"Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World": Movie studio not amused by Muslim-themed comedy film

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the mosque

If you thought that Hollywood had no sensitivity to the way Muslims were portrayed in film, you’d be wrong. Not because there rate of Muslims being portrayed as terrorists has slowed down, but because a major studio is trying to save us from being portrayed as being funny. Sony Pictures refused to release a film by comedian and filmmaker Albert Brooks entitled “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World” unless the word “Muslim” was removed from the title. (They suggested “Looking for Comedy” instead.) “I do believe that recent incidents have dramatically changed the landscape that we live in,” explained Sony chairman Michael Lynton in a letter to Brooks, “and that this, among other things, warrants changing the title of the film.” The film stars Brooks (as himself), who is recruited by former US Senator Fred Thompson (also playing himself) to go to India and Pakistan to find out what makes Muslims laugh. It makes fun of self-obsessed Hollywood types, hapless State Department officials, and American ignorance of the Muslim world – but, according to Brooks, should be inoffensive to Muslims. “I steered clear of religion in this movie,” said Brooks. “The whole point of the movie is looking for comedy, not looking for God.” While the studio did not give reasons other than the title for the rejection, the move happened after the Guantanamo Qur’an desecration furor, and with the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh (of “Submission” fame) still fresh in Hollywood’s memory. The film has been subsequently picked up by the smaller Warner Independent label and will be released in January, and Sony has gone on to approve less controversial films for distribution. (For example, “Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo,” which features a Chernobyl victim with a penis for a nose.) “Whenever I heard anyone talk about Muslims, it was in association with terrorism,” explained Brooks. “There had to be some way to separate the 1.5 billion people who don’t want to kill us from the 100,000 or so who do.”

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.