If It Bends…

We’re sorry, could you repeat that? A story on Iraqi sitcoms?

We called Iraqi TV and spoke with Amjad Hameed, head of the entertainment division, and asked if we could profile one of his new shows. He was happy to help, and was particularly excited about a new show called “Me and Layla” — starring the Danny DeVito of Iraq, Odei Abdel-Sattar — [that] is a sitcom about a hapless romantic.

!!!

“The Danny DeVito of Iraq”!!

“Me and Layla”!!

HOLY SHIT DEMOCRACY IS ON THE MARCH!! IT’S TRUE!

Comedy has been a struggle here for quite some time. In the 1990s, a Kurdish comedy troupe had a routine about Saddam Hussein — that is, of course, until Saddam reportedly sent an assassin to have the troupe members killed.

Ok, now it’s like a Tom Stoppard re-write of To Be Or Not to Be, but still, NOW IRAQ HAS SITCOMS! Can romantic comedies starring “the John Cusack of Iraq” be far behind?

And wow, it’s like the most perfect fluff piece ever, with a happy little “amidst the chaos, laughter” kinda tag, and you can just see Elizabeth Vargas introducing it with a slight almost-smile, and ABC, you’re trying oh so hard to appeal to all those people you polled who said they wanted to hear good news from Iraq, and then…

During the ABC News visit, Mustafa received some terrible news. He grabbed the show’s director to tell him: Their boss, Amjad Hameed — the head of the entertainment division for Iraqi TV, the man who had arranged for the shoot — just minutes before had been assassinated, shot by gunmen on his way to work. Both he and his driver were killed.

Oh. Well, uh… new direction for the story, guys. Yeah, drop that “tragedy plus time” thing, let’s go with “horrible, gruesome, perfect metaphor for day-to-day life in postwar Iraq.” Which is funny in that grandly existential pointless absurdity of existence sense, right?

Well, guess you had to be there.

Searching for Comedy Amid Iraq’s Tragedies [ABC]

READ MORE: comedy, death, horrible, gruesome, perfect metaphors, iraq, sitcoms, the danny devito of iraq, war