Egypt: Satirical comedian Bassem Youssef returns to nation’s TV after 11 years

As Egypt wrangles with pressure from the international community over its Human Rights record, former TV show host and comedian Bassem Youssef has returned to Egyptian television for the first time in 11 years, according to The Arab Weekly, October 8.

Youssef, who has been living in self-imposed exile from the North African country for the past 11 years, was at one time Egypt’s most famous and prominent political satirist after the 2011 revolution.

A heart surgeon in a previous career, he rose to fame in his home country when he hosted a comedy show that made fun of politicians, military generals, and clerics after the fall of the government under Hosni Mubarak, in a show that raked in more than 40 million Egyptians every week.

But this successful streak soon came under fire from the very same powerful individuals he mocked for “insult and defamation,” in particular, the now President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who was still campaigning to lead the nation at the time.

Now, having lived in the United States since 2014, he has finally made his return to Egyptian national television after he appeared from the US on the Kalema Akhira (“The Last Word”) show hosted by journalist Ahmed Salem.

The company ONTV, which is a media company close to the Egyptian government, had announced last month that Bassem Youssef would participate in interviews over the span of several shows for The Last Word.

Speaking for the first time in over a decade to his home audience, he said, “Of course I miss Egypt, but 11 years have passed. It’s the Egypt of 2014 that I remember.”

In the years since he last appeared on Egyptian screens in 2014, he has managed to build an extremely successful writing and comedy career in North America. He ended his show in Egypt in 2014, where he then left for the United States to begin a new life under fears that he would be arrested for his comments following a years-long campaign against him personally and his show that pressured him to stop his running satirical commentary.

Bassem Youssef has garnered a huge following in North America and the West more generally through his podcast and media appearances, where he has levied scathing criticism against Israel for its ongoing genocide, ethnic cleansing, and illegal occupation of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel itself, and the West Bank.

The comedian and writer to this day refuses to return to Egypt for fear of being arrested for his criticism of the el-Sisi government.

The Arab Weekly, Africanews, Maghrebi.org