Ramy Youssef shared his prayer to “please free the people of Palestine” in an urgent message during his “Saturday Night Live” monologue this weekend.
Youssef, who hosted “SNL” for the first time this weekend, has previously advocated for an “immediate, permanent” cease-fire as part of the Artists4Ceasefire collective and pushed for “peace and lasting justice” for the Palestinian people amid Israel’s war in Gaza.
After a bit where he mentioned a friend fighting with an ex-partner over a dog, the comedian revealed that he got a call from another friend who has family members in Gaza.
“He goes, ‘Ramy, they’re suffering. I don’t know where half of them are, I don’t know what to do. Please pray for them, it’s the only thing we can do.’ And I’m like, ‘Dude, I got you, right,’” said Youssef, adding that his prayers were “complicated.”
He continued, “I’m like, ’God, please, please help Ahmed’s family, please stop the suffering, please stop the violence, please free the people of Palestine, please. And please free the hostages, all the hostages, please.”
Youssef, who took brief pauses for applause, went back to the bit about his friend with the dog.
“And while you’re at it, you know, free Mr. Bojangles. I mean, he’s a beautiful dog. I’m praying for that dog,” he said.
Youssef, elsewhere in his monologue, declared that he doesn’t like “either option” ahead of the presidential election in November.
He recalled someone named Muhammad calling him on behalf of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and telling him to go to Michigan to “tell the Arabs to vote for Joe” so the comedian could “change the course of American history.”
“And our country’s so messed up that for five minutes I was like, ‘Is this up to me?’” Youssef said.
You can check out more of his “SNL” monologue below.
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