May 26, 2017

Ahmad Wahid, one of Iraq’s first stand-up comedians, struck a chord over social media when he suggested, tongue in cheek, that a friendly security officer or a sheikh was much better than karate for protection. Mocking the security situation in Iraq in a video he posted on Facebook May 14, Wahid said, “Karate lessons will not do you any good in Iraq. There are several ways of self-defense. First, befriend a decent security officer who would vouch you out if you ever get arrested. You should also keep in touch with the sheikh of your tribe, so he can protect you in case of tribal conflicts. Get yourself a decent weapon to protect yourself should someone try to attack you.”

Within four hours, the video was viewed over 27,000 times, shared 136 times and it received over 200 comments. As of the time of writing, the video has 266,000 views, 851 shares and more than 1,000 comments.

Wahid is proud of his social media fame and his followers, but he prefers live interactions from a stage, where he can tease his audience and mock the political and social events of the country in his unique, homegrown style. “The biggest challenge in stand-up comedy is knowing how to give it Iraqi charm instead of adopting a foreign routine,” Wahid told Al-Monitor.

Wahid had previously given about 10 performances in various Iraqi cities, the first in the city of Basra, where he was born and raised. He also worked with NRT TV to produce and broadcast two episodes of a show called "Esh,” which means “do not talk” in the local Iraqi dialect.

Speaking to Al-Monitor about the show, Wahid said, “I am proud of this experience and I want to do it again [return to stand-up comedy]." He added that part of the reason he stopped was the need to find a balance between production standards and the right audience. “We found an audience in Basra, but the station did not think that the production standards were appropriate for broadcast. When the channel moved the show to another part of Iraq where better standards were available, we lost the audience. So we stopped producing other episodes and waited to find a location that contained both factors.”