Cracking jokes on the difficulties of flying on airplanes, the relationship between Muslims and Jews and even Sept. 11, comic Ahmed Ahmed drew big laughs—and awkward silences—from a packed crowd at Annenberg Auditorium yesterday.

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Shams Shaikh

Ahmed takes a moment to call on audience members. The comedian has been the subject of a Newsweek feature and has appeared in many other publications and television shows, including the Wall Street Journal, “JAG” and MTV’s “Punk’d.”

“Yes, my name really is Ahmed Ahmed, and I can’t fly anywhere,” he told a laughing audience. “Put it into Google, you’ll see the name on the FBI’s most wanted list. Twice.”

Ahmed, who was born in Egypt but moved to Riverside, California just a month later, is a stand-up comedian and actor who has also written a screenplay about his pilgrimage to Mecca. During his routine, he touched on the difficulties of performing comedy about the Muslim world, especially in front of other Muslims.

“After a show in Dubai, someone comes up to me and says, ‘You should not talk about that, it is ‘haram,’ forbidden. Yes, give me a Heineken.’ Hypocrites, I think,” he said.

He also joked about Hollywood, “land of the Jews,” and what Jewish and Muslim people can bond over.

“We have more stuff in common than most people,” he said. “We don’t eat pork. We don’t celebrate Christmas. We’re both hairy creatures of God.”

Much of Ahmed’s routine dealt with the problems of being Middle Eastern in the U.S.—especially in a post-Sept. 11 world. He related stories of being case as “terrorist #4” and being taken out of the airport and held in prison for 12 hours.

While most of Ahmed’s jokes were fairly well-received—even a ‘queer’ reference and a passing mention of Sept. 11—a joke about the treatment of Egyptian women drew a mixed response from the audience.

“A girl comes up to me at a party, she asks where I’m from. I say I’m from Egypt and she says oh, how mysterious. Will you make me your Egyptian princess? I said sure, and threw a sheet over her head and told her to be quiet.”

During the scattered and uncertain laughter afterwards, Ahmed said he had made the room “awkward” and that he performed “uncomfortable comedy.”

Despite the potentially inflammatory nature of Ahmed’s jokes, most students said they did not find the routine offensive.

“As a Muslim, I want people to know that we aren’t really that different from them,” said coterminal student Maham Mela. “I could see how some people might find it offensive, but I think most people at Stanford have learned to take this kind of thing with a grain of salt.”

Senior Hammad Ahmed said that he had not wanted to go beforehand and anticipated being uncomfortable, but that he did enjoy it.

“The only thing I didn’t like was the ‘queer’ comment, but besides that it was funny,” he said.

“There were a couple of moments where I cringed,” agreed junior Niko Malkovich. “Sometimes you need to be assured that everyone else is laughing before you join in, but all in all it was a good time.”

Organizers of the event—which was sponsored by the Muslim Student Awareness Network (MSAN), Bechtel International, Pakistanis at Stanford and International Affairs at Stanford—said that the goal was to show the audience more about the Muslim world, including its lighter side.

“The idea is that he’s playing on these stereotypes, not that he believes them,” added MSAN vice-president and senior Ahmed Ashraf. “And comedy is supposed to be edgy—otherwise it isn’t funny.”