UC Santa Barbara’s ‘Serious Conversation’ Highlights Muslim Comedy Community

Preacher Moss, Yasmin Elhady, Moses The Comic, and Omar Regan have all made names for themselves on the international comedy stage. They’ve toured stand-up routines, starred in movies and on TV, but on June 6 they made their way to UCSB, virtually.

UCSB’s Capps Center, Center for Middle East Studies, and the Hani Sadek Fund for Islamic Studies co-sponsored the Zoom event “American Muslim Comedy: A Serious Conversation,” and the four Muslim comedians were joined by Sherman Jackson, USC professor of Islamic Thought and Culture, and Morgane Thonnart, PhD candidate in Religious Studies at UCSB.

Thonnart’s first question for the panelists was prompted by comedian Mo Amer’s assertion that “there’s no such thing as ‘Muslim comedy.’”