In the first episode of #1 Happy Family USA, the animated Prime Video comedy created by Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady, 12-year-old Rumi Hussein is given a precious gift: a hilariously oversized Chicago “Balls” jersey. “I think this jersey might be too big,” Rumi reports to his father Hussein Hussein (also Youssef). “Yes, Rumi, it will fit you forever. We didn’t come to this country to buy new clothes every year,” Hussein, who emigrated from Egypt to New Jersey, tells his son.The bootleg Chicago Bulls uniform discovered by Rumi’s Uncle Jamal through less-than-legal means is an important relic for the young sports fan and for #1 Happy Family USA itself. After all, the image of Rumi in his misspelled kit was the first bit of art released to promote the series. The jersey is also, it turns out, important to the show’s creator as well, who was gifted an enormous Michael Jordan jersey from his parents as a child. “It was so big that to this day I could still get into it,” Ramy Youssef tells Den of Geek. “When I started first grade I had on this thing that fit me like a dress. My parents’ whole plan was ‘Michael Jordan will be great forever, and this will fit you forever.'” It must be said that the Youssefs had a point. Michael Jordan was indeed great forever and it seems as though the jersey will fit forever. That childhood moment also served as the perfect entryway for #1 Happy Family USA‘s comedic but poignant depiction of a very specific time in American history. What specific time, exactly? Well, the series opens with a radio DJ happily anticipating the release of Jay-Z’s album “The Blueprint” the following day. Now to just head over to Wikipedia and check the date The Blueprint was relea…oh. Oh no. That’s right: #1 Happy Family USA is a 9/11 period piece, a genre that, perhaps unsurprisingly, remains rare. Taking place just before and then just after the events of September 11, 2001, the Prime Video series follows the Muslim-American Hussein family as they adapt to scary new times and make great efforts to prove to their white neighbors that they’re as American as apple pie and baseball. This involves many song-and-dance numbers. While the specter of 9/11 looms large, the show is really more of a typical slice-of-life sitcom about an ironically oft-forgotten place and time: American youth at the turn of the millennium. “This is a show that I wish had been on at the time, to kind of reflect what was happening,” Youssef says. “And I think a lot of that is even reflected in the animation style we chose to hone in on.” That animation style is developed by the show’s executive producer, Mona Chalabi. A British data journalist of Iraqi descent, Chalabi has received many awards (including a Pulitzer in 2023) for her illustrations that help publications present complex data. Aside from some work in documentaries and various explainer pieces, Chalabi had little experience in scripted animation and was grateful to finally get the opportunity. “This was a whole other level. I think it’s a real testament to how Ramy works. He’s always taking a chance on people,” Chalabi says. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Chalabi’s distinct, lowkey style turned out to be the missing piece that Youssef and Brady were looking for to recapture the early 2000s more analog, less computer-generated vibe. After connecting via Instagram DM, Youssef and Chalabi were able to collaborate on an animation plan that allowed for the story’s characters to visually “code switch” depending on their environment. Chalabi also heavily utilized the Internet Wayback Machine to get a refresher on what the world even looked like in 2001. “I looked up visual references for what a halal cart looked like in 2001 (spoiler: it looks exactly like it does today). But also: what did the buildings look like back then? What would a mosque in Hackensack have looked like? What was the fashion back then? What phones were people using?” Chalabi says. “When [Rumi’s sister] Mona is giving away freebies as a political candidate, is it a Walkman or a Discman or an iPod? That kind of stuff really helps you to feel like you are actually in that era.” Of course, the chief cultural exports of the 9/11 era weren’t just Discmans or iPods but also fear and political suppression. While Chalabi and Youssef were in their pre-teens in 2001, Brady was an adult and an active participant in the entertainment industry’s response to the terrorist attacks, having been a writer on South Park during the show’s first post-9/11 episode, “Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants.” She recalls the prevailing mood of the time and believes it applies well to young Rumi’s experiences. “[The show’s setting] is also a way to talk about the characters and what’s going on in the world now without being like ham fisted about it,” she says. “The word ‘fear’ kept coming up. What’s it like to be a 12 year old? The world’s kind of scary already. Your body’s changing and the world is treating you differently. So then let’s throw a globally-changing nightmare situation on top of that.” Younger viewers of #1 Happy Family USA might not fully understand the millennial-specific references but surely they’ll relate to its (again: comedic, we promise!) depiction of an era rife with paranoia, bigotry, and confusion. Even Rumi’s comedic “Balls” jersey has taken on an unfortunate new political context of late, with Fox News identifying the wearing of Chicago Bulls paraphernalia as grounds for extrajudicial rendition to El Salvador. “A lot of these conversations around surveillance and needing to overly prove your patriotism have proved to be of this era, just as much as they were of that era,” Youssef says. “That’s been the thing that we could have never expected.” All eight episodes of #1 Happy Family USA season 1 are available to stream on Prime Video now. The show has been renewed for a second season.