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This American Life

A Christian and a Muslim Walk Into a Bar

1/18/20261 hr

When a joke could get you killed, should you say it anyway? A group of Syrian comedians test the limits of their newfound freedom, a year after the fall of the brutal Assad regime.

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Prologue: Under the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad, comedian Sharief Homsi knew which jokes were too dangerous to say on stage. Now that Syria is under the control of a new government, Sharief and the other comedians of “Styria” set out on a national tour to see how far their comedy can go i...

Clips

The Asma al-Assad bra bit
“Threat to family values”
“I hate this country” outburst
Freedom window closing
Not terror, not freedom
“Take me to jail, I miss it”
Prison notes to punchlines
“Nobody cares about us”
Jokey sectarian swagger

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Speaker 00:00

    Support for This American Life comes from Squarespace. Build a fully custom website in just a few steps using Squarespace's AI enhanced website builder, Blueprint AI. Simply provide basic details about your industry, goals, and personality, and Blueprint AI will generate high-quality content, along with personalized design suggestions. Highlight your offerings with a website tailored to help your business grow. Visit squarespace.com/american to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. To make our newest bonus episode of This American Life, [tape player clicking] Ira Glass went digging.

  2. Ira Glass· Host0:36

    [laughing] Okay, we're in.

  3. Speaker 00:37

    Digging for an old recording in a storage space with 70 boxes of old tapes.

  4. Ira Glass· Host0:42

    [laughs] Oh my God.

  5. Speaker 00:44

    And as luck would have it...

  6. Ira Glass· Host0:45

    I can't believe it. This is the one, two, three. This is the fourth box I'm opening, and literally right here, [box rustling] I think this is exactly [laughs] what I was looking for.

  7. Speaker 00:55

    To hear what he found, plus dozens of other exclusive bonus episodes, and most importantly, to help us keep making the show, subscribe at thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners.

  8. Ira Glass· Host1:05

    Okay, I really am stunned.

  9. Speaker 01:07

    That link is also in the show notes of this episode. Thanks.

  10. Speaker 21:11

    First floor.

  11. Speaker 01:13

    [elevator dinging] A quick warning, there are curse words that are un-beeped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org.

  12. Ira Glass· Host1:27

    Sharif Homsi is

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