Coco Makmak, a French Lebanese woman with punchy and committed humor. (Credit: Aly Baalbaky/L'OLJ)
Hunkered in a corner of the Beirut hotel lobby where she had arrived the night before, Coco Makmak is lively and upbeat. Slim, tanned, energetic and warm, she quickly agrees to the interview and immediately switches to first-name terms.This sharp performer, who skewers Lebanese quirks on social media by slipping into caricatured roles — from demanding mothers to man-eaters and spoiled sons — has become iconic. But she is more than just entertainment. With biting lucidity, she takes on normalized scams, the weight of tradition and racism.Which airline did you take to Lebanon, after your scathing Instagram campaign against MEA’s high ticket prices?MEA (laughs). What I was criticizing was their summer pricing policy. Fares are so expensive that they discourage many in the diaspora from coming home for the holidays. It would be nice if the...
Hunkered in a corner of the Beirut hotel lobby where she had arrived the night before, Coco Makmak is lively and upbeat. Slim, tanned, energetic and warm, she quickly agrees to the interview and immediately switches to first-name terms.This sharp performer, who skewers Lebanese quirks on social media by slipping into caricatured roles — from demanding mothers to man-eaters and spoiled sons — has become iconic. But she is more than just entertainment. With biting lucidity, she takes on normalized scams, the weight of tradition and racism.Which airline did you take to Lebanon, after your scathing Instagram campaign against MEA’s high ticket prices?MEA (laughs). What I was criticizing was their summer pricing policy. Fares are so expensive that they discourage many in the diaspora from coming home for the holidays. It would be nice if...
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