“I think there are things that are probably funny no matter what culture you’re in,” says one man on the street interviewed in “Just Like Us.” “Like people falling down.” Thank goodness the comedy showcased in this documentary is on a slightly higher level.
“Just Like Us” is a labor of love directed by Egyptian-American comedian Ahmed Ahmed. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he’s made it his mission to bridge cultures. He toured the country with a rabbi-comedian, presenting “One Arab, One Jew, One Stage.” He collected a different group of comics for the “Axis of Evil Comedy Tour.” Now he’s made a documentary chronicling a trip through the Middle East and back to America with another troupe of comedians, some Middle Eastern, some Westerners. It seems to prove the truth of that American on the street — except what’s universally funny, of course, tends to involve the relationships between the sexes.
| On screen |
| ‘Just Like Us’ |
| 3.5 out of 5 stars |
| Stars: Ahmed Ahmed, Ted Alexandro, Sherif Azab |
| Director: Ahmed Ahmed |
| Rated: R for language |
| Running time: 72 minutes |
The stereotype, one Middle Easterner notes, is that people from the region “have no sense of humor, they’re always contemplating serious stuff.” And another notes that it takes more than 10 words in Arabic to explain two in English: “stand-up comedy.” But comics like Ahmed, Iranian-American Maz Jobrani, and British-Iranian Omid Djalili belie that simplification. Not that it’s easy to do so while touring the Arab-speaking region. “Profanity is out of the question,” one notes. You can’t poke fun at religion either. “What’s left?”
Let’s just say they don’t quite follow the rules. They’re broken pretty quickly by Washington, D.C.-born Whitney Cummings, the first female comedian to perform in Dubai and Beirut. As they move across the area, it’s clear not all Middle Eastern cities are the same. “Now we’re off to Beirut, Lebanon, where anything goes,” Ahmed tells us. Dubai is more troublesome: “I told a joke that got me banned in Dubai for a year,” Ahmed proudly notes. (Royalty and religion are two pretty sensitive subjects there.) In Saudi Arabia, we learn that young people there Bluetooth their contact information to each other through their cell phones — boys and girls can’t be seen talking to each other.
Not every joke, nor every comedian, here is funny. And comedy is best seen live, where good performers feed off the energy of the crowd. But “Just Like Us” is fascinating nonetheless. It offers an honest look at a region about which most Americans know little. And it shows that while our leaders often don’t get along, we might be able to speak to each other, people to people, using the universal language of laughter.
