#1 Happy Family USA review – a truly special comedy that’s packed with 00s nostalgia

Ramy Youssef’s surreal tale of a Muslim family in post-9/11 America is quietly subversive TV that’s full of laughter – and painfully realNot content with co-creating the brilliant (albeit frequently watch-through-your-fingers) dramedies Mo and Ramy, and starring in the latter, Ramy Youssef has turned his attention to a riotous animation for adults. Like the Egyptian-American comic’s previous work, #1 Happy Family USA is all about the modern Muslim experience, feeling adrift from the world, and the extent to which you should change yourself to fit in. And what better way to underscore this often excruciating, existential experience than to make our lead an insecure, hormone-plagued teen, coming of age in the wake of the September 11 attacks.For real Ramy heads, this show will almost certainly call to mind the flashback episode from the first season of his self-titled series, set during 9/11. There, we saw a young Ramy anxiously fight off accusations that he was a terrorist (“Egypt’s in Africa – if anything, I’m black!”). Like that episode – which featured a dream sequence starring Osama bin Laden – this series frequently leans into flights of fancy, and the kind of magical realism that is all the more possible in an animated context (South Park’s Pam Brady is the co-creator). Our hero, Rumi, is best friends with a talking lamb, and there’s a character who appears almost exclusively as a ghost, but you’ll likely accept these as a given pretty quickly. Besides, there’s plenty that feels totally, often painfully real – not least when Uncle Ahmed (Paul Elia) is wrongfully arrested, bound for a shiny new facility called Guantánamo Bay. Continue reading...