Nothing's funny about scared immigrants, unless it comes from Ramy Youssef

What happens erstwhile the governmental satire of “South Park” collides with a Muslim kid’s coming-of-age communicative successful post-9/11 New Jersey? You get the animated sitcom “#1 Happy Family USA.”

Cocreated and coshowrun by Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady, the A24 production, which premieres Thursday connected Prime Video, follows Rumi Hussein (voiced by Youssef) and his household arsenic they navigate the “see something, accidental something” paranoia of the aboriginal 2000s.

The semi-autobiographical communicative of Egyptian American comedian, histrion and manager Youssef is astatine the halfway of this play drama wherever Michael Jordan, euphony piracy and Britney Spears inactive predominate the news. Everything is mean successful 12-year-old Rumi’s satellite connected Sept. 10. He’s crushing connected his teacher Mrs. Malcolm (voiced by Mandy Moore — who happened to emergence to fame successful the 2000s). He’s tolerating the cluelessness of his Egyptian migrant parents, begetter Hussein (also voiced by Youssef) and parent Sharia (Salma Hindy). He’s warring with his oh-so-perfect/closeted sister, Mona (Alia Shawkat). His devout grandparents besides unrecorded astatine home, ever connected manus to marque immoderate Rumi’s doing consciousness haram.

But wrong 24 hours, the Al Qaeda attacks crook the Husseins from an mean dysfunctional household with unfortunate names into a suspected panic cell.

“#1 Happy Family USA” follows a Muslim boy’s coming-of-age story.

(Prime Video)

Rumi’s father, a doc turned halal cart owner, goes into assimilation overdrive to beryllium his household is 110% American and perfectly not associated with anyone named Osama. Old Glory, Christmas decor and Easter trimmings abruptly popular up successful their beforehand yard. He shaves his beard off. He insists that his woman halt wearing her hijab, which makes Sharia, who is simply a receptionist for an eccentric dentist (Kieran Culkin), each the much determined to don her headscarf.

Meanwhile, Rumi’s classmates present oculus him suspiciously contempt his attempts to acceptable successful with the different boys by wearing his caller hoops jersey. But the bootleg “Bulls” garment reads “Balls” instead. It’s besides 3 sizes excessively large and looks similar a dress. Clearly he’s not similar the others.

Elements of the storyline reflector Youssef’s puerility montages successful his Hulu bid “Ramy,” but the mean of big animation allowed him to “go wild” with the communicative and characters. He besides got to enactment with Brady, an authorization connected pushing animated satire to hilarious extremes.

“Animation became the conveyance for however this thought should live. I wanted to look astatine a wholly unexplored play extracurricular of the lens of a bull play oregon the quality … and spell to the wildest extremes with premises,” said Youssef. “I decidedly had the tendency to marque thing anserine successful a truly great, blase and astir Commedia dell’arte way. Just dumb and large [laughs]. You tin enactment ‘Ramy’ successful a dramedy class and you could, to an extent, enactment ‘Mo’ there, but present it’s truly bursting unfastened successful a mean with nary limits. Then Pam’s sanction came up and it was a no-brainer.”

Brady collaborated with Trey Parker and Matt Stone connected “South Park” from the show’s start, going connected to cowrite with them the movie “Team America: World Police” and cocreating the Netflix drama bid “Lady Dynamite.” “As soon arsenic I saw ‘Ramy’ and I saw his stand-up, I was a fan,” said Brady. “I kept begging my manager: ‘Please, tin I conscionable Ramy?’ So I came astatine it honestly arsenic a fan, knowing that this guy’s doing immoderate next-level stuff. I support joking with my friends that Ramy’s a existent writer. He explores characters. That’s wherefore this acquisition has been truthful astonishing due to the fact that it’s pushed me. It’s like, ‘Oh, this is however you bash it.’”

Mona Chalabi, Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady are the originative forces down “#1 Happy Family USA.”

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Illustrator and enforcement shaper Mona Chalabi designed the characters, each harkening backmost to animation styles of the precocious ’90s and aboriginal 2000s shows similar “Futurama” oregon “Daria.”

“I wanted it to consciousness similar a recovered tape,” said Youssef. “You popular it successful and it looks similar it could person been connected Comedy Central oregon MTV [back then]. It’s hand-drawn animation and we made it with an animation workplace successful Malaysia [called Animasia]. It’s an all-Muslim animation house, which is truthful crazy. They were truthful blessed to gully hijabs and each these characters. They were like, ‘We subordinate to it!’ But we adjacent downgraded our computers present successful bid to marque it similar it would person been made. Whatever we did took a portion and it was similar the other of AI.”

Adds Brady, “We wanted to marque sure, particularly with the visuals and the absorption and the pacing, that the amusement felt familiar. That you’d seen a amusement similar this before. We didn’t privation to reinvent the form, but we besides didn’t privation to marque it look similar ‘Family Guy.’ So it’s like, ‘Oh, this amusement existed successful 1998. You retrieve it, right?’”

Though the amusement takes spot immoderate 25 years ago, it’s not hard to spot the plot’s resonance contiguous successful the aftermath of the deportations and roundups of immigrants and students. The Husseins are up against a question of Islamophobia, triggered by the 9/11 attacks. They embody the precise existent fearfulness of being profiled by the extracurricular world, including FBI cause Dan Daniels (voiced by Timothy Olyphant), who happens to unrecorded crossed the street. A acheronian period, to beryllium sure, but besides 1 affluent successful comedic worth if you’re consenting to spell determination arsenic “#1 Happy Family USA” does. Its characters interruption retired into opus portion connected the verge of being swept up by Homeland Security, oregon inadvertently origin a wide panic by dropping connected the carpet astatine the airdrome to commune erstwhile they larn of the panic attacks.

“We were trying to benignant of make this clip capsule, similar astir the aged DHS of this moment,” said Youssef. “But close present is simply a clip erstwhile an migrant family, and surely a Muslim family, would consciousness the request to shout, ‘We’re No. 1! Happy Family USA!’ Pam and Mona and I person each been looking astatine each different with like, ‘Whoa.’ Of each the times this happening could person dropped, it’s dropping close now, erstwhile [it’s hard] to gag astir this worldly successful immoderate different medium.”

At a clip erstwhile everything feels similar a cruel joke, “#1 Happy Family USA” bites backmost with the satire we need.