Remy Munasifi (born June 16, 1980) is an American

stand-up Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage (theatre), stage and delivers humour, humorous and satire, satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical comedy, physical acts. These ...

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

, parody musician, rapper and video artist. A prominent voice in

libertarian Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

circles, Munasifi is a frequent collaborator with ''Reason'' magazine, where his parody videos often address themes of

limited government In political philosophy, limited government is the concept of a government limited in power. It is a key concept in the history of liberalism.Amy Gutmann, "How Limited Is Liberal Government" in Liberalism Without Illusions: Essays on Liberal ...

individual liberty Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties of ...

, and economic freedom. He gained widespread recognition for his comedic sketches on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

under the name 'GoRemy,' which also parody cultural and social issues, and his videos have amassed over 98 million views as of June 2021.

Personal life

Munasifi was born in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and grew up in

McLean, Virginia McLean ( ) is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community and census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population of the community was 50,773 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is ...

. He has an Iraqi father who is a doctor, and a Lebanese mother who is a

Pilates Pilates (; ) is a type of mind-body exercise developed in the early 20th century by German physical trainer Joseph Pilates, after whom it was named. Pilates called his method "Contrology". Pilates uses a combination of around 50 repetitive e ...

instructor. Munasifi graduated from the Honors Program at

Wheeling Jesuit University Wheeling University (WU, formerly Wheeling Jesuit University) is a private Catholic university in Wheeling, West Virginia, United States. It was founded as "Wheeling College" in 1954 by the Society of Jesus (also known as the Jesuits) and was a ...

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in Ohio County, West Virginia, Ohio and Marshall County, West Virginia, Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The county seat of Ohio County, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mo ...

in 2002. He has been to

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

numerous times; many of his relatives moved there from Iraq after the

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

began in 2003.

Career

Munasifi's comedic alter-ego "Habib Abdul Habib" received much popularity for joking about matters such as U.S. security screening. He is known for a video titled " Arlington: The Rap", which received 300,000 views in less than a day. In 2009, he signed with the Gersh Agency, and later landed a Comedy Central Records deal. Munasifi has since been the opening act for rapper Wale, comedian Brian Posehn and others. He has performed several times in the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival. Munasifi's debut EP, titled ''The Falafel Album'', is available on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

. ''The Falafel Album'' was highly influenced by Munasifi's Iraqi and Lebanese heritage, especially culture and food. Munasifi's 2011 political spoof video titled "Raise the Debt Ceiling" has over 750,000 views on YouTube. He was interviewed on several national news programs about the content of the song as well as his views about the debt ceiling. At the end of 2021, with the U.S. government's debt more than double what it was when he released his first track on the subject, Remy put out
sequel
Since 2010, Munasifi has partnered with Reason TV and the

Reason Foundation The Reason Foundation is an American Libertarianism in the United States, libertarian think tank that was founded in 1978. The foundation publishes the magazine ''Reason (magazine), Reason''. Based in Los Angeles, California, it is a nonprofit, ...

to create

br>parody videos
These examine various topics, including crime, police accountability, tariffs, cryptocurrency, inflation, and wasteful government spending. In 2020, he created a second channel, MTGRemy, which posts parody songs and skits about the popular trading card game, Magic the Gathering.

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

* '' The Falafel Album'' (2010)

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Munasifi, Remy 1980 births American comedians of Middle Eastern descent American people of Lebanese descent American rappers American stand-up comedians Living people People from Arlington County, Virginia Comedians from Washington, D.C. American video bloggers Wheeling University alumni American people of Iraqi descent YouTube channels launched in 2006 21st-century American comedians YouTubers from Virginia YouTubers from Washington, D.C. American male comedians