Hate Thy Neighbour

Jamali, is a witty guy, and like most decent people, he abhors racism. Unfortunately, his encounter with an EDL member who advises him that black people took white slaves (Ep. Britain's Evryday Extremism), is met with derision, and becomes the butt of a joke in his stand-up. Correctly there has been considerable condemnation of the African slave trade, which took place between the 16th and the 19th centuries. However, another equally evil trade in human beings was occurring around the same time in Africa. It is estimated that up to 1.25 million Europeans were enslaved by Barbary Pirates - black North African Muslim raiders and slave traders. There is an abundance of credible, scholarly information available online recounting this activity.

Jamali's heart is in the right place, and the show is worth a watch, however his lazy conflation of anti-Islamists and racists is disappointing though not unsurprising.

This show is excellent. Jamali, the host, takes a tour throughout some of the worlds most hateful groups, like the klan and Neo-Nazis, and brings a sense of levity to the serious issues raised in this series. He always makes a point to ask questions to these people that you want to ask in terms of their world views. Intercut, that with a comedy special pointing out the absurdity and hypocrisy of these antiquated ideals and you've got the recipe for extremely captivating television.

Look at the episodes; White supremacy., guns, nationalism etc - it's all been done years, if not decades ago by Louis Theroux.

Theroux, while not being a professional comedian is equally as funny if not more in wierd weekends, disarming and integrating himself into the community.

Hunter S Thompson invented this style of journalism called Gonzo - where the reporter becomes part of the story. He died too soon, with politics in 2024 becoming more interesting with Trump being the most interesting president since Nixon.

Jamali just seems to be dragging up old themes from Thompson and Theroux, there really is no need for this or any of his other series! Do COVID, Ukraine, Cost of Living - things that are relevant NOW.

Its ironic that the premise is for the host to go around and confront people considered to be part of the "alt right" when really all he does is go around talking to them and then "slamming" their views in front of an audience that wished to attend a comedy show. Not funny, not confronting, just exploitive.

This show is watchable, but I cringed the whole time because the host is clearly the wrong guy for this show. Between his constant pretentious "Superman power pose", his continuous reply of "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah", and his obvious bias, I wanted to turn it off the whole time. However, because I have a genuine interest regarding these groups, rather than mocking them like the host did the entire time, I watched it.

I would have rated it higher than 3 stars if they had taken a more respectful and understanding approach regarding the subject matter rather than joke about it.