Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mo Amer: Mohammed In Texas’ On Netflix, Catching COVID-19 From Chappelle And Living To Joke About It

For his second Netflix comedy special, Mo Amer calls in a big name to introduce him to the stage: Amer’s Black Adam co-star, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Can you smell what this Palestinian Arab-American is cooking down in his hometown of Houston, tho?

MO AMER: MOHAMMED IN TEXAS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: This is Amer’s second stand-up special for Netflix. His first, The Vagabond, came out in 2018.
That hour dealt with his refugee status, having fled Kuwait with his family to Houston in 1990 when he was nine, how he became a comedian and a U.S. citizen to boot. Since that first special, Amer has co-starred as a diner-owning friend of Ramy Youssef’s in the Hulu series Ramy, toured as an opening act for Dave Chappelle and filmed the DC superhero movie Black Adam alongside “The Rock.”
The Chappelle stuff definitely comes up in this hour, as Amer jokingly and fortunately can joke about catching COVID-19 twice thanks to his association with Chappelle; the first time in Ohio as part of Chappelle’s “Summer Camp” outdoor shows; the second after sharing close quarters and a cigar with Chappelle during their stint performing with Joe Rogan in Austin.
What’s left unsaid will show up on Netflix soon enough. In announcing this special at the beginning of the month, Netflix also ordered an eight-episode half-hour series starring Amer (and executive-produced by Youssef and A24) as a Palestinian refugee seeking asylum, citizenship and happiness in Houston. Based on his current comedy, Amer already has found all of these things deep in the heart of Texas.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Among Arab-American comedians, there aren’t many with high-profile streaming comedy specials. Amer is more energetic and outspoken than his Hulu colleague, Youssef, but not so much compared to a comedian like Maz Jobrani. Of course, all of Amer’s talk of Chappelle might remind you of how Chappelle has approached the pandemic, but from a quite different perspective.
Memorable Jokes: Any time you can name-drop Dave Chappelle these days, it’s memorable, but perhaps not quite as much as Amer can claim, what with his two different tales of catching the novel coronavirus as a result of associating with and performing with the comedy titan. Those stories highlight his early chunks of material about the pandemic, framed in fuzzy retrospect, as he repeatedly asks “Is it over?!” He does let us know he got vaccinated after the fact (Pfizer) and enjoys employing accents to animate each of America’s three major vaccine choices (European for Pfizer, Mexican/Hispanic for Moderna, and redneck twang for Johnson & Johnson).
Once he gets off the pandemic, Amer freely shares with us insights into Arabic curse words and hand signs, his love for Mexicans in Texas and Mexico alike, and some of the great contributions Arabs have made to modern American culture. Namely, hookahs, hummus and bidets. Oh my.
Our Take: Amer sees politics and the media trying to divide us into red or blue (which he reminds us is to on the nose for gangs, vis-a-vis Bloods vs. Crips), while he sees us more united on the ground, even in Texas. After he recounts a neighbor named “Redneck Scott” helping everyone out with generators following a hurricane, Amer observes: “Mohammeds in Texas get along with Redneck Scotts all day.” Perhaps oil really is thicker than blood?
And we all can agree to hate on selfish airline travelers who have no regard for others, or mock people who don’t wash their asses, or white girls who take advantage of hookahs and Mexican beaches without recognizing their cultural significance.
Following his final joke, Amer stays onstage as the applause dies down to relay one final story as an encore, talking over home movies about his trip back to the Middle East after getting his U.S. passport and bonding with his cousins and their neighbors during a sentimental visit to the local mosque.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Perhaps Chappelle should pay more attention to his opening acts? They’re doing a lot more healing and joke-telling these days than he is.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch Mo Amer: Mohammed in Texas on Netflix