“The Happiest Depressed People in the World” was a slogan raised during the Lebanese “Thawra” (revolution) of October 2019 and was quickly adopted as a form of motto by Lebanese people around the world. This form of self-mockery is relatable to all Lebanese, uniting a people deeply divided amongst sects and spread across one of the biggest diasporas in the world.

Whether through online memes mocking the Lebanese way of life, politicians, or even religious figures, or through TV shows such as “Lahon W Bass” starring comedian Hicham Haddad, humor is omnipresent in Lebanon. It is used as a coping mechanism for the trauma that the Lebanese have experienced for many generations.

“The situation is so precarious, the only way to mock this regime is to make people laugh and try, from an emotional standpoint, to draw the public’s attention to the absurdity of the situation in Lebanon,” said comedian John Achkar in an interview with Tamooda. His current stand-up comedy show, “Where Do You Live?” underlines the struggle of many Lebanese who have moved abroad. John Achkar moved to Dubai a few years ago and still cannot pinpoint a place he calls home. “Do I live in Lebanon or in Dubai? What do I call home?” he said. “In this show, I talk about what the Lebanese went through with the crisis, with thousands leaving, and I try to reflect this pain that we feel inside, and stress the fact that we don’t actually know where home is.”

John’s mission is not simply to make people laugh but to provoke thought and action. “My goal is for the Lebanese to stop victimizing themselves and realize their role in the situation we live in today; we are part of the system whether we want it or not. It is our responsibility to tear this system down now.”

Since 2019, Lebanon is undergoing its biggest ever economic and financial crisis, coupled with political chaos, an empty presidential chair since October 2022, and a government handling only current affairs. These multiple crises have pushed the middle class into poverty, and many Lebanese, especially the younger generation, are looking for better opportunities abroad. It is estimated that around 100,000 Lebanese emigrated in 2020 and 2021, with numbers continuing to rise at an estimated 100,000 a year in the past two years.

Radical, self-deprecating, typically Lebanese humor is in a degree of danger at present, threatened by the country’s elites. In late August, comedian Nour Hajjar was arrested by Lebanon’s top prosecutor, Ghassan Oueidat, following a lawsuit filed against him by Dar al-Fatwa, a government institution issuing rulings specifically for the Sunni community. The reason for the arrest? A joke he made about his mother’s religious habits during Sunni ceremonies. After his arrest, many comedians and activists put pressure on the authorities, leading to Hajjar’s release within 24 hours.

Shaden Esperanza, a queer comedian and activist, was deeply distraught by the arrest. “The majority of the population here does not see beyond their nose,” she told Tamooda. “When you criticize a religious figure, they want to arrest you for creating conflicts and tensions, but in Nour's case, his jokes made some people want to kill him, and instead of arresting those who threatened him, they arrested him!”

Shaden was summoned by the office of cybercrimes back in May 2021 for a joke she made on Lebanon’s handling of Covid-19. She was accused by the country’s Security Forces of insulting and harming their own reputation. The investigation was eventually dropped, but the message sent by the authorities was loud and clear: the right to tell jokes is limited. To this day, Shaden has not stopped joking with and about her country, yet she feels things have been changing for the worse.

“We have two possibilities,” Shaden continued. “Either we manage to stay where we are, where we have worked so hard to get, to be able to joke about everything, or we plunge into more darkness.” That darkness is uncertain and Shaden, along with many others, remains fearful of what is to come. “I am scared; this is why we are speaking up because, at any moment, they can take our speech away, and when that happens, we will not be able to fight for our rights,” she said.

Shaden says she is “tired and angry” but continues to fight through her shows. “I find different ways to say things nowadays, but I am not going to stop,” she insisted. “If I stop, it means that I should leave Lebanon, and I do not want to leave. Yes, I am more careful, but in a way, it pushes me to be more creative in my writing,” she concluded with a grin. “The silver lining is that always, the show must go on.”