In January, Aasif Mandvi took his web series project, Halal in the Family, to Indiegogo. After successfully achieving his $20,000 goal, The Daily Show‘s Senior Muslim Correspondent has now released the first episode of his web series on Funny or Die.
Halal in the Family, which was originally titled The Qu’osby Show before Bill Cosby’s legal issues made that name a less-than-good idea, is a mock sitcom that satirizes The Cosby Show, middle America, and Muslim-fearing attitudes in one fell swoop. In the first episode, fellow Daily Show correspondent Jordan Klepper shows up as the Qu’osby family’s Muslim neighbor. Across six minutes, audiences are treated to a combination of role-reversing comedy and cultural commentary that offers a serious take on the subject of surveillance.
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In an interview with Esquire, Mandvi explained the philosophy that drives Halal in the Family:
“Look, there’s always going to be a bunch of people who are gonna be like, “F-k that s-t, we are gonna be racist.” There’s also gonna be a bunch of Muslims on the far other side who are going to be like, “We don’t care.” And then there’s a whole swath of people in the middle—Americans especially—who don’t really spend their day thinking what it must be like to be Muslim. Those are the people that I think might watch this and laugh and think it’s funny and go, Oh, that’s an interesting issue I haven’t thought about.”
Three more episodes will make up Halal in the Family’s initial run. After that, Mandvi is hoping he gets enough of a response to keep going. “We’d love enough [interest] to make a 20-minute episode and make more of them,” he said.
