By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
It’s an election year in America… and Ramy Youssef has some thoughts.
The comedian and Poor Things co-star hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time on Saturday, and he took time in his monologue to address the upcoming presidential election, which he says has everyone “freaked out.” He remembers President Biden’s campaign reaching out to him in 2020 to do outreach for them in the Arab American community, with a campaign rep telling him: “Everyone on the campaign is such a fan of your work,” and also, “Joe is aware.”
Youssef hails that as a big accomplishment: “That’s huge, because Joe has an awareness issue… That’s like a Nobel Peace Prize. Like, ‘We said your name. Joe was nodding.'” He does give Biden credit for his good days, too: “You know those days where he just comes out and he’s just, like, thawed? Like they gave him an extra 10 in the microwave? He is lit up… And he says stuff that’s inspiring. It doesn’t mean anything, but it’s, like, America, you know? It’s good.”
Youssef turned down the Biden campaign’s offer, he says, and he doesn’t support either Biden or his Republican opponent Donald Trump this year: “I don’t like either option, to be honest with you. I really think our next president should be a woman. That would be amazing.” In fact, he goes even further: “I think our next president should be a trans woman.” He says she could win over the electorate with a simple speech: “She’d be like, ‘A lot of politicians talk about change…’ Like, you can see the bumper sticker, right? Real change. She puts up a before and after, and she’s like, ‘I can do that to the country.'”
The comedian also adds an earnest plea to “free the people of Palestine” and “free all the hostages” in a closing prayer — that was part of a joke about how his less religious friends keep asking him to pray for them.
Press PLAY above to watch the full monologue, then grade this week’s SNL in our poll.
so dangerous and irresponsible to say things like this in a such a crucial year. whoever you support, the choice is binary and not a throwaway vote.
LOL. A few jokes at the joke of a President and the libs are melting down.
And the deliberate omission of Passover in the “important holidays of the season” was also pretty nasty. As was the call to Free Palestine. I’ll be boycotting any film this guy is in in the future.
And the Easter tack on felt very much like he’d been told to include at least that much, or else.
.
Extreme left on display. Vaguely antisemitic (and his obvious anger at being thusly constrained was PALPABLE), all the while whining about a candidate that doesn’t exist to the best of my knowledge.
Not “vaguely” antisemitic, full stop antisemitic pro terrorism. SNL is disgusting anymore, time to shut it down
I stopped watching this junk after Eddie Murphy left.
Not funny at all.
Passover is weeks away. Not currently happening like what was mentioned.
If wanting children to no longer be murdered causes you to never want to support this artist again then it says more about you than them susan
“Free Palestine” is not a call for children not to be murdered; it’s a call for different children to be murdered. As they were on Oct. 7. And the part of his monologue where he’s talking to his mom and referring to “the BEST prophet” was offensive on so many levels. SNL should be ashamed for giving this guy airtime. And I don’t think the cast liked him either – I noticed most were avoiding him during the good nights.
Why was it so offensive to you that he is a believer of his faith? Trump’s not president so we still have freedom of religion. Since he is a Muslim I would 100% expect him to believe that the prophet of his religion is the “best prophet;” anything less would be hippocracy. I am passionate about my faith (Christianity) and I expect others to respect my beliefs and passion for them; I would also be a hypocrite if I didn’t extend that same respect to others.
Thank you, perfectly said.
But you have no problem with Jewish children being murdered, apparently. Gotcha👍🏻
PS: you know we can read English typed words, right?
The world would be a better place if we all boycotted religion.
Religions are the basis for all our problems right now. Fake gods have too much influence over humanity.
Yeah, as an ex-muslim, I noticed that there’s so many problems with that specific religion
Most organized religions are pretty problematic. The big picture stuff (be nice, treat each other well) is great. But organized religion has so many unimportant bureaucratic details that are obviously about the enrichment of the organization and maintaining the status quo of the already powerful (both within and without the organized religion).
It did feel a little awkward but Passover isn’t until later this month. Jewish holidays uses a lunar calendar and don’t always coincide with what many people think of as their Christian counterparts. Just because Jesus’s last super was a Passover Seder doesn’t mean Passover and Easter always happen together
Passover, Easter & ramadan all use the lunar calendar in some way to determine when these holidays occur each year. That is no reason to exclude Passover from his list of spiritual holidays in April in his SNL monologue. This is beyond a little awkward. Clearly antisemitic.
Absolutely.
Thanks for posting this.
Comments like this are really quite dreary and predictable now.
By all means, have an opinion, it’s your right, but try and say something original and stay away from the turgid old soundbites that have been done to death – and tend to sound like a Russian bot.
They are both the same. Only in different packages. See how Biden is completely aligned with the horrors happening in the Middle East, still supplying all the weapons ending innocent lives. Until there is an actual Left candidate, who will socialise Medicine, Education, institutionalise Maternity Leave, month-long paid vacations, raise the minimum wage to living levels, which somehow sound absurd in America, but are facts of life in every single developed nation without any chaos whatsoever, the whole spiel about being a huge difference between the candidates is just aesthetics. Children are still in cages in the border. Oil drilling has hit a record high. Nothing has been done to guarantee woman basic rights. We just don’t talk about it anymore.
They are most definitely not the same. You are not paying attention.
A lot of those things require all three levels of government to pass and if you don’t know that I recommend a Civics course. Biden cannot single handedly do a lot of what you say you expect of him. The real change needs to be made at the local level and work its way up the state levels that is how the mess America is in right now happened.
So, if he can’t do anything, the point they are basically the same stands. He was elected having majority both in congress and the senate, by the way. We need an actual Left party, not just Republicans that say nice slogans in speeches, but don’t implement policies. In fact, there is more drilling, more war the United States is involved with, with innocent dying and children still in cages.
He didn’t have the senate in 2020 he had a tied senate and with Senators like Manchin and Sinema who ran as Democrats, but they voted more with Republicans.
And no he shouldn’t do nothing, but I think it is a complete waste to take approaches where you know it is going to fail and instead look and do the approaches you can win. To get a more Left party I go back to my previous post where it needs to start at the local level. You can dislike the situation all you want, but again just because you don’t like the situation doesn’t mean that Biden can make those changes you want him too. Just look at something like what happened when he tried to forgive the tuition for people in a certain demographic, it was almost instantly blocked by that one district that only has a MAGA Federal Judge who also tried to block the use the abortion drug America-Wide because three medical “doctors” feared its use.
Different flavours of corporate-bought candidates that will do the same, change nothing, just sell different stickers.
This is the kind of thinking that gives Trump a second term and sets the stage for an actual dictatorship 🫠. Like seriously, GROW UP
The problem is, the system is so upside down right now, that even if you had such a candidate, the poor who should benefit from it would still vote for Trump.
Youssef has always been sanctimonious and unfunny. This is a new level of deeply irresponsible. Shame on SNL for platforming him.
The same people criticizing him are the same that applaud Dave Chapelle.
Double standard at its finest.
Dave Chapelle is also deeply unfunny and a bigot. Never been a fan. Try painting someone else with that brush. Doesn’t apply to me whatsoever.
If you think Chapelle is unfunny, I’d to see who your “funny” is.
Off the top of my head? Carlin, Pryor, Redd Foxx, Billy Crystal, Garrett Morris, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Carol Burnett, Steven Wright, Key and Peele, Robin Williams, Leslie Nielsen, Gilda Radner, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Tracy Morgan, Norm Macdonald, Andrea Martin, Kimmel, Colbert, Stewart, Letterman, Conan, Craig Ferguson, the cast of Whose Line (US and UK), Nicole Byer. The list goes on. No need for either of them on it.
You painted yourself in that category with your own paint brush. I never said any such thing personally about you.
Try reading what I actually said
Cheers
Reading comprehension is clearly not your strong suit. You replied to MY comment with a gross oversimplification and frankly insulting implication. You could have responded to anyone else’s comment. You did not. Paint yourself with your own brush. “Cheers” to you.
Are you on drugs? We are not the same and we also loathe his fellow anti-semite Chapelle; they’re one and the same.
SNL platforming Jew hatred each and every week is vile.
I remember decades ago when SNL wasn’t about bs like this and was actually funny and had a talented cast with good chemistry, looked forward to it every weekend.
Sorry to say this but Palestine isn’t worth supporting unless you like terrorism.
Thank you! And these terrorism supporters wouldn’t even be able to point to Israel or Palestine on a map and couldn’t tell you what continent they’re on ….it’s laughable. Let them go visit Gaza see how long they last in their tattoos and tank tops (both of which are against the law in Gaza BTW) I’ll pay for their flights.
Is this the episode with lowest grade in here? I don’t remember another episode over 50% vote for F
It might be but it’s also incredibly biased with the votes. Ramy was magnificent; his monologue moving. He didn’t mention just praying for Palestine but for the release of all hostages. And despite some saying his Biden talk was irresponsible, his sentiments echoed what many of us are feel and it was clear from the start he knows how important this election is. Did people miss the part where he was nervous about being in north NY state amongst a bunch of Trump signs as a minority? Of course some Trump fans might also be downvoting him. But as someone who actually watches and saw it all in context, I became an even bigger fan. He acted well in the skits too; the couple that fell flat (Pizza Delivery) were not his fault.
It’s telling this was the only thing worth posting about. That and the low numbers on the YouTube clips compared to most weeks shows this was a dud episode. It happens. I like his FX show but he wasn’t good here.
This episode was Awful, with a capital A. I watch it on tv and wonder how the live audience laughs. And Ramy was unfunny in every skit he appeared in. It’s almost as if SNL doesn’t even care whether they’re giving us is worthy.
Well again snl is much like most of the far left where once Obama was elected they basically decided it was off limits to make fun of the left when before they went after both sides and also had people like Dennis miller norm McDonald and Kevin Nealon who did weekend update who were real moderates and looked at issues from both sides norm got fired because he went way overboard with the oj Simpson stuff where the people running the show said stop he didn’t and they fired him but they don’t make fun of the left like they used to as there funniest sketches were Phil Hartman as president Clinton and one of the funniest was when he was jogging and stopped for cheeseburgers at a mcdonald’s
Except for the very end of the monologue, he used the same exact material he used in his recent HBO special. Ironically, I had just watched his HBO stand up right before watching SNL & it was like watching a rerun.
Let’s see how he likes it if tRump wins.
MAybe he’ll be someone that trump deports back to the Middle East. Let’s see him joke then.
Best SNL monologue in a decade.
Make that best in the Century!
I’m glad he said free the hostages along with free Palestine (even though he didn’t say it with the same passion as his Palestine prayer) So many people are forgetting what started this war. The hostages are of a variety of religions and nationalities and Israel has offered ceasefire in exchange and been rejected by hamas
I fell asleep after the news segment but through that point this was one of the funnier episodes of the season, with multiple LOL moments for me. (The couples game show segment was their best game show bit in a while.)
.
It’s interesting that most of the comments are focusing on the monologue, and it sure seems that hate for the monologue is coloring the grade for the full episode.
Ahh. Yes. Let’s vote someone in just for their gender. Better yet, a trans woman because a cis-woman or trans man still don’t have the parts to qualify them, ehh. Your underlying misogyny is showing, Youssef.
Tell the 85% of Palestinians that support Oct 7 that they made their bed and now they lie in it. The 15% that know Oct 7 was abhorrent should live freely. Tell Hamas to stop their violence, give up power and free the hostages. If Trump wins, hope you like being deported. He won’t care if you’re a citizen either, they already have a workaround (Project 2025). He’s getting rid of all Palestinian supporting Arabs, imprisoning all whose political ideologies differ, and will destroy everything. Don’t think so? You’ll see.
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
כהנאצדק
At least now I know not to waste my time on anything this guy does. American comedy seems to be going through a phase where they care more about being edgy than funny.