Bassem Youssef

Bassem Raafat Mohamed Youssef (باسم رأفت محمد يوسف, ; born 22 March 1974) is an Egyptian-American comedian, television host, and surgeon.

Bassem Youssef graduated from Cairo University's Faculty of Medicine, majoring in cardiothoracic surgery, in 1998.

He passed the United States Medical Licensing Examination and has been a member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) since February 2007.

He practiced as a cardiothoracic surgeon in Egypt for 13 years, until his move into comedy and political satire.

He also received training in cardiac and lung transplantation in Germany, after which he spent a year and a half in the United States working for a company that produces medical equipment related to cardiothoracic surgery.

Beginning his career with The B+ Show after being inspired during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, he later gained national prominence as the host of Al Bernameg (2011–2014), a satirical comedy show focused on Egyptian politics.

In January 2011, Youssef assisted the wounded in Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution.

Youssef has credited surgery for making him "a much harder working person, a nerd, a perfectionist."

Inspired by the 2011 Egyptian revolution, Youssef created his first satirical show in March 2011.

The initial idea came from his friend Tarek El Kazzaz.

Entitled The B+ Show after his blood type, the program, at 5 minutes per episode, was uploaded to his YouTube channel in May 2011 and gained more than five million views in the first three months alone.

The show was shot in Youssef's laundry room using a table, a chair, one camera, and a mural of amateur photos from Tahrir Square that cost $100.

The show was a collaboration by Youssef with Tarek El Kazzaz, Amr Ismail, Mohamed Khalifa, and Mostafa Al-Halawany.

Youssef used social media to showcase his talent and his show gave a voice to the millions of Egyptians who were seething with anger from the traditional media's coverage of the Egyptian Revolution.

After the success of The B+ Show, Egyptian channel ONTV, owned by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, offered Youssef a deal for Al Bernameg (literally, "The Program").

Youssef had planned to move to Cleveland to practice medicine but instead signed his show's contract.

With a budget of roughly half a million dollars, the series made him the first Internet-to-TV conversion in the Middle East.

The show, which consisted of 104 episodes, premiered during Ramadan 1432 (2011) with Egyptian-American engineer Muhammad Radwan as its first guest.

In his show, Youssef has parodied such Egyptian celebrities as show host Tawfik Okasha, composer Amr Mostafa, Salafist presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, and Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and onetime presidential candidate.

The show became the platform for many writers, artists, and politicians to speak freely about the social and political scene.

Al-Bernameg success inspired a number of amateur initiatives on various social media channels, who credit The B+ Show as their inspiration.

In June 2012, Jon Stewart invited Youssef to The Daily Show for an extended interview, "I do know a little something about the humour business; your show is sharp, you're really good on it, it's smart, it's well executed, I think the world of what you're doing down there", Stewart said to Youssef.

The segment was one of the highest in viewership on The Daily Show's website.

Following the success of The B+ Show on YouTube and the first season of Al Bernameg on ONTV, Tarek ElKazzaz convinced an old friend, Ahmed Abbas, to join QSoft as chief operations officer and Project Director for Al Bernameg with the mission of developing and upgrading the show into a multifaceted and global brand.

This was done with the help of a team that covered many disciplines, including marketing, operations, legal and public relations.

This all helped in developing both Bassem Youssef and Al-Bernameg on all levels and created a global audience.

The show was renewed for a second season after a contract with a second channel, CBC, which premiered on November 23, 2012.

The second season consisted of 29 episodes and has recorded one of the highest viewership ratings on both TV and internet with 40 million viewers on TV and more than 184 million combined views for his show on YouTube alone.

The program, which began with a small group working at home with Youssef, moved from ONTV's smallest studio to Radio Theatre in Cairo's downtown, a theatre redesigned in the likeness of New York's Radio City, making it the first live audience show in Egypt.

The contents of a typical show's broadcast have evolved, which began with a sarcastic take on current political events, and eventually incorporating the hosting of public figures and stars from various fields, as well as various artists' performances.

Following the move, Youssef succeeded in increasing the show's worth by eight times in one year.

The show gained tremendous success through its criticism of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, representing the Muslim Brotherhood.

On the season's premiere, Youssef made the owner and coworkers of his channel the subject of his show, as an assurance that he is granted full freedom of expression, and that no topic was off limits.

CBC did not, however, air his second episode, which also featured further criticism of a TV show host who filed a lawsuit against Youssef.

The show returned to its regular schedule for the third episode.

Just three episodes into the show, several lawsuits were filed against Bassem Youssef and his show, accusing him of insulting Islam, Morsi and disrupting public order and peace.

Bassem was named as one of the "100 most influential people in the world" by Time magazine in 2013.

In March 2013, Bassem Youssef started writing a weekly column expressing his views for Al-Shorouk; one of Egypt's most prominent and independent daily newspapers.

Youssef also wrote newspaper columns, where he tackled taboo subjects such as atheism and questioning the commonly held view that apostasy from Islam should be punishable by death.

His life and career was profiled in the 2017 American documentary film Tickling Giants and also authored Revolution For Dummies in the same year.