"Halal in the Family": The Sitcom We Need

“Halal in the Family” began as a segment on “The Daily Show,” in 2011, inspired by Katie Couric’s suggestion that there should be a Muslim version of “The Cosby Show.” (This, of course, was in a more Cosby-naïve era.) In the segment, Mandvi consults with Dr. Alvin Poussaint. (“So we should portray Muslims as good people,” Mandvi says. “Yes!” Poussaint says. “Genius,” Mandvi says, writing in his notebook.) He makes a sitcom called “The Qu’osby Show”—jauntily similar to “Halal,” sweater included; the family drinks pork juice and dances to Toby Keith—and then shows it to a group of average Americans, who react badly and find it unrealistic. “You gotta have that closet terrorist or something,” a rough-looking white guy says. “Uncle Rayib or something who came over. And he’s, you know, a Bedouin, and he lives in the basement in a sandbox or something, with a goat.” Mandvi reminded me that “All-American Muslim,” a reality show on the Learning Channel showing the workaday lives of Muslim Americans, had met with similar reactions. (Watch the “Daily Show” clip and you can hear Megyn Kelly discussing the “controversy,” with concern.) “People were saying, ‘This is not real, this is propaganda, because it goes against our prejudices,’” Mandvi said. “I did a piece about it on ‘The Daily Show’ because Lowe’s pulled its advertising.” In it, Mandvi, with Aasif-like glee, describes Lowe’s as a one-stop terrorism-supplies superstore.