17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Ramy Youssef's latest show finds absurdity in post-9/11 Islamophobia
The Husseins are in trouble. The Egyptian American household, central to the new animated series '#1 Happy Family USA,' faces rampant Islamophobia in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Everyone copes differently: The paranoid patriarch, whose first name is also Hussein, waves American flags and pretends to chug beer in desperate attempts to prove he belongs. His proud wife, Sharia, forms a stronger connection with her faith and starts wearing a hijab in public. Their teenage daughter, Mona, hides her queer relationship and flatirons her curly hair to better assimilate with her peers, while her younger brother, Rumi, focuses most of his energy on getting his middle-school teacher to fall in love with him.
