Bassem Youssef is an Egyptian heart surgeon turned comedian who shot to fame during Egypt's 2011 revolution. His YouTube skits skewering the powerful earned him a prime-time show, El Bernameg ("The Programme"), which blended Arabic and English and emulated the style of Jon Stewart, his American idol. He spared no one: not the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood, nor the generals led by Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi who toppled them. By 2014 his irreverence had made him too dangerous for the regime and he fled into exile in America. His wife is part-Palestinian.
Mr Youssef built a new career performing to Western audiences with routines about being Arab in America. He emerged as a hard-hitting advocate for Gaza in the Western media, notably on Piers Morgan Uncensored, a YouTube talk show widely watched in America, where his gibes at Western double standards made him once again a sensation across the Arab world.
Eight years involved with the nuclear industry have taught me that when nothing can possible go wrong and every avenue has been covered, *then* is the time to buy a house on the next continent.