Latest season of satirical show with same format as US Saturday Night Live had just ended

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Egypt has banned broadcasts of a homegrown version of the US satirical television show Saturday Night Live for using “sexual expressions that are inappropriate for viewers”.

Egypt’s supreme council for media regulation issued the decision late on Sunday, a day after the latest season ended.

SNL Arabia, which followed an identical format to its US namesake, featuring celebrity guests and comedy sketches, became a huge hit after its debut in February 2016. Unlike its US relation, the Egyptian show avoided political references. Nevertheless, in a market saturated with pro-state nightly talkshows, light comedy and soap operas, it was deemed too provocative.

A statement released by the council said an investigation “confirmed that the programme has consistently used sexual phrases and insinuations that cannot be presented to viewers, and violates ethical and professional criteria”.

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The state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported that the council also sent a cease-and-desist letter to the head of the Egyptian Media Company, owner of the private satellite channel ON, which has been broadcasting reruns of SNL Arabia for the past year. It is unclear whether the decision to ban the show will also affect the Dubai-based Orbit Showtime Network, which broadcasts the new episodes filmed each week in Cairo.

Several people who worked on SNL Arabia on Monday declined to answer questions about the ban, saying they were unable to discuss the issue publicly.

Two cast members, Shadi Alfons and Khalid Mansour, who presented the SNL Arabic version of the Weekend Update segment, previously worked on the Al-Bernameg show presented by the comedian Bassem Youssef.

Youssef, referred to as the Egyptian equivalent of the former The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, ceased production of the political satire show Al-Bernameg in 2014 saying that it was “no longer safe to satirise Egypt”. He later fled the country fearing for his safety.

When interviewed by CNN in 2016, Khulud Abu Homos, the executive vice-president of the OSN network, said the programme’s creators were aware of the challenges of creating comedy in a difficult environment.

“SNL will ruffle some feathers for sure, but we will always be respectful to our cultural identity,” he said. “It’s a thin line sometimes, but we are determined to make sure a balance is set between edgy comedy and responsible comedy.”

The decision to ban SNL Arabia “reflects the broader intolerance for any socially challenging narratives in the public sphere and the government’s attempt to protect a narrow and conservative notion of austere morality”, said Timothy Kaldas, an analyst with the Washington-based thinktank the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.