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For Sale Apr 22, 2026 at 1:05 AM

Ramy Youssef Trolls MAGA Backlash to His ‘Sesame Street’ Episode Where Elmo Spoke Arabic: ‘Elmo Saying Habibi Has Set Them Off’

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Ramy Youssef Trolls MAGA Backlash to His ‘Sesame Street’ Episode Where Elmo Spoke Arabic: ‘Elmo Saying Habibi Has Set Them Off’
Variety
Ramy Youssef Trolls MAGA Backlash to His ‘Sesame Street’ Episode Where Elmo Spoke Arabic: ‘Elmo Saying Habibi Has Set Them Off’
Ramy Youssef responded to MAGA backlash to his 'Sesame Street' episode in which he taught Elmo Arabic words: 'Elmo saying Habibi has set them off.'
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Digibutter64 3 days ago +33
I mean, *Sesame Street* has always been quite inclusive, no?
33
Mansidhe 3 days ago +3
Shush, don't give them another manufactured outrage reason to target it. Sesame was famously used by the *clearly white guy* Ali Baba - er, I mean Al Bob - in a half-remembered cartoon from their childhood, so it gets a pass.
3
rhunter99 3 days ago +96
Learning new languages. The horror. 😒
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MDFan4Life 3 days ago +37
Back in the '80s-'90s, it was French. The early-mid-'00s, Spanish. Still can't speak French, or Spanish.🤔
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SylphSeven 3 days ago +11
Apparently some folks still can't speak English either. Guess Elmo gotta find another language that'll stick better. 🤷‍♀️
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Walmartian_Beta 3 days ago +5
Now it's Haitian Creole! I've been studying off and on for a year, absolutely hilarious to me how many people get pissed off about it too. "Why you learning that? So you can talk to those dog-eaters?" Learning new languages is fun, everyone should try it!
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MentalDisintegrat1on 3 days ago +6
Learning is for libruls.
6
monexicano 3 days ago +18
Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo, who said on “The Ingraham Angle”: “I wish ‘Sesame Street’ would stick to teaching kids about letters and numbers and leave the Arabic immersion to someone else. Next, Bert and Ernie will be praying five times a day on Sesame Street, facing east.” This Arroyo fella sure is fuckin dumb.
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Walmartian_Beta 3 days ago +17
They were pissed when Big Bird went to Japan too - I was around 7, and I remember hearing my grandpa b**** about it because his brother was a Japanese POW and he didn't think it was right for them to be showing kids that the Japanese were good people and all that. This kind of thing, bridging gaps between cultures and teaching children about the "other" people of the world, has been Sesame Street's thing for a LONG f****** time!
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monexicano 3 days ago +6
You’re damn right. They showed kids, like me back in the day, a big world in a small neighborhood.
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blue_sidd 3 days ago +25
Fun fact for that fucko: our numbers are Arabic immersion.
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play_images 3 days ago +7
No don't tell them that or they'll campaign in that. Before you now it Alabama will be using Roman numerals
7
clyab 3 days ago +34
Growing up in a secular household, I vividly remember learning about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas from Sesame Street. Nothing has changed from then to now, it’s just Islamophobia
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notathrowaway1133 3 days ago +20
It’s not even just Islamophobia, it’s pure racism. Arab Christians also use the word habibi. Complete mask off moment for conservatives.
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Leopardos40 3 days ago +17
Being an Arab and seeing MAGA heads are against me, makes me feels so good. If these f*cks are my opposite, I feel so accomplished.
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runthepoint1 3 days ago +18
Fuckers can’t even speak their own language correctly and want to b**** about other languages? Breathe harder.
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PersonalityAlive6475 3 days ago +6
I read “Elmo saying ‘habibi’ has set them off” as a quote from a video clip of Elmo’s first-person commentary on the situation.
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SourceScope 3 days ago +6
Doesnt that word mean “darling” or “love” as in loved one?
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orvilleshrek 3 days ago +14
Yes, but in practice it’s used extremely liberally in a lot of Arabic speaking cultures. Like it’s normal and common for a man to call another man he doesn’t know well habibi. Source: am a Lebanese American lol
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TheFumingatzor 3 days ago +1
>stick to teaching kids about letters and numbers and leave the Arabic immersion to someone else Habibi, do I have a surprise for ya...
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Abu_Nimr 3 days ago
"Elmo saying habibi has set them off" joins "Inshallah they find him"
0
mekilat 3 days ago -4
I think it's cool Sesame Street did this. I also think Ramy is really milking the whole Arabic angle and would do a bigger service to the muslim community if he stood more as comedian, rather than just playing the muslim card every time. To be clear, I'm brown too. I think he's pandering too much and it's lazy.
-4
blue_sidd 3 days ago +7
….are you saying that as either Arab or Muslim as the two are not interchangeable?
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mekilat 3 days ago
The dude is american, has never lived there, but his comedy is about being a muslim. Most of his sketches are about being muslim and representing the arab world. Sometimes it's Egypt, sometimes it's Palestine, or Saudi. I'm saying it's not particularly interesting, and I wish he tried to do material that didn't just vaguely leverage his religion and ethnicity, particularly where there are comedians that are from there.
0
Walmartian_Beta 3 days ago +5
He's milking his ethnicity? That's an interesting f****** take.
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20sjivecat 3 days ago +4
Because there is already so much positive representation on tv… Let him do his thing. Especially as long as people still get upset about it.
4
qabeel99 3 days ago
But not a peep when funding for this programming was cut by their Dear Leader.
0
Fanabala3 3 days ago
Ugh…. If there was one thing that Sesame Street did since it started, was teach inclusion. These idiots getting up in arms obviously never paid attention.
0
DiaperBoyKris 3 days ago
Let me get this right… they hate Sesame Street so much they defunded them and PBS and now they are angry because their cherished muppets are speaking a foreign language? Pick a f****** lane.
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FuckYourFavoriteSub 3 days ago -1
Oh man.. wait until they all find out the whole world basically counts in Arabic. This would normally be frightening if I wasn’t so concerned that they may not be able to count.
-1
TotalRecognition2191 3 days ago
Maga should just all move to one area and the rest of us can just live happily and diversely together
0
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