Americans don't know a lot about the Middle East — [they] don't know we laugh.

In this line, Jobrani points to a basic but telling gap in American perceptions of the Middle East: the tendency to see the region primarily through news about war, extremism, or geopolitics rather than through ordinary human life. By emphasizing “we laugh,” he highlights humor as a universal marker of shared humanity and everyday normalcy. The joke works by undercutting stereotypes—if audiences can imagine Middle Eastern people laughing, they must also imagine them as complex individuals with families, friendships, and cultural nuance. It also reflects comedy’s role as soft diplomacy: using laughter to reduce fear, invite empathy, and challenge media-shaped caricatures.