a jewish community who changing, it started with lenny bruce... n the mid-1960s. committed suicide. he was outlawed the perform in many cities because of censorship. he was taken to court, stripped of everything, ended up killing himself. started pushing that envelope. then we have richard pryor... and yet start to realise the daily comedy is a powerful form of start to realise the daily comedy is a powerfulform of activism. in the middle east, it is such an infantile scene, that started in 1989 with one kid and you have from that, in the past 20 years, you have comedy clu bs, past 20 years, you have comedy clubs, a healthy way of expression, uniting people, bringing christians, muslims and dues together.“ uniting people, bringing christians, muslims and dues together. if that is not activism, i do not know what is. yes, it is not at its peak and we have free speech issues but 20 yea rs we have free speech issues but 20 years ago the issues were less. if we do not get out there and improve the situation, it is never going to change. it sucks the me

after lenny bruce we george, then we had richard pryor... a freestyle form of comedy.uch an infantile scene, that started in 1999 with one kid in aub, in beirut and you have from that, in the past 19—20 years, you have comedy clubs, a healthy way of expression, uniting people of all religions, bringing christians, muslims and jews together. if that is not activism, i do not know what is. yes, it is not at its peak and we have free speech issues but 20 years ago the issues are less now. if we do not try and improve the situation, it is never going to change. it sucks for me but we have to do what we have to do. roll up the sleeves and jump on in. for you comedy can change the world, build bridges between different peoples and also help bring about change within countries. can i tell you how in a very simple way? if i was to put an american and arab in one room together, a bunch of americans, asians, african—american, arab—americans, from all different backgrounds, syrians, sudanese everyone in one room and they are all laughing at the same joke? what does that say? they

♪ that's great it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes and aeroplanes ♪ ♪ lenny bruce is not afraid always remember new year's eve 1999 going into y2k seeing no doubt on mtv playing "it's the end of the world as we know it" by r.e.m. ♪ it's the end of the world as we know it ♪ ♪ it's the end of the world as we know it ♪ ♪ i feel fine >> it was a very appropriately apocalyptic song for what turned out to be a very apocalyptic decade. >> happy new year! >> so we wake up, it's 2000, we're all alive, and we're still in the middle of teen pop mania. ♪ don't want to hear you ♪ ain't nothing but a heartache ♪ >> boy bands were selling so many albums. ♪ every little thing i do ♪ never seems enough for you >> this is the biggest year in pop music history in terms of sales. britney spears selling 1.3 million copies of "oops i did it again." in the first week. ♪ oops i did it again ♪ i played with your heart ♪ got lost in the game ♪ oh baby baby >> everybody's falling in love with boy bands and girl groups. but then justin timberlake leaves in nsync. ♪ don't be so quick to walk away ♪ ♪ i want