The World Youth Forum, held in the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh on Nov. 3-6, was meant to engage young people and polish Egypt's tainted image as a heavy-handed police state. But President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's attempts to downplay a recent potato shortage and his comments on widespread obesity among Egypt's youth did not go down too well with his audience. The satirical online response from internet users to his statements signals Egyptians' growing frustration with the steadily increasing prices, part of austerity measures introduced by the government two years ago "to rebuild the ailing economy." The mocking comments on Facebook and Twitter are reminiscent of the humor unleashed by young activists to defy the Hosni Mubarak regime during the uprising in January 2011.   

Addressing a session on "Building Future Leaders," Sisi urged young Egyptians to be more physically active, suggesting that university students should shed half their weight in order to be more productive. "Being fit creates a good first impression," he advised. "It is clear that college students are not exercising much as many of the youths depicted in the documentaries shown here are overweight."

Turning to Rasha Ragheb, the director of the National Training Academy where promising young men and women are being groomed for future leadership positions in the government under the so-called Presidential Leadership Program, Sisi suggested that being in good shape should be one of the criteria in choosing candidates for the program. He also made light of the potato shortage that has angered Egyptians in recent weeks. "Do you want to build your country and become a worthy state or are you going to look for potatoes?" Sisi asked sarcastically. 

His comments provoked an outpouring of counter-sarcasm from young Egyptians on social media. "We can build our country and eat potatoes too, can't we? Or is Egypt on a diet?" Mai Seif El Din lashed out in a Facebook post that has been liked by more than 450 people. Another internet user shared a picture of a man chasing after his wife with a stick, with the caption, "Because she asked him to buy her two kilograms of potatoes!"