Goatface is a comedy for brown Americans and everyone

I grew up without really thinking about my brown appearance. My father came to America when he was a kid, quickly learning English and eating hamburgers. My mother is white. My inheritance was easy to embrace, but also just as easy to ignore. I would look at my Indian cousins, who spoke Bengali at home and who had a complete Hindi wedding, and who felt distant. I was not there really Indian because I did not like them.

There is a sketch in Goat face– the new comedy special for Comedy Central skits by Hasan Minhaj, Fahim Anwar, Asif Ali and Aristotle Athiras – in which three Indian fathers participate in a televised game show. I did not see my father in the area, but I saw my grandfather. His flamboyant polyester blazers. His intonations when he was unleashed about some perceived as light. And then the music at the end came from my favorite Bollywood movie, Hum Aapke Hain Koun. I had and when you spend a lot of time worrying about your place in a community, it's really nice to get something.

Goatface's team makes sketches inspired by the Indian / Middle Eastern experience, but their special Comedy Central show, broadcast on November 27, has allowed them to go even bigger and better. And they hope what Chappelle show or Key & Peele were for the black American experience, Goat face can be for the brown American experience. They exploit the experiences shared by the Browns, whether it's the concern that the latest terrorist attack was committed by a person who resembles you, or the exhaustion of parents who insist that you continue to go to work. graduate studies. It's universal, but it's also a joke on the inside. And for millions of people, it is perhaps the first time that they are part of it.

GQ: Even though the special has a lot to do with a lot of experiences you have in common, I would like if you could all tell me about your personal background, how you grew up and your relationship to browning in America .

Fahim Anwar: My parents are from Afghanistan and I grew up in Seattle. It is not a huge Afghan home. I grew up in a certain way where some Afghans would say that I am weird or whitewashed. But I still felt that. I grew up on SNL and Conan [O’Brien]and since then … it was my comic identity, [but] sometimes they look at you like, "You're weird." I've always hated it.

Hasan Minhaj: Fahim, by the way, it's also very funny because your cousins ​​in Fremont are like super, super Afghans.

Anwar: Yes they are. I'm like a duck that was raised by dogs or something. I do not know what I am supposed to be. And it's weird that it brought back a lot, much later in life. I do not try to respect what I am supposed to be technically. And what I am, in a way, is what I am supposed to be. A bit of both.

Asif Ali: I grew up in Arizona. There were no other Indians than my three brothers.

I have Indian cousins ​​in Arizona now!

Ali: Now There is more! But we grew up with Mexicans and whites. I guess it sounds a bit like what Fahim was saying, except that he said that it was weird and that I always thought I was really cool. It's just a joke. I did not really get in touch with being Indian before moving to Chicago to go to school after high school. It was then that I really immersed myself in the spicy waters.

Minhaj: I grew up in Davis, California. I wrote a special about my relationship with this place. It was very similar to these guys: you are the only brown child in a predominantly white city and school. And then I ended up moving to Los Angeles around 2009. I think that if we had grown up in a very large community, I do not know if we would have had the confidence to diversify us because it's already … do not understand.

Aristotle Athiras: My parents were very poor. My mother is from a part of Iran called Tabriz, which always came back between the border between Azerbaijan and Iran. I would meet other Iranians and they would discover that I am essentially Turkish, because all Turks live there. There are many Persian jokes that always make fun of Turks, as if they were idiots. I've always felt a bit out of this circle.

But I was born in Texas, so I never really had brown friends. I had two or three, but I still felt like a fish out of the water. In fact, I was looking at old pictures of myself when I was a kid at some of my birthdays. It could be said that many white children who were there were somehow forced to be there because their parents were saying, "We have to go, we live right next door." But I always tanned in the Texas sun, so I was really dark. And all the people who were on the pictures with me were always like …

Anwar: Ari's mother paid the pale faces to go out with him in fact. And they are always paid for it, that's why they are always there.

We have made all these remarkable advances and this representation on television and beyond, but I am curious to know how to make this point. Were the executives "No one will understand the jokes on Ramadan"?

Anwar: he was difficult when we tried for the first time, years ago. And we thought it was a no-brainer. But nobody could see him at the time. So we have all been busy.

Minhaj: I was at The daily show at the time and I had a very good relationship with Sarah [Babineau, the senior vice president, original programming at Comedy Central] and Kent Alterman [the network president]and one evening, at dinner, they would say to themselves, "What are the other things you are working on or things that interest you?" And I explained how, for me, what Comedy Central represented was a home for those very unique singular voices, like Chappelle show, Key & Peele. I said, I've never seen anything like it[[[[Goat face]before. We have a body of work that the main fans know but that many people do not know. And that really piqued their interest. Surprisingly, it was one of the fastest green lights I've seen during my career.

Anwar: It's one of those things I tell people, because sometimes when you're young comic, you do everything. You will push so hard and you will somehow get "No". And at other times, one of the greatest things in your life … it comes from the sky.

Ali: But I think it's the culmination of all these things happening in your life and in your career. It was really, really great.

Anwar: If you put the work in.

Are you making progress in your career and you've made a name for yourself and now these doors open? Or do you have the chance to live a cultural moment conducive to comedy about the Browns?

Minhaj: I swing a lot between these two clocks, [regarding] how far things are going in your career [because of] the determination, the courage, the hard work, the tremendous work done, all this, and to what extent [because of] trends and strengths.

Athiras: For me, it's the combo. I believe in hard work and timing. We kind of got in the habit of over-delivering because we were never the type to be able to audition and just get it just because of you know, I do not know .. .

Anwar: If you are in Hollywood for a while, there are people who are just "stars" for whatever reason. It's a bit like if the city had decided it. We were never these people, so this has never been a plan of attack. We did not have the means.

Athiras: Yes, and Fahim is it constant writer. For me, it's a version of excessive delivery. And Asif, when he goes to audition, he shows up one hour before the audition. He would go there and feel the environment. Some of the notes that I have received from Asif about how he is auditioning should be part of a master class. Hasan has always been a perfectionist to the point where he feels like he never feels like he's done it. He always tries to understand: "How can I make it better, better, better"That's why his presence is always important, and you can never really ignore it, I'm probably the most lazy in the group, what should I do about it?

Ali: No, come Aristotle is an excellent director.

Minhaj: Believe it or not, Aristotle is the brain. I would call Melanin Lorne Michaels behind all this project.

Much of the comedy you do comes from your personal experiences and from what you notice about brown in America. How do you decide on what aspects of this joke?

Anwar: Our sensitivities with respect to race, ethnicity, religion – I feel we are pretty much on the same subject when it comes to buffoonery.

Ali: Yes, it's never like …

Anwar: Oh, Asif always wants us to put a mustache and be a taxi driver, but we're in an office.

Ali: This is not a bad idea. Imagine me with a fake mustache in a cabin. The second special will be mostly just me who do it.

Athiras: We had a myriad of different types of sketches. But you know, Hasan is a very good storyteller. I mean you saw King of the party. How not to be packed in that – and not just packed, but like, in circles? He is very good at shooting you with his words. Fahim is still really good at this angle or turn left. Almost every time Fahim offered a sketch that turned left, it's one of those things where you're like "heck why did not I think about it?

Do you feel pressure to be good ambassadors for your community or do you just think, "Okay, it's comedy and people can extrapolate what they want." "

Athiras: In all honesty, just by nature We are good ambassadors. We do not even have to try. I think we are very good representations. This is certainly not a must we must work or try to do.

Minhaj: If you do a great job, excel and write to the highest level of your abilities, then when that work is recognized, I think people, after the fact, give it that value. You do not have to think about the article that will appear on your work, whether it is fundamental or revolutionary, you just have to tell a very big authentic story. Then let people determine if they liked it or not and if it indicates a bigger situation. But I think that if you try to do reverse engineering, that 's a problem.

Anwar: It would be very difficult to live that way. I do it because I like comedy and that I pursue my passions and that I am my heart. I do not do it to inspire children. But if that happens, it's great, you know.

Athiras: I do it for money.

I will make it your only quote.

Athiras: Please. Put it in it. I do it for money and when I talk about money, I am talking about children.

Obviously, you share a lot of experiences, but you also come from different backgrounds. Do you think there is something universal about the experience of being brown in America right now?

Anwar: I think so, and that's why it seems that this series has the opportunity to really resonate. Because there is this giant hole in America that we did not talk about. There must be millions of people like me.

Athiras: We are all individual. Were all snowflakes. But at the same time, we have very shared, very similar experiences. Sometimes Hasan will talk about one of his experiences growing up in Davis and I'm like, do you tell my story? Because it's exactly like some of the things that happened to me in the past.

Athiras: It's really sad. I had an internship in a college studio. It was a tough internship to get, so I was super excited. On the ground floor of the building, there was this little cafe and I was going there like a brownie or something of the kind, and then a green tea, because I was trying to get it. ;to be in a good health. And then I went up and just trying to do everything … I had to copy boards, I was really a good trainee.

Once I was there and this guy stared at me very hard and I thought: maybe this guy has a crush on me. I just ignore the guy. And I climbed up the stairs and suddenly there was this alert, like a fire alarm. The security officer came upstairs and said, "I do not want anyone to be alarmed, but there is a risk of terrorist attack on the building. evacuate and go out. " And then, I went out and said to myself, "Oh my god, [this is] fucking crazy. "

I go out and everyone is aligned, and the security officer stands outside and this person in charge of the cafe arrives, then the security officer came to me and said, "Excuse me me, sir, are you working here? " And I said "yes". And I had a badge with my picture on it. Then he spoke to my supervisor and I was interrogated for 10 to 15 minutes. The fact is that this guy thought I was a kind of terrorist threat to the building. And I was just there to get a leprechaun. And I tell you, I was there about half an hour before I had to start. I did all to be the best. I just wanted to make the best impression possible, and everything was ruined because of this assumption based on my appearance. And that kind of me mashed me up. I felt a bit like all hope was lost. I was like, it's not fair. You know what I mean?

It is bad that experiences so often shared are depressing and no longer positive.

Anwar: But the thing is, there are each. We just published "Baba Knows Best" and I love seeing people like "Oh my god, that's my dad". I saw these comments. They tag a friend … it's like a joke, so there's a shared experience where this joke strikes more deeply, because they've lived it. This is not a mental gymnastics that you have to go through to understand. It's just, oh that's my dad.

Athiras: I just want to read one of my favorite tweets that I had yesterday. This girl writes: "Never in a million years, I would have thought to see a Mohammed, an Akber and a Nassar being ordinary fathers on American television." So at this level, it's a decisive moment and a victory. And we have not even had the comedy yet. It's like we've already won so much and nothing has come out yet. Just the idea of ​​driving Sunset and seeing a billboard made up of four brown types, and we are not cartoons – because usually, when you see this on a billboard we are the eighth person behind the car or shit like that. To see in front and in the center, four brown guys, in the same place you would see a Avengers movie…

Minhaj: This is fine though, agree. You feel like you're alive. I mean it does not mean anything to me because I do not feel anything. No it's good.

Athiras: For a very long time, I had the impression that Hollywood always looked at us as brown at first, then funny then. And what we want to do is simply show that we are funny first, and that we are brown second. And it's great, because I even recently had a deputy minister, where a guy said, "You know, I'm finally proud to be openly Muslim." For me, it's as if it's happening, we're moving forward and it's allowing me to be part of the American culture. We are part of America. We are American.

Anwar: And we're still a part of the conversation about the news and everything, but now we have a comic trigger valve. Finally, someone can fight back a bit, instead of taking it somehow.

Ali: And the best part of all this is that we are actually four whites who have a very good tan.

Athiras: My name is Brad.

Much of what you are talking about in the special comes from the point of view of first generation people, or people whose parents are immigrants and grew up with a very strong connection to a culture of another country. . How much do you think it will disappear as we get more second, third and fourth generation brown people who do not have families in India or Afghanistan?

Athiras: I think this administration has really shown how people really think nowadays. There is this platform where people can be outwardly hateful, and that's good. I feel that hatred has become a kind of new political conviction. Now you can be quite right. It's good now. I just do not know if it's ever going to be … we're doing the work to go forward and start that momentum to create the change you're talking about, but sometimes I'm afraid I do not know if that's will never change completely.

Anwar: You know that the Irish and the Italians have suffered the same thing and that it is zero, because we are doing it, but things improve with time. But there will always be this close connection with your roots. As the Italians are very proud. The Irish are very proud. It will never go away.

Ali: You want to get to a point where people can feel comfortable in there, without feeling uncomfortable from where they come from. But as far as race in America is concerned, I have the impression that it is more based on your appearance than on what you have done. The most American thing you can do is to be racist. In the end, what we are trying to do is be funny. But the by-product of seeing people see themselves reflecting – and seeing parts of their lives reflected – with any kind of respect in the mainstream media and do not to be the target of the joke, it is huge.

Athiras: Although this country and its people want to intellectualize racism too much, I think it boils down to a very simple "Hey, you're very different from me". There are some things that you simply can not change, and in the end, it's unfortunate. Racism is a childish, childish thing.

Ali: I mean, obviously, Goat face is not similar to that, but look Black Panther. It's the banana to think that it was not until 2018 to have such a film and see how much it meant to people. Even if we get 2% of a similar feeling across what we are doing, our special will encourage someone else to go a step further, and that will encourage somebody to other to go a little further. We could have a Brown panther.

Minhaj: It's going to call, Brown Tiger: The Story of Shere Khan. We've seen it from Mowgli's point of view, but what about the tiger?

Athiras: I think we do Brown tiger.