Mo Amer: Mohammed in Texas

I kept trying to give this one a chance, but it took me three times to finish it. I just didn't get many laughs out of it. I didn't like the very beginning where he was introduced by the Rock as if his only credentials were being in a movie with the Rock. It made sense though as the jokes were pretty surface-level and didn't feel that intelligent or well crafted. He hits his Muslim name, COVID, and works his way through a series of race jokes. I didn't see anything to set him apart and, looking back, none of his bits stuck with me in any way. This isn't one I would recommend watching for my friends that enjoy stand-up. I went back and added a star after finishing this one finally, the end is very emotional and almost worth the watch for itself, skip towards the end is my recommendation.

I didn't want this special to end I could've been watching for hours. Mo Amer does an amazing job connecting his heritage and experiences into his work and makes it enjoyable and hilarious for everyone watching. His accents are top tier and he nails every single one and does it in a way that connects it to his story and makes you laugh as well. I can't wait for his next work and loved watching this movie.

At first I thought he was going to be some braindead conservative from Texas because he starts off making some comments about covid that make it sound like he thinks the pandemic was fake, but he's not. It's good, it's not some ignorant BS. He actually goes on to talk about how he got covid TWICE. He does a good job making current events funny and then moves onto some multi-cultural jokes that are also quite good.

Just what one would expect from a comedy show, laughter ! Mo uses real world observations which make his act highly relatable and I really hope everyone starts using the bidet !

As an Israeli I must say it was pretty funny, even the parts about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were surprisingly balanced, which is very appreciated in a time when it is too easy to be antisemitic.

I must say that the part about Hummus made me a bit mad. First of all, Hebrew does have an equivalent of Ha (Arabic 6th letter), it is called Heth (Hebrew 8th letter), which is different from Khaf (Hebrew 20th letter), and that's the letter we use for hummus. Second, hummus was actually mentioned in the bible (look it up), which means that hummus was in Israel thousands of years ago. Third, even if the letter-equivalent thing was true (which is not), it's a bit like Palestinian can't say the word Palestine (they say Balestine) because they don't have an equivalent for P. Does it mean anything about their authenticity? I don't think so. Nonetheless, Israeli-Arabic hummus is better than Israeli-Jewish hummus.

Anyway, apart from the hummus part it was really funny. The part about covid was hilarious, and the last part (about him returning to his home) was emotional.

Good job Mo, waiting for your next special!