New Iraqi comedy show lampoons ISIS


While American politicians left and right focus on how much we should be scared of ISIS, a new Iraqi TV show is taking a different tack. The new satirical series State of Myths mocks ISIS militants as hypocrites and fools:
Reclining on a gold-rimmed purple sofa, the leader of the Islamic State extremist group mulls his social-media strategy as an overaffectionate sword-wielding dwarf looks on. Here's the town drunk, who has become a zealous follower of the Islamic State, beating those who consume alcohol — though he still drinks in secret himself. And there's the shop owner who is informed that vegetables with names in the Arabic language that are female in gender can't mix with those of the male gender. [The Washington Post]
Although ISIS does not control all of Iraq as it does in the fictional world of the show, many of the actors and crew who work on State of Myths do so anonymously for safety reasons. The show is broadcast nationally, and some regional stations feature their own anti-ISIS comedies.
Though State of Myths primary needles ISIS, it also depicts the United States and Israel as ISIS's creators. A trailer for the show has a cowboy hosting a wedding between Israel and the devil, a union that produces ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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