On 11 January, millions of Egyptians followed apprehensively how the Egyptian pound hit its lowest-ever value against the US dollar. Later that day, the pound lost around 100 percent of its value – the most severe loss since March 2022 – reaching the price of EGP 31 against the US dollar. The pound, however, recovered some of its losses, reaching EGP 29.60, hours later.
“We swear the jokes and memes are over,” said the administrator of Asa7be Sarcasm Society Facebook page, reflecting what many Egyptians felt as they began to realise the losses sustained by the Egyptian pound on that day.
Followed by 15.5 million followers on Facebook, Asa7be is one of the oldest Egyptian sarcasm pages on Facebook. It flourished during the turbulent years of the Egyptian revolution 2011-2012. Characterised by a sense of humour that did not spare anyone, whether politicians or public figures in Egypt or abroad, the page shared tons of memes, sometimes on a daily basis. The admins of the page then choose the best and most appropriate material.
Recently, the famous page avoided politics and the economy, but now it is back in the game with a focus on Egypt’s economic crisis and its impact on citizens.
Early on 11 January, the page posted a video meme featuring the price of the Egyptian pound on Google against the US dollar and late Egyptian comedian Talaat Zakaria saying his catchphrase from his 2001 candid camera show “Save us.”
The page released a meme one hour later, mocking how one Kuwaiti dinar jumped to EGP 100.33 on that day. The meme featured a scene from the 2005 comedy Booha starring comedian Mohamed Saad.
Another meme portrayed the pound as if it were a mobile being charged. The meme was captioned “Okay, it has reached 100 percent, remove it from the charger.”
On 13 January, the page pasted the viral tweet of Japanese Astronaut Wakata Koichi, which features a photo taken on 11 January from the International Space Station (ISS) showing Cairo's glittering lights at night, onto a screenshot of a scene from another film by Mohamed Saad.
The meme reads: "These are not lights; these are the prices on fire."
The page also covered other crises faced by the country as a result of the global economic crisis. For example, the page made fun of the rise in egg prices due to the poultry feed crisis.
The meme here features the viral news posted previously that Zambian footballer Kenneth Musonda received five cartoons of eggs as a prize for being the Man Of The Match award following a game of his own team Power Dynamos against Nkana in the Zambian Super League.
The meme reads “How lucky you are.”
It is not only Asa7be page that shares those memes that reflect and mock the current economic crisis.
There are also individuals who found their funny posts going viral on social media after they hit a chord. For example, a wave memes went viral for focusing on the diminishing of the middle class following the depreciation of the Egyptian pound.
Facebook user Karim Salah posted this photo showing a Starbucks coffee cup, which is associated with the upper classes in Egypt, besides a plate of fol (beans), which is associated the with lower classes.
Salah commented "The social classes have been mixed up."
Spanish-Argentinian model and girlfriend of Nasr SC footballer Cristiano Ronaldo was a subject of another viral meme after visiting Riyadh’s Winter Wonderland fair two weeks ago while riding a merry-go-round while elegantly carrying her expensive Hermes Birkin bag.
The meme reads "when you are just coming down to a lower social class."
Facebook user Mohamed Abdel-Aziz’s edited video went viral on 11 January when he said that some ladies and girls would replace their imported skincare routine with the local products as they would no longer be able to afford it, using a scene from Hani Ramzy’s 2004 comedy Ghabi Mino Fih.
Some criticised these sarcastic Facebook pages for trivialising the world economic crisis that affected the country. According to sociologists, however, what these pages do is actually normal and happens in other parts of the world.
“Memes are the new medium of both jokes and commentary in the age of social media networks as the printed media begins to lose its place as a source of information,” Dr Said Sadek, a professor of political sociology at the American University in Cairo, told Ahram Online.
“Sixty percent of the people in Egypt are young and the digital way of expression is the only way to express your opinion using the keyboard and smartphones,” Sadek said. He was referring to nearly 70 million mobile internet users according to the latest official numbers.
“Memes now reflect the society and its political views,” he said.
“People do not want to watch talk shows discussing trivial matters like who divorced who or the latest celebrity fights,” he added.
Memes now reflect the public's taste like the op-eds in the press in the past, Sadek said, adding that some began even to politically classify others through the memes they share.
“There are memes abroad but not as many as we have in Egypt, because unlike Egyptian media the mainstream media abroad plays its role in voicing the opinions and views of the citizens. Hence, memes in Egypt fill that gap,” according to Sadek.
In a recent survey conducted by the Egyptian Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) in January 2022, Facebook turned out to be the most used social media platform in Egypt.
"The number of citizens who are now using social media platforms in Egypt has reached eight million," the head of the Supreme Council for Media Regulation Karam Gabr told the Senate on Sunday, adding that the council “is preparing legislation that would require social media platforms to obtain a licence to access mobile users in the 104-million country.”
The objective of this legislation, Karam says, is to "confront destructive ideas which these platforms disseminate."
For media expert and member of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) Yasser Abdel-Aziz, memes show how Egyptians deal with hardships through sarcasm and the new techniques of social media.
“There is a possibility that those memes can be used by some political forces and lobbies to generalise or spread a certain sentiment or idea but what we see now is actually the traditional way of Egyptians to face hardships through sarcasm,” Abdel-Aziz told Ahram Online.
He believes that memes are not just used by youth, but by all of society.
“Everyone from every age share memes because they are available and easy to share,” Abdel-Aziz said.
Historically, Egyptians dealt with hardship through humour. Another historical fact is that Egypt knew political jokes since ancient times. Some jokes mocking ancient Egyptian pharaohs were found written in papyrus scrolls in ancient Egyptian tombs.
Meanwhile, the ongoing trend of using comedy on social media platforms to mock the economic crisis proves that modern Egyptians are keeping the tradition of using memes.
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