“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.
