This comedy show will be haLOL!
A group of Muslim comedians will band together to disarm harmful stereotypes on Dec. 14, making quips about terrorists as well as daily life at a stand-up event in Williamsburg. The host of the laugh-a-thon says that the show’s dark humor is a way to combat troubles created by seriously dark news reports.
“It’s about how it can be a scary time to admit that you’re Muslim,” said Atheer Yacoub, who will take the stage at the Experiment Comedy Gallery on Dec. 14.
Yacoub will join a half-dozen other Arab and Muslim comics to take on the bleak portrayal of Muslims in the media — which is often the only portrayal of Muslims in the media, she said — and prove to Republican presidential candidates and other conservative fear-mongers that Muslims can be patriotic, hilarious, and not at all into terrorism.
The “Hilarious Muslims” stand-up set — the second to take place this year at the Broadway laugh factory — will also provide some comic relief for fellow Muslims who have gotten a bad rap because of some violent overseas extremists, said Yacoub.
“If there are other Muslims in the crowd and they feel like they have been discriminated against, being able to see other Muslims shed light on that and represent them in a way that hasn’t been represented can give them a little bit of hope — hopefully,” she said.
But Yacoub said she is not out to cause controversy — rather than deal out inflammatory terrorist jokes, her set will revolve around her personal experience of being a female Muslim in America and the challenges she has faced straddling two cultures. Making people laugh will be one positive by-product of an otherwise bleak time, she says.
“It’s just my way of processing the world and making sense of it — and hopefully making something good out of it,” she said.
“Hilarious Muslims” at the Experiment Comedy Gallery (20 Broadway between Dunham Place and Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, (626) 643–4850, www.theex
