'Ramy Youssef: More Feelings' review
Ramy Youssef performs in February during the taping of his comedy special “More Feelings.”
HBO
To call something “gently edgy” seems like something inspired by the classic George Carlin routine about words that don’t go together, e.g., “jumbo shrimp” and “military intelligence." But the term applies to the comedy in the HBO stand-up special “Ramy Youssef: More Feelings,” and it’s meant as a high compliment.
The Golden Globe-winning creator and director of the acclaimed Hulu series “Ramy” has such a warm and inviting and authentic presence, and his social and cultural and personal observations clearly come from a place of trying to find some common ground in this effed-up world — but his humor is also as sharp an Obsidian blade, and his punchlines often land with a terrific and cheerfully politically incorrect sting.
A Muslim son of Egyptian immigrants, Youssef says that on Oct. 7, “I get a call from a guy I know, [who says], ‘Yo bro, where you at with Hamas?’ Where am I at? ... You think any of us like what happened on October 7th? It’s AWFUL. We hate seeing people die. It’s inhumane. It made me cry. … Now I gotta prove to you that I’m not violent, like you think that’s what’s in my heart? You know me …
“Bro, I’m a Taliban guy.”
The joke lands because Youssef is poking fun at the mentality that has so many of us immediately questioning the motives and beliefs of anyone who is Muslim, and he’s talking about the pressures he feels as a high-profile Muslim celebrity. When Youssef contributed funds to earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey, he said his inbox was “getting cooked” by Muslims who wanted to know where he was when the floods happened in Pakistan. “I was like, I gotta cover everything? I gotta be the mayor of Muslim disaster?”
Filmed last month in Jersey City, New Jersey (if you caught Youssef’s show at the Vic Theatre in Chicago last summer, you’ll recognize much of the material) and directed by “The Bear” showrunner Christopher Storer with minimal camera moment and a total trust in Youssef’s quiet charisma, “More Feelings” has a steady stream of current events content, e.g., when Youssef notes that Joe Biden has “crazy substitute teacher energy." He also talks about how in America, “The South is 25 minutes from wherever you think isn’t the South.” Just as often, though, there’s a universality to the humor, as when Ramy talks about how his father would never really open up to him — but when they’d go to the Olive Garden, his dad would share his whole life story with the waiter.
Been there, experienced that.
Ramy Youssef is having one of those classic Show Business Moments when a talented young performer is catapulted to the next level in relatively rapid fashion. On the heels of “Ramy,” he directed the “Honeydew” episode of “The Bear,” which followed Lionel Boyce’s Marcus to Copenhagen, and he had a key role opposite Academy Award winner Emma Stone in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things.” He will host “Saturday Night Live” on March 30.
It’s all heady stuff, and with great success comes great pressure, and in today’s world, endless trolling and sniping. Still, the Ramy Youssef we see in “More Feelings” is a genuine, brilliant and calming presence who makes us laugh a lot, think quite a bit and maybe even feel a little bit better about how we still have much in common despite all our differences, and we should hold onto that.