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Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(June 2011)

Directed by: Ahmed Ahmed
Starring: Ahmed Ahmed and the Ahmed Family, Omid Djalili, Khalid Khalifa, Peter Howarth-Lees, Lubna Hussein, Whitney Cummings, Tommy Davidson and Tom Papa

Exploring the image of Americans belonging to the Islamic faith, Ahmed Ahmed, an Egyptian-American comedian, utilizes the words of Barack Obama interspersed with person-on-the-street interviews to open his documentary before presenting us with his stand-up comedy tour of the Middle East.

Addressing issues of “Arab” vs. “Muslim,” the concept behind the film is that through comedy (mainly self-deprecating or self-aware commentary), comedians can enable others to laugh at the experiences proffered and through that laughter realize these Muslim comics, and Muslims generally, are “just like us.”

With one sweep, Ahmed and company provide evidence that indeed he and his contemporaries are much more like us than extremists, but at the same moment, their awareness of how privileged their position is, and how fragile and rare their tour is, is simultaneously prescient by extension, acknowledging somehow that the nonsecular, more religious and fundamentalist Muslims can not be said to be similarly accepting.

Based on the belief that “if we laugh at ourselves, the rest of the world will laugh with us,” Ahmed takes his brand of diplomacy on a loose tour of the Middle East. Beginning in Dubai, the comedians immediately censor swear words from their sets under the very real threat of being banned from performing, despite their presence in the most progressive part of the region.

In Beirut, another place where rules are broken and drinks run freely, the culture welcomes nightclubs and social media, and T-shirts echo the motto of Las Vegas. Despite the claims, the comedy is delivered in the midst of bombed-out buildings, tanks on the streets and other constant reminders of conflict and hostility.

Saudi Arabia follows, ironically a place without cinema but embracing this comedy performance, and then Egypt, reuniting Ahmed with members of his extended family.

“Just Like Us” certainly provides the right look at a region undergoing change. Of course, the people open to attending a comedy event in the Middle East are already committing to having a rare (or completely new) experience, and thus already represent the most open-minded individuals of the area. Could they have traveled to less receptive parts of the Middle Eastern map? Syria? Yemen? Libya? Iraq? What would have been the risks? What the rewards? What would the reception to their material have been like in Israel?

While questions beget more questions, the hope, like Ahmed’s mission, is that comedy and the public questioning of seriousness and ego that comedy enables becomes the norm rather than a rarity, and that the laughter breeds some levity in a location in which reality is often a little too “real.”

Photo: Ahmed Ahmed performs in Egypt in “Just Like Us’; photo courtesy Cross Cultural Productions