Introduction

Bassem Youssef is an Egyptian surgeon-turned-satirist who rose to fame amid the 25 January 2011 revolution in Egypt, which toppled the Mubarak regime. As a medic, Youssef took part in this revolution and treated injured protesters in the iconic Tahrir Square in Cairo. Enraged by state media propaganda, which claimed the protests were orchestrated by foreign operatives and depicted protesters as thugs or morally corrupt, Youssef decided to refute and ridicule this narrative. He launched his YouTube Channel on 3 March 2011, and from his laundry room started producing a low-budget video series called the ‘B+ Show’, named after his blood type. In its first three months alone, Youssef 's show had more than five million views, a significant number in Egypt (Revkin and Samaan, 2011; Paget, 2018). Youssef 's bravery in speaking out against authority, using contemporary social media outlets, and introducing a rather new style of comedy and satire were, arguably, the main factors behind his popularity.

Youssef 's fame and talent earned him an official TV programme on the ONTV channel, which he named Al-Bernameg, meaning ‘The Show’ or ‘The Programme’. Youssef 's show was considered comparable, in terms of the show's format, to the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and thus Youssef was nicknamed ‘Egypt's Jon Stewart’ (Paget, 2018). In the first season of Al-Bernameg (2011), the Mubarak regime had fallen, and Youssef turned his satire toward the political forces active in the transitional period before elections (Morayef, 2012). This kind of critique was an unprecedented shift in Egypt and was in line with the newly found and celebrated democratic atmosphere of the ‘Arab Spring’. Youssef later moved to the well-resourced CBC channel and his popularity reached new levels, with 30 million views on air for each episode (Kenner, 2013). In its second season (2012), the Islamic political movement, the Muslim Brotherhood (hereafter MB) had assumed power in Egypt and was the main target of Youssef 's biting satire. This was the first time in Egyptian history that a standing head of state, Mohamed Morsi, was made fun of publicly (Paget, 2018).