What happens when the political satire of “South Park” clashes with the history of the age of a Muslim child in post-11/9 New Jersey? You get the animated comedy “#1 Happy Family USA”.
Cocleated and Coshowrun by Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady, the production of A24, which premieres on Thursday in the main video, follows Rumi Hussein (with the voice of Youssef) and his family while sailing through the paranoia of “seeing something, saying something” of the early 2000s.
The semi -autobiographic history of the American Egyptian comedian, Actor and director Youssef is at the center of this period comedy, where Michael Jordan, Music Piracy and Britney Spears still dominate the news. Everything is normal in the world of 12 years on September 10. She is in love with her teacher, Mrs. Malcolm (with the voice of Mandy Moore – Who went to fame in the 2000s). He is tolerating the lack of clueless of his Egyptian immigrant parents, Father Hussein (also with the voice of Youssef) and Mother Sharia (Salma Hindy). He is fighting with his very perfect/locked sister, Mona (Alia Shawkat). His devotees also live at home, always available to make Rumi feel Haram.
But in 24 hours, Al Qaeda attacks turn the Husseins of an average dysfunctional family with unfortunate names in a suspicion of terrorist cells.
“#1 Happy Family USA” follows the history of the age of a Muslim child.
(Main video)
Rumi's father, a doctor turned into owner of Halal Cart, enters an assimilation overchart to demonstrate that his family is 110% American and is absolutely not associated with anyone called Osama. Old glory, Christmas decoration and Easter ornaments suddenly appear in their front courtyard. The beard shaves. He insists that his wife stops using her hijab, which makes Sharia, who is a receptionist from an eccentric dentist (Kieran Culkin), even more determined to put her handkerchief on her head.
Meanwhile, Rumi classmates now look suspiciously despite their attempts to fit with the other children using their new basketball shirt. But the smuggling “bulls” shirt says “balls” instead. There are also three sizes too big and looks like a dress. It is clearly not like others.
The elements of the story reflect the children's montages of Youssef in their Hulu “Ramy” series, but the medium of adult animation allowed him to “go crazy” with history and the characters. He also came to work with Brady, an authority to push animated satire to hilarious ends.
“The animation became the vehicle of how this idea should live. I wanted to see a totally unexplored period outside the lens of a police drama or the news … and go to the wildest extremes with the facilities,” said Youssef. “I definitely had the desire to do something stupid in a really great, sophisticated and almost comedy way. [laughs]. You can put 'Ramy' in a drama category and, to some extent, put 'mo' there, but here it really opens in a medium without limits. Then the name of Pam appeared and it was obvious. ”
Bradle “Team America: World Police” and cooking the Netflix comedy series “Lady Dynamite”. “As soon as I saw 'Ramy' and I saw his stand-up, he was a fan,” Brady said. “I kept begging my manager: 'Please, can I meet Ramy?' So I arrived honestly as a fan, knowing that this guy is doing some next level things.
Mona Chalabi, Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady are the creative forces behind “#1 Happy Family USA”.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
The illustrator and executive producer, Mona Chalabi, designed the characters, each of which returned to the animation styles of the late 90s and early 2000s as “Futurama” or “Daria”.
“I wanted him to feel like a tape found,” said Youssef. “You go and it seems that I could have been in Comedy Central or MTV [back then]. It is a hand drawn animation and we did it with an animation study in Malaysia [called Animasia]. It is a totally Muslim animation house, which is very crazy. They were very happy to draw children and all these characters. They were like, 'we were related to that!' But we even degrade our computers here to do it as it would have done. Whatever we did some time and it was like the opposite of AI. “
He adds Brady: “We wanted to make sure, especially with the images and direction and rhythm, that the program felt familiar. That you had seen a program like this before. We did not want to reinvent the form, but we did not want to look like 'Family Guy'. So it's like, 'Oh, this show existed in 1998. You remember it, right?”
Although the program takes place about 25 years ago, it is not difficult to see the resonance of the plot today following the deportations and resins of immigrants and students. Husseins face a wave of Islamophobia, caused by September 11 attacks. They embody the very real fear of being profiled by the outside world, including FBI agent Dan Daniels (with the voice of Timothy Olyphant), which lives on the other side of the street. A dark period, without a doubt, but also a rich in comic value if he is willing to go there as “Happy Family USA” does. Their characters explode in the song while they are on the verge of being dragged by national security, or inadvertently cause generalized panic when they fall on the carpet at the airport to pray when they find out about terrorist attacks.
“We were trying to create this capsule of this time, like around the old DHS of this moment,” said Youssef. “But at this time it is a time when an immigrant family, and surely a Muslim family, would feel the need to shout: 'We are No. 1! Happy Family USA!' Pam and Mona and I have been looking at each other as 'Whoa'. [it’s hard] joke about these things in any other means. “
At a time when everything feels like a cruel joke, “#1 Happy Family uses” bites with the satire we need.
