20 years ago, when I used to watch Alaa Wali ElDin and Ismail Yassin being made fun of in movies, I never noticed anything odd about it; it was just a joke. A simple depiction of what people say in real life. The lines were clever, smart and funny, so I laughed. It never crossed my mind that people around me memorize these tasteless jokes and use them against friends and family, expecting the same reaction as the actors in movies.
Years later, we have somehow become exposed to a whole new world. We hear of ideologies and concepts most of us were never aware of, be it feminism, culture appropriation, depression, cyber-bullying or slut-shaming. We have also unintentionally become exposed to issues that never seemed to be a big deal years ago, like self-image and body-shaming.
We love comedy and we couldn’t wait until Ramadan’s most anticipated show, La la Land, came to life. I am a huge fan of Donia Samir Ghanem, so it was a disappointment to realize that the catchiest lines of the mosalsal were about Shaimaa Seif’s weight. Every single episode someone has to make fun of her.
Shaimaa Seif plays the role of a newlywed bride who found herself trapped on a deserted island after her honeymoon flight crashed. Seif is known as an uprising comedian with a huge fan base. The girl is already famous and popular so we’re wondering why this is still okay with her. She doesn’t have to accept being body-shamed for the sake of cheap laughs. She is actually funny and has so much more to give.
Shaimaa Seif, along with the La La Land team, should be aware of the fact that most of their viewers are young kids, because it is a comedy show afterall. Kids are voice recorders, they repeat and imitate everything they hear and watch. The minute they notice that Seif being called a whale is clever, they will go straight to school and bully overweight friends, and it will hurt.
I know a 6-year-old girl who refuses to wear shorts in summer because her friends call her fat. The young generation now realizes that there is a Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid out there, they know that in 2017 you need to have big hips and a small waist, they’re just so ridiculously exposed to everything. No matter what you do, teenagers now have become so sensitive to comments because they have unrealistic expectations of what they should look like.
Maybe Seif is a mature adult who found peace with hurtful comments, and she is using this persona to get jobs, but scriptwriters should know better than this. And I won’t even get into those memes being shared on the show’s official Facebook page. Absolutely disgusting, and the comments show us how oblivious people are. This isn’t just about La La Land, this is all over comedy shows especially masra7eyat. Hopefully people will realize it is not funny AT ALL.