In “Strawberries,” the standout episode of his Hulu comedy ‘Ramy,’ writer-director Ramy Youssef took viewers back to September 11, 2001, juxtaposing coming-of-age tropes — the main character’s insecurities about masturbation, in particular — with the global cataclysm that shifted how Little Ramy viewed the world and how the world viewed Little Ramy and his Muslim faith.
It’s a balancing act that Youssef attempts to repeat in the premiere of Amazon‘s new animated comedy #1 Happy Family USA — albeit with more puerile antics in the foreground and less emotional gravity in the background, but a similar sense that you’re watching something you haven’t seen before on TV (even if you watched Ramy).
#1 Happy Family USA
The Bottom Line
Starts off broad, but gains in depth and intelligence.
Airdate: Thursday, April 17 (Amazon)
Cast: Ramy Youssef, Alia Shawkat, Salma Hindy, Randa Jarrar, Azhar Usman, Mandy Moore, Timothy Olyphant
Creators: Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady
Created by Youssef and Pam Brady (South Park), with illustrator and journalist Mona Chalabi among its key executive producers, #1 Happy Family USA is broad and coarse and silly and, at its best, pointedly audacious in its desire to offend and possibly enlighten. It isn’t consistent, but it’s structured in a way so that much of its audience will be instantly alienated and the rest will be able to enjoy a show that settles into its voice as it goes along.
The series is focused on the Husseins of New Jersey. Patriarch Hussein Hussein (Youssef) runs a halal cart in front of the News Corp offices in Manhattan. Matriarch Sharia (Salma Hindy) is a receptionist for a somewhat odd dentist (Kieran Culkin). Sharia’s Egyptian-born parents (Randa Jarrar’s Grandma and Azhar Usman’s Grandpa) live with the family and contribute to making things very awkward, especially for the secular Hussein children, Rumi (Youssef, again) and Mona (Alia Shawkat).
Rumi, named after the 13th century poet, is an ungainly adolescent in love with his teacher (Mandy Moore’s Mrs. Malcolm), while Mona is older and better adjusted, except that she can’t figure out how to tell anybody that she’s gay. She and her girlfriend have decided that because the girlfriend knew she was gay when she turned nine and Mona knew when she turned 11, that the perfect day to come out is 9/11. As in: September 11, 2001.
This turns out not to be the case, as the Husseins are having a particularly chaotic start to their week, including the unexpected arrival of Uncle Ahmed (Paul Elia), plus the unexpected death of Grandpa, all before… 9/11. Soon, Rumi and the other Husseins have to navigate a new world in which they’re being watched by a deranged FBI agent across the street (Timothy Olyphant‘s Dan Daniels) and even innocent actions are viewed with suspicion. Hussein Hussein’s solution? They must become “#1 Happy Family USA,” more patriotic and more American than anyone they know.
I called #1 Happy Family USA “broad and coarse and silly,” and that is clearly by design, especially starting with a pilot that is even broader and coarser than most of what will follow. Grandpa is set up as the loudest and most cartoonish of the characters; his absence brings on-screen sadness but audience relief. You can get laughs out of a character bellowing things like, “Most men of my generation hit. I only yell” for five minutes, but probably not for eight episodes.
Then there’s Rumi’s crush on Mrs. Malcolm, which includes several Mary Kay Letourneau jokes and initial idolatry of Vili Fualaau. It’s icky and seemingly knowingly so, evoking instant discomfort and then softening (or fading) as the show progresses.
The pilot is abrasive and a little bit off-putting as it builds to a musical number that will be the opening song for future episodes — one in which Hussein Hussein sings, “Hello, hello neighbors/ You’re afraid of us near you/ The only blood we want is to bleed red, white and blue.”
The Husseins are unable to become fully assimilated, but what they do is engage in code-switching, an adaptation strategy explained by Marcus (Chris Redd), Rumi’s Black friend, who has mastered the art of transforming his appearance and speech depending on the social circumstances. For Hussein Hussein, this involves becoming a pundit on a Fox News panel show focused on model minorities. Mona makes a run for school president that requires that she cover up both her religion and her sexuality. Rumi flirts with Satanism and tries to win over a 9/11 memorial party with stolen drugs. Only Sharia moves closer to her Muslim roots, when she isn’t trying to solve the mystery of Princess Diana’s murder.
The exploration of code-switching is probably the smartest thing #1 Happy Family USA does, though these eight episodes — they end on an odd cliffhanger, but the show has already been renewed — are filled with lots of clever specificity and depth. You won’t find many animated shows that utilize this much Arabic or make such cheeky use of on-screen disclaimers and warnings — episodes are rated “H” for “Haram” with the addendum “Allah please forgive mistakes in this program.” There are aspects of the show that lean into stereotypes, but just as many that have the detail of lived experience from an eclectic writing staff that includes Youssef, Brady, Chalabi, British-Egyptian poet/playwright Sabrina Mahfouz and Jewish/Catholic-turned-Muslim standup Ahamed Weinberg.
The show’s interests go beyond religion and otherness, finding laughs in turn-of-the-millennium cultural references and in one episode — underlining similarities to Netflix’s triumphantly smutty Big Mouth — the Tanner Scale for sexual maturity, which haunted generations of middle schoolers. And if any of this sounds too nuanced, did I mention that there’s a suicidal talking lamb, an Eminem song parody and an extended guest appearance by a former American president definitely not voiced by that president? The show operates high and low, with an animation style meant to echo the Saturday morning cartoons of our youth, or at least Youssef’s youth.
Playing, to some degree, proxies for both himself and his father, Youssef’s vocal work, often bilingual, is exceptional and exceptionally funny, whether he’s capturing Hussein Hussein’s faltering bluster or the halting insecurity and innocence Rumi wants to leave behind. Shawkat delivers cool and calm tones in a show that is very rarely calm, while Olyphant gives Dan a strung-out, high-intensity authority that fits well into his body of fictional law enforcement work.
#1 Happy Family USA is ensconced in 2001, which keeps it from ever feeling too immediate or confrontational; anybody who wants to be in denial can think of its depictions of racism and xenophobia as a relic of the past, like mix CDs. After all, in 2025, we don’t need to worry about pervasive government surveillance, an immigration system that can leave people stuck in limbo with no recourse, or scapegoating along religious or national lines. Funny stuff!
#Ramy #Youssefs #Clever #Animated #Comedy
