Clown Me In: Lebanese Have 2nd Thoughts About The Jab!

With Lebanon’s coronavirus vaccine program well underway, to vaccinate or not to vaccinate has become a hot topic of conversation among many.

Misconceptions about the vaccines have run rampant, with conspiracy theories spiraling out of control worldwide. One suggests that Bill Gates sneakily installed a microchip into vaccine recipients so he can monitor all their activity – just like a person’s Wi-Fi and GPS-connected cell phone does daily.

Clown Me In, an NGO that tackles social issues and helps marginal communities through farcical theater, has taken on the vaccine debate in their latest online offering, a satirical video.

“The idea was to talk about how ridiculous it is to not get vaccinated in a country like Lebanon. We used this video to talk about bigger problems,” Clown Me In co-founder Sabine Choucair told The Daily Star. “People are worried about getting vaccinated or not when we’re living with no electricity, breathing generator fumes all the time and with the explosion where many died.

“We have all these more important things happening in the country and we thought this is a good way to highlight it and send a message to people to get vaccinated,” she added. “What are they afraid of? If you want to say no to something then say no to something we’ve been going through forever in this country, not something that can save lives.”

The video finds a group of clowns mockingly applauding people refusing to get vaccinated, saying that if the pandemic ends they would have to remove their masks and might be vulnerable to pollution and generator fumes.

Others thank anti-vaxxers for prolonging lockdowns, thus staving off the existential dread of having no money to spend to go out when the world reopens and social lives are allowed to continue.

“We have another video coming out, where one clown goes to all the streets and asks people if they’re taking the vaccine or not. We go through all these ridiculous reasons: the data chip being inserted or the 5G conspiracy,” Choucair said. “Others say, ‘I have a friend who is white and lives in London and has a PhD and she says I shouldn’t take it,’ and they believe them. People hear all kinds of silly stories and decide based on that.”

Clown Me In’s other activities include running their International Institute for Very Very Serious Studies, a school dedicated to training the next generation of clowns with a cause. The initiative was launched in 2019, and the pandemic made the first year trickier than anticipated, as they were rarely able to meet students in person.

The school now plans to take on students again for their second run, with a new online-physical hybrid plan. Twenty out of 70 applicants have been chosen to audition for nine spots on the course.

“We’ll do it in our space, open up the windows and wear masks and we’ll do like two hours a day to minimize exposure. When we can’t meet, we’ll do things online,” Choucair said. “We’re going to keep going because we don’t want to stop or postpone. This is something happening that we just have to live with.”

Clown Me In’s next projects are also keyed to living through this pandemic.

“We’re planning to do some videos for children stuck at home, with games they can play,” she said. “We’re thinking about opening up our space for people to come do fun workshops in small groups because we feel we’re all kind of depressed in the country.

“Kids are having a hard time stuck at home and doing online schooling, especially teenagers, so we want to try and do as much as possible. We’re also preparing a clown tour for some street performances after lockdown, because it’s safe that way.”

This article has been adapted from its original source.