Lebanese comedians are bringing relief and defying taboos with jokes about dating, partying during the pandemic -- and how everyone is considering leaving the crisis-hit country.
Laughter erupts in a venue wedged between two districts devastated by a deadly August 4 explosion that ravaged the Beirut port and swathes of the Lebanese capital.
The blast exacerbated a year-long acute financial crisis and political deadlock, as the country also struggled with a surge in novel coronavirus infections.
"The situation is so bad that even the flea market has slashed its prices by 50 percent," joked Nicolas Tawk.
Tawk is one of nearly a dozen comedians who took to the stage on a rainy December evening as part of an event organized by the stand-up comedy club aptly named "awk.word".
He was followed by a comedy duo who reworked the lyrics of Gloria Gaynor's hit "I Will Survive" to sing about a multitude of frustrations the Lebanese have been struggling with.
Salacious and incisively sarcastic, Lebanon's growing stand-up scene harbors no taboos.
Comedians have found plenty of material in the many mishaps of Lebanon, a multi-confessional country still deeply divided after the 1975-1990 civil war.
They take aim at the sectarian divisions of society and poke fun at traditions they feel are outdated and hypocritical, all the while taking jabs at politicians who have been in power for decades and are widely accused of corruption and incompetence.
- 'Pain and tragedy' -
Nour Hajjar, a prominent comedian, said stand-up comedy offers some "breathing room" to the Lebanese, who feel shackled by too many crises.
But the jokes delivered also remind people "why they are under tremendous pressure and why they are so sad", said the 28-year-old.
Many Lebanese, particularly young ones, have emigrated in recent years because of the country's economic crisis -- the worst since the civil war.
More than half of the population is now trapped in poverty, according to the United Nations.
Over the past year, the Lebanese pound has lost more than two-thirds of its value against the dollar on the black market and commercial banks have halted dollar transactions to protect dwindling reserves.
