Bad Hasbara - The World's Most Moral Podcast - Bad Hasbara 24: Making the Desert Boom, with Bassem Youssef

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

Surprise! This week we got our biggest and most moral guest in Bad Hasbara history. Comedian Bassem Youssef was kind enough to come by and talk to Matt and Daniel about our collective gaslighting by Israel. What a fun little treat for all of you most moral listeners.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/bad-hasbara/donationsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Moshwam hot bitch, a ribbon polo. We invented the terry tomato. And weighs, USB drives, and the iron d'all. Israeli salad, oozy, stent, and jopas, orange rose. Micro chips is us. iPhone cameras us. Taco salads us. Pothalas us.

Olive garden us. White foster us. Zabrahamas. As far as us. Hello and welcome to Bad Hasbara, the world's most moral podcast. My name is Matt Lieb. I will be your most moral co-host for this podcast. Thank you all for listening to this podcast on Spotify and on Apple and on wherever you get your podcasts.

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He's back. You know him. You love him. It's Daniel Matte. Hi. What's up, buddy? How you doing? I'm a little tired, I got to say, because I was up in the middle of the night because

there was this, like, podcast theme song that would not leave my head. Like, I was, I, I'm in Vancouver, which is my hometown, came home for the Jewish holiday of Lamb's Blood on the door. I love Las Blood holiday. It's a good one. Lamb's blood holidays, yeah. And I flew in and I'm staying at an Airbnb, which is a sort of a, it's a step forward in my maturity. Sure. I realized a couple of years ago at age 46, it hit me.

I don't have to stay with my parents when I come to Vancouver. So I'm staying in an Airbnb, which is like, great. It just makes the visit that much more pleasant to, you know, because you visit, but you don't have to like... Right. You don't have to sleep in your old room surrounded by all those corn posters. I assume you were a new metal kid, right? That's just... I thought you said porn coasters. No, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, also, the corn posters are next to the porn coasters. That's where, you know, you put your mountain dew. So it doesn't stain your gaming desk. I have a mountain. It's your mountain don't. Yeah, yeah. Mountain dew? Maybe Mountain don't. Yeah. So anyway, I'm up. I was up in the middle of the night and like, it's not quite as bad as being a Palestinian, like actually having white phosphorus dropped on you, but I had white phosphorus playing in my head.

Oh, man, I'm sorry. Yeah. The theme song is an earworm, you know, I mean, listen, I love how much people enjoy the theme song. You put it out this week as a standalone video, didn't you? I put it out as a standalone video because people can. asking for it and uh i had like i posted it on like twitter and uh i don't know like instagram like when i first first started the podcast but now that everyone's watching it on youtube i was like okay i'll put it on on youtube uh and so now people can now people can listen to it from the comfort of their own i mean they could before i don't know why people and it was like the the like sly and robby extend a mix you know yeah yeah yeah yeah that's uh thanks to uh the chef petty bone remix yeah uh yeah this edu the reliable and dog man pizza party both helped me out with the

instrumental and they made it so fly it's so good yeah so I'm glad it got stuck in your head that's it was it was fun I mean I was bopping to it a little irritated but mostly delighted and excited knowing that I was going to wake up and get to be part of this episode which is going to be a real special one it's a very special episode very very excited to introduce our most moral guest and we've had many great guests on this podcast a lot of people who are you know comedians people who are activists people who are academics um people who are you know people of conscience it is rare i just remembered i was a guest once you were once a guest you were in the in the long long ago and then i said please please keep coming back please before we

it was beshirt. Yes, exactly. And yeah, so we've had lots of different types of guests, but it's rare that we have one that is all of them, mixed in one, comedian, a accidental activist, definitely not someone who on purpose became one, and someone who is a person of conscience, and someone who is hilarious and smart as hell, ladies and gentlemen, everyone else, And he's good with his hands. Yes, very good with his hands. It is Bassem, Youssef. Hey!

What's up, buddy? Please, please, before we go, can we please again play the theme song? Because I was dancing for it. Play. Can we play it? Can we play it and we dance the three of us for it now? Yeah, listen. There's nothing I want more right now than to play the theme song for all of us.

So that is exactly what I will do. Yeah. No, no, no, no, listen. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. I'm doing it. I'm doing it. We're going to have to, yeah, yeah. The people listening on the podcast apps are just going to imagine us grooving. Yeah, yeah. Listen, if you're just listening to this on the podcast app, you're doing it right? So don't switch over just because you want to watch us dance. But we are going to do it right now. And this is the music video to it. No, Israeli salad, oozy, stents, and jopas, orange rose. Micro chips is us. iPhone cameras us. Taco salads us. Podahabamos us.

Olive garden us. White foster us. Zabrahamas. As baras us. Yeah. Here's the boy. This took a lot of time to edit, all right? I just want to let everyone know.

Not to mention all the research about all the things that Israel created. All the things that are us. Endless breadsticks, absolutely. I love it. There were no, there were, do you know how limited the number of breadsticks allowed in a restaurant so-called Palestine before 1948 was oh my god

I can death for this all day man thank you wow wow wow it's dope it's dope dope dope you know what you give me that clip I'll put it on my social media promoting that episode oh my God

please please do I'm going to send it to you I need your promotional I am so happy to be with one of the most beautiful self-hating Jews right now I am we're talking about Daniel right not me we're talking about Daniel

well it's great because it's like look Matt and I are always self-hating right? Yeah but to have an actual anti-Semite with us to like reinforce and validate our self-hate yes I feel seen and heard you know the most moral

antisemitic Yes, you are the most moral anti-Semite, and we love you so much. And the most Semetic. Yes. The most Semetic, the most Semitic anti-Semitic. I don't know. Yes. Now, Bassem.

Yes. First of all, thank you for coming on this podcast. Very cool of you. I've seen in the last six. months the the podcast schedule that you have had the the appearance schedule uh and you've been on so many like big shows i would say and so when i when i asked you to be on i was like hey i know you're busy you know doing a lot of big shows but have you ever thought about how fun it would be to do a little tiny show and the fact that you that's not true that's that's not true man that's not true

That's not true. I'm the one who reached out to you and I said, I love your podcast. And then you didn't even have to ask me to get on your podcast. I said, I would gladly love to be actually on your podcast. I love your podcast guy. It's one of my favorites. Thank you. Thank you.

I appreciate that. And, you know, Bassam, you guys have worked together? Yes. Yes. Yes, yes. You and I work together at Cobbs, Comedy Club in San Francisco. And that is when I, actually, it's not when I first met you, but it was when I first worked with you as a, as a stand-up.

And that was, that was so much fun. It was like, it was a great show. And I remember you being excited about that one in particular because the audience itself was more diverse. You were, you were happy because there were actually some white people. in the audience you said something along the lines

like finally a white person in the audience and you know before then I think we had met once before and it was

you had visited the AJ Plus offices when you it's like when you had first moved to America you were in San Francisco and you visited

AJ Plus office and you you stopped over to say hi to me and my wife Francesca because we were working on a comedy show called Newsbroke, which was very much, you know, it was a thing that exactly like what you do. And, you know, you were one of our inspirations as well as, you know, of course, you know, John Stewart and John Oliver at that time. I miss, I miss Newsbroke. I just like did like an, had like an incredible

show and I really miss that show, seriously. Yeah. No, listen, listen. We all miss it. We, you know, also the, the, the money. That was, you know, sometimes I missed them. Also, I miss working in an office. You know, you know, go woke, go broke? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's actually go, it's like go broke, get rich.

Yeah, dude, I need to, I need to go way less woke and more less broke. You know what I'm saying? I'm thinking of just pivoting to Zionism, you know? I'm working. these days i'm working on going broken yeah yeah just get broken times like this yes um so uh bassum thank you for coming on i i wanted to ask uh first and foremost how has the touring scheduling uh the touring schedule been because i know um you know that i i since your like now legendary pierce Morgan appearance.

Plural. Yeah. Well, you've been on several times? Many appearances, but there was one that there was one that like really blew up. It was the first time I think anyone had seen

somebody bluntly say through like comedy and through satire exactly what we've all been thinking. And I credit you with my, you know, wanting to do some satire around this as well, just because it was, you know, it's a powerful tool. And so, so yeah, I mean, how's the touring? How are the shows? The shows are amazing. I've been touring around in the States and the Middle East and now I'm in Europe. It's a very,

very, very tough schedule in Europe. Every day is either like a travel day or a show day today. I'm in Munich. I just finished two shows yesterday in Munich. And I am heading. tomorrow to Hamburg, then Antwerp, then Stockholm, then London, then Dublin, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Manchester and Paris. That's actually the second half of the tour. We already, I'm midway right now. And the tour is incredible because, of course, there's a lot of Arabs that come and they feel seen, and there's a lot of non-Arabs that come. I was in Berlin, and by the way, Berlin, it was one of the most stressful shows ever because everybody was worried about me going on stage in Berlin because right now we have like a draconian

George Orwellian kind of laws right now being passed in Germany where you can be actually arrested if you have if you do if you shout out certain chance so I went there and I and I kind of double down on everything that I've been doing and the show is not

about what's happening in the Middle East right it is it is my show but all all through my show is like I don't want to talk about it and then I just like drop a punchline about what relating what I'm saying to what's happening right now but I go back to my show. I don't want to talk about it.

But it's kind of like I try to insert it as I go through. But it is, and in Germany, I felt that people were there in relief because they said that it was more of a venting. It was venting for them to talk about these things and shout out what they have been thinking. And this is how comedy could be a very, it's catharsis. It's like it's a beautiful, beautiful outlet for people. And it's kind of like, it is funny that I left the Middle East because my freedom of expression was compromised.

It's like, you cannot say this. You can say that. Get up. I go to the United States. Come to the West. Come to the West. We're free here. You can say anything you want, except that one thing.

Yes. And it is funny. It's funny. It's like in Germany, it's even multiplies. No, no, no, don't talk about Israel, but you can shit on. Germany, but not Israel. No, no, you can cheat on us, but not them. Yeah.

And it is funny that, like, I mean, that's like, I can speak about, about Biden, about Trump, about the Democrats, about the Republicans, about any single politician. I can criticize the American policies. I can criticize the American intervention anywhere. I can just, like, shit on everything that America does. But once you speak about Israel, ooh, you're right, you say, am I, you hate the Jews. And I think it doesn't, and it's kind of. kind of like it's the it's an it's an interesting conversation you say 10 million times it's not

about the jews it's not about the jewish people it's about the zines it's about the christian zines it's about the extreme zines it's about the people who are promoting and supporting the genus say no you hate the jews but you're hiding no i'm not i'm really i'm not i mean no no no no no no no you hate the no no i'm i'm not in fairness we invented psychoanalysis so leave the reading of your own conscience motives to us, all right? Yes. We know you better than you know yourself, Bassam.

Yes, yes. Yes, yes, Mr. Freud. Yes. Psychoanalysis us. Psychoanalysis us. Fucking our own mother's us. Penis envy us. Gaslighting us.

Gaslighting us. I just wanted to say, Basm, I guess this is just more of a comment from someone outside of comedy. but when you talk about that's such a brilliant setup you go to Germany you know there's these restrictions

I mean god damn it if Yanos Varifakis is banned what are they going to do to you you know? He's banned to be on Zoom on Zoom right to give a speech you cannot

they banned him digitally and electronically and through the internet you cannot even show yourself unbelievable so you through Pixar stand on Zoom yes

so you craft a stand-up set yeah they banned I'm sorry But banning someone on Zoom is very funny, especially if they're just like, I'm just trying to talk to my mom. Can you imagine? He said, no, no, actually, Daniel has a point. They didn't just, like, ban him from entering Germany. They banned him from participating in any events in Germany, even through Zoom.

He can't even remotely be in Germany. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they said Zoom, can you imagine you cannot be remote. That is like an extreme anti-immigration. There's a new German word. They just came up with Zoom verbitens. Zom Verbatten. You is Zoom verboaten.

You will have to use Skype. You cannot. No longer use Zoom. You must use Teams. Oh my God. But the way you crafted your set, basically using the, like, it seems to me that there's something about comedy that uses restrictions

and constraints and limitations against the people who are making them. And so you take this fear that's in the air, everyone knows what's he going to say, what's you going to say, and you craft a whole running bit about, I don't want to talk about it. So I don't know, let me talk about, like I did this. I was in Ireland giving, talking to a Palestinian, Irish woman on stage. And I mean, I was totally free to talk about it in Ireland, but it was this kind of joke where she's like, I was like, if I say anything that crosses your boundaries, let me know. She said, oh, I have no boundaries. I said, well, there's one thing you have in common with Israel. But that kind of thing where you just, you find little ways, thank you. Got a good laugh.

But, but you find little ways in from the outside and then you just, you get in, you get out. that strikes me as a very like yeah and i and actually it's the thing is like whenever you try to put limits on freedom of expression yeah this this is actually a gold mind for comedy because check this out in germany palestine uh free palestine problematic but it can go it it can pass but but Palestine will be free can be actually basis for you to be jail so you just like have to change the orders of the words in order to avoid persecution.

And that's why German language is fucked up because they have to put the verb at the end of the world. That's why nobody understands German. I mean, and I was walking. And so part of my Zet, I was like saying something could be problematic, and I'm just like changing the order of the words and to make it sound ridiculous.

And it's incredible that like how authoritarian people give us so much, material to joke about. Also, Germans are the least funny people on the planet. Let's just admit it. It's not a funny culture. Yeah. Yeah. Famously unfunny.

And, you know, like, so I imagine that, you know, seeing comedy for them. Like, I've never performed in Germany. What is it like performing for a German audience? Well, I imagine they're nervous in Germany. That's my guess. So here's the thing. I did the tempo drum in Berlin, which is like a huge arena in Berlin. It was wonderful, it was beautiful.

And I had the most amazing, most diverse audience ever. We were says, like, where are my Arabs at? Where are my Jewish people at? And people were cheering. Where are my German people at? And people were cheering. People from Iran, from Turkey. Were the Israelis there?

There's a lot of Israelis in Berlin. I asked about Jewish people. I didn't ask for Israelis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was an incredible, beautiful, diverse crowd. And here's the thing. There is that there is a, it's a generation issue. The younger generation in Germany don't have that kind of, um, um, exaggerated feeling

of guilt. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, my, my generation and a little bit younger, they have been, like, indoctrinated all day, making them feel bad about, about, about, about something that they did not commit, right? And, and, and, and it is, it is, it is, it is, of course, we have to learn from the, uh, to the, uh, to the, uh, to the lessons of the past and we should never never repeat what happened in the second war or what happened to the jewish people this is horrible but the fact that you use that as a way to get people in a continuous state and guilt so they can look away where other people are being punished for

their mistakes i mean you guys are the one who fucked up with the jews it was not our fault we were sitting there in the middle east as like all right take our guilt it's kind of like they did the most successful guilt transfer in history yeah well then there and and actually Here's a little Yiddish pun. It was also quite a gelt transfer as well. Yeah. Gelt as in money. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it's ridiculous. It's so over the top. All they need to do with these young Germans, don't guilt them. Just be like, okay, look, you didn't do anything. Just go cancel your grandparents, never speak to them again. Right.

You'll be good. Yes, exactly. Just cut off all family ties, and then we'll forgive you. Which is something young people do anyways. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's already what we're about.

I'm just waiting for my 18-month old child to go on social media and cancel me, you know? It's just, at this point, it's a right of passage for all parents. Yes, yes. But, yeah, it is interesting because, like, you know, what you guys are talking about in terms of, like, authoritarian setting up these, like, boundaries for, you know, acceptable speech, what you can and can't say. and the way that that is usually the gold mine for comics because a comic plays with those boundaries. That's like the whole thing and sometimes, you know, they can overstep and society will be like, oh, you know, this is, that joke you just did was actually racist as opposed to trying to critique it.

Sometimes they miss the mark and it's just weak and it comes off. But the point is, is that line being there usually is something that comics love to play with. I would say the difference now is I've never seen so much silence from the most like, yeah, I said it type comedians, you know, like leather jacket smoking comedians who are like, I don't give a shit. I'll say, I'll say what everyone, you know, doesn't want me to say. but they won't say anything about Israel It's like Ricky Jervais Oh, did I offend you? Yeah, yeah

Oh me, are you triggered? Oh yeah, yeah Oh, are you sad now Because I've said words Well, I don't care Because I'm a rebel And it's like say something about Israel Yeah, it's funny

That they don't care Yeah, their courage stops at like short When it comes to Israel And it is Israel Israel is giving us so much material I know They have bragged been bragging for years that we are the only military in the world that warn civilians before bombing them.

Oh, my God. I know. Don't say that. And I think it's the whole idea about the most moral armies. And you know, like, part of their propaganda is like, we are the most vegan army in the world. They are like the vegan army. Oh, I didn't know that. They're the most vegan army too?

Vegan in the world. Yes, they are a very environmentalist when it comes to kidney. So, you know, they use like recital. Technically, cannibalism doesn't count against veganism. Yeah, they use, like, recyclable body bags. Like, I love that. They're the most moral killers in the world. Vegan, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, they have, like, you know, renewable bullets and. I love that. God bless you. Biodegradable missiles, missiles. It's just this this whole idea about like showing and the thing is they even lie about the whole idea about warning because in the last six months, they've been documented cases about them giving free, sorry, safe passages to civilians and bombing it. It's like, go there. We're not going to bomb them. They bomb it. Yeah. And then it's like, oh, sorry. Sorry. Yeah. There was a shadow of Hamas. Yeah. I've actually heard there. I've actually heard their, they're pioneering a new initiative. with the JNF, you know, the Jewish National Fund, which is where as Jewish children,

we used to collect, you know, charity money at our synagogues, and they would plant trees in the honor of North American Jews who would never visit Israel, you know, on Palestinian land. So basically there's like a missile that lands, and it carries, like, seeds. Oh, I love it. And then it creates a whole lot of organic compost, you know, from its victims. And then the seeds implant,

and a Jewish forest grows on the site of the masses. cigarettes. We are making the desert boom. I mean, blue. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Make the desert boom. Yeah, it's, it is like. The gas lighting, the gas lighting. I want to tell you something that happened to me in the past like a few weeks. One of the things that I did, especially in the second interview with Pierce Morgan, I talked about like how the Israeli governments, they don't care about the Jewish people, don't even care about their own Jewish citizens.

And I mentioned a very famous story that was published by the New York Times about how they have kidnapped Yemeni children from their Yemeni Jewish parents in a transition camp in 1950. And they took it away from him and they gave it to white Ashkenazi Jews. And the same thing like Canada did with the Native Americans. And I talk about, and this is documented. And I talk about another story about them deliberately sterilizing Jewish Ethiopian Muslims. women and the thing is Netanyahu when he was in 2012 he admitted and he apologized right so these are like two facts facts and you look on their Hasbara accounts on X and they're like peace spreading lies about sterilizing if you you guys admitted it you guys yeah blood type you guys

admitted it they are they are they are quote on on record admitting it and then they lie about it. And this is how the, if you notice how they attack you, they never, they're lying. You're like, they never say what you lied about. Right. They never, they never get like a counterproof to prove you're lying. Oh, he's lying. He's dishonest. He's just hate Jews, right? And this is the way to shut a conversation, anti-Semite, anti-Semite, anti-Semite, the same way that I don't like, if you want to discuss, for example, an extreme form of thought in, in Islamic word, I'm not going to shut you down every time I call you an Islamful because that's counterproductive. You cannot just like, oh, you're racist, you're anti-Semite, you're Islamophore.

That's why you don't have a conversation anymore. You just blackmail people into fear. Right. Some of them don't even bother to call you a liar. They'll just, it's almost as if they're admitting, okay, what if it is true? You're a racist for saying that truth. Like a lot of the times they won't even try to counter it.

It's as if by speaking it, you're revealing that you're in bad faith. But they're also acting as if they should just be inoculated from a, count of it's the most it's i mean people use the term darvo which is this acronym for a bunch of narcissistic tactics and i've never seen it this uh this bald-faced uh there is an incredible quote by naomi klein who's a jew by the way in her book double gangers and a canadian yeah and a canadian he said that the zionist version of of justice set to western powers if you could establish your empires and you settle colonial nations through ethnic cleansing mass and land theft, then it is discrimination to say that we cannot.

If you cleared your land of its indigenous inhabitants or did so in your colonies, then it is anti-Semitic to say that we cannot. It was as if the quest for quality were being reframed, not as the right to be free from discrimination, but as the right to discriminate colonialism framed as reparation for genocide. That is one of the most amazing code that I've ever read. Yes, and it reminds me of the way that I started looking at the phrase, Israel has the right to exist from this perspective of like not as a right to exist as a right to self-determination of a people,

but the right to exist, meaning the right to do as a nation, what other nations have done to it. and and so it's like it's it's it's interesting because every time someone would say something like like I believe Israel has the right to exist I'd never really kind of um I don't know examined it from any perspective other than like well should Israel be there and you know when someone asked you that you're just like stuck in this position where you're like yeah I mean I don't think people should not exist that sounds genocidal but then you realize like what the definition of existence is, and it seems to be, at least in the Zionist mind frame, existence is to basically maim and kill and murder and do as the government does to people and has

Western governments have done to indigenous peoples since the invention of Western civilization. The Zionists understood that ethnic cleansing was an existential necessity for the project they wanted. Not the cultural Zionists who were like, oh, Jewish homeland, let's increase our numbers, but live in harmony with the palace, you know, let's whatever. But no, the European Zionists were 100% clear that it's actually of, if we're going to exist in the form that we're insisting that we exist. Yes. I think it's really about the right to insist. Yeah.

On continuing, you know. Yeah. I actually tweeted something where I said, fine, okay, fine. You have the right to exist. Do you have a reason to exist? Right, yeah. And not only that, but also, like, when you kind of examine or interrogate the right part of it, it's almost like they're saying, like, we have earned the right to do this.

Don't you believe that the Jewish people, through their history of being oppressed, have earned the right to do a little bit of genocide, just a little as a treat? Just a tiny bit. Num, num, num, we're getting good grades. Forget good grades. Forget good grades. You got ice cream colon and you get genocide. Get on Levi. Get on Levi.

He is like a famous Israeli reporter. He writes in Ha'Arts. And he said that there are the three pillars of the Zionist mind is as follows. Number one, we are the God chosen people so we can do whatever the hell of we want. Number two, we might be the occupiers, but we are also the victim. And we're not just the victim. we are the only victim around. And number three, through systemic dehumanization of Palestinians,

they cannot see them at humans. And because of that, we can do whatever the hell we want. And having these three and having the Holocaust as an excuse to do whatever the hell they want, it's like, actually, what's her name? Golda Ma'er said that, like, after the Holocaust, we have the free reign to do whatever the hell we want and nobody can talk about. And nobody can actually talk about. It's crazy.

So the whole idea of like Israeli. and Zion is exceptionalism. It's, and, and it's fine if you are, like, delusional. It's fine if you have this kind of delusion about yourself. But the problem is you have people who are neither Jewish, neither Israeli, who are supporting that. I, it drives me crazy when the Christian Zion say, like, God chosen people. I said, all right, what about you?

Like, don't you feel left out that you are unchosen? Like, if you think that they are the God chosen people, why don't you join? Why are you still a Christian? Why don't you join Judaism? This is that God chosen people. Why are you saying a Christian? They have a master plan. Yeah, they have evangelicals.

God chose us to go there and kind of, how would you phrase it? And be destroyed for them. That's right, exactly. And to die. This is the oxymoron. Like choosing your goats for who's going to get slaughtered. Exactly, exactly. It's basically they're chosen to be a sacrifice on the album.

of the Second Rapture. And this is the crazy thing about it. And I'm not talking about that fringe group in the United States. These are people in government. These are people that are in the military. They are, I talk about this end and see about this documentary called Praying for Armageddon. Incredible documentary where our congressmen and senators, they are talking. Elected officials, they are pushing the whole area to war.

so Jesus will come and in their mind the Jews will be sacrificed and they will either convert or be killed and the extreme form of that in Judaism said when the Mishaya come everybody will be slave for us. You understand they both want the same

thing but two different outcomes. Right, right. And not only that but like these like you know third temple Zionist extremists and whatnot are not in Israel some

you know like oh they're just some tiny fringe and they don't matter more and more they are being represented in government and you see the results of that in just like the last six months in Gaza when you when you see how the general population in Israel responds to what is clearly this mass murder this ethnic cleansing this genocide whatever they want to or don't want to call it they know it's bad uh and they do not care because it's just the societal effect of having this kind of like, you know, Armageddon ideology and this, you know, this idea of, you know, establishing a third temple through the destruction of Al-Axa and all this, like, is just. Do you think that's the effect? Because I don't know. Like,

my read on Israeli society and, you know, everything I say about Israel is from a distance at this point. I used to, you know, I lived there for 10 months, but even then I was an outsider. Right. But, you know, I saw an Israeli journalist, I forget his name, very secular-looking guy. Sure. You could write for Harper's if you lived here. You know, you know, sort of circular red glasses and this. Did you see this quote? He was on Channel 12, Israel's biggest mainstream secular channel.

Yeah. Talking about how the most horrific pictures I've seen this week are of Palestinians returning to the beach in Gaza and just enjoying themselves. Oh, my God. I saw that. And this is horrible. people there should be more rivers of blood he said rivers of blood in gaza now that's an old testament ass sounding phrase it sounds like it's coming from passover which starts tomorrow night when we're recording this but this guy's a from all i can tell he's not wearing a kipa he's not

wearing talit he's a secular ass normal probably before this a liberal israeli talking about how there need to be rivers of blood so i'm not i'm not sure i mean of course i'll i'll play that Armageddon Nights. I'll play that clip just so people can see it because it is read the

subtitles along? Yeah, yeah, I will read the subtitles as we go just so people narrated. Narrated

with your beautiful American Jewish voice, man. Yes, with my beautiful voice, just so people and I'll do with my Israeli accent.

Someone in the comment said your Israeli accent's getting better and better. I know, it's improving. I'm very excited about this.

Okay. The most disturbing pictures that I've seen that I've seen. Gosson's enjoying the beach and infuriates me and the, God,

this is too fast, bro. You got to play this slower. It goes by way too cool. You've got to get every word. Okay. Can you put it on like 0.75 speed? Because I really think I could. I could.

I think the way this guy phrases it is truly amazing. Matt, Matt, do the accent, Matt. Yes, okay. Do it. All right. Here we go. The most, this, oh, wow.

The most disturbing pictures I have seen in a long time are pictures of Gazans enjoying the beach and I link it to other pictures we saw yesterday which are even more infuriating and hard on the soul are the pictures of Yardin Barbas and there's some kind of connection between these things because while Yardin Bebis is, if only for the fact that he was pulled by his beard

He wasn't yet kidnapped or kidnapped yet. If only for the fact that they pulled them by the beards and they took a selfie and they did all these things, these people deserve death, a hard death and agonizing death. And instead we see them enjoying the beach and having fun. These people, there are no innocent people there in the Gaza Strip. They voted for Hamas, they want Hamas, they celebrated, they handed out candy, some of them spat on the body of Sherry something

some of them took selfies there are no innocents and then goes on I hate them they're bad instead of starving instead of being jerked around I like that translation yeah you should be jerking these guys

around hey yeah they should be we should be pushing them wherever they go we should instead of being severely tormented yeah instead of being severely tormented instead of hiding

from the shell they are enjoying the beach I will tell you these two things this is your opinion I know my opinion is tough but when the blood is tough but when the blood is boiling we should have

seen there a lot more revenge and a lot more rivers of Gazen's blood I mean how there those people not hide from the shells and go in the open area to make it easier for Israelis to bomb them on the beach.

Why they are not hiding? Why they are not hiding? It's such a gross like it's it's it's it's so insulting at this point to to like get into arguments with people at this point

who are Zionists and who are claiming how can you say things like there's a genocide going on you know or or you know it's insulting that people still want to have this argument about what the state is of the society currently in Israel that is allowing this to happen. Just because I just, you see something like that and what he is essentially admitting there is that it pisses him off that there are still Palestinians

who are alive and are allowed to live and are allowed to have a moment in which they are you know free from bombing or free from from hiding like the when you see someone who's publicly expressing anger at seeing not even joy but just

a break a breath then you know you're dealing with the very least one very sick individual and probably many many more and with that let's take a quick

commercial break to sell whatever product is out there. I'm sure it's great. But stick around and we'll be right back. And we're back. Okay. Bassam. You've been doing a lot of interviews. And I have taken some notes on those interviews because I have some questions for you that I think are important that people have asked you and I want to ask you. So the first one is, what was Israel supposed to do? Now, before you go on, this is a multiple choice question. A, nothing. B, genocide. You choose. Those are the only options. There's the only options.

It's either nothing or genocide. Nothing between. There's nothing in between. You know, by the way, I love these kind of questions. I noticed there's something when you discuss what's happening with Zionists. Whatever happens, they say, like, well, I'm sorry that we have to kill a lot of babies, but what else can you do? So it's either killing babies or nothing.

I'm sorry that we have to decimate a whole region and orphan those kids, but what else can we do? And when they ask you a question and you tell them not this, like, oh, you're just coming in with a problem, we have no solutions. Yes, it is not my problem to give you a solution. because of the freaking policies that your government has been doing for 75 years. It's not my problem. It's like you're putting someone, I was on a podcast lately in Triggernometry. And for 20 minutes, for 20 minutes, he said like, if you're the prime minister of Israel,

I'm like, well, if I'm Netanyahu, I'm going to do exactly what he's doing. No, no, no. If you're best, it's like, you cannot transplant me in a position of this guy who's prime minister and say, all right, here it is, deal with it. No, no. No, because the way that they ask the question is like what, like Pierce Morgan, I really don't know exactly what else can they do. I don't know. I mean, I don't, I don't know. I don't know. I don't have the capacity for abstract thought anymore. I don't know. Because here's the thing, here's what happens with these questions. These questions effectively erase everything before October 7. Yes. As if October 7th happened in a vacuum. As if those Hamas people were like zombies and cannibals and vampires that went out of nothing. I mean, you can talk about them being terrorists and everything. But at the end of the day, those people had families that were bombed,

kids that were being killed, wives that were been murdered and raped and all of that. And at a certain point, you have to push back. And their pushback, you will not like their pushback. It will be. And because here's, remember when I told you, the way that they deal with Palestinians is animals? So they put them behind cages, behind big walls. They calorie count them. They put them under siege.

And then you kill them remotely. with your little drones and with your little F-16s behind the screens. At a certain point, when that wall is breached, when people go beyond the screen, you will be put face to face against your creation. You will be face to face with the Frankenstein that you have created all of these years. And you cannot add themselves, oh God, play it nice.

No, the whole thing, what happened? What happened October 7th? 1,129 Israelis were killed. 735 for them were civilians and 373 of them were police and military, right? Yes, right. And of course, all of the allegation of the rape, and I sent you a screenshot of one of their accounts and all the decapited babies, it didn't happen and they wanted to do that in order to create an effect.

And if you, if you just questioned that from a journalistic integrity point where, like, can I have an evidence? No, no, no, you cannot say that. So what happens, the kidnapping, the hostages, they call Palestinians hostages. They call, sorry, the Israeli hostage. Why can't we call the Palestinians who are in Israeli prisons hostages? There are 5,000 Palestinian hostages. Yeah.

No, they're not hostages because they were arrested for whatever made-up reason, the IDF decided to arrest them under administrative detention. They're also not hostages because the IDF doesn't want anything in return. Right. They're just not going to let them go. There's no bargaining. And by the way, you remember, you remember, when Hamas did that on October 7, again, not defending Hamas, they said, like, our demands is to have a swap, release that release our prisoners and we release yours, right? Yes.

And so, again, I'm not saying what happened to October 7, like, I believe that any attack on civilians is terrorist. But sometimes if that's, but what you call if that terrorism was a retaliation for your daily terrorism for days and years and month on end, you know, at a certain point. what can you do you sit around doing nothing people come into your house and take it away from you that's in the west bank they take your land they take down your trees they take away your house they kill your children you throw rocks they break your limbs as a child you you you take a weapon they call you a terrorist what can you do at a certain point what can you do you march peacefully on the wall right they kill you and they hold sniper contests about how many Palestinian knees and They can take up.

Yeah, they will turn you into amputees. They target, no, they target already amputees. There was a human rights report that actually established that, like, because Israel claimed every single one of our bullets found its target. We were precise. See, this is the thing they want. They want to say we're precision. We are absolutely, you know, okay, but then let's look at what the bullets hit.

Right. And so to your point, it's exactly right, Bassem, and that leads back to the question that they will not ask, which is what were the Palestinians supposed to do? Right. Yeah. Exactly. What is supposed to do? And for you, and for you part, then you're at the Great March of Return,

the Great Marshal of Ten continued for 18 months or 16 months. 233 Palestinians were killed by snipers. And you know how many, how many Israeli soldiers were penalized, one. And he was penalized by one month of community service. All right? And this whole thing about like genocide, there is no genocide because there is not like a top-to-botton orders to get, no, when you create an atmosphere where if you kill a Palestinian, you get one month of community service, when you deliberately injure little kids and shoot them, they are fine between somewhere between $25 and $35. This is that when you create that atmosphere, you basically tell them you can do whatever the hell you want, right? And the thing is the whole idea, it is not genocide.

You know what? I stopped engaging in these kind of arguments. It's like, okay, you don't like genocide? How about too much killing? How about extreme termination of life? How about it's too much? It's like the same way. It's not torture.

It's enhanced interrogation. These kind of like wordplay that doesn't mean anything. And let me challenge you on this. Let's say right now, everybody said it's a genocide. Let's say Israel today said, yes, we're committing genocide. What will happen? Nothing. Nothing, nothing, because they are going to always be justified.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They'll just switch the conversation to, you know, a listicle on BuzzFeed of 10 different times doing genocide was woke. And then everyone will share that and be like, actually, it's kind of woke. Sometimes you have to kill everybody. Hiroshima, woke, Nagasaki, woke, you know. Dresden, Dresden, Dresden, woke. Yeah, babe.

Yeah, and it's like. Like, yeah, it is truly, truly sickening to watch. I mean, so I was watching that interview that you were doing in the one you were describing earlier where they spent 20 minutes asking you, what if you were the prime minister? And I just, I love the way you handled it because of the fact that what he was doing, because I saw you playing with him where you were like, okay, so what if I was Netanyahu, I would continue killing because I'm a genocidal maniac.

And they're like, no, no, no, what if you're Bassum? And then you're like, oh, if I was prime minister and I'm BASM, I wouldn't have done the things that led up to it. It's like, no, no, no, what if you were Bassum and you got elected on October 6th? And you had never heard of Israel before and you won a competition to be the prime minister of Israel

and that happened. What would you do? And it's like the amount of moving the narrative to make it possible for you to be like, damn, that's a good point. I guess I would murder 30,000 plus people. Because what else can I do? Because what else can I do? I won a competition. And now I'm Prime Minister of the Jewish State.

If you won a competition to be Prime Minister of the Jewish State. If I was you, my first move would be seek asylum in Ecuador and flee. They're going to be coming for you. And it should be a reality. Israel next top prime minister Yeah, yeah, dude, that would be Honestly, I feel like the results would be better You know?

Just let anybody But yeah, it is it's just so it's so bad faith Because it is it was just leading It leads everyone to the same conclusion Which is that like This is okay if you don't consider Any kind of historical context to anything This this like

I need you to erase the past and I need you to erase the present. I need you to only think about this one day in history. You remember what our buddy, Alon Levy, said very sternly to that RIP, his career. He's still alive. No, he's working from home. That's true, yes. He can zoom into Germany whenever he wants.

That's exactly right. He's lying from home. Yeah. He's lying from home. That's right. But you remember what he said to that British anchor, I think on Channel 4, the brown guy interviewing him. I would be very careful.

Yeah, I would be extremely careful if I were you about trying to contextualize anything about what happened on October 7th. I would be very, very careful indeed. Yeah, he was petting a cat at the time, like just, he had a scar in his eyes, just be very careful what you do with this. where this conversation is going I don't like it was one bloke who tried to contextual something with me once

yeah once but yeah I mean it's just so clear when early on context was the enemy when early on like people like Natali Belant Bennett I remember being interviewed on some

I think it was a British news show and a reporter very lightly pushed back on, you know, the idea of like, well, you know, what are you guys doing to, to stop civilians from being harmed? And he just, he didn't have a plan for what the, he lost it. He lost it. He said, he said like, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? You want to talk about, baby being cute. I want to tell you something about like the whole idea about the way that these atrocities, these crazy atrocities that did not happen, that they would promote it. I remember Senator, sorry, Secretary Blinken, Anthony Blinken, in his, when he testified in front of Congress, do you remember the story he told? I don't. There was, go.

So there is this, I'll tell the story. how he said it. And I tell you how it is crazy that people actually went through that. That was the early days, like just like three, four days after. And he took a testimony straight from Zaka, this group that collected $50 million and everything that. And they got 50 miles for the things that were proven to be lies. So this is the story. It said like a group of militants went into one of the houses. They gouged the eyes of the father. They killed him. the women's breast with a box cutter. They raped her. They cut, they amputated the limp of the little girl and they cut the one of the fingers, the little fingers of the little boy. And then they sat there

having breakfast and laughing. Now, let's zoom out. First of all, we are supposed to believe that this is happening where there's heavy shelling of the IDF and the helicopters, all of that. I mean, the luxury of time, the luxury of time. And first of all, do you know, do you know, know how difficult it is to cut a human, female breasts with a box cutter. You understand that is impossible. And the whole idea of, and the whole idea about like the systematic, you think like if you go, go in with heavy, you don't have a time to rape people? I'm sorry, the fact that you are repeating these lies and people say, oh, oh my God, yes. Oh, terrible, terrible. And it's proven a lie. Nobody held breaking accountable.

Nobody held all of those people. No one held Biden accountable when he said out loud, I saw the babies who were beheaded. He said he saw it. And then they were like, oh, no, he's confused. Don't worry. He's just old. Well, no, he was talking about his, he was talking about his freezer.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, oh, no, I already had. Oh, I already had babies in my freezer from last Christmas. Yeah. Well, that reminds me of when Sam Harris, piece me up on him said about because when the Hunter Biden

laptop thing was coming out and he was supporting the suppression of the story, right? Why the New York Post should have been shut down. He's like, frankly, I don't care if Joe Biden has kidnapped babies in his basement at this point. We need to elect him

and then we'll deal with it. Yeah, it's very specific. It's very interesting. I don't care. Joe Biden has a sex dungeon in his basement when kidnapped babies to which he's invited me 70 times. Yes, yes. I don't care how many invites I have from Joe Biden

to visit his adrenochrome factory. The point is... We need to elect him. Yes. But the thing is like all of these stories were refuted and even the Israeli media, including Channel 12, by the way, and her artists, at the time it was said these things didn't have. And even the Israeli papers that was submitted

to International Court of Justice. did not include decapitated babies, did not include the rape. And yet, people are going on, people print rape. Their babies have decapitated. None. And they're still repeating it, still repeating it. And this is the way that you change history. And since you talk about Bad Hasbara, I have a theory.

The way that they are repeating the stories and repeating the lies over and over and over again, I think what they do is people go in and they engage with these accounts and suddenly your timeline is follow these lives and then that becomes the truth yeah that becomes the truth yeah right yeah very clearly and and i i think it's it's it's it's clear what was being waged since october 7th uh in not just in like the social media but in you know 24 hour news networks in the west and uh and also like government spokespeople's offices uh was an information war that that was supposed to reach a critical mass of how much bad that Hamas did on this day. And it was the point was it was supposed to reach this like atrocity meter where for some people,

even if some things that were like debunked later or whatnot where you just went like, if the atrocity meter reaches this high, then genocide okay. Well, it's like a video game where Israel's like stamina wheel gets maxed out. Like I'm thinking in Legend of Zelda You can add to your stamina wheel Which means that you can genocide for longer Before you run out of breath And have to recover with like

Some kind of You know Yes Yeah, extra lives Yeah, exactly Yeah, exactly Yeah And it's just, it's just

So clear what that, you know The reason for all of these stories And for you know, you could say it's an information war It's an emotion war What are they trying to do? Yeah, it's a more They're trying to It's like,

Now that they've put those images in people's heads, now the people, it doesn't matter if it's true. Now I can't stop thinking about those soccer balls made of human breasts. Now I can't think of anything but these deheaded babies. And I'm going to blame Hamas for the thing I can't get out of my head. And who gives a fuck whether it happened or not? And who gives the fuck who made it up or put it in my head in the first place. And this is what happens.

When you tell him, no, no, there was no decapitation. There was only one baby, Milakuhin that was killed 10 months ago, also killing one baby is okay. No, I didn't say that. No, exactly. This is what they do. When you kind of like really level with them and say like, no, no, this did not have. Oh, so killing civilians are okay?

Killing 30? It's like, no, but like you see that the difference. Clearly it wasn't okay to you because you could have reported on actual atrocities that happen. Yes. And clearly you're like, oh, no, I'm not okay with, you know, this like one dead child. Let's add 39 more. and let's make them beheaded. Like, you're the one who's not okay with it.

And I sent you a screenshot from the Israel War Room about like how they were already propagating the rape thing from on October 7th even before any... You see, yeah, that one. Day of October 7th, this is first this one account who was just like one of the biggest ghouls, Aden, who we're going to have to do a deep dive into this total fucking monster. he on October 7th put out a list of missing Israelis and um where are all the old people those

are all pictures of young hot they're all young hot people for a very specific reason where are the old peace activists uh well they're all going to get released they and they already been confirmed already been confirmed that the Hamas father are using rape as a weapon of war that is like three hours five hours after the attack how how come they came up with narrative right now. With all the evidence, it was ready. The attack is still happening at this point, because this tweet was released at 9.48 p.m. on October 7th, 2003, Israel War Room tweeted, Hamas seems to have kidnapped mostly women. It has already been confirmed that Hamas fighters are using rape as a weapon of war. There must be no mercy for these barbarians. And this is

literally, literally, as the attack is currently happening. And I just like imagining, you know, Israel War Room tweeting that out along with like 10 other like possible atrocity porn ideas you're just like also the the babies have been put in hot air balloons and lifted up so high in the air that the air is too thin and they've suffocated

in the hot air balloons we'll try that out it's kind of like I think they have like some sort of a very sick PDSM writer's room in the back it's like okay how come what can we write what kind of like so a sick atrocities that will put it out there and people just going to it's like a shock it's a shock it's a shock value and then after that nobody wants to hear anything anymore like don't talk to me about those people they have they have beheaded babies that's it the conversation is done yes and and you know you see this the same thing with the the the the goal post moving in terms of the way that this rhetoric um is spread is like it's very clear and i've said this from the beginning with the entire, like, mass rape story, which was like, this is a poison-pilled idea for the West. This is a no-go topic for anyone who's a liberal to even question whether or not someone was raped. And they got Hillary Clinton and Cheryl Sandberg out on that.

Oh, yeah. Yes, they did. And they got, and so it was like just the mere fact of discussing it as, you know, asking for like, well, who's going out? they're claiming this. Like, like, are the victims coming forward? People would, you know, say, wow. No, no, no. It's all there in the New York Times headline, screams without words. Screams without words. Screams without, no words. Screams without testimony. And by the way, I got to give a shout-out, because I'm related to one of the journalists who fucking stuck his neck out there. Oh, wow. And did investigative work on this. My brother. Oh, right, right, right, right, right. Of course. Like, they were out there with the electronic intifada, Ali Abunima with Mondo Weiss, you know, countering this.

And of course, the New York Times propaganda did its job to max out the stamina wheel for genocide. But, you know, I want to say something about this predicate. This is something that is not new, by the way. I'm going to give you like a few names and a few dates. The Wilmington massacre, North Carolina, 1898, the Atlanta Race Massacre, 1906, the Forsyth Massacre in Georgia. Georgia, 1912, the Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921, the Perry Masker, 22 in Florida, the Rosewood Massacre, Florida, 1923, the Scottsboro Boys, 1931 in Alabama, all of these started by allegations

of a black man or black men harassing or sexually assaulting or raping a white woman that led to the decimation and attack and burning down of whole neighborhood of black people because it started like that, the gendered accusation that has been a weapon that's been used forever, and we should go back to history and learn from this. Because it's the same game over and over good.

Yes, absolutely. I've said, I don't know if I said it on this podcast, Matt, but they really overshot the runway with this one. I mean, they could have just taken the Emmett Till case and just accused about, you know, 600 Hamas fighters of whistling at Israeli women. Right, yeah. And then they would have had the same cover for,

right who can prove the whistle they wink they winked salaciously in that right you know that way that those worthy people do yeah and and when i talk about the goalpost moving so recently i think there was finally after you know months of people going like well who's actually like who's where's there a victim who's claiming this happened and they they could not produce one and they kept claiming they're all dead you heartless monster yeah they're all dead and because that's don't testify yeah Or they're too traumatized. Right, right. And, you know, it was like to even ask like, well, no, but I mean, who are your sources? Like for the New York Times piece. I mean, you have fucking. Are your sources on this reliable? Yeah.

How dare you ask for sources? Right. How dare you? When someone, there was a story recently of someone who did come forward, like someone who was like saying that this happened to them, that it was a, they were raped by, Hamas on October 7th and so it was an actual person claiming it and it was seen as some sort of vindication I'm not questioning whether or not that person is lying whether or not that person was raped but that was not the accusation the accusation wasn't Hamas raped one person the accusation

was systemic systematically as a weapon of war it was the whole part of the plan that she claiming that she was raped in captivity though I haven't I don't remember this specific I will remind you with something one of the things in the early days of war, they produce documents where there's like Arabic translation to Hebrew basically giving orders to women to take off your clothes, take off your panties.

So first of all, you understand that the Palestinians there, they all speak Hebrew. They don't need to walk around with like, with, with, with, like, papers of it. Hello, madam, remember Isaac? Hello, madam. I am going to rape you now.

People, please remove your undergarments. Yeah, that would be Besseder. And this is similar. Remember, Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel, when he came up with like a manual, how to make your own, like, do your own biological bomb? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's like Hamas fighters were walking around and we find manual to create a biological bomb while they are like creating the capoots. Like, who does that?

Who does that? Do you think that we're fucking stupid? Do you think we're fucking stupid? Yes. You know? It is crazy because it's like, you know, the amount of times that I've had to, especially watch Isaac Herzog produce a book that was found in a child's bedroom in Gaza that's just like eight ways to make Jew soup.

You know, how to turn Jews into fuel. And I'm just like. A copy of Spike Lee's Mo Better Blues was found on VHS, which has an infamous scene of two Jewish shi-stiles in the music business, fleecing a black musician, this is clear blood libel. Dude, you might be joking, but actually there's a video of one of soldiers, like, we found a copy of mine come in one of the book of the house of Gaza. What do you think they would read him?

they hate you yeah yeah well first of all it's like you could find a copy of mind conf in a lot of Jewish University of

library it's an important historical document dude my dad asked me recently if they have it on audio book he was like

I've never read it that's narrated by Matthew McCone is narrated by Isaac Hirscho yeah but it's like it's just

so like every time I see it every time I see this like Isaac Herzog pointing out a book or like whatever kind of Hasbara it always feels so stupid that I can't believe they expect us to believe it and yet they at this point have faced so little pushback from the people that matter to them which is Western media and Western you know government officials that they will continue making up the most egregious bullshit because no one has ever no one has ever called them out on it in the west at the very least in israel you have some israeli journalists who are like actually doing their job actually you know uh and and and this is what really pains me is that you have the israeli media admitting that all of these stories from gazaka were not true

and none of the BBC, CNN, MSV, none of them is even translating these reports. I'm not, can you imagine me an Arab Muslim, Middle Eastern, using Israeli media to prove my point? Yeah, I know. Can you imagine, like someone like Jake Tapper, the guy who's seen it. Oh my God, the guy has not been stopping, bringing very questionable witnesses on his show. He's been talking nothing but rape and decapitation, rape and decapitation for the last seven months, nonstop. I mean, really, the truth. I think his truth has tapered off.

I don't know. It's just like, that guy, that guy is just like there. And, and you know, this is how he reports. It's like, oh, there is a bombing in Rafah, 15 people in Gaza died. Let's talk about today's story of rape. This is exactly what he does. Yeah. It's just a crazy.

I think there was a very telling admission on the part of, I think it was Jeffrey Gettleman, who was the lead author of that New York Times thing, along with Annette Schwartz who had never written she was not a journalist when someone asked him about evidence he said you know as I don't see my job primarily as bringing evidence

evidence is sort of a legalistic concept that you know where you're in a trial you're trying to I see my job more as a storyteller and I'm there to paint a picture I mean it was pure wire season five right yes yes yes you know the Dickensian aspect of mass rape. A hundred percent.

And it was a joke. As long as a good story and it's entertaining and maybe shocking. Yes. I mean if there's Who cares about journalism? Fuck journalism. Right. Right. There's one thing we know as like

comedians is that storytelling and evidence and sources and facts are very different things. I like you know I tell a lot of stories on stage that are even the ones that are like this is a true story

50% of it is just punchline jokes that obviously didn't happen and then the other 50% is based on fact but it's like the idea that he would be like Who was that South Asian comedian who got No yeah yeah yeah Hasseh Manage I was just saying Hasseh Manage they went

after him because he exaggerated a little bit in his comedy in his special and they accused him of victimization he accused of making things up and no one No one went after a single Western reporter for propagating lies that led to the death

of tens of thousands of people. But you go after the comedian. You go after Hassan Minhaj. How stupid is... This is what the word is like, get them, it's like, I don't care about evidence. I just tell stories. And a comedian, you can only say jokes that happened.

If you're going to go after a comedian for making things up, then you have to go after journalists for not making their stories more funny. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Honestly, if you're going to make shit up, you would at least just put a fucking joke in there, Annette Schwartz. God damn. Don't be the joke. Yeah, make jokes.

Make a fart noise with your mouth or something. I don't know. I don't know. I think, like, what Matt has said in the beginning, this idea of, like, all of those fearless comedians, all of the people that, like, cross the boundaries who don't care. The whole idea about comedy is punching up, talking to the people who are in power and they don't care. right now the people in power they are they are gas lighting you

they're lying to you they're doing a trust is in your name they're using your tax money to do that and nobody is talking about it we're comedians are talking all kinds of things about cancel culture how come I can say anything you want you cannot cancel me and this is the

biggest test for cancel culture because people are literally I've been canceled there's I've said by the way I used to have like a little bit of like you know auditions here and there, that thing dried up.

Nobody's talking to me. Fuck them. I don't care. There are comedians. There are actors. There are journalists that has lost their job being canceled because they talked against the policy of a foreign government. And no one, no one of those like spineless comedians who are just like making like, making

themselves like to look too big or huge or whatever. And then they don't care about that. So I think this is like a very telling moment about really who have balls. Yeah. And I guess to round out that conversation with, you know, about like comedians and the consequences that I think a lot of people have faced, especially in Hollywood with like being outspoken about what's going on, especially early on when it was so, you know, you know, like it was such a no-go zone that people were immediately you just story after story people being fired losing their agents losing their jobs losing their position uh within an agency um you know uh so i imagine early on when this was happening um you know you you talk about uh losing some

opportunities has there or have you noticed any change like uh in the last month or so um within, like, the industry. Like, are you starting to get maybe notices for auditions now as anything? No. No, no, no. The best, like, I'm not like, you know, acting is not my first thing. But, like, as a big industry, you see, you still get stuff, right? So I would, I would usually get, like, maybe two, three auditions per week.

Now there's nothing. And for the past six, seven months, there is nothing. And there's no change. There's no change. Here's what I'm happy about. I'm happy that I'm a stand-up comedian that I don't need a middleman. People come and they pay tickets to come and see me.

I don't need anything. So I kind of like, I say this, like it sounds very poetic. It's like maybe I've been dropped by the establishment, but I've been chosen by the people. Yeah. I'd rather be, I'd rather be, I'd rather be chosen by the people than be part of the so-called chosen people. Oh, I love it.

I love it. We're workshopping this, baby. Hey, hey, hey, I have another one. I get asked like, hey, Bassem, do you believe in God? It's like, well, if this is God's chosen people, I've got doubt. Look at this. Well, no offense taken, Bassam. I'll just note.

You know, and I'm just going to ignore the fact conveniently that Bassem rhymes with Gassim. Oh, wow. Okay, okay. By the way, Daniel, Daniel, before you go, a huge hello, a huge, like, salute your incredible father. Seriously. Oh, absolutely. Like, Professor Gabor, like, all respect to this man, man. Like, he's amazing.

Yeah. I will pass that on. I'll be seeing him later today. Thank you. Thank you. Well, such an honor to talk to you and such a great time hanging out with you. Thank you for all your work. And I'm glad to see it's got so much traction these days.

And hopefully it's not going to be the last time I'm going to be with you guys on this podcast. I do love your podcast. I'm a huge fan. And, dude, let's have these little cuts and see. tips and let's put them social yeah absolutely excuse me are we talking about the circumcision policy is

where you are but you know that's triggering with a couple of Jewish boys you cannot cut any more off it's already too tight you're wearing me down to the nub here I got no one to give happy Passover and don't don't sacrifice any of the

red heifers yeah no red heifers were harmed than the making of this podcast. Bassam, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you guys. Yes, please. Please come back anytime we would love to have you. When you're in L.A., you can come visit the home studio, and you can come visit our baby.

I would love to come. Say hello to Francesca. So hello to Professor Gabor. And thank you. I love you guys. I love you too. I love you too. And everyone out there, thank you so much for listening.

We love you. And please, patreon.com slash badhasbara, badhasbara at gmail.com. And all right, everyone, thanks again for listening. And from the river to the sea, what the hell happened to comedy? Ooh, nice. Hell yeah. Jumping jacks was us, push-ups was us, Godmaga us, all karate us, taking Molly us. Michael Jackson, us, Yamaha keyboards, us, charge of a mix on us, Andor was us, Keith Ledger Joker us, endless bread success.

Happy Meals was us, McDonald's was us, being happy us, Bequam yoga us, eating food, us, reading air, us, drinking water us. Yeah. Thank you.