Bassem Youssef

Bassem Raafat Muhammad Youssef (Arabic: باسم رأفت محمد يوسف‎, born 22 March 1974 is an Egyptian comedian, writer, producer, physician, media critic, and television host. He hosted Al-Bernameg (The Program), a satirical news program from 2011 to 2014. The press has compared Youssef with American comedian Jon Stewart, whose satire program The Daily Show inspired Youssef to begin his career. In 2013, he was named one of the "100 most influential people in the world" by Time magazine.
​After the success of The B+ Show, Egyptian channel ONTV, owned by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, offered Youssef a deal for Al Bernameg (literally, "The Program"). With a budget of roughly half a million dollars, the series made him the first internet to TV conversion in the Middle East.^[30] The show, which consisted of 104 episodes, premiered during Ramadan 1432 (2011) with Egyptian-American engineer Muhammad Radwan as its first guest.^[31] In his show, Youssef has parodied such Egyptian celebrities as show host Tawfik Okasha, composer Amr Mostafa, Salafist presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, and Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and onetime presidential candidate. In June 2012, Jon Stewart invited Youssef to The Daily Show for an extended interview, “...I do know a little something about the humor business; your show is sharp, you're really good on it, it's smart, it's well executed, I think the world of what you're doing down there." The segment was one of the highest in viewership on Jon Stewart’s site.