On a Saturday night in April and as a gesture from me and my friends to encourage young Lebanese artists, we decided to buy tickets to the Casino Lebanon to watch Nemer Nassar’s stand-up comedy show.
I was all along a fan of stand up comedy myself, and I was very excited about the show. As the show started it was all good, until, Nemer decided to be “funny” and use women as the center of his jokes. Some comedians do that, I know, they joke about anything and everything. But in this show, he showed so much rage and hatred towards women that I was questioning the psychological state of this guy.
One “joke” ran about a female friend of his who was on the phone with her boyfriend shouting, and he thought it was a fight, so he asked the woman why are you fighting, and she replies that it was an argument. And here and I quote Nemer “only a woman would be retarded enough to say it’s an argument.”
Please state for me what is funny in this demeaning offensive story?
And then right after, he uses the famous number 1 sexist quote “100 mara bi nos 3a2el djeje khawta” and he addresses women violently saying “shut up Bitch.” Well well well!
I am trying to be as objective as possible as I’m writing this article. But as a woman, how do you think I felt after listening to this live misogyny rubbed in my face? Isn’t it enough that sexism is everywhere, and did Nemer really run out of funny jokes so he had to take the road down to cheap joke land, where he makes fun of people to feel superior and funny?
These are only few things I quoted here; I have not talked about all the gender ignorance in his jokes, about men, and manly chest hair, and homophobic comments, and I quote “no man should have lips as if you are sucking a dick.”
This is a little sample of our generation, who is supposed to be joking about stereotypes and taboos, and who are supposed to be socially conscious and spreading awareness. Instead, what I saw that night was more sexism and homophobia and hatred and building a career on the expense of other minorities, and trying to make a living through cheap jokes about people.
Why do people find joking about women and gay people funny? What gives Nemer the entitlement to address women that way? And, please, let him correct Wikipedia in a definition of a man, by saying, a man is someone who hates women and has chest hair. Wow, I am sure every man in the world is now feeling proud to be a man!
This show, to me, as a woman and a human rights activist, was a huge disappointment and an Epic fail.
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