Quotes from Bassem Youssef

Countries aren't built by boring people.

We are two brothers: I am a doctor; my brother is an engineer.

I get very confused about being called a comedian, because when you say 'I'm a comedian,' people expect you to crack a joke. Maybe I use laughter and humour to make people think. I don't know what you call that - a humourist? A satirist? A pessimistic comedian? I don't know. Satirists can be very dark.

I'm not a revolutionary, and I'm not a warrior.

The Dark Satirist, like the Dark Knight - that could be a good name for a superhero.

I was accused of insulting the president, insulting Islam, insulting - spreading rumors, disturbing the peace.

Egypt is kind of like the Hollywood of the Middle East. I mean, we had cinema maybe decades before the other Arab countries ever got independence.

There's no glory and no respect in making fun of the weak, the powerless.

I do think that this planet is a totally unjust planet. I mean throughout history - history paints a beautiful picture when it's written by the victorious, but it's a planet that belongs to the strong and the more able, and usually they are tyrants. So basically, I don't see justice happening to the crushed and the weak.

The joke is mightier than the sword.

There are people who believe in Egypt that I - I'm actually - I'm getting paid by external powers and external intelligence entities in order to use satire to bring down the government.

A revolution is not an event. It's a process. And it takes its time.

I think that the religious and the military right wings are just two sides of the same coin if somebody uses God and religion and somebody uses country and security.

It's kinda me and Jon Stewart have a pact together - so he's making me famous in the Western world and I'm making him famous in Egypt!

People say, 'Are you afraid? Are you scared for your life?' and I tell them: If I choose today to tone it down, if I choose today to shut up, tomorrow me, you, and all of us will be forced to.

Sarcasm all around the world is always against right wing and against people in power. That's the definition of political sarcasm.

I pity Americans for their very bad fruits. Your 'mango' is cucumber. The only thing I really miss about Egypt is mangoes.

Part of the reason why people get radicalized is because they feel they are disenfranchised; that they not there; that they are bullied. But if they are represented, they can't go and say to themselves: 'Oh, this society hates us!'

This is the conundrum of the present regimes in the Arab world. They still want to control youth; they want to be in control as they did in the 1950s and '60s. But that doesn't work anymore. Now with just a Wi-Fi link, you can understand what's happening in the world.

I didn't invent satire. I didn't come up with it. And it will continue to be a very powerful tool to disrupt political taboos and social taboos and religious taboos, because those taboos are always used to control and to curb people's way of creativity and thinking, by making them feel guilty because they want to make a change.

The bigger you become of a celebrity, the bigger the expectations, the pressure on you - to make change, to say what people want, to target the people they want to target. Fame is toxic; it is quite toxic.

Egyptian comedy has a very, very old tradition. Our theater and our movies are just, like, amazing. And Egypt is kind of like the Hollywood of the Middle East. I mean, we had cinema maybe decades before the other Arab countries ever got independence.

Islam's not just about covering your hair. It's about how you treat other people.

I never thought of myself as a comedian. That is a label - make me laugh. I want to make you think.