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55.4%ANMag Issue 23 Entertainment
Axis of Evil Comedy Tour: Just another Thread in the Vice?
By Hanin Ababneh, Staff Writer
Beirut, Lebanon − With the complete ability to relate ourselves to what they are saying, the new ‘Axis of Evil Comedy Tour’ has been able to open the eyes of both the West and the East to show that the Arab world is able to smile and fight back other means than stereotypical “terror”. We are able to understand the crux of what they are saying as they are one of us; they understand who we are and where we come from. But wait a minute, are they really like us? As I watch more closely, I begin to realize that this pseudo-Arab and his comedy really does not have much in common with the average Arab living in the Middle East. As they stand there trying to prove that we are capable of laughter and jesting, one idea comes to mind − was America not the one that waged war on us in so many forms and sizes? So why are we the ones obligated to explain our stance?
As we move more greatly and more gracefully into the future, I cannot help but realize that it is us, the Arabs that are obligated to elucidate our outlook. This comedy tour has come to us direct from the U.S.A. to preach theories of peace and acceptance to us through a group of Arab-Americans. People whom have not suffered the pain we have, people who have no idea of the tortures we have been through and people who are clueless to the situations we find ourselves in, have finally graced us with their presence to teach us the rights and wrongs of public diplomacy, and furthermore, public diplomacy towards a country that I believe needs to start answering some of its own questions.
U.S.A. is known to have strengths in its intelligence, military and many aspects of its economy; yet, when it comes to foreign policy and public diplomacy at large, we are able to see that they do not quite match up. They lack the basic and mere ability of communicating their stance to the region and so, although able to make up for it in other fields, are losing greatly from this array. Basically, the West has not been able to show us (and in large part their own domestic community) the reasons for their interference in the region. Thus, the responsibility shifts from their lack of ability to refer themselves to our ability to refer ourselves to the world.
Ahmad Ahmad (Egyptian), Maz Jobrani (Iranian) and Aron Kader (Palestinian) and their comedy have become an intense part of this in particular to the younger generations. Feeding off of stereotypes and working from the bounds of labeling, the comedians show the U.S. along with the rest of the world just how willing we are to explaining our ‘acts of terror’. Yet, none of us have stopped to ask the vital question of “why are we the ones left forced to explain an invasion of our land, an attack on our people and an assault on our traditions?’ The West has been able to pose many questions on the basis of our terror and the origins of our evil, yet we are given neither liability nor legitimacy to do the same.
Personally, I believe that the time has come for this generation to halt the succumbing that we have grown so accustomed to and instead pose our own questions and begin getting our own answers. We need to start fighting for our rights to be treated as valid humans, and not as victims on our own land. Instead three Arab-Americans travel halfway around the world and come here with their Arabic names and broken Arabic accents and expect us to relate to them and their airport experiences in order to prove to the public eye, in the words of Kader, ‘that we can smile, we have beautiful teeth.”