Actor Ramy Youssef was in 5th grade and living in New Jersey when the Twin Towers fell. His new Amazon Prime animated show, #1 Happy Family USA, draws on the experiences of his own Egyptian American family navigating Islamophobia after Sept. 11. Conan O'Brien was the recipient of this year's Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. David Bianculli reviews the Netflix special of the ceremony.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
What is 'Number One Happy Family USA' about?
Well, in addition to like the number one happy family song that we just heard, you write some dark songs. And I want to play a dark song. This is a father singing. One of the lines he sings is sometimes the darkness comes for me. This is his like deep internal feelings, not the facade he's trying to put on. So let's hear that. Do you want to say anything about it before we hear it?
This comes at the end of an episode where we've seen him probably be his most performative. And then he has this moment when everyone's asleep and he goes out into the driveway and... sits by his halal cart. He's a halal cart vendor in the city, and it's always parked in the driveway. And I love that image because it sticks out in this suburb that they can barely afford.
And he sits at it, starts playing guitar. And at a certain point, there's like a piano line in which he hits the area of the cart where the sodas are stored, and it opens up into a keyboard. And there's a piano that comes out of the cart. And And so he's singing this thing that sounds sad, but at the same time visually is, I think, quite funny.
And it's the kind of thing you can only do in animation. Yes. Yeah. Okay, let's hear it.
I think I'm scared But I'm sitting with my family Got to show them that I'm brave Sometimes I'm quiet But I think it's just because I might scream I've got to be Mr. Tough Guy I'm the dad But sometimes Oh, oh the darkness Comes for me And I don't know what to do Yeah, the darkness Oh, it comes for you too And what do you do?
I think I'm gonna fight for the light Yeah I think I'm gonna fight for the light I think I'm gonna fight for the light Baby, I'm fighting the fight
Do I detect a very slight Lou Reed influence in that?
Somebody called it Kebab Dylan. Somebody else was like, wait, this is like War on Drugs. This is like some sort of like Arab Jeff Buckley thing. Yeah, it's totally this like folk thing that is so fun to do as this character because it is. It kind of sneaks up on you. And he, again, he's so crazy the whole episode. And then all of a sudden you go, oh, my God, this guy is so tender.
And there's this tenderness in him. And that is the experience of so many of the men that I know where you go, oh, man, this dude is like kind of intense. And then you get him alone and you go, wait, is this the most emotional person on earth?
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