This past week, filmmaker Sara Taksler came to Lafayette to talk about her film Tickling Giants. The film was about a doctor, Baseem Youssef, who gave up his medical career to become a powerful Egyptian television star, using satire to comment on his country’s oppressive regime. It was shocking to watch as people were slowly brainwashed into hating Baseem because of the political comments he would make. He was just trying to shine light on the horrible situation that his people were in, but the Egyptian population eventually all turned their backs on him. It was a little bit ridiculous that a comedian was considered a wanted man when there were so many other horrible things going on in Egypt.
Baseem states that maybe his jokes are insults, but they are not injuries. No one is getting hurt by him having his satirical show, yet people act as if he is a felon. Baseem is “the Jon Stewart of Egypt” and the people there need him more than they know. The film made me very sad to see the stakes Egyptians face every day just to tell a silly joke. Watching Tickling Giants really made me think about how in America we take for granted satirical political commentators, but when people try to do this in Egypt, all hell breaks lose. The film had a good way of showing the freedoms that we have here in the US that not all countries have the opportunity of having. People like Bill Maher, Steven Colbert, and Chris Rock, could never be what they are had they been working in Egypt.
I very much enjoy when well-known, talented people come to our school to show us the amazing work they have created. It was very exciting to have Sara Taksler with us because she is a producer on The Daily Show, which is very popular with the current generation. With each talk I attend, I not only learn more about how to create art, but I learn more about the world around me which I believe is one of the main purposes of art.