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FESTIVAL FEATURED ON CNN'S "THE WORLD TODAY"
By Transcript , CNN's "The World Today"
Nov 16, 2005
HOLMES: Don't go away. Still to come on YOUR WORLD TODAY...
VERJEE: Some black humor, a little bit of it, anyway. An Arab - American comedian pokes fun at his heritage and perceptions of his people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's really two news stories about us. There's the bad ones. We're described as gunmen, terrorists or militants, balanced by only the good ones, where we're described as alleged gunmen, militant, or terrorist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERJEE: Comedy and tragedy are intrinsically linked to each other, particularly for some.
HOLMES: Arab-American comic, Dean Obeidallah, mines the headlines for punch lines, making audiences laugh about some of the things that aren't usually laughing matters. I spoke to him a little earlier. Started by asking him that, given the state of the world today, especially for Arabs, what's so funny?
DEAN OBEIDALLAH, ARAB-AMERICAN COMEDIAN: What's so funny, I think, is that we are using our sense of humor to try to dispel stereotypes and diffuse tension. It's something you have to do in this world. Even myself, I look pretty White, but I am Arab-American. And the littlest things happen.
I'm paying for a credit card. This is a true story. The man picks up my credit card. Looks at me and becomes hostile. "Hey, buddy, what kind of name is this?" pointing at my name. And I say, Arab. He's right in my face. "What does this mean?" I say, well, "Translate to English it means peaceful, friendly Arab."
And you just want to use comedy to dispel the little tension that people might have. We are Americans born here. We are proud to be Americans, but we're also proud of our heritage from back home wherever it may be.
HOLMES: Do you find it works or sometimes are you a bit annoyed of what's going on?
OBEIDALLAH: You do. And I think the evolution of the Arab- American comics and the Arab-American Comedy Festival has shown not annoyance, this is our third year, our first two years a lot of jokes were being about being victims. Now we are really getting into defining who we are.
Other ethnic groups get these great months that recognize their cultural contributions. There's Black History Month, Asian Awareness Month, Hispanic Awareness Month, you know what Arabs get? Orange alert. We want a culture beyond terrorism and a response to terrorism. We want to show that we have a culture of art and comedy and we can make people laugh. And we can laugh at ourselves. We're just like every other ethnic group living in America just trying to make it. Unfortunately, the worst examples in our community have defined us, and we're trying to dispel that.
HOLMES: It must be a case that, after 9/11, when things started going downhill for Arabs around the world in terms of a suspicion and the like, After 9/11, there must have been jokes that you couldn't tell then that you can start to tell now. Has the comedy evolved in those few years?
OBEIDALLAH: It clearly has evolved. And I think that people are doing jokes that we wouldn't have done before. And some of them, honestly, are making fun of ourselves as Arab-Americans and our own culture. And holding a mirror up to ourselves. Before the last year, we didn't want to make fun of ourselves. We had so many people mocking us in the media. So now we are doing jokes about ourselves. No one's making fun of terrorism or terrorist acts or victims, that's inappropriate and wrong. But we are doing things and audiences are laughing.
There's two news stories about us: bad ones where we are described as gunmen, terrorist or militants, balanced by the good ones where we are described as alleged gunmen, militants or terrorists. We want to get beyond those two news stories and get to the fun things.
And we are demanding Osama bin Laden be captured. We are out there saying, "Why isn't he captured?" In reality, in America, he's become a has-been. And, I think, like all has-beens, next time you'll see him, he'll be a cast member on VH1's "Surreal Life."
HOLMES: What sort of things do you poke fun at? You poke fun at yourselves in a way, but you also poke fun at the attitudes towards you.
OBEIDALLAH: Well, we are because it's funny to us as Arab- Americans that people would see two Arab people speaking, we'd say they are having a conversation. Americans would say, that's chatter. Terrorist chatter's on the increase. We try to poke jokes about that kind of thing.
But we are also out taking on big issues. Even the Patriot Act now. We have no problem joking about that. Like in America here, any book you take out of the library, the government can find with the name of the book. My question is, are there books that give terrorists away? "I'm al Qaeda, you're al Qaeda," "Chicken Soup for the Terrorist Soul?" or "Dirty Bombs for Dummies." No, the government's gathering information on all of us. Not just Arabs.
And we also take on President Bush. All of us are having a lot of fun with the president. In America, recent polls at 36 percent approval rating. Statistically, herpes has a higher approval rating right now than President Bush in our country.
HOLMES: Is there anything funny about being in a security line at a U.S. airport with the name of Mohammed on your passport?
OBEIDALLAH: Well, some of the other comics who look more Middle Eastern than I do have much more problems. For me it's, even been self-conscious about my friend's names, I truly have a friend named Osama. Pre- 9/11 that meant nothing. Now I'm self-conscious. I say his name out loud, people turn around. On my cell phone it said "Osama's cell." My friend saw that he said, what's this? So I had to change it. Now it says "Othello's cell."
I'm self-conscious about my own friend's names. My Uncle Mohammed, and my Cousin Mustafa. It's weird when you say a relatives name on a cell phone and people turn around, because they hear you saying an Arab or Muslim name. We hope it evolves.
HOLMES: Do you tend to find that American audiences, that is, not Arab-American audiences, but the other American audiences, take a little while to warm up to your routine. Like, initially it's a little uncomfortable? Or people have a pretty good sense of humor.
OBEIDALLAH: I think they do because all our material is written from an American point of view as being an Arab. I'm an Arab- American. I'm born here just like most of the comics in the show. Or every comic in our show has at least been raised here. We talk about it, like we are Americans. Why is this happening to us? This is our country. It's an odd feeling to feel suspicious in your own country. People try to help me. Someone said change your name from Obeidallah to the real English translation. Pick up your ethnic heritage. My name translated into "Servant of Allah." That's certainly not going to help me in these times.
People try to be helpful. And they have a sense of humor about it.
HOLMES: You could have that on your passport. That will get you through quicker, won't it?
OBEIDALLAH: I'll be walking everywhere.
HOLMES: Dean Obeidallah, thank you so much for that. Very funny man.
VERJEE: Osama's cell.
HOLMES: All right, got to go. Thanks for being with us.
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