When the comedian becomes the joke

FMT:

When the comedian becomes the joke

But causing the Singapore government to grovel in abject apology to Malaysia is a victory of sorts. Let’s savour the moment – it doesn’t happen very often.





I watched a short video clip of a lady doing a comedy skit. You must have watched it yourself in between your Korean serials.

That video thrashes Malaysia kaw kaw one, as locals say. No surprise about this part though: Singaporeans thrash Malaysians all the time!

I got upset about the video. It’s wrong to mislabel things and confuse the public. In this case, it’s certainly not a video clip of her doing comedy, but rather apparently defending a high school thesis on the relative economic development of Malaysia and Singapore post-split.

“We split many years ago and see where we are now…a developed country waaaaahhhh!”.

High school econs teachers, who mark theses like this, love strong claims. This is certainly a strong claim, and a true one, too. A Singaporean teacher would have given her a passing mark right at this stage.

She went further, like a good kiasu student from a top Singaporean high school. She related how Lee Kuan Yew was in tears when he announced the historic split into two countries.

This part earns her only about a B+. If she had only taken it to the obvious conclusion – that Singapore also used their new found independence to invent nasi goreng and char kuey teow – she would have gone up to a High Distinction.

But nooooo…she chose the lowest of the low road – to make fun of our unfortunate aviation accident, the MH370 disappearance.

She didn’t mention it by name, so for all we know, she could’ve been referring to the MH17 aircraft shot down over Ukraine. Two for the price of one – what’s a Singaporean not to like?

By the way, Singapore’s airline also had an unfortunate accident in Taipei not that many years ago. I remember that clearly because Singapore never failed to remind everybody that the pilot of that hapless aircraft was a Malaysian.

Had it been a brilliant achievement, such as a Singapore airline aircraft piloted by a Malaysian captain landing on the moon with half an engine and a litre of teh tarik in the tank, there wouldn’t have been many reminders that the pilot was a Malaysian. But if it crashes, so…


No Ricky Gervais

Anyway, that’s when it got complicated. To make jokes about such tragic matters you need to have the brilliance of a Ricky Gervais and the thick skin of a Ricky Gervais, who has honed his style over decades joking about suicides and pedophiles.

This lady is no Ricky Gervais, and the jokes were certainly not Golden Globe-worthy.

Being no Ricky Gervais, what do you do when your joke falls flat? You pile on ahead, baring your soul, or whatever is left of it, and hope for some sympathy.

The clip ended abruptly, sparing us the lack of applause of the audience, which had gone for a toilet break while waiting for the next act.

The “comedienne” herself is apparently either a lawyer and an ex-Singaporean, or a Singaporean and an ex-lawyer.

The Singapore High Commissioner in Malaysia went to a lot of pains to dissociate themselves from her, though apparently their claims to have invented Penang Char Kuey Teow and Ipoh Hor Fun still stand.

What should Malaysia do? We can’t sue Singapore at the International Court of Justice, because apparently, we suck at such international tribunals (anybody remember Batu Puteh?). But given that had we lost (again), Singapore would get to keep her in perpetuity, what do we have to lose?

My first instinct was to refer her instead to the International Tribunal for Sad and Unfunny Comedians, and get a date perhaps immediately after Dr Mahathir Mohamad v the People of Malaysia (Part 43).

We should send one of our retired attorneys-general to represent us, because we seem to have a lot of these jokers around.

Meanwhile, that clip may soon be banned in Malaysia for containing expletives and obscenities, unsuitable to anybody below the age of 13 and above the age of 45.

I still blush when I hear her using the “f” word.

Personally, I wouldn’t have used any “f” word to describe her. She just wasn’t funny was she?


Lost in translation

In the meantime, Malaysians will do the predictable things such as asking for her to be banned from ever setting foot in this country.

It’ll be led by a chorus of politicians from Perikatan Nasional once they have had the video translated into Malay, because these jokers don’t really care about anything said in English in the international forums.

This “comedienne” must get up behind the lectern at the august United Nations General Assembly and insult us in Bahasa Melayu before anybody from that sorry lot will react.

But should we even care? Even Singaporeans seem appalled, and would probably ban her from ever coming back to Singapore; she isn’t likely to want to visit a developing country such as Malaysia, if her high school econs project is anything to go by.

By the way, only a Singaporean (even a former one) would try to milk a few laughs by noting that my country is a developed country, while yours isn’t.

It’s on page 3 of “Comedy For Beginners” that economics stuff aren’t funny and should be left to your high school econs projects. Nobody will laugh at anything that has “developed nation” in it. Economists are boring as heck.


Money talks

Let’s move on. Don’t let an unfunny comedian with obvious mummy issues strain our life and relationship with our southern Developed Nation neighbours.

Their money is way bigger than ours, and if some feel badly and want to compensate by spending lots of it in Malaysia, they are most welcome.

Some in defending her will probably bring up the issue of free speech. Free speech is of course not an issue here, though what is an issue is that we all know anything free can’t be good. She should have paid something to her comedy writers, then she might have better material.

By the way, is that how many Singaporeans think about Malaysia? I am sure there are enough of them who think that. Singapore is a highly developed and a highly stressed nation where life is tough and couples don’t laugh or have sex often due to stress, as scientific research findings from a condom company clearly show.

But I think most Singaporeans are pretty decent people, and many would be offended by this episode, especially since she’s apparently no longer a Singaporean and they can’t do anything against her any more.

Causing the Singaporean government to grovel in abject apology to the Malaysians is a victory of sorts, and I urge my fellow Malaysians to enjoy and savour the moment – it doesn’t happen very often.

Let’s just say this sorry episode is basically about an ex-Singaporean who’s struggling to get funny material because Singapore is a developed nation and jokes have become expensive, whereas Malaysia is a developing country and jokers are cheaper: some even become prime ministers.

I think I am seeing this in the correct way – a crass, unfunny put down that didn’t quite make it, and which, instead only reminds me of a school at midnight.

No class.