Abstract
Since the early 2000s, a growing number of Muslim comedians have gained prominence in the UK and other Western contexts. Early scholarly interventions situated this comedy predominantly through the lenses of countering Islamophobia and ânormalisingâ Muslimness. This article traces the discursive entanglements of religion, the secular, humour and gender, which contribute to this ânormalisationâ thesis. This lays the groundwork for a critical discourse analysis of material performed by British Muslim female comedians Fatiha el-Ghorri and Ola Labib, in which I explore four themes; constructions of different interpretations of Islam, portrayals of adaptive religious subjectivity, reversals of secular-religious hierarchies, and framings of sexual objectification and misogyny. Taken together, the material discussed paints a complex picture, at times humouring the secular, while also unsettling religious/secular binary arrangements of normalcy and disrupting imaginaries of secular-masculine humour.
1 Introduction
In recent decades, as sweeping pronouncements on the âhumourlessnessâ of Muslims have pervaded Western media, a growing number of Muslim comedians have taken to stage and screen in Western Europe and North America (Schweizer and Molokotos-Liederman 2022). In turn, several scholars of Islam in Western contexts have oriented their attention towards this phenomenon of âMuslim comedyâ.1 Specifically, scholars have read the popularity of Muslim comedy within the post-9/11 landscape as a significant cultural intervention, denormalising Islamophobic stereotypes (Michael 2013; Zimbardo 2014). In some cases, this intervention is situated in terms of ânormalisingâ Muslimness, with âeverydayâ humour and relatable topics acting as reminders of shared humanity (Aidi 2021; Morris 2023).
While these are useful readings, this model of ânormalisingâ Muslimness through relatability does not necessarily dislodge the norms structuring the discursive category of the ânormalâ itself. Contrary to earlier theorisations that stand-up comedians are exempted from âexpectation[s] of normal behaviourâ and so able to reexamine societal norms (Mintz 1985, 74), this article underscores the power dynamics at play in comedy performances, often structured around the expectation for the comedian to âproveâ normalcy and relatability to the audience (not to mention other gatekeepers in the comedy industry, such as agents and promoters). In the case of Muslim comedy, this norm of ânormalisationâ often becomes entangled with a secular politics of âconditional belongingâ (Thonnart 2024, 2), in which Muslim comedians who are not (âtooâ) religious and espouse âmodernâ values become figures of âacceptableâ Muslimness (Kassam 2020). This risks further excluding Muslims who do not fit this mould and obscuring the normativities of secular Western discourses behind a veneer of neutrality and ânormalcyâ.
These patterns apply particularly to what is often described as âmainstreamâ comedy. Rather than being a neutral, descriptive term, the notion of the âmainstreamâ is implicated in a particular understanding of the ânormalâ, which typically reflects dominant societal norms. This imaginary of ânormalcyâ contributes to setting audience expectations at a comedy show. As Black comedian Sophie Duker observes in an interview, âso much comedy ⦠in the UK [is] still made for an amorphous, middle-of-the-road person that doesnât really existâ (Jamil 2022). While the âmainstreamââsymbolised by this âmiddle-of-the-roadâ personâmay not âreally existâ, it remains discursively significant, informing which themes are deemed ânormalâ, âlegibleâ or âmarketableâ by comedians, promoters and commissioners (Conway 2017). The notion of the âmainstreamâ is also used in academic literature on comedy to describe representations that reach wide audiences and/or represent dominant discourses (Abedinifard 2016; Morris 2023). At the same time, the âmainstreamâ is not a static category, but is in a constant state of flux, tied to shifting conceptualisations of normalcy and difference.
While several earlier analyses have alluded to gendered representational dynamics in Muslim comedy, gender has seldom been taken up as a core category of analysis.2 However, discursive constructions of Islam, humour and the secular often operate along deeply gendered lines. In this article, I critically investigate how Muslim comedy engages with secular (and, in some cases, religious) notions of normalcy, taking a distinctly gendered approach. More concretely, I present an analysis of the work of two British Muslim female comedians in which gendered dynamics play a central role, alongside religion and secular normativity. Focusing on performances by comedians Ola Labib and Fatiha el-Ghorri between 2020 and 2025, the analysis in this article is guided by the following questions: How do these comedians represent their âMuslimnessâ in their stand-up material? In what ways are secular discourses about Islam, gender, humour and the secular reproduced, contested, or otherwise engaged?
This article contributes to the existing literature in the field in three key ways. Firstly, drawing on postsecular feminist theory, critical secularism studies, the study of religion and humour, and comedy theory, this article advances a new thesis concerning the ways in which discursive constructions of humour as âmasculineâ and humour as âsecularâ intersect, forming an imaginary which I term âsecular-masculine humourâ. This clarifies the interventions made by Labib and el-Ghorri, not only negotiating British comedyâs secular normativity but also (at times) pushing the limits of âmainstreamâ secular-masculine humour norms. Secondly, I build on the existing literature on ânormalisationâ through Muslim comedy by tracing the ambivalent ways in which performances of ânormalcyâ not only reproduce but also undermine dominant secular discourses. Thirdly, in my analysis, I introduce several themes which have not (to the best of my knowledge) been explored in the existing literature on Muslim comedy; namely, adaptive religious subjectivities and alcohol, reversals of secular-religious hierarchies in âmainstreamâ comedy, and misogyny as a site of relatability crossing religious-secular binaries.
The article will be structured as follows. I firstly contextualise Muslim comedy in Britain since the 2000s, and introduce Labib and el-Ghorri. I then trace certain important connections between dominant discursive trends concerning humourâs relationship to Islam, gender and the secular, which situate my analysis. Having done this, I present my analysis, subcategorised into four (related) themes; constructions of different interpretations of Islam, portrayals of adaptive religious subjectivity, reversals of secular-religious hierarchies, and framings of sexual objectification and misogyny. Throughout, my analysis foregrounds the ways in which the material discussed engages with secular discourses about Islam, gender and the secular itself, while remaining attentive to moments in which this material also implicates and, at times, interrogates dominant religious norms and discourses.
2 Contextualising âMuslim Comedyâ
In 2000, when Shazia Mirza began performing stand-up comedy, she was often billed as the âonly female Muslim comicâ not only in Britain but globally (Morris 2023, 63). Despite her rejection of the role of âTHE Muslim female stand-up comedianâ (Tarlo 2007, 17), Mirzaâs political satire and sarcastic rebuttals of popular stereotypes concerning Islam created âa stylistic model for Muslim comedy in Britainâ (Morris 2023, 63). In a career spanning over two decades, Mirza has remained a permanent fixture in British stand-up and is extensively discussed in academic literature on Muslim comedy in Anglophone contexts (see, for example, Amarasingam 2010; Gorman 2020; Lockyer and Pickering 2005). Alongside Mirza, the US comedy troupe Allah Made Me Funny has contributed to the popularisation of Muslim comedy since the early 2000s, performing at âmainstreamâ comedy venues around the world, including across the UK on multiple occasions (Morris 2023, 63). Like Mirza, this troupe features routines about stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam (Thonnart 2016).
In the early 2010s, an increasing number of Muslim comedians gained popularity on British âmainstreamâ comedy stages and screens. Among these were numerous male performers, such as Abdullah Afzal, Guz Khan, Tez Ilyas, Nabil Abdulrashid, Jay Islaam, Imran Yusuf and Humza Arshad, as well as several women, including Shaista Aziz, Zahra Barri and Sadia Azmat. In June 2015, coinciding with the beginning of Ramadan, the BBC launched a series entitled British Muslim Comedy. This was hailed by one reviewer as marking the ârise of Muslim comedyâ in British TV comedy broadcasting (Jones 2015). Since 2015, this increased visibility of Muslim comedians within the âmainstreamâ British comedy scene has continued.
2.1 Introducing: Ola Labib
Ola Labib began performing stand-up in 2019, and made her TV debut in 2021 as an âemerging actâ for BBC Funny Festival (Labib 2021a). Since then, her sets have featured regularly in TV stand-up programming, and in 2024, she toured her debut show pOLArising across the UK.3 In 2025, she also wrote and starred in the TV sitcom pilot The Pharmacy (Channel 4 2025).
Early in her comedy career, Labib was often billed as âthe only Black Muslim Sudanese female comedianâ on the British stand-up circuit (Backyard Comedy Club 2022). She also used this description on her Instagram and TikTok handles. However, during a podcast appearance in 2023, Labib half-jokingly remarked: âI hate that description! ⦠Itâs like the longest list ever!â (Herring 2023). Now, Labib simply describes herself as a comedian. At the same time, one of the aims of her comedy is to challenge assumptions about Muslims:
Everybodyâs assumptions on what a practising Muslim is like is gonna be based on TV and the media, and we all know what TV and media say about us, so I just wanted to be that change ⦠[To say] that actually, this is what we are like.
Crawley 2024
2.2 Introducing: Fatiha el-Ghorri
Fatiha el-Ghorri began performing stand-up comedy in 2015. Five years later, her comedy featured on TV comedy programming for the first time for Comedy Central at the Edinburgh Fringe. She has since performed numerous times for TV comedy programming, including on Live at the Apollo in 2024.4 Additionally, she has featured as a writer and actress in several TV comedies, including We Are Lady Parts (Channel 4 2020), and her own BBC Comedy Short Donkey! (2025).
El-Ghorri is a British Muslim comedian of Moroccan descent, who was born and raised in the East London borough of Hackney, marked in her performances by her Cockney vernacular. Like Labib, el-Ghorri has at times been critical of the labels and expectations placed on her comedy based on her intersecting identities. As she puts it in one interview:
Sometimes I feel like people want me to represent them in a certain way. I canât just be myself, I canât be Fatiha ⦠The Muslims want me to be a certain way, the North Africans want me to be a certain way, the British want me to be a certain way. Itâs really hard sometimes. They put me in these boxes. I donât put myself in them.
Howard 2024
Like Labib, el-Ghorri challenges the âboxesâ into which different audiences may place her comedy. This does not mean, however, that el-Ghorri rejects the possibility for her comedy to do representational work. In another interview, she explains: âItâs not just about being funny and people seeing my comedy ⦠Itâs about spreading a message, breaking down barriers and opening up conversationsâ (as quoted in Graham 2020).
2.3 Situating the Comparative Lens: Method and Material
While Labib and el-Ghorri bring different lived experiences and backgrounds to their material, I draw (at times) comparatively on their performances in this article for several reasons. Firstly, both comedians gained a place in TV stand-up comedy programming within a similar timeframe. Specifically, I focus on material broadcast between 2020 and 2025. Following the push to diversify (televised) stand-up comedy in the 2010s, Labib and el-Ghorri can be contextualised as part of a new âwaveâ of representation that is yet to receive much academic attention. While el-Ghorri and Labib are by no means the first or only female Muslim comedians working on the British âmainstreamâ stand-up circuit, they are among the first (since Shazia Mirza) to become regular fixtures in TV stand-up broadcasting, which often reaches large audiences via YouTube and other social media.5 This is significant because, although stand-up comedy is rooted in live performance, TV performances imbue âstatusâ and help comedians expand their profiles (Tomsett 2023). Recorded performances can also be watched repeatedly, which has advantages for conducting in-depth analysis and implications for the material comedians choose to perform; comedians tend to perform tried-and-tested material, which they consider to have wide âmainstreamâ appeal (Lockyer and de Benedictis 2023). Given my focus on the ways in which Muslim comedians engage with the secular norms and cultural repertoires associated with the âmainstreamâ, this televised material is insightful, in catering to the widest common denominator of âmainstreamâ viewers.
In total, this article draws on analysis of ten televised performances (five by each comedian) accessed in recorded format and ranging in duration from 5 to 15 minutes per set.6 This analysis was conducted through several phases. Firstly, all ten performances were transcribed and coded using the qualitative coding software Atlas.ti to identify key themes and humour techniques, taking a bottom-up approach. I then selected a number of illustrative examples for each theme and conducted a critical discourse analysis of these examples. At this stage, I paid particular attention to the ways in which this material interacts with secular imaginaries about Islam, gender, and humour, and identified ânormalisationâ as a relevant theoretical lens. In the next section, I situate these imaginaries and clarify their relationship to my analysis.
3 Islam, Gender and Humourâs Secular Grain
As scholars in the study of religion and humour have observed, there is a prevailing assumption that religion and humour are mutually incompatible or, at best, âodd bedfellowsâ (Schweizer 2022, 11). This discourse of âhumourless religionâ is particularly firmly embedded with regard to Islam. Over time, the trope of âMuslim humourlessnessâ has âtaken on a life of its own, dwelling mainly (and tautologically) in repeated references to its existenceâ (Schweizer and Molokotos-Liederman 2022, 3). This racialised discourse has intensified in recent decades, following several infamous transnational âhumour scandalsâ including the Jyllands-Posten and Charlie Hebdo cartoon controversies (Kuipers 2011, 64). However, its historical precedent can be traced back to colonialist discourses which repeatedly constructed âArabsâ (interpellated as Muslims) as âhumourlessâ (Mahamdallie 2021).
Imaginaries of âhumourless religionâ (and specifically, âhumourless Islamâ) are connected with a co-constitutive framing of humorousness as a marker of secular subjectivity. In a rich theoretical reflection on comedy, religion and the secular in the British context, sociologist Simon Speck argues that humour has come to be constructed as emblematic of âsecular modernityâ, as a mode of discourse through which âmodernâ subjects can demonstrate âsecularâ traits such as self-reflexivity and critique (Speck 2019, 234). In a critical discourse analysis of the work of several of the most prominent male Muslim comedians in the US context, religious studies scholar Samah Choudhury (2020) comes to a similar conclusion. Building on sociologist Giselinde Kuipersâ (2011) notion of âhumour regimesâ, in which humour operates within its own discursive mechanisms with their own rules and norms, Choudhury (2020, 111) argues that these male Muslim comedians adhere heavily to âsecular regimes of humourâ. In other words, their âMuslimnessâ is made legible to hegemonic secular schemas through discursive markers including ânormalâ performances of sexual liberalism and distancing themselves from religious beliefs and practices (Choudhury 2020, 223).7 These discursive markers coincide with several themes discussed later in this article; namely, sexuality and religious beliefs and practices. However, in Labib and el-Ghorriâs comedy material, the dynamics of ânormalisationâ through alignment with secular norms that Choudhury identifies are variously echoed, complicated and (in the latter part of this article) reversed.
Expanding on Choudhury and Speckâs theoretical work, I locate how discursive constructions of humour as secular are gendered. Alongside Muslims, another group that continues to face charges of âlacking humourâ is women (Tomsett 2023). As critical studies scholar Kristen Anderson Wagner (2011, 35) observes, 19th and 20th century critics often recycled the claim that âfemininity and a sense of humour are mutually exclusiveâ. This persistent assertion hinged on an association of humour with traits discursively constructed as âmasculineâ such as rationalism, critique and aggression (Anderson Wagner 2011). While this gendered âhumourlessnessâ discourse may appear unrelated to the construction of humour as secular, I argue that discursive constructions of humour as âmasculineâ and âsecularâ intersect. In Religion, the Secular, and the Politics of Sexual Difference, Linell Cady and Tracy Fessenden trace the emergence of a gendered binary model of religion/secularism in the post-Enlightenment era, in which religion came to be associated with femininity, emotionality and the private sphere, while the public sphere was imagined as a âmasculine domainâ of rationalism and secularism (2013, 9). This gendered construction of religion/secularism operates along strikingly similar lines to gendered discourses on humour. Values such as ârationalityâ and âcritiqueââdiscursively constructed as both masculine and secularâare imagined as integral to âgoodâ performances of humour. Here, constructions of humour as âsecularâ and âmasculineâ converge, forming an imaginary of âsecular-masculine humourâ as the norm.
Responding to the framing of âhumourless womenâ, feminist cultural scholars in the 1980s and 1990s began to explore the potential of âwomenâs humourâ to subvert dominant gendered norms and â[reclaim] female subjectivityâ (Gilbert 2004, 147). More recent scholarship continues to posit comedy as a feminist tool for âspeaking truth to powerâ and disrupting the norm of the comedian as a (white cis) male (Lockyer and Benedictis 2023). Rarely, however, have religious women in general, or Muslim women in particular, been included in these discussions. This oversight carries traces of a dominant secular understanding of religious subjectivity as incompatible with critique or subversion of dominant gendered norms (Cady and Fessenden 2013). It can also be contextualised in relation to a broader tendency within gender studies in Western European contexts to overlook religious and postsecular feminisms and the subjectivities of religious women (Hawthorne 2017). The framework of âsecular-masculine humourâ offers a theoretical intervention in response to this oversight, asserting that if secular and masculine imaginaries of humour are closely linked, scholars exploring how female comedians negotiate gendered norms would do well also to pay attention to secular normativity.
3.1 Different Interpretations of Islam and âCultural Translationâ
When discussing Islam in their material, both el-Ghorri and Labib repeatedly juxtapose different interpretations of Islamic practices, beliefs and ethics. In contrasting different interpretations of Islam, el-Ghorri and Labib unsettle the portrait of homogeneity which dominates Western European discourses on Islam. At the same time, the ways in which different interpretations are portrayed in their material carry traces of a secular arrangement of Muslims on either side of a âgood/badâ binary, depending on their (mis)alignment with ânormalâ markers of secular modernity and âWestern valuesâ (Mamdani 2004).
In Labibâs material, this dynamic is often structured around a juxtaposition between her âliberalâ religious ethics and her motherâs âstrictâ religiosity. For example, in one set, Labib (2021b) explains that she was âobsessedâ with Eminem as a teenager, but her mother would not buy his merchandise, deeming his music âharamâ (impermissible). Labib delivers the word âharamâ with an exaggerated eye role and mimed quotation marks, making it clear that she does not share her motherâs assessment. Here, playing on a mundane disagreement between a teenaged girl and her mother, Labib implicitly reflects the heterogeneity of their interpretations of Islamic ethics with regard to popular music.8
In another performance, Labib (2023) develops a similar narrative that positions her as culturally âintegratedâ and âliberalâ in contrast with her mother, who is âvery devoutâ and speaks little English. The juxtaposition in this case is established through a story in which Labib âtranslatesâ the popular British tabloid talk show The Jeremy Kyle Show9 for her mother:
You can imagine how awkward it was for me translating some of the words from The Jeremy Kyle Show to her. Like one time we were sat there watching Sharon blame her infidelity on the fact that she was [âdrunk Britishâ voice] âabsolutely wastedâ and my mum turned to me and she was like [impersonates Sudanese accent] âOla, what does wasted mean?â I was like, âOh, itâs like when you drink so much that you canât tolerate any moreâ [laughter] ⦠And then Sharon announced that she had, in fact, had a threesome ⦠My mum looks at me, waiting for a translation ⦠How was I supposed to translate a threesome to a woman that would have a heart attack if she knew that I knew what sex was? [laughter]. And guys, Iâm married, ok? [laughter].
Here, the joke is structured around âtranslationâ, initially framed in terms of a language barrier. However, it soon becomes clear that it is not only a matter of linguistic translation but also of translating (perceived) British cultural practices around alcohol and sexual norms (heavy drinking and sexual liberalism) into terms acceptable to Labibâs âvery devoutâ mother.
In an analysis of the Canadian sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie (CBC 2007â2012), communications scholar Kyle Conway theorises âcultural translationâ as a model through which minority communities are renderedâor render themselvesâintelligible to the majority (Conway 2017, 11). In Labibâs material on âtranslatingâ The Jeremy Kyle Show for her mother, it is the cultural norms of the British mainstream that need translation. At the same time, the structure of the joke around the popular British TV show The Jeremy Kyle Show embeds the material within a cultural framework legible to the British cultural mainstream. This is signalled in the first line of the joke, when Labib assumes the audience knows the show (âYou can imagineâ). In an analysis of âactivist Muslim comedyâ in the US context, Fadi Hirzalla and Liesbet van Zoonen (2016, 274) identify sexuality as one of the main topics through which Muslim comedians align themselves with âshared values of modernityâ. This humour is sometimes structured around a contrast with âotherâ Muslims (often of an older generation) who are not âmodernâ and are therefore ââ¯âclosed offâ to sexualityâ (Hirzalla and van Zoonen 2016, 271). In Labibâs material on The Jeremy Kyle Show, a similar construction can be recognised. Labibâs ability to talk about threesomes contrasts her motherâs potential âheart attackâ if she learns that her daughter knows what sex is. At the same time, the tag âAnd guys, Iâm married, ok?â implicitly positions Labibâs sexual knowledge within the context of marriage and therefore in alignment with dominant Islamic sexual ethics.
In her material, el-Ghorri also discusses various interpretations of Islam. In one set, for example, el-Ghorri explains that different Muslims interpret what is haram differently.10 To illustrate this, she references the âpork lineâ, explaining that some Muslims go to nightclubs and engage in pre-marital sex but draw the line at eating pork and criticise her for her âimproperâ portrayal of Islamic piety in her comedy. Here, el-Ghorri disrupts a secular imaginary of Islamic practice as homogenous and positions herself as a critical voice on the (perceived) hypocrisies of some Muslims. In describing the inconsistencies of religious practices among British Muslims, el-Ghorriâs material may also be relatable to âmainstreamâ British audiences who (know people who) espouse âChristian valuesâ without going to church, or celebrate some Christian festivals (such as Christmas) but not others. El-Ghorriâs approach shares certain characteristics in this regard with Shazia Mirzaâs early comedy material, in which Mirza discussed the (perceived) hypocrisies of some British Muslims criticising her for performing comedy as a Muslim woman, while being lax in their own religious practices (Amarasingam 2010, 471).
3.2 Adaptive Religious Subjectivities: Alcohol and Everyday Religion
Alongside contrasting different interpretations of Islam, both el-Ghorri and Labib portray religion through an autobiographical lens of adaptive, pragmatic and dynamic approaches to Islamic ethics, in response to everyday contingencies. This portrayal is often related to the ubiquity of alcohol within comedy spaces and in British society more broadly. Premises where alcohol is served are an integral part of the stand-up comedy scene, as common venues for open mic nights at which many, if not most, comedians begin their comedy careers. As el-Ghorri remarks in one interview: âWhen you first start performing doing open mic nights, a lot of it is in pubs and obviously Muslims donât drink, so thatâs a part of [the challenge]â (as quoted in Graham 2020). Similarly, Labib notes that what one interviewer describes as the âvery boozy worldâ of stand-up comedy presents social and professional challenges (Crawley 2024).11
In many of her sets, Labib begins by stating that she has never been in a pub before. As a comedian who has now been working on the stand-up circuit for six years, Labibâs unfamiliarity with the pub setting is no longer biographically true. However, its repetition serves to reiterate the implicit exclusions of the pub space. Labibâs remark that she has never been in a pub before provides a set-up for a variety of punchlines, such as â[sarcastically] Yeahâgreat one to have on my CV [laughter]â (Labib 2020) or âIâve never been in a pub before ⦠Well, neither have a lot of you lately, so I guess weâre all feeling a bit Muslim at the moment, arenât we? [laughter]â (Labib 2021b). In the first punchline, Labib plays on the irony of having to go to the pub to advance her career. In the second, she references the Covid-19 lockdowns, during which pubs and bars in Britain were closed. The quip âweâre all feeling a bit Muslimâ playfully draws the audience into Labibâs religious subjectivity, through a shared sense of discomfort on re-entering pub spaces after the Covid-19 lockdowns. The wording of this joke also constructs Muslimness in dynamic, affective terms as a âfeelingâ experienced on a spectrum (âa bit Muslimâ), to which everyone can relate. This construction unsettles the secular conceptualisation of religion as âa doctrine that you can either have or not haveâ (Jansen 2022, 597).
In another performance (2022), Labib portrays an adaptive approach to Islamic ethics through a discussion of (not) drinking alcohol. She introduces the topic by complaining, feigning envy, that other communities had a âsupport systemâ growing up that she did not:
You guys had a support system that Iâve seen get you through rough times, family problems, work problems ⦠I didnât have access to that support system because [pause], um, well, alcoholâs haram so ⦠[laughter].
By withholding that she is talking about alcohol, Labib allows the audience to develop their own ideas about what this âsupport systemâ might be. She also implicitly positions her audience as non-Muslims who drink alcohol (âyou guysâ), and marks the normalisation of binge drinking culture in Britain. She then goes on to describe how her not drinking alcohol is interrogated:
The British are always surprised when I tell them Iâve never drank. âYouâve never drunk alcohol?â [Impersonates a dramatic gasp]. âNo.â [incredulous] âNot even a taste?â âNo.â âYouâve never even had a sip? Oh no!â Iâm like, âcalm down!â. But no, Iâve never drank alcohol but I canât pretend I havenât been temptedâof course Iâve been tempted but I know what the rules are: no drinketh of the devilâs liquid. [Laughter]
In his analysis of British comedy, Carl Morris argues that British Muslim comedians often reflect on Islamic practices through âplaying for comedic value on the misapprehensions and discombobulation of a wider non-Muslim publicâ (Morris 2023, 15). In the material quoted above, Labib does just this; through repetition, she reflects the persistent nature of the question âYouâve never drunk alcohol?â When she confides in the audience that she has âbeen temptedâ, this lens of temptation might be read as a mode through which her abstention is rendered relatable to non-religious audience members. Labib also frames âthe rulesâ of her religious commitment humorously through comically archaic language that may have Biblical connotations to (culturally) Christian British audience members (âdrinkethâ).12
Later in the same performance, Labib elaborates this theme of temptation further, in the context of an Islamophobic attack that took place when she was twelve, in which a man approached her, pinned her against a wall and poured a can of cider over her head. She explains:
I was in shockâI didnât even know how to process it, and as soon as it started to sink in, I did what anyone in my position would have done ⦠[Looks tearful, then leans back and dramatically mimes licking cider off her chin; smacks lips]. The Lord said âdonât drinkethâ but He didnât say anything about donât licketh, so ⦠[laughter].
Stand-up material often tackles serious or traumatic experiences, which can create a sense of trust and intimacy between comedian and audience (Double 2017). These moments of seriousness build tension, which heightens relief and laughter at the punchline. This pattern is followed in the joke above, in which, when Labib describes being attacked, the audience falls silent. Labib then reconstructs this experience through the humorous lens of relatable opportunism (âI did what anyone in my position would have doneâ) as a chance to taste cider through a âloopholeâ in religious proscriptions. In this example, in contrast with the normative framing of religious discourse as âhumourlessâ, a comical portrayal of adaptive religious ethics in response to an incident of racialised violence brings the show back to a humorous register.
Like Labib, el-Ghorri also plays on an idea of âdynamicâ Muslimness in the context of (not) drinking alcohol in pub spaces. For example, in one performance (2022), she jokes that she had the following exchange with the bartender:
So I went up to the bar and I said [gruff, Cockney accent] âCan I have a Jack Daniels?â And he looked at me like I was a dragon or something [laughter]. And I was like [aggressive] âHurry up, innit ⦠hurry upâ. And then he poured it and he gave it to me and I said [pause; hesitantly] âIs it halal?â [Laughter].
In this joke, el-Ghorri plays on her ability to switch between different personas and the bartenderâs confusion at the contradiction of a hijabi Muslim woman ordering alcohol. In switching from a Cockney accent to the persona of an âinnocentâ Muslim, who does not know whether whiskey is halal, el-Ghorri blurs the boundary between these two figures. El-Ghorri also uses this comic device of juxtaposing âpiousâ and âimpiousâ personas elsewhere in her material. For example, in another set (2023), she contrasts dating situations in which she finds it expedient to exaggerate or downplay her religiosity:
You know when you go on a date with someone, and they like you but you donât feel them, innit, and then they try to kiss you and Iâm like âOh, no, no, noâAllah wouldnât like it, no, sorryâ [laughter]. But if theyâre fit, Iâm like [growling] âCome to me!â [laughter]. And theyâre like [worried], âNo, Fatiha, weâre Muslim, we need to wait until we get marriedâ. And Iâm like [growling] âWho is Fatiha? My name is Fiona [laughter]. Iâm only wearing this [gestures to hijab] cos itâs rainingâ [laughter].
Here, el-Ghorri frames her faith as a useful tool in handling unwanted sexual advances (âAllah wouldnât like itâ). She then upends this performance of pious modesty with an exaggerated performance of sexual desire, disavowing (perceived) markers of her Muslimness (her name and hijab). As with ordering a Jack Daniels and then asking if it is halal, el-Ghorri plays on her ability to shift between different personas, implicitly complicating secular framings of Muslim and non-Muslim (gendered) subjectivities as static and binary. Her expressions of sexual desire (a common thread in her material) can also be read as disrupting the ways in which Muslim women are âroutinely denied recognition of any sexual agencyâ (Michael 2013, 234).
In the examples throughout this section, âadaptiveâ religiosity is represented in everyday contexts outside the normative bounds of the explicitly âreligiousâ. In an article exploring anthropological discourse on the âeveryday Muslimâ, Nadia Fadil and Mayanthi Fernando (2015, 74) note that the everyday is often constructed as a space in which norms âfail to take holdâ. However, the authors go on to argue that the everyday should instead be understood as a normative frame (Fadil and Fernando 2025, 74). Here, they cite Charles Hirschkindâs (2014) suggestion that what is discursively framed as âeverydayâ in Western contexts bears âa strong affinity to what has conventionally been called the secularâ, normatively associated with questions of contingency and pragmatic concern.
As the study of lived religion attests, religion is not apart from, but embedded within, everyday life and its contingencies (McGuire 2008). Nonetheless, the construction of the âeverydayâ as secular remains a prevalent âcommonsenseâ framing. Notably, humour is often also associated with the everyday (Aidi 2021). If the everyday is imagined as âsecularâ, this reflects another intersection through which secular regimes of humour may operate latently. In their humourous presentations of religious practices within everyday life, el-Ghorri and Labib simultaneously disrupt both these normative frameworks of the everyday as secular and of humour as secular. Furthermore, anthropologist Samuli Schielke (2022, 350) notes a scholarly tendency to âproject Islam as a perfectionist ethical project of self-discipline at the cost of the majority of Muslims whoâlike most of humankindâare sometimes but not always pious and who follow various moral aims and at times immoral onesâ. The material discussed in this section also disrupts this projection, deploying humour to portray religious subjectivities characterised not by perfectionism but by flexibility, pragmatism and creativity.
3.3 Islam as Superior: Reversing Secular Hierarchies?
In the sections above, I have discussed the thematisation of Islamic practices and ethics through the lenses of adaptive religious subjectivity and contrasting different interpretations. While disrupting certain secular paradigms about Islam, gender and humour, this material also implicitly mirrors prevailing secular logics and models of ânormalisationâ regarding âgoodâ Islam (as liberal, individualised and adaptive). In the following sections, I trace two further dimensions of el-Ghorriâs material, which are more disruptive to the imaginary of secular-masculine humour, beginning with her positive framing of Islamic beliefs and practices, juxtaposed with the (perceived) superficiality or vacuity of British secular culture. In one illustrative example, el-Ghorri (2020) discusses being teased for being fat in school:
They used to say to me, âdid your mum call you Fatiha because youâre fat?â Yeah, laugh it up. Youâre going to hell anyways, so ⦠[laughter] I used to be like, âListen, yeah, Fatiha is the first chapter in the Qurâan ⦠It means the beginning or the opening ⦠[scornfully] What does your name mean, Lisa?â
Here, el-Ghorriâs responseââlaugh it up, youâre going to hell anywaysââplays with the idea of eschatological punishment and spiritual superiority as ways of dealing with fat shaming. She then juxtaposes the religious significance of her own name with the perceived lack of meaning behind the common British name Lisa.13 This material can be interpreted as implicitly reversing a dominant secularist narrative in which âWestern cultureâ is imagined to be historically or culturally richer than âIslamic cultureâ (Ahmed 1992, 245). El-Ghorriâs explanation of al-Fatiha also acts as a pedagogical moment in her material, from which audiences unfamiliar with Islam may learn something about the Qurâan.
In another thread running through her material, el-Ghorri talks positively about prayer and faith through the comical lens of explaining her youthful complexion. Again, this material plays on a juxtaposition between el-Ghorriâs religious subjectivity and the audienceâs (perceived) impiety to comic effect. In one performance, for example, el-Ghorri (2022) announces her age, then plays on the audienceâs (assumed) perceptions of her youthful appearance:
So guys, Iâm 40 years old ⦠I donât look it, innit! Yeah, see what happens when you pray five times a day! [laughter]
This joke positions el-Ghorri as a practising Muslim who regularly performs salah and frames this practice of daily prayer humorously as a way to appear younger. Here again, in a reversal of dominant narratives of secular modernityâaccording to which people âought to be secularâ and âfreeâ themselves from religious strictures (Keane 2012, 159)âel-Ghorriâs religious subjectivity is playfully constructed as âsuperiorâ in relation to those who do not enjoy the anti-ageing benefits of praying five times a day. This framing also echoes a growing body of research applying a medicalised lens to uncover possible âhealth benefitsâ of Islamic practices such as sujood (prostration during prayer) (Eman and Aslam Rao 2025).
3.4 Dating and Relatable Misogyny: Bursting the Secular Bubble?
I now turn to a fourth theme through which secular/religious binary imaginaries are often produced; dating. Dating and relationships are themes along which boundaries between subjects are often constructed within secular discourse. The choices subjects make about who, how and when to date are framed as reflective of their alignment with (or estrangement from) âmodernâ values (Cady and Fessenden 2013). When secular societies are discursively constructed as âemancipatedâ, claims of womenâs sexual emancipation are often pointed to as âevidenceâ of this (Scott 2017). In this section, I argue that el-Ghorri disrupts these scripts of secular modernity as sexual emancipation in her material on dating and, in doing so, unsettles the discursive construction of humourâs critical mode as âsecular-masculineâ.
During one performance, el-Ghorri (2021) announces that she is âsingle and ready to halal mingleâ. In adding halal to a colloquial phrase typically used to connote casual dating, el-Ghorri parodically merges two frames often imagined as oppositional. She continues:
Muslims have got dating apps, right? Youâve got Tinder, weâve got Minder [laughter] ⦠Youâve got
match.com , weâve got Muzmatch, right? [laughter]. And itâs different platforms, same [emphatic] shit [loud laughter; applause].
Drawing repeated analogies between non-Muslim and Muslim dating apps, el-Ghorri disrupts the dominant framing of Muslim approaches to dating as âotherâ (Ahmed 1992). While a certain idea of difference is upheld in the construction of the joke, between âyouâ (non-Muslims) and âweâ (Muslims), in her criticism of both varieties of dating apps (âsame shitâ), el-Ghorri underlines similarities rather than differences.14 This sets up a broader thread in el-Ghorriâs material on dating, in which these similarities between Muslim and non-Muslim dating apps centre on shared experiences of misogyny and sexual objectification.
Across various sets, el-Ghorri includes anecdotes about receiving sexually objectifying messages on dating apps, to which she responds with feigned misunderstanding and sarcasm. For example, in her Russell Howard Hour set (2021), she describesâwith furrowed brow and disgusted toneâa message that she received on a dating app from a man with the crude, comically alliterative username âBilal Big Bollocksâ. Impersonating a stern, âmasculineâ voice, she imitates this man telling her that he is looking for âa woman thatâs good in the kitchen and good in the bedroomâ. After a pause, she responds faux-flirtatiously: âOh honey, Iâm a beast in the bedroom ⦠I can sleep 12 hours straight [laughter; cheers]â. Here, through a facetious performance of misunderstanding, el-Ghorri ridicules the misogynistic and sexual overtones of this manâs message. With jokes like this one, el-Ghorri articulates a form of âresistant femininityâ that fails âto recognize the cathexisâthat is, the desiresâof a dominant masculinityâ (Abedinifard 2016, 238). Furthermore, el-Ghorriâs humorous resignification of misogynistic messages in her material simultaneously unsettles specific gendered and racialised discourses which frame Muslim women as âoppressedâ and marks the ubiquity of (hetero)patriarchy in the secular British mainstream. El-Ghorri might also be interpreted as deploying something akin to self-deprecating humour (in âfailingâ to meet certain ideals of gendered comportment) (Gorman 2020). However, she revises this self-deprecating script by reframing her âfailureâ as a mode of resistance to sexual objectification and misogyny.
By marking the relatability of misogynistic and sexually objectifying discourses within the British secular mainstream, I argue that the material discussed in this section disrupts binary constructions of âoppressive Islamâ/âsexually emancipatory secularismâ. Specifically, this material reverses the patterns traced within Choudhuryâs model of secular regimes of humour. Rather than comedic success in the âmainstreamâ hinging on the comedian performing alignment with secular imaginaries of sexual emancipation (Choudhury 2020), (hetero)patriarchy and misogyny are marked as ânormalâ features of dating in contemporary Britain. Furthermore, in describing her own experiences with Muslim dating apps, el-Ghorri does not portray Islam as âthe pious other of secularismâ but marks patriarchy and sexual objectification as a point of commonality, traversing entrenched religious/secular binary imaginaries (Schielke 2022, 354).
4 Conclusions
In this article, I have analysed the ways in which comedians Fatiha el-Ghorri and Ola Labib negotiate the messy web of secular imaginaries about Islam, gender, humour and the secular itself. What emerges is a rich, complex picture of comedy material that goes against the secular comedic grain through processes of resignification, comic reversal, and relatability outside the bounds of secular and gendered norms, while also echoing, at times, dominant secular constructions of âgoodâ Muslimness. This tension might be read as holding up a mirror to the broader tensions of contesting secular normativity while performing within a framework in which that normativity remains dominant. As Choudhury (2020, 11) puts it, âthe comedian has room to critique certain power structures while still very much remaining subject to themâ.
In my analysis of el-Ghorri and Labibâs material on religious beliefs and practices, I explored several prominent threads. Firstly, I traced the ways in which both comedians differentiate between their religious subjectivity and those of other Muslims. Secondly, I explored portrayals of religious practices and ethics as adaptive and responsive to everyday contingencies, taking material on negotiating alcohol consumption as an illustrative theme. These constructions of flexibility and of diverse religious interpretations implicitly disrupt a longstanding secular framing of religion in general, and Islam in particular, as static and homogenous. At the same time, such representations of Islamic religious practices risk being co-opted to reproduce logics of ânormalisationâ by (re)constructing normative framings of âmodernâ religious subjectivities, as those marked by individualism, âmodern valuesâ and resistance. This is not a critique of the comedians discussed in this article, but rather of the secular politics of exceptionalism that often works on public representations of âliberalâ Muslims in the West, a politics in which âgoodâ Muslims prove their âmodernâ subjecthood through liberal, individualistic expressions of religiosity and a âgood sense of humourâ, while âbadâ Muslims whose faith does not take this shape are further marginalised (Mamdani 2004).
In the latter half of the article, focusing particularly on el-Ghorriâs material, I identified two threads which are less assimilable into the norms and ideals of secular subjecthood. Firstly, el-Ghorriâs facetious construction of Islam as âsuperiorâ acts as a reversal of the logics of secularism generally and of imaginaries of secular-masculine humour specifically. Secondly, her representation of sexual objectification and misogyny while dating as a relatable theme to âmainstreamâ audiences disrupts positive imaginaries of the secular as sexually emancipatory and marks new possibilities for deploying relatability to unsettle religious-secular binaries and the discursive framework of secular-masculine humour as distinctly critical. More broadly, the running thread of âantagonismâ and resistance to gendered norms in el-Ghorriâs material aligns with an imaginary of humour as a site of critique, while disentangling humour as critique from being necessarily the preserve of the secular and masculine.
To conclude, el-Ghorri and Labib are among a recent generation of British Muslim comedians carving out spaces within the âmainstreamâ to speak about their religious subjectivities and (to varying degrees) to engage with and unsettle secular normativity and the discursive construction of humour as secular and masculine. While this remains a process of negotiation that cannot be entirely disentangled from existing norms and discursive mechanisms, these humorous self-representations have begun the work of interrogating and expanding the potential for British stand-up comedy to act as a space for postsecular feminist expressions of humour and critique in the future. Such postsecular feminist modes of humour might, in due course, reveal a âmainstreamâ in which the norms and assumptions attached to the imaginary of secular-masculine humour can become the butt of the joke.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my supervisors Karin van Nieuwkerk and Mariecke van den Berg, colleagues Kamel Essabane, Muhammad Allam and Lena Richter and the anonymous peer reviewers for their invaluable feedback on earlier drafts of this article. Thanks also to all participants at the Muslims in the UK and Europe Symposium 2025 (CIS, Cambridge) for their questions and engagement with this research. This article is part of the project âWhatâs So Funny? (Selfâ)Representations of Jewish and Muslim Women in British Comedy Entertainmentâ (project 21000196) of the research programme NWO PhD in the Humanities 2021 which is (partly) financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
The term âMuslim comedyâ is used by numerous scholars to describe comedy performed by Muslims in North America and Western Europe in recent decades (Liederman 2024). Taken uncritically, this term might imply a homogenous genre rendered ontologically distinct from other comedy by its âMuslimnessâ. I use it in this article rather to denote a âmultifaceted, elastic and shiftingâ category (Thonnart 2024, 3).
For a notable exception, in which American Muslim womenâs stand-up performances are explored through the lens of queering Islam, see Michael (2022). Choudhuryâs (2020) dissertation also takes up gendered discourses as a key focus, exploring constructions of Muslim masculinity in US comedy. Other studies, including Thonnart (2023), Michael (2013) and Amarasingam (2010) mention gendered dynamics in Muslim comedy more briefly.
âDebut showâ denotes a comedianâs first extended show (typically 45 minutes to an hour in length), for which tickets are sold individually rather than as part of a line-up.
Live at the Apollo is one of the BBCâs flagship televised stand-up programmes, and has been a regular TV fixture in Britain since 2004. A guest slot on Live at the Apollo affords comedians wider visibility and advances their careers (Double 2014). Fatiha el-Ghorri is the first Muslim woman to feature on the programme.
For example, el-Ghorriâs performance on The Jonathan Ross Show has over half a million views on YouTube.
I also attended three live performances by each comedian in 2022â2024. These were longer âwork-in-progressâ shows between thirty and forty-five minutes in duration. Here, I observed some of the same material live. It is beyond the scope of this article to compare these performances with the comediansâ televised material, but observations at these live shows inform my understanding of the physicality of the comediansâ deliveries.
Choudhuryâs analysis examines racialised frames of South Asian Muslim masculinity as sexually âdeviantâ, which comedians negotiate by emphasising their attraction to white, non-Muslim women and their alignment with liberal feminist understandings of sexual emancipation (Choudhury 2020, 120).
This joke echoes broader debates regarding music and Islamic ethics among British Muslim communities. Approaches range from interpreting all music with instrumentation as impermissible to listening to mainstream secular popular music (such as Eminem). For a detailed discussion of this topic, see Morris (2023, 120â127).
This show was a regular fixture on ITV broadcasting for almost fifteen years, centring (melodramatic and sometimes controversial) family dramas and relationship issues.
This example is taken from a live performance, attended 31Â March 2023 at Clapham Grand, London. I have seen el-Ghorri perform variations on this material in several other live performances.
There are exceptions to this âboozyâ world, in recent initiatives established in the UK to cater towards Muslim audiences and comedians, such as Funny Muslim Ladies and Halal Fried Comics, where halal snacks and/or meals are served, along with alcohol-free drinks. Venues such as town halls, theatres, and hotels provide alternatives to the âconventionalâ pub stand-up venues for these events.
The term âdrinkethâ is also used in some English translations of the Qurâan.
The name âLisaâ is of Hebrew origin and literally translates to mean âGod is my oathâ. However, its historical and religious significance will likely be unknown to mainstream contemporary British comedy audiences.
El-Ghorriâs use of the expletive âshitâ for comic effect also contrasts the tendency of some Muslim comedians to avoid swearing in their comedy to uphold their understanding of âhalal humourâ (Liederman 2024).
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