Why Do People Keep Throwing This Bald Doll at Celebrities?

[LiberalArkie]

CHOLULA, Mexico—As Lady Gaga sang a particularly dramatic moment of the song “Hold My Hand” during a recent summer concert in Toronto, a small stuffed toy soared over the crowd, and smacked her in the head.

She gamely kept on singing, but the international superstar was the latest to be blindsided on stage by Dr. Simi—the mustachioed mascot of a discount off-brand Mexican chain of pharmacies. Over the past 15 months, Mexican fans have bombarded the concerts of everyone from The Killers and Miley Cyrus, to Rammstein with Dr. Simi dolls in an odd viral trend that has taken the live music industry by storm.

Every Mexican has come to recognize the boisterous oversized doctor mascot that dances in front of the thousands of Similares pharmacy locations around the country since its inception 25 years ago. But it was only recently people started hurling them at concerts, and what started as a fad in Mexico has gone global.



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A company called CINIA designs and manufactures the Dr. Simi dolls since 2007, in outfits including everything from tuxedos, to Santa Claus, to a baseball player holding a bat. But the CINIA factory in Cholula, Puebla, about two hours southeast of Mexico City, is known for employing a work force where 90 percent of its staff are people with some sort of mental or physical disability.

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https://www.vice.com/en/article/akex74/dr-simi-dolls-mexico-harry-styles-celebrities

[Lucinda]

1. ...

[Raine]

2. I looked them up, interesting the dolls

are all hand made by people with disabilities and helps them out.

[edbermac]

3. They used to throw jellybeans at the Beatles.

George mentioned that he liked them. McCartney said it got so bad one time he felt like he was playing in a hailstorm.