Ramy Youssef stopped by Sesame Street last week to celebrate Arab American Heritage Month with Elmo — and teach the red Muppet some Arabic words, like “habibi” and “salamu alaykum.”
The comedian’s cute appearance on the children’s program sparked backlash from conservatives, including Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo, who said on “The Ingraham Angle”: “I wish ‘Sesame Street’ would stick to teaching kids about letters and numbers and leave the Arabic immersion to someone else. Next, Bert and Ernie will be praying five times a day on Sesame Street, facing east.”
Addressing the MAGA outrage on “The View,” Youssef said cheekily, “I feel for them, right? … I think they’re worried [about] Arabic immersion, and it’s got to be tough, because I think they’re supporters of the President. So imagine your president on Easter is tweeting ‘Praise be to Allah,’ and now Elmo saying ‘habibi’ feels threatening.”
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Youssef was referencing Trump’s April 5 social media post in which he demanded that Iran “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.” The president added, “JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
On “The View,” Youssef described his “Sesame Street” guest spot as “surreal.”
“You grow up watching Elmo, you know?” he said. “And so for Elmo to say ‘salamu alaykum,’ for Elmo to say, ‘habibi’… I was very emotional.”
As the Arabic words Youssef taught to Elmo translate to “peace be upon you” and “my love,” the comic and “Ramy” star didn’t quite understand why some people were so angry.
“There’s been a lot of languages on ‘Sesame Street’ and there’s been no backlash to those. So, it actually really did surprise me,” Youssef said. He added that he has been outspoken about highly contentious issues such as Israel-Palestine, and yet “Elmo saying habibi has set them off in a way that has never happened to me before.”
Youssef’s third HBO comedy special, “In Love,” premiered on April 17.