My brothers.

Although we swore off any type of theatre production after our exceedingly horrible experience with Jordanian “comedy” last month, we found ourselves with 2 free tickets to a much acclaimed play last night, “CBM”, performed daily at the Le Meridien Amman. With our fingers crossed for a better experience, we decided to give it another shot.

Understand, our hopeful attitude comes from the framework surrounding this play; besides the fact that the tickets cost an overpriced 30 JDs each (including dinner), the play is actually a very popular show playing on one of the major Arab television networks, MBC. It features a diverse Arab cast from around the region, with some big names. In fact, some Googling of the play yields such results:

“CBM is a sarcastic program that mocks politicians and popular people in a comedic style and presented by celebrities from the Arab countries. This program recently won an award for being the best entertainment show among Arab channels.” [link]

“The equivalent of Saturday Night Live, except that this show is recorded and then aired. The program showcases skits, satirical newscasts and song parodies. It boasts an international cast, hailing from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt, among others. Also like SNL, famous actors and singers appear on the program.” [link]

Typically though, after 50 whole minutes of suffering from excessive STUPIDITY, we soon discovered that perhaps we were a little too harsh on Jordanian comedy. I mean, if one of the best regional performances dubbed the equivalent of SNL is so darn terrible, then the obscure local play we went to is just an inch below the A-list of plays.

CBM was, well… shitty. I can’t decide what was worse: the gargantuan bellies of most of the actors, who were also wearing horribly fluorescent outfits, or their absolutely shitty routines. It was either aural or visual assault, and either way, neither is much fun. As for being funny, since when did a series of cliched jokes that everyone has heard become funny?

- “Ana koli Hamas!”
- “Hamas willa fate7?”
 
HA HA HA, how edgy.

Ten minutes into the show, I stopped trying to bother listening to the humor or lack thereof, because honestly, it reached a point where it was far too much effort. Amazingly, some of the audience was laughing. I guess Arabs have officially sold their souls to the Gods of shitty comedy. Or perhaps it’s me lacking the humor.

Eitherway, judge for yourself:

With the Ikbis team trying to join the festive spirit of Ramadan, they’re giving away Nokia NSeries devices to the Ikbis user who sends them the most interesting photographs expressing what Ramadan means to him/her.

So go ahead, get your cameras out, snap a few pictures of the moon, your family on the Iftar table, Ramadan decorations around your town, or I don’t know, some other type of insanely creative idea that reflects Ramadan (Ahhh! Shoes hanging instead of Fawanees!), upload it to the contest channel, and cross your fingers and hope that the stars are shining bright.

Yalla. Get them cameras out to make sure you celebrate Eid with a brand spanking new phone.

What’s even worse than people who use butcher language and say things like “u r 2 good 2 b true”, “keep smilin’ alz wiz friendz”, and “krazy”?

People who don’t realize that YOU CAN NEVER SAY “Am so happy”, “Am so upset”, “Am thinking of doing that.”

Dude, “I” is a gorgeous, gorgeous letter that MUST PRECEDE “am” at ALL TIMES. Think: “I am so happy”, “I am so upset”, “I am thinking of doing that.”

Reading sentences in which the “I” is omitted is one of the few things that I simply cannot stand.
 

What kind of absurdly horrible slogan is “A wonderful world”?
I mean… SERIOUSLY.

Our festive spirits would like to celebrate Ramadan by adding a special to our series of urban reviews; Your Urban Guide  to Ramadan 2007 in Amman. It can be accessed through the sidebar throughout the month. Please feel free to email us with further events happening in town during Ramadan, and happy argelling!