Jim Sands, who plays a clown in this year’s Vancouver Fringe Festival, doesn’t think his situation with Facebook is funny.

The storyteller tried to place an ad for his one-person comedy, Dating for Dumb Heads (Dating für Dumm Köpfe), opening Friday (September 11) at the False Creek Community Centre gym.

But according to Sands, Facebook won’t allow it because it considers the material a promotion for a dating site. A note he received from the social-media giant states that ads for dating sites and apps are only allowed from approved advertisers.

“The problem for me is, of course, the Fringe is starting in three days from now, and, you know, I’m freaking out,” Sands told the Straight in a phone interview Tuesday (September 8). “I want to get the word out about my show.”

On the same day, Sands posted a media release on his Facebook page, blasting the world’s biggest social-media network for “censorship”.

Dating for Dumb Heads tells the story of Hansel, a clown looking for love in a world laid waste by global warming and other ravages. Hansel was originally imagined as a boy drifting through Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside as he tries to find his way home to Germany.