CBC, alongside Egypt’s contested media practice, would quickly become one of the main subjects of Youssef’s satire in his comeback. The episode, aired this time on MBC Masr, was full-on general satire of the condition of censorship Youssef and others face. It was also mocking prevalent and flawed media practices that do more subservience than relaying truths. The show started with Youssef hesitantly presenting the script of the new season to the channel, as the disgruntled channel manager tries to convince him to shift to something else - presenting a show on women, for example, and essentially “eating bread”, an Arabic expression denoting the need to toe the line in order to survive.
“I don’t like dialectics. I don’t like dialectics!” is the channel’s response, which resonates with a broader headline on today’s Egypt, where little criticism to the ruling authority is tolerated.