Matters of Conviction: Configurations of Morality and Authority in American Muslim Ethicist Comedy

ABSTRACT This article argues that comedy can and does become a route for socioreligious activism and authority. It specifically examines how four American Muslim “ethicist” comedians—Yasmin Elhady, Moses the Comic, Preacher Moss, and Omar Regan—cultivate a virtuous self within a discourse that is distinctly Muslim and participate in the proliferation of religious authority. To establish the import of the ethical work that these comedians accomplish, this study analyzes three processes of authorization that are captured by the paradigms of rhetoric, celebrity, and religio-tainment. In the context of affective economies in which audiences are addressed as believers, the comic rhetors draw their authority from the audience’s investment in their recognition and recognizability, moral credentials, epistemic trustworthiness, and—of course—comic abilities. By cultivating an art form that fosters ethical collective and self-improvement, this study argues that American Muslim ethicist comedy enters the repertoire of da‘wa.