If you’re looking for one interview from the late night shows to watch today on the internet, make sure you catch up on Jon Stewart’s chat with his friend Mo Amer.
The Palestinian American comedian and co-creator of Peabody-winning Netflix comedy Mo just hit it out of the park with the show’s second and final season, and he chatted to the Daily Show host about it all. Non-shocking spoiler: Mo was not an easy show to write.
Based on Amer’s own experiences, Season 1 followed Mo’s journey through applying for asylum in the U.S. with his family. In Season 2, we pick up with Mo stuck paperless in Mexico, and see him take hurdle after hurdle through the dehumanising American immigration process.
Like Mo, this chat goes from serious to hilarious and back in the same moment. Amer and Stewart unpack the challenging nature of writing Mo, why Mo’s character keeps his morals intact in infuriating conversations, and the complexity of deciding whether to talk about Oct. 7 in Season 2 — there was apparently a lot of pressure to do so.
“The writing room was integral to this process and I love them so much for having such difficult conversations,” said Amer. “Because we started on April 1, we went on strike May 1, we came back Oct. 23 of ’23. Six days later, the only Palestinian show on TV, you can imagine the conversations that were had.”
Make sure you watch the whole interview — there are some spoilers for Mo Season 2, so if you haven’t seen it, go and watch first then come back to it.
