“Halal in the Family,” a totally unfunny web TV ‘comedy’ show about anti-Muslim bias in America

As the world knows, Muslims have no sense of humor about themselves (i.e., Charlie Hebdo) or pretty much anything else (laughing is frowned upon in Islam), but they think they can make Americans laugh by creating a program about anti-Muslim hatred. Good luck with that.

NBC  “Borrowing” the title from the long-running American smash TV hit, ‘All in the Family,’  Aasif Mandvi wants to redefine the all-American family with his new series, “Halal in the Family.” a sitcom about an ‘all-American’ Muslim family (about as un-American as you can get).

“It began with Katie Couric saying that what Muslims need in America to fight bigotry might be its very own ‘Cosby Show,’” Mandvi told NBC News. “We took that idea at ‘The Daily Show’ and created a sitcom parody that we aired a portion of on ‘The Daily Show.’”

That parody first aired in 2011, and was originally called “The Qu’Osby Show.” Starring Mandvi and Sakina Jaffrey, it crammed all the elements of American comedy into one Muslim package — nosy neighbors, ugly sweaters, lots of pork, and country music.

Later, Mandvi was approached by community organizations to create something they could use to combat racism (What ‘race’ is Islam) and bigotry towards Muslim Americans. So he revamped the original parody as a web series, renamed it “Halal in the Family” after the controversy around Bill Cosby emerged, and took the project to Indiegogo to build a broad base of community support across the country. “We wanted to create the web series to use satire and comedy as a way to shed light on some important issues, said Mandvi, “And make people laugh.” (How about showing beheadings of Americans? That’s guaranteed to make the leftists laugh)

“Halal in the Family” takes on topics that affect Muslim Americans such as surveillance, racial profiling, online bullying, media bias, and mosque protests (Ah yes, comedy gold).  It also seeks to challenge harmfultruthful stereotypes of Muslims and to expose a more Americans to the real, everyday experiences of their Muslim neighbors. (Praying in the street?)

“By using satire,” wrote Mandvi in his Indiegogo appeal, “We will encourage people to reconsider their assumptions about Muslims (Don’t hold your breath) while providing a balm to those experiencing anti-Muslim bias.