And talking about the hostages at the same time does anger some on the far left. One of the directors of the Oscar-winning doc “No Other Land” recently got a lot of blowback for something similar. Look, there are false equivalencies in terms of power. That’s what people are talking about. They’re talking about dynamics of power. When you look at Gaza, you’re talking about a place where their water and electricity are controlled. So even the framing of the earlier question of calling it a war, you know, I’m like, “All right, call it whatever you want to call it.” Yes, there are two sides who are fighting, but there’s a massive power imbalance, and that is just unequivocally true.
How would you describe it? I just said it: It’s literal power. They could turn off the electricity, they could turn off the water, they can turn off what aid is getting in. It’s like being in a wrestling match with someone where you’re controlling the other guy’s calories and how much water he gets. He sneaks a few PowerBars that you didn’t know about. But where I stand is: I know so many people with kids. I hope to have kids. So for me to say all of that in one sentence — nobody wants there to be people getting bombed indiscriminately, and nobody wants there to be hostages. There is nothing controversial in saying it. When you’re not saying everything that everyone wants to hear, they get upset. Jokes are one thing, but anything I’ve said sincerely, I could tattoo it to myself because there’s no problem. That’s why I’m not afraid. Because it’s like: “What did I say? ‘Stop killing kids.’” “Oh, my God, this guy’s crazy.” What? It’s not a thing.
Are there parts of your life that you still feel like you’re trying to understand through your art? Yeah, a lot. My wife and I are just being like, “Oh, should we have kids?” I’m in my 30s. The idea of not being a kid — when I started making my show, I was 26, and I’m 34 now. So that’s a lot of time. I think I still view myself as a kid, but I am an adult. When does self-discovery transition into: “Hey, this is what I do. This is who I am.” That is something I’ve been exploring a lot onstage.
Are we going to have Ramy Youssef dad jokes? Is that where this is all heading? A hundred percent, yes. It will happen. Brace yourself.
We’ve talked a lot about the self-reflective nature of your work, and you’ve spent a lot of this first part of your career making your own stuff, telling your own stories. But now you’re also in other people’s projects much more prominently. Is there something freeing about that? It’s amazing. I tried many years just being an auditioning actor, and no one ever knew what to do with me. “Well, you’re not this Indian character we wrote. We don’t know if you’re the friend or the leading guy.” It was always that stuff, and so I wanted to create a specific frequency. And I’ve been very lucky to get to do that. But then to get to now be at a place where people understand what it is that I do and are excited to do it, it’s very freeing.
