PBS set May 11 (10 p.m.) for the debut of Stand Up: Muslim-American Comics Come of Age.
The show is part of the America at the Crossroads series, in which the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is spending some $20 million on documentaries on "the challenges and opportunities America and the world face in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."
In this case, the show looks at Muslim- and Arab-American comedians in the post-9/11 world who “flaunt their ethnic identity through humor rather than denying it."
For example, comic Azhar Usman said of a recent trip to Britain: "It's a totally different vibe over there, man … I'm just so used to people hating me for being a Muslim. It was nice to finally be hated just for being an American."
WETA Washington, D.C., is the producing station for the series and the show.
