… In All the Wrong Places By AZHAR USMAN

As a full-time, professional standup comedian—and a practicing Muslim—I have been keeping a close eye on Albert Brooks’ new .lm, Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, since I first heard about it several months ago. Imagine my delight when I was invited to attend the Los Angeles premiere. It’s a good movie, with some definitely funny moments, a generally uninspiring plot, and what I felt was an abrupt ending. I would probably give it 2 to 3 stars. But as one of the few American Muslims in the Comedy World, I thought it fruitful to share some of my thoughts on the more poignant aspects of the .lm: what is important about it conceptually and why Brooks’ effort (hopefully) signals a positive step in the right direction.

First, the title says a lot. The U.S. State Department sends Brooks to India and Pakistan to investigate and write a 500-page research report on what makes the Muslim people laugh. Besides the fictitious story in the film, Brooks actually decided to call the film itself “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World.” The storyline and the title reveal a series of implicit assumptions about Muslims: that they don’t laugh very much; they are not very funny; and there is no way that Americans could reasonably understand Muslim humor without the aid of significant research and investigation. All of this is built upon the obvious presupposition—albeit perhaps unintentional or unconscious—that Muslims are not really human, because if they were, such assumptions would be unacceptable.