A recent episode of the satirical news program The Daily Show placed a humorous spin on the idea of having a Muslim Cosby Show. As wementioned in January, Katie Couric and others see the Cosby show as an important step towards mainstream white-American acceptance and respect for African-Americans and believe a comedy show about a Muslim-American family could bring about a similar shift in opinion.
In Canada, the popular CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie highlights a diverse Muslim community in small-town Saskatchewan. The show explores issues of gender, faith, and family, and has been popular with both non-Muslim and Muslim audiences. An American version has yet to be produced, but some American networks are apparently talking about it.
The Daily Show often places people with racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise narrow-minded worldviews in situations to make them look ridiculous. In a recent show, correspondent Aasif Mandvian Indian-born, British raised Muslim-Americanstars as the father character in a short trailer for a mock television show he names The Quosby Show. In front of a small audience purposefully chosen by The Daily Show to be made up of Islamophobes, Mandvi plays Mr. Quosby and his normal looking Muslim-American family dance to country music in their middle-class Oklahoma living room.
When the Islamophobic test audience is asked whether the The Quosby Show clip changes their attitudes towards Muslims, no one seems convinced that the show represents real Muslims. One New York area woman says, Its not anything I would ever watch or believe or think for two seconds that this is like a regular, you know, Muslim family. To make the show more realistic, one man suggests that The Quosby Show could have like an uncle, you know, uncle Rahib or somethin, who came over, and hes, you know, a Bedouin and he lives in the basement . . . with a goat. Im not making this up.
While the Islamophobic test audience is certainly not a perfectly accurate representation of American attitudes towards Muslim-Americans, The Daily Show clip does bring up interesting issues to consider. If a major American television network were to make a Muslim Cosby Show, what should the characters look like? Depending upon the cultural background of the family, the show is likely to take on a very different character. Should the show feature a South Asian-American family from Houston, Texas, as the largest cultural grouping of Muslims in the U.S. is of Pakistani, Indian, or Bangladeshi origin? Or maybe a traditional, conservative Yemeni family from Dearborn, Michigan, would be perceived as being more representative of Muslim-Americans?
If the family isnt perceived as being Muslim enough by an American audience, viewers may not be convinced that this is a realistic depiction of Muslims living in the U.S. On the other hand, if a large, traditional family where all of the women are wearing head scarves is presented on television, does that not reinforce stereotypes? Pilot shows are currently being explored by HBO, and other major networks, and its my hope that they avoid both of these traps.
Inside Islam: The Qu
In Canada, the popular CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie highlights a diverse Muslim community in small-town Saskatchewan. The show explores issues of gender, faith, and family, and has been popular with both non-Muslim and Muslim audiences. An American version has yet to be produced, but some American networks are apparently talking about it.
The Daily Show often places people with racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise narrow-minded worldviews in situations to make them look ridiculous. In a recent show, correspondent Aasif Mandvian Indian-born, British raised Muslim-Americanstars as the father character in a short trailer for a mock television show he names The Quosby Show. In front of a small audience purposefully chosen by The Daily Show to be made up of Islamophobes, Mandvi plays Mr. Quosby and his normal looking Muslim-American family dance to country music in their middle-class Oklahoma living room.
When the Islamophobic test audience is asked whether the The Quosby Show clip changes their attitudes towards Muslims, no one seems convinced that the show represents real Muslims. One New York area woman says, Its not anything I would ever watch or believe or think for two seconds that this is like a regular, you know, Muslim family. To make the show more realistic, one man suggests that The Quosby Show could have like an uncle, you know, uncle Rahib or somethin, who came over, and hes, you know, a Bedouin and he lives in the basement . . . with a goat. Im not making this up.
While the Islamophobic test audience is certainly not a perfectly accurate representation of American attitudes towards Muslim-Americans, The Daily Show clip does bring up interesting issues to consider. If a major American television network were to make a Muslim Cosby Show, what should the characters look like? Depending upon the cultural background of the family, the show is likely to take on a very different character. Should the show feature a South Asian-American family from Houston, Texas, as the largest cultural grouping of Muslims in the U.S. is of Pakistani, Indian, or Bangladeshi origin? Or maybe a traditional, conservative Yemeni family from Dearborn, Michigan, would be perceived as being more representative of Muslim-Americans?
If the family isnt perceived as being Muslim enough by an American audience, viewers may not be convinced that this is a realistic depiction of Muslims living in the U.S. On the other hand, if a large, traditional family where all of the women are wearing head scarves is presented on television, does that not reinforce stereotypes? Pilot shows are currently being explored by HBO, and other major networks, and its my hope that they avoid both of these traps.
Inside Islam: The Qu
