IT IS not easy to be a comedian these days, as Egyptian-American funnyman Ahmed Ahmed will tell you.
Ahmed, who has been based in Malaysia for over a year, is not only a comedian but also an actor, producer and one of the co-founders of the hugely-popular Axis of Evil comedy tour, which ran between 2005 and 2011.
The winner of the 2004 Richard Pryor Award for Ethnic Comedy, Ahmed has acted in multiple big-budget Hollywood movies, co-starred in a sitcom (Sullivan and Sons), and most recently, hosted Comedy Central Asia’s comedy series – Stand Up Asia!.
On May 12, Ahmed was performing at the Off the Hook Comedy Club in Naples, Florida, as part of his Oriental Pharaoh tour in the US. The next day, he had a visit from the local police.
An audience member had called 911 and filed a complaint about what Ahmed had said at the show.
In the call, the complainant told the 911 operator: “And he (Ahmed) [asked the audience]: ‘Where are you from?’ ... ‘I’m from Iraq’, ‘I’m from Iran’. ‘I’m from Pakistan’. ‘I’m from here, I’m from there’.
“[Then Ahmed] said: ‘That’s great. We could start our own little terrorist organisation’.”
During a recent tele-conference interview, Ahmed explained that the caller was paying attention, but missed a few things.
“The joke was: ‘There is a small group of us here, but hey, it only takes one of us ... to tell a joke’. That [normally gets] a chuckle.
“Then I would say: ‘But seriously, lock the doors’, and that usually gets a few laughs.”
Fortunately, the bemused police officers who came to investigate the claims were able to see the joke, and the incident made headlines around the world.
Asked if the incident had affected him in any way, Ahmed said: “No. After the 911 call happened, the only other places I had been [scheduled] to perform were in Nashville, Tennessee, and I returned to Naples where I did one follow-up show [on May 22]. It was fine.
“About 95% of the audience were brand new, people who had never seen me. They weren’t at the first show. They saw me on the news or something.”
Having done stand-up comedy for decades, Ahmed has had his share of hecklers who have threatened to hit him, yelled nasty things at him, or put a clip of his on social media accompanied by a nasty message.
However, no one had ever called the cops on him until that night.
Describing the 911 caller, Ahmed said: “They were racist, they were Islamaphobic, they did not get the context of the joke, and they misquoted the joke. So it caused quite a frenzy globally because it became such a larger conversation than me.
“So now it is more about freedom of speech (or lack thereof) and political correctness.”
There was a time when legendary comedians like Richard Pryor and George Carlin would go on stage and make society take a hard look at themselves using caustic wit and biting humour.
But nowadays, everything a comedian says is scrutinised, mainly thanks to social media.
“[It] has gotten much worse. There is an old school comedy veteran called Judy Gold [from] back in the day with Pryor and Carlin, and [who] worked with these guys. She actually heard my story and called me personally the other day.
“She is writing a book about how comedians’ freedom of speech is being taken away. A lot of comedians won’t even perform at universities and colleges any more because kids are just too politically correct.”
Ahmed notes that political correctness seems to have gotten out of hand in “developed countries”.
He added that racism “is a fact of life” and it is an issue that needs to be addressed.
“You know, I have been living in Malaysia for the past year. It has so many beautiful qualities about it.
“[What] I really enjoy is the very in-your-face but polite racism that is just accepted.
“When I was performing [here], I was saying some of the most racist [jokes] that I wouldn’t get away with in America.
“But in Malaysia, it is just like a known thing, it is part of the culture and nobody gets offended. It is a beautiful thing.
“America is the land of freedom of speech, supposedly. But now, you can’t say certain things, because people will get offended or scared.
“The fact that somebody had to call the police department over a joke is ridiculous. It tells you what sort of Trump era we are living in.”
