The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour consists of Ahmed Ahmed, an Egyptian American, Maz Jobrani, an Iranian American, Aron Kader, a Palestinian American, and later Won Ho Chung, a Korean Jordanian. The three men initially started with a Comedy Central tour around America, using jokes and laughter to help point out stereotypes made against their people and the hardships that they have personally gone through after 9/11. The tour later got picked up by the Showtime Arabia network to travel to the Middle East at locations such as Cairo and Dubai, and Won Ho joined the team to bring more Arabic speakers to the show. The tour had a new goal, to show that the Middle East can laugh too.
“The Axis Of Evil Comedy Tour – Middle East 3-Guys & Wonho Dubai Part 1” YouTube.
Here is the 1st part of 6 that I found on YouTube of their adventures in Dubai. The show takes on a more documentary feel to help mix the comedy with escapades through a market place, relaxing on a yacht, skiing in Ski Dubai, eating food, and just generally having a good time with the locals. The purpose was to combine comedy with experiences of the culture within the Middle East as well and fight the general Orientalist ideas portrayed onto the Middle East from the West.
The passage we read from Alsutany’s “Arabs and Muslims in the Media” discussed how the media before and after 9/11 always portrayed Muslims in a negative light, such as reporters immediately inferring that Arabs may have been involved in any bombing attack, for example the Ohlahoma City Bombing which ended up being caused by a white man. Or casting “brown” actors as the terrorists, who are actually Latino, Cuban, or South Asian. This tour’s purpose was to fight these stereotypes in the media that Alsutany observed, to show everyone that there is more to the Middle East than just bombs and jihad.
Part of the Axis of Evil Middle East tour was holding auditions in various middle eastern cities such as Cairo and Dubai for students to perform their comedy acts in front of the comedians and an audience of friends and other competitors. The prize was a scholarship and to become a part of their tour, performing in front of thousands of people at various locations. This segment helps build upon the idea that the tour is about showing everyone that the Middle East are real people that have a real sense of humor, they can laugh and they can laugh at themselves. The Middle East is not full of “infidel” and terrorists.
Hiding their social commentary behind comedy allows the group and tour to talk about subjects in a much more light-hearted manner than they would usually be able to to a public audience, such as “random” security checks at airports, or how one of the comedians was actually arrested and put into a jail cell overnight because of the way he looked. Comedy is a way of coping with the way their people have been treated while also showing everyone else that their people have a sense of humor, that they are no different than we are and should be treated as such. They laugh just like the rest of us.
Race, Gender, and Technology 