Bassem Youssef: 'The West has lost its balls' | ITV News

So Bassam, thank you very much for joining us. You have become known around the world for your activism or for speaking out about the situation in Gaza. You have family there and my wife's family. Yes, my family is there. Your AR. and his cousins ​​are there, yeah, how are they? They are trapped in Rafa. They live in a building with many other families in an apartment, so I hope they are safe. Rishi Sunak told Benjamin Netanyahu that the situation in Gaza is escalating. The intolerable is becoming more and more intolerable. I, yeah, you see, I don't even need to comment, I just need to repeat what he said, which is interesting: after 6 months, 30,000 people killed 80% of the place and destroyed 100% of the people in this place. 50% of the victims are children, but it's starting to get a little uncomfortable.

Nothing that could happen in Gaza can make the world move because look, look at the last 6 months, remember when there was an old age, when now 3,000 people were 3,000 murdered. 30,000 nothing or the videos we see of people getting shot while raising a white flag every time you think, oh my god, this is too much. Israel is moving forward, it's like Donald Trump, remember Donald Trump, it was like one lie after another, one atrocious statement. after another, by the time you reach one they have already moved on and you keep going and you keep going and then you get overwhelmed do you think there is anything the West can do?

The West has

lost

its

balls

. The West has no

balls

. You have no courage and there is absolutely no honor in allowing Israel to do whatever it wants when you were talking to P Morgan, you used a lot of satire. Do you think it is important to be able to make fun of these types of situations? I mean, I mean. What else can you do? Because when you cry, when you scream, when you say, oh please, this is enough, I don't care, so okay, kill more people, maybe it will make you happy. What is the exchange rate today?

Well, we need to do it. talk about yeshu too yes, I have a program. I'm coming here for a program. actually shows. ment sample. What can we expect? What was my personal story? I was a cardiac surgeon. I started. I was a cardiac surgeon and 19 years of my life. I spent it in medicine in the medical field I spent seven years in medical school, then 12 years I was operating as a practicing doctor and uh 2010 2011 we had the Arab Spring and I made some YouTube videos on Rising the citran media uh Al John Stewart The Daily style of the show went viral and I was offered my own TV show.

For 3 and a half years I was hated by both the Islamists and the military and then I ended up being expelled from Egypt. I started, I had to start again. in the United States and um and uh I started doing comedy in my second language in English and now I'm on a world tour and a European tour that starts on Saturday, April 6 in London and I'm doing 16 cities, 25 shows and how. Did you make that transition from surgery to comedy? It's not really a transition. I made some YouTube videos, I put it on the Internet and it went viral and then I left the TV show, so I didn't really leave medicine behind as a matter of In fact, at one point I was doing both things together, I was doing medicine in addition to the television thing and, in some way, I eliminated it very, very gradually.

I made a calculated risk: is there any similarity between surgery and comedy, is it a lot of work and both are done in theaters, there is an operating room and there is theater, ah nice, I didn't see that too, comedy is about dissecting things, it's about getting to the bottom of things. things you have to study a lot the only The only difference is maybe that, as a surgeon, you act in front of people who went down, they really can't, they can't comment on your skills, but in comedy, everything you say is examined by SC . I tried to keep people away. what's happening in current events because I can't deal with it honestly, I feel too nervous, too involved, it's just too much, I can't and uh I've been doing My Show touring with my shows my show and uh yeah, it's been interesting alhamdulillah uh I'm doing um London Paris I'm Amsterdam uh rdam Malmo uh Bear Berlin uh Zurich Munich Hamburg and you're doing it all in English in English yeah, how's that?

Stockholm Oso po Haagen Birmingham brimingham Birmingham actually, it's G being my biggest show, actually 4,500 seats in Birmingham and uh, and doing the show in English has been actually very interesting because it's my second language and most of the people who come They're immigrants so English is the second language, but if you go to places like Stockholm or Berlin, English is their third language, yeah, that's really interesting and what it's been like for you since PS Margan's interview. I know you've obviously been doing comedy for a long time. but well, I have to say that, yeah, I have more exposure, more reach and I joke about it, it's like you know I'm like another brown guy who needed a white guy to push him forward and that helped you increase sales. for you, sure, yeah, no, I can't lie, yeah, and it's good, I mean, it means that people resonated with what it had to do, it means that just like people choose that guy, they feel like they like it. , hit a nerve and actually gives a a a.

Great um, it gives an important message that the narrative that the media makes you want to make you think it's mainstream, it's not because there are a lot of people who want their voice to be heard, so it's actually like a vote of confidence when people can see. this and then coming to my program means that they approve this message. Is there much difference in the reception you get compared to a British audience compared to an American audience? No no, because I have designed that program many times. This show has been on tour for many, many years, not only in the United States, but also in the Middle East and Europe, and I have designed it in a way with the audience in mind.

I want people in the audience to be able to identify with it, you can't. You don't even need to know anything about who I am. You can just walk down the streets of any city in the world, as long as you understand English and you can come in, sit down and have a good time because it's a very personal story, you don't need to have any background on the Arab Spring or who I am, what I did in my life. life. It's a very, very, very easy story to follow. Do you have any jokes you can share with us now? you don't have to come to the show no