Mining the Middle East for Laughs

One of the stand-up routines best brought to life in a sketch on “Watch List” is Nasry Malik’s post-9/11 fantasy of becoming the most celebrated Arab in the United States. “We want to be more patriotic, more American than Americans,” says Malik. “So my family and I have been discussing it and we’re actually thinking about turning in my father. It’s not because he did anything wrong, it would just make us look so patriotic.” A troupe of actors play the scheming family who drop damning items, such as a Qur'an, in a box labeled EVIDENCE AGAINST DAD. After dad is incarcerated, they are celebrated on cable news as the “Most Patriotic Family in America.” Drastic? Yes. But in times like these, what Arab-American comic can afford to be left off “The Watch List”?

© 2007