Comedian Mo Amer joined the ranks of The Daily Show‘s comic contributors Wednesday night, making his debut at the show’s “In My Opinion” desk with a segment taking aim at anti-Muslim rhetoric in the media.
Best known to TV viewers for his roles on Ramy and his self-titled Netflix series Mo, Amer opened the segment noting, “I grew up in Houston, Texas, with the first name Mohammed, so I’m kind of an expert in islamophobia.”
He quickly honed in on one of the more absurd misconceptions about Muslims—the idea that pork acts as some kind of “kryptonite.” After playing a clip of a protester wielding a pig’s head on a stick to ward off Muslims, Amer dismissed the stunt as both over-the-top and wildly inaccurate, noting that dietary restrictions against pork aren’t unique to Islam.
The bit neatly encapsulated the segment’s broader point: that much of the anti-Muslim rhetoric circulating in media and politics is rooted less in reality than in caricature.
Amer returned to that theme in his closing moments, pushing back on the ignorance underlying those narratives and drawing a pointed connection to Christianity itself. If critics have a problem with Middle Eastern culture, he suggested, they might want to revisit the origins of Jesus.
Amer is no stranger to The Daily Show, having previously appeared as a guest twice—first with Trevor Noah in 2019, and again with Jon Stewart last year.
Past installments of the show’s “In My Opinion” segment have featured Charlamagne tha God, John Leguizamo, Leslie Jones, Laverne Cox, Whitney Cummings, and Nick Offerman.
Watch Mo Amer’s full appearance on Wednesday night’s The Daily Show at the top of this post.
