DUBAI — While the world watched the demise of Egypt’s political leadership last year, some Egyptians were tuning online to YouTube clips lampooning the Egyptian state channel’s fumbling version of the events.
In early 2011, Bassem Youssef began filming clips in his laundry room to provide comic relief amid a crumbling political situation in his home country. His work struck a chord with a wide audience. A year and tens of millions of views later, Mr. Youssef — a heart surgeon by profession — is now the host of Egypt’s first live political satire show on television.
His bold show — modeled after Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” — tackles topics that were once taboo under the regime of the ousted president, Hosni Mubarak, including political corruption and religious extremism.
Money has been quick to follow the success. At one point, he received financial backing from the Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris while his show aired on ONtv, a liberal Egyptian channel. Since then, the show “El Bernameg,” meaning “The Program” in Arabic, has moved to CBC, another Egyptian channel with a wider audience, airing an episode every Friday. It has secured sponsors and a brand-new venue.
“We were always afraid, and when we started, there were always problems with the military, because we use satire and humor as stinging weapons of truth,” Mr. Youssef said via a Skype call from Cairo.
“We’re doing something right because now we get bigger budgets that have gone to renovating the theater where we film and to our researchers and writers,” he said.
When he appeared as a guest on “The Daily Show” this year, Mr. Youssef said there was more money in comedy than in cardiology. It seemed like a joke, but similar examples of Internet-driven fame and fortune are cropping up across the region, from Egypt to the United Arab Emirates, as political satire and sophisticated forms of comedy turn into widely watched and profitable entertainment.
“Stand-up content is what feeds into movies, talk shows and witty sitcoms,” said Jamil Abu-Wardeh, managing director of J.A.W. Media, a creative agency that produces original content for Web, television and stage, and founder of www.standub.com, a resource for all things funny in the region.
Mr. Abu-Wardeh also produced the Axis of Evil comedy tour, which introduced stand-up comedy to the Middle East.
“Stand-up comedy is evolving into a real industry today,” he said.
Comedy has always had a role in Arab entertainment. Egyptian and Kuwaiti theater plays were the most popular — featuring popular actors. Slapstick sketches dominated television comedy.
Since being introduced by the Axis tour and Mr. Abu-Wardeh’s team, a stand-up culture featuring a quick-witted comic on stage with a microphone, slowly evolved and gave rise to the variety now seen in the region today, including political satire.
This shift happened in parallel with the rise of YouTube over the past several years, giving audiences the opportunity to choose between entertainment programmed by broadcasters on television and unknown funny clips by random people online.
The changes have penetrated even the most conservative countries. While experimenting with small, local stand-up events in Saudi Arabia, Fahad Albutairi and his producer, Ibraheem al-Khairallah, began a YouTube channel called La Yekthar last year, on which they posted satirical clips.
They created an alligator mascot that has become a branding tool. Millions of views online led to ticketed events, and eventually, the team started a full-fledged video and events production company called Luxury Events KSA. Mr. Khairallah, whose day job is in advertising, managed to convince the telecommunications operator Mobily to sponsor a full month of comedy events.
Now, soft drink and electronics brands want to be in their coveted “presenting sponsor” slots. Comedy is winning a big chunk of the audience. Statistics from Argaam.com, which is an online statistics portal with data on different sectors, including media and stock markets, show that comedy attracts an average of 40 percent of the four million Saudi YouTube views per day.
Comedy has become a serious business.
IHT Special: Internet-Driven Fame and Fortune for Mideast Comedians
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IHT Special: Internet-Driven Fame and Fortune for Mideast Comedians
