The recent coup in Egypt may be the first successful peaceful revolution by way of satire, and if so, an unlikely hero could be Jon Stewart.
American political comedian Jon Stewart appeared on Egyptian television and less than two weeks later there’s a coup. Coincidence?
Last month, appearing with Egyptian political satirist Bassem Youssef, Stewart said “If your regime is not strong enough to handle a joke, then you don’t have a regime.”
Boy was he proven right! Following massive protests in Egypt, said to be the largest in human history, the army declared yesterday that Morsi is not strong enough to handle a joke.
Youssef, who’s often referred to as the ‘Egyptian Jon Stewart’, was arrested in April by the Morsi regime for jokes that allegedly insulted the president and Islam.
Stewart immediately defended Bassem on The Daily Show, saying “So Bassem Youssef pokes fun at your hat and your lack of promised democratic reforms. What are you worried about? You’re the president of Egypt. You have an army. He has puns and a show. You have tanks and planes — we should know, we still have the receipts. Look, silencing a comedian doesn’t qualify you to be President of Egypt, just president of NBC.”
“By the way, without Bassem and all those journalists and bloggers and brave protestors who took to Tahrir Square to voice dissent, you, President Morsi, would not be in a position to repress them,” Stewart concluded.
Watch Stewart eviscerate Morsi below:
Well, apparently, Morsi didn’t have an army after all since they sided with the people instead of him. Bassem’s audience, or ideas of freedom through satire more specifically, proved too much for tanks, planes and an entire army.
The recent coup in Egypt may be the first successful peaceful revolution by way of satire, and if so, an unlikely hero could be Jon Stewart.
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