Not content with co-creating the brilliant (albeit frequently watch-through-your-fingers) dramedies Mo and Ramy, and starring in the latter, Ramy Youssef has turned his attention to a riotous animation for adults. Like the Egyptian-American comic’s previous work, #1 Happy Family USA is all about the modern Muslim experience, feeling adrift from the world, and the extent to which you should change yourself to fit in. And what better way to underscore this often excruciating, existential experience than to make our lead an insecure, hormone-plagued teen, coming of age in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
For real Ramy heads, this show will almost certainly call to mind the flashback episode from the first season of his self-titled series, set during 9/11. There, we saw a young Ramy anxiously fight off accusations that he was a terrorist (“Egypt’s in Africa – if anything, I’m black!”). Like that episode – which featured a dream sequence starring Osama bin Laden – this series frequently leans into flights of fancy, and the kind of magical realism that is all the more possible in an animated context (South Park’s Pam Brady is the co-creator). Our hero, Rumi, is best friends with a talking lamb, and there’s a character who appears almost exclusively as a ghost, but you’ll likely accept these as a given pretty quickly. Besides, there’s plenty that feels totally, often painfully real – not least when Uncle Ahmed (Paul Elia) is wrongfully arrested, bound for a shiny new facility called Guantánamo Bay.
At the outset, the Hussein family are leading an ordinary, suburban life in New Jersey – albeit one where dad Hussein (Youssef) is unfeasibly frugal, measuring each family member’s electricity consumption down to the watt, and mum Sharia (Salma Hindy) is quietly dissatisfied, spending her days trying to solve what she is certain was the murder of Princess Diana. Meanwhile, Rumi (also voiced by Youssef) is nursing an inadvisable crush on his teacher, Mrs Malcolm (Mandy Moore), and sister Mona (Alia Shawkat) is desperately hiding the fact that she’s gay from the rest of the family. The Husseins aren’t exactly thriving, but little do they know that their lives are about to get a whole lot worse. After the terror attacks and Ahmed’s arrest, Sharia suggests that it’s time to “find our faith and be strong!” Hussein couldn’t disagree more, as he manically adorns the house with American flags and assorted patriotic tat, including a model of Mount Rushmore. “We must blend in and change our values as much as possible!” he demands. “We will change everything about who we are to fit in!”
Of course, fitting in isn’t really an option, as the show’s musical numbers convey, with Youssef giving his pipes a real workout as both father and son. As Hussein, he belts out Spies In The Mosque (“They’re watching yooouuuu / They rearrange the shoes”) and Money For The Meat, a lonesome ballad about your education being irrelevant in a new country, and being forced to become a street-food vendor. As Rumi, Youssef nails a parody of Eminem’s Stan (“Here I am, your biggest fan, doubtin’ Ramadan …”), complete with poorly bleached hair.
This is a show that’s steeped in 00s nostalgia, and mentions of illegal streaming services like LimeWire and Napster, classic anime series Dragon Ball Z and even the Game Boy Advance had me feeling misty-eyed. But it’s also rooted in the present. At a time when religious and racial prejudices seem to be steadily creeping back into vogue, and with Trump back in power, it feels quietly subversive – underlining just how necessary switching between two identities is for many people’s survival in American society. Or, as Rumi’s classmate Dev (Akaash Singh) puts it, “I’ve always wanted to be the less weird brown kid … India’s about to be the new Egypt!” As funny as the family’s ambiguous relationship with their FBI agent neighbour Dan (Timothy Olyphant) is (is he really just a lonely divorcee?), his presence reminds us that many people today find themselves looking over their shoulders, surveillance causing a heady cocktail of fear and paranoia.
The show takes a bit of time to warm up, and I wish there had been more to Mona than her sexuality and a by-the-numbers plot about her running for class president. Kieran Culkin also makes an all-too-brief appearance as a troubled man whose stepsons were literally raised by a computer. But when it hits the bullseye, it is something special. This certainly isn’t America’s happiest family, but there’s a lot of laughter mixed in with the pain.
• #1 Happy Family USA is on Prime Video
