up, forcing him to go work for his racist uncle in the diamond district. TV Ramy is, admittedly, kind of a fuckboy. Thankfully, real-life Ramy has it way more together. I try to put [the character] in a place where hes a little more stuck than I feel, Youssef explains. I have a creative outlet to talk about things that are on my mind, and so its always very much, What would it look like if I didnt have that? We lead with his flaws. It would feel weird to make a show called Ramy, and have him be what a good guy thats a little sociopathic.
Youssef was born in Queens to Egyptian immigrants his dad managed the Plaza Hotel back when Donald Trump owned it and raised in nearby Rutherford, New Jersey, where he grew up a fan of George Carlin and Allen Iversons 76ers. He initially enrolled at Rutgers for political science, with the vaguest of plans to become a lawyer, but dropped out at 20 to pursue a comedy career in Los Angeles. He was first cast in the Scott Baio-led Nickelodeon sitcom See Dad Run, then had a recurring role on the USA hacker drama Mr. Robot, alongside fellow Egyptian-American Rami Malek. (Side note: Perhaps nothing demonstrates the dearth of Middle Eastern actors on television quite like when I found out my 84-year-old Egyptian grandmother attempted to watch the entirely convoluted Mr. Robot because it was the only show on TV whose star was Egyptian.)
The idea for Ramy first took hold in 2012, when Youssef was praying in between takes of See Dad Run. Soon after, his friend Ari Katcher whod been encouraging him to develop the concept of a Muslim-American comedy brought stand-up Jerrod Carmichael to a party at Youssefs house. The two comics immediately struck up a friendship over the fact that theyre both religious (Carmichael is a Christian); they ended up discussing the show while hanging out at a roast of Justin Bieber and touring together in 2017. When Carmichael came on as an executive producer, they began pitching the show around with co-creators Katcher and Ryan Welch. After Hulu greenlit the project, they brought Transparents Bridget Bedard to work as showrunner. Per a Vulture article on the making of Ramy, every new writer hire was a woman, two of whom were Muslim. (Two stand-alone episodes respectively focusing on Ramys sister, played by May Calamawy, and his mother, were both directed by Palestinian-American director Cherien Dabis and are among the strongest of the series.)
Overall, the shows refusal to go in the most obvious, expected route Ramys extended family are Trump fans, a flashback episode reveals that 9/11 happened while he was trying to masturbate for the first time in his middle school bathroom ultimately lends it a feeling of deep authenticity. (The ample habibis dropped into every other sentence also help.) Most importantly, its enormously funny, with even the most poignant moments stretching out like a rubber band then suddenly snapping back with a joke. Take the conversation where Ramys father chastises his son for sleeping with a married woman; he gives a heartfelt, nostalgia-laden monologue about what he sacrificed when he left his family behind in Egypt before ending on the note, at least youre not gay.
Youssef is thrilled that he got his full vision into Ramy as he puts it, this shit isnt diluted. That said, there were some battles he lost. He had hoped the very first scene would show him doing wudu, a ritual cleansing before prayer, in a mosque. Testing made the audiences feel like it was a show about terrorism, he says, because theyre open in a mosque speaking Arabic. Whether you think Ramy leans more heavily on the obscenity or the piety depends on your perspective. The shows first season includes several sex scenes, including a fumbled backseat choke-out in the pilot (though, deliberately, theres no nudity). People who are part of any of the various Muslim communities that have a sensitivity to discussing sex, they watch this show and theyre like, This is all sex, he continues. People who dont have that sensitivity watch the show and theyre like, All this dude does is pray. (For the record: There are more prayer scenes than sex scenes. Youssef has tallied it up.)
The success ofRamys first season has sparked conversations about representation and responsibility, which he welcomes, though Youssefs ultimate goal was telling a nuanced story about one particular character and his family and to make it funny. He loves comedy that has purpose Its important to make sure Im always thinking about, Why am I telling this joke?' but he also wants to be realistic. I think that comedys in a place right now where its getting a little confused, Youssef says. Sometimes people sit more on the purpose than on the laugh. Its got to be laugh-driven. Anytime someones like, Oh yeah, comedys changing things, I feel really averse to that kind of sentiment, because that puts an unfair weight on it.
My friend Patrisse Cullors, shes one of the founders of Black Lives Matter, he continues, I couldnt call her and be like, Hey, you guys take a week off, this writers room is so hilarious, were going to change [things]. Dont worry, we got it covered. Hopefully my work helps set up people to be a little more open-minded to that work thats being done, but thats not change.
After brunch, Youssef is planning to head out to his parents house in Jersey, where hell sleep over and wake up at 4:00 a.m. to eat suhoor before the first day of fasting. A couple of days later, hell fly out to Los Angeles, where the Ramy writers room is based, to start up on season two of the show. And then theres the upcoming premiere of Feelings, which will introduce his stand-up to a much larger audience. Though Youssef has been performing for 10 years, there are barely any videos of his material on the internet, an intentional choice on his part. Theres just a little bit of a shock with things going public, he admits. I feel like it sounds dumb to say when youre a performer, and you go out of your way to make a TV show. What I really like about stand-up is theres 100 people in a room, and you can just feel the pulse. Its very human.
Then once something just goes on screen, Youssef adds, theres just a little bit of that humanity that was lost. Not everyones going to get your intentions. But hopefully more do than dont.