CBS has picked up a comedy project from a member of the Axis of Evil. That is, the comedy group, not anyone actually evil. Iranian-American comedian Maz Jobrani would star in the project, which bears his name. Nobody Trusts Maz is a single-camera comedy that focuses on Maz’s interracial marriage to an Irish-American woman and the clash between their two families.
Deadline says the project would follow the lives of a happy, well-off suburban family that is living the American dream (husband, wife, two great kids). Well, except that her Irish-American family is half-convinced he’s a terrorist and his Persian-American family thinks she and her family aren’t good enough for him. The lack of trust between the two families based on race appears to be the basis for the jokes in the project. It’s familiar ground for the comedian; Maz Jobrani has based his standup career on racial jokes that include his status as a member of the oft-profiled Middle Eastern ethnicity.
The plotline sounds a little tired and the name lacks originality, but Maz Jobrani--who has appeared in Better Off Ted and Knights of Prosperity--is a seriously funny guy who may have what it takes to get an overused and marriage-induced racial clash show off the ground. Cheers writer and producer Phoef Sutton is behind Nobody Trusts Maz, so there’s certainly plenty of experience working for the project. The producers will have to find a way to steer past stereotype jokes to really get this idea off the ground (since that’s the sort of thing that can only work for a short time), but there may be enough comedy skill involved to pull it off.
