Our satire is dark because the majority of the things we cover are awful — the politics of the region is itself dark. These are not things people can easily understand; they’ve already shut off before you start talking.
“An important part of our role is to keep talking about these things. And while it is dark comedy, the aim of it is to keep these things alive, to remind people of what’s happening and keep them thinking about it, rather than just shutting it out.
Isam Uraiqat created AlHudood, a satirical news site often compared to The Onion, to highlight some of the absurdities of the modern Middle East.
In this podcast with New Lines’ Faisal Al Yafai, Isam goes through some of his favorite — and most controversial — headlines; talks about censorship in the Middle East and whether there are any topics he would not poke fun at; and discusses the serious side of satire in an era of fake news.