Bassem Youssef once made the West swoon. A heart surgeon turned comic, he burst onto YouTube a decade ago with biting skits mocking Egypt’s Islamist rulers. The international press dubbed him the “Jon Stewart of the Arab world.” Jon Stewart himself even flew to Cairo to sit on his couch.

That’s the legend. The reality is more cynical — and now, more dangerous. Youssef isn’t a dissident or a free speech hero. He’s an opportunist who has reinvented himself time and again, most recently as a loudspeaker for Egyptian state propaganda. Washington should stop treating him as a symbol and start asking who he really serves.