Ramez Wakel el-Gaw
| Ramez Wakel el-Gaw | |
|---|---|
| رامز واكل الجو | |
| Genre | Comedy, pranks |
| Created by | Ramez Galal |
| Directed by | Yousif Yasin |
| Presented by | Ramez Galal |
| Opening theme | Ramez Wakil el-Gaw (by Ramez Galal) |
| Country of origin | Egypt United Arab Emirates |
| No. of episodes | 30 (planned) |
| Production | |
| Producer | Middle East Broadcasting Center |
| Running time | 23−26 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | MBC Masr, MBC 1 |
| Release | June 18 – July 18, 2015 |
Ramez Wakel el-Gaw ("Ramez in Control")[1] is an Egyptian pranking television program, which aired everyday, through Ramadan 2015, on MBC Masr and MBC 1.[2]
Background
Ramez Galal is a famous Egyptian prankster whose prank TV show episodes are released and watched during Ramadan. In 2011, he starred in Ramez Qalb al-Assad,[3] Ramez, The Desert Fox in 2012, which was highly criticized,[4] Ramez Ankh Amon in 2013[5] and Ramez, The Sea Shark in 2014.[6] This show, filmed in Dubai, is highly similar to Galal's past prank shows.[7]
Plot
The star gets invited to an opening ceremony of a hotel in Dubai.[7] The host, Shaimaa, convinces the star to get on a plane for a tour in the skies of Dubai, where a masked Ramez Galal is sitting next to them in the plane. He has four different masks of characters, "Fayiq al-Ayiq", "Fathiyya al-Montahiyya", "Bulbul" and a mask that looks like the American actor, Morgan Freeman. The plane's engine stops or gets hijacked and the pilot of the plane orders some of the people on the plane to jump. Being experts at jumping from planes, they do it.[8] Ramez annoys the star in every way possible until the plane lands and everyone gets out of it, where Ramez tells the star that it's a prank.[8]
Production
Waleed bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim, the owner of Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC), and Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, the crown prince of Dubai, supported the show, spiritually and financially. The show had American makeup experts to make the masks and put them on Ramez and for every episode, they needed three hours to put the mask on him. The plane that the prank happens on is a Spanish Short SC.7 Skyvan with a Czech pilot.[8]
At the end of most of the episodes, the stars either beat Ramez or say cutting words to him or even spit at him.[9] Some of them stayed mad at him and cut their relationship with him, but most of them forgave him and apologized for anything they said or did to him in the end of the episodes. Ramez also appeared in an advertisement for the show, apologizing to the American star, Paris Hilton, and her saying that she will be appearing in an episode of the show.[10] There were mentions of Hilton being paid $50k to do the episode in the show.[10]
Criticism
After the air of the first episode of the show, some agencies and papers started criticizing it. Al Youm Al Sabea criticized the show, calling it: "It is a show that contains fake materials and underestimate the minds of the viewers".[11] They also called the MBC as a company that only cares about the profit of advertisement that comes from all these fake shows.[11] The Ain al-Youm news agency said that the first episodes of the show turned out artificial and weak.[12]
References
- ^ Saad, Nardine. "Paris Hilton, subject of plane crash hoax, may have been in on prank after all". latimes.com. Retrieved 2019-03-05.
- ^ "Ramez Wakil el-Gaw". MBC.net (in Arabic).
- ^ "Ramez Kalb al-Assad". Hao123 Video (in Arabic).
- ^ Abdelhaq, Aroub (August 4, 2012). "Egypt's extreme version of 'Punk'd'". C NN.
- ^ "Ramez Ankhamon". Elcinema.com (in Arabic).
- ^ "Ramez, The Sea Shark". MBC.net (in Arabic).
- ^ a b Aadil, Wael (June 18, 2015). "Mohammed Hineidi to Ramez: The first decision that I;m going to make is to cut my relationship with you" (in Arabic). Fil Fan.
- ^ a b c Taha, Khalid (June 17, 2015). "Ramez Galal: These are the stars that had beaten me in "Ramez Wakil el-Gaw"" (in Arabic). Fil Fan.
- ^ Taha, Khalid (June 17, 2015). "Mohammed Ramadan apologized to Ramez for his "Shaloot"" (in Arabic). Fil Fan.
- ^ a b Thajil, Ridha Naeem (June 7, 2015). "Egypt: We reveal the salary of Paris Hilton in Ramez Wakil el-Gaw" (in Arabic). Iraq99 News.
- ^ a b al-Sukkari, Abbas (June 18, 2015). "Ramez Wakil el-Gaw is a tool to laugh at the minds of the viewers" (in Arabic). Al Youm Al Sabea.
- ^ Mamoon, Asmaa (June 20, 2015). "Saudi press opens fire on "Ramez Wakil el-Gaw"" (in Arabic). Al Youm Al Sabea.