The Staging of American Muslim Comedy

ABSTRACT This article explores how American Muslim comedy is situated and constructed at the intersections of Orientalist tropes, racial projects, secular ideologies, gender discourses, and umma paradigms. This article unpacks the different histories and genealogies of the genre, and encourages the reader to attend to its polysemy and polymorphism. Drawing upon Hall and Sayyid, this article argues that the notion of “Muslim comedy” is multifaceted, elastic and shifting. It introduces the reader to some of the many voices and trajectories since Preacher Moss' pioneering work at the turn of the 21st century. Furthermore, this article shows how the increasing academic interest in Muslim comedy fits in the current study of Islam in America and how it might further the study of religion and humor in the United States.