Greek comic in hot water over divisive Cyprus jokes

A Greek stand-up comedian known for his one-liner and callback jokes became persona non grata in Cyprus, after a Tik Tok user posted a video of the performer poking fun at the divided island.

People on Tik Tok unleashed a verbal assault on Greek comedian Paris Roupos after another user republished a joke from a past performance where the comic poked fun at Cypriots.

“One time we went to a very expensive bar in Nicosia and a very rich dude walked in. My friend, who was from there, told me to look at the guy saying he owns half of Cyprus. And I say all Cypriots own half of Cyprus,” Roupos said, with the audience laughing and the comic adding “I don’t get it.”

He then poked fun at the meaning of reunification, a highly controversial topic in Cyprus and the Greek world.

“The only enosis that exists in Cyprus is between their eyebrows,” Roupos said in his next one liner, a double entendre at an unrealized political position in favor of union with Greece, a failed reunification effort on the island, as well as a stereotype about natives having thick unibrows.

Roupos then asked if there were any Cypriots in the audience who may be inclined to chant “Never Forget,” a reference to Greek Cypriot politics, suggesting they would want to threaten to come and find him with the cliché “I know where you live asshole.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever perform in Cyprus,” Roupos added.

“Indeed, I don’t’ think he will perform in Cyprus,” a person wrote in the comment section of the video that was reposted by a Tik Tok user.

Roupos then told the audience he wasn’t sure if he would even want to go to perform in Cyprus in the first place.

“I’m still divided on that,” he said with added emphasis.

Roupos then paused to tell the audience that he was thinking about the type of comments he would get later on his Cypriot routine.

“Drop dead would be the least,” he said.

And he was right as the Tik Toker’s account that reposted the video on Wednesday had over 700 comments in one day, with many users giving Roupos a mouthful.

One person suggested a group of them would attend his next performance.

“We’re looking up your next gig and we’ll come over my guy,” the user said.

Roupos ended the video segment by saying he might go missing one day because of his Cyprus jokes, with the audience laughing at the play on words.

“I’m from Cyprus and my father and my uncle were missing persons until 2015 when they found their remains in a group burial with ten others,” a user wrote with sad emojis.

People who were killed in clashes on the island half a century ago -but their remains were not given to their families- are officially not presumed dead but listed as missing in Cyprus, which is divided between Greek Cypriots in the south and Turkish Cypriots in the north.

“Don’t even step foot here, you’re already missing in action,” another user wrote, while another wrote “bullet from 10 cm.”

A different user asked whether Roupos had Turkish roots while another suggested the comedian had emotional damage “because his mom slept with half of Cyprus.”

Roupos is known for poking fun at himself as well as other people and situations, using double entendres and linguistic intonations to deliver clever one liner jokes.

“I have persecutory delusional disorder. I am being watched by a psychiatrist,” he wrote last month on Facebook.