Egyptian-American comedian Ramy Youssef is a master of the high concept-low brow punchline, as he proves in his new HBO special More Feelings.

"You ever been so horny you're like 'I can figure out Palestine'?" Youssef, a Muslim, says in reference to his past proclivity of dating Jewish girls, his eyes glittering at the juicy can of worms he just opened in front of the audience.

Many celebrities would be hesitant to dive into the Israel-Gaza conflict, not Youssef — he's already two feet in by the time More Feelings starts.

But this isn't new territory for Youssef, his business has always been in translating incomprehensible emotions into comedy that is somehow both puerile and profound.

He broke onto the scene in 2019 with Ramy, the A24-produced TV series loosely based on Youssef's own experience being a Muslim in America.

Now with a supporting role in an Oscar-winning film under his belt and an upcoming Saturday Night Live hosting gig, Youssef's platform has never been bigger.

Ramy Youssef and Issa Rae presenting at this year's Academy Awards.(Getty: Kevin Winter) The Mayor of Muslim disaster

Even before the Israel-Gaza conflict became a constant on our news screens, Youssef was outspoken about the big issues.

Youssef talks of it like a blessing and a burden; having a loud voice in a volatile climate is a commodity that people are willing to fight over. He thought he was doing a good deed by performing at a charity event for the victims of the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake, but his DMs disagreed.

"First message, 'Well, well well, Mr Hollywood finally decides to donate to charity. Where were you during the floods in Pakistan?" Youssef recounts in More Feelings.

It's a funny line lined with a thread of desperate truth. If you have a platform and belong to a community, how much activism is satisfactory to the cause?

Youssef is one of the more visible pro-Palestine celebrities, he makes sure of it. When he walked the Oscars red carpet he proudly sported the distinct red circle of the Artists4Ceasefire pin. He donated all funds from the last 12 shows of his 2023 US tour to Gaza through American Near East Refugee Aid.

Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez were spotted at his New York City Gaza fundraising show in December.

The three pinned posts at the top of his Instagram are impassioned pleas for peace and ceasefire. The fourth post is Youssef announcing that he'll be hosting Saturday Night Live on March 30, a 'bucket list thing' for the comedian. Mixed in with the general congratulation comments are people piling their hopes for the show on Youssef.

"You are taking the path of goodness for Palestine. You are one of the millions of people who still have a conscience," one says.

Others admonish him, "Why aren't you condemning Hamas for refusing a ceasefire?"

Just a day in the life of the mayor.

Strawberries

Youssef didn't get his figurative mayoral position overnight. He's been trying to make audiences understand foreign concepts since his award-winning TV series Ramy dropped its first season in 2019.

Ramy is an unflinching peek behind the curtain at what it was like to be a Muslim in America, made relatable by the early 20s coming-of-age shenanigans that are translatable among all cultures.

Ramy is Youssef's voice loud and clear, directed in part by Christopher Storer who would go on to create critical darling The Bear.

"[I'm] trying to find light and find commonality between people, which I think is the goal of the special and the goal of what I've always done," Youssef told AP.

Youssef's spoonful of sugar tactic is no more evident than the first episode of Ramy written and directed by Youssef, Strawberries.

One of the series' multiple flashback episodes, Strawberries' revolves around a pre-teen Ramy trying to navigate his first foray into 'self love'. All Ramy's grotty little friends have done it and they don't buy Ramy's ostentatious lies that he's in the club too.

The episode then Zooms out from Ramy's adolescent perspective to inform the audience that it's September 11, 2001. Ramy's parents and friends' attitudes change instantly. The following night Osama Bin Laden appears in Ramy's dream, eating ripe strawberries at his kitchen table and espousing alluring rhetoric.

"Every year, Egypt grows thousands of strawberries, but they are not for Egyptians … They have less bread, so Americans can have strawberries in December," he says.

Young Ramy takes one bite of an impossibly red strawberry before rejecting Bin Laden's insistence that people have to die in order to "restore the balance".

Leaving the bitten strawberry and the weight of generalised religious persecution on the table, Ramy returns to his bed and successfully masturbates for the first time.

Ramy received two more seasons that were universally critically acclaimed, with The Guardian calling season two "an ambitious, contradictory and refractive exploration of one man's Sisyphean trek toward meaning and spirituality in a deeply profane, messy and sometimes wondrous world."

Throughout its run, Ramy has picked up multiple Emmy nominations and a 2019 Best Actor Golden Globe award for Youssef.

What's next for Ramy Youssef?

Youssef was back in headlines this month after posing for pictures on the red carpet at this year's Academy Awards.

He was there to support Poor Things, the Yorgos Lanthamos fever dream that went on to win four Oscars.

In Poor Things, Youssef plays Max McCandles, the soft spoken betrothed of Emma Stone's Bella Baxter who patiently waits at home while Bella is off discovering the world. It was Youssef's first role on the silver screen and one of the first where he's not intentionally playing a version of himself.

"I've been really fortunate how well the show's been received, but I think in the back of my head I also knew, yeah, my name is Ramy and I'm playing Ramy," Youssef told The Guardian.

"And that there's this wholeother realm of acting where you really just step into a character."

Ramy Youssef, Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthamos on the set of Poor Things.(Supplied: Searchlight Pictures)

While there's no official word on if Ramy will be picked up for another season, Youssef has been dropping breadcrumbs that there could be a fourth and final season.

He's also got another TV plate spinning in Netflix series Mo, which got picked up for a second season in January of last year. Youssef co-created the show with comedian Mo Amer and it's loosely based on Amer's own experience as a Palestinian refugee living in Texas.

But Youssef also has people like Lanthamos telling him that he should transfer his talents to cinema.

"It's definitely something I've thought a lot about," he told GQ.

"Obviously, getting that kind of push from Yorgos is pretty cool, even if he said it aggressively…I'm definitely circling, I think, a few areas that I haven't played in before."

 "I'm really excited about getting to figure that out at some point over the next couple of years."