BAGHDAD - The concept of the television program was subversive by Iraqi standards: a comedy daring enough to joke about sex and relationships.

"The idea we had for this show was just a bunch of us guys sitting around drinking and telling jokes," said Gazwan Shawi, a producer.

Here and elsewhere, the banter of young drunken men tends to circle back to one topic: sex.

"Between us friends," Mr. Shawi said, speaking of the program's hosts and crew members, "we always talk about these things. Why can't we let the audience see this reality?"

They have, and for that they have attracted a huge following for the program, "There Is Someone" - named for a standard Iraqi segue into a joke. The show, broadcast on Sunday evenings, has become a national sensation. Bootleg DVDs of past episodes are brisk sellers.

But the jokes have not gone over so well with government censors and religious groups. The show recently resumed taping after a hiatus that followed complaints by the government's media commission.

After a religious group protested outside the studio, the network that broadcasts the show agreed to remove from it a female D.J. whose dancing had offended the devout.

The show lays bare the deep schisms in Iraqi society over the limits of Western-style notions of free speech. In Iraq, Islamic law is enshrined in the Constitution alongside guarantees of personal freedoms.

The show has struck a chord among a public hungry for homegrown entertainment that challenges certain orthodoxies. People are tired of politically tinged programming produced by channels affiliated with parties and officials. "There Is Someone" is broadcast by Al Sumaria, which is owned by a Lebanese businessman and is one of the few media outlets not linked to a political party.

The format is simple: five or six men sitting in yellow chairs in the center of a studio drinking from big yellow coffee mugs and joking with one another. A studio audience looks on.

Often the jokes are goofy and G-rated and do not necessarily translate well into English. Just as often, the jokesters touch on topics that have been strictly taboo on local television, like sexual satisfaction, adultery, drunkenness and women's menstrual cycles. (One joke has a man sending his wife to the market so he can engage in phone sex with his mistress.)

"The show is challenging some social ideas and traditions, and that's why it may get so much attention," said Waleed Monem, a host.

On a recent Sunday morning, a couple of hours before taping, a group of young men gathered outside the studio hoping to be chosen for the audience. Ahad Yasin, 29, said he came to watch because "it's amazing to have such a show."

"It lets us forget about all the sad things," he added.

Yasir Ghazi contributed reporting.

The New York Times

(China Daily 05/13/2012 page12)