“On the contrary, most local comedians who do their shows in English or Malaysian-English tend to resort to crude, rude, insulting or racist humour which many would find offensive and in poor taste. While a specific audience may find this amusing, they would not appeal to a broader audience.”
The above is an excerpt from an opinion letter to The Star by A Moreton-Shabirin of Kuantan written on 7 November 2018. The title of the piece was “Offensive humour is not funny.” Link attached.
Firstly I want to put it out there that I appreciate the opinion and more so, the desire to discuss the state of comedy in a national paper. Lord knows we could use the publicity! Thank you so much. Back to the opinion piece— it is a valid opinion but one that I find myself unable to fully agree because ‘offensive’ or ‘rude’ felt like a generalisation here. So here are my thoughts.
This matters to me because I am part of the young but hungry comedy scene in Malaysia. 10 years ago, there was only one show a month, TimeOut KL Comedy Thursday, with only five to eight regular aspiring-comedians. Presently, while comedy venues/clubs are closing down in regional Singapore and Hong Kong, Malaysia has Crackhouse Comedy Club, operating at least 5 days a week, on course to celebrate their fifth birthday in 2019 and another full-time comedy club, Joke Factory. We are thriving, baby!
Number of comedians have risen close to the sun as well. I worked on a stand-up comedy TV show, Sedapnya Mulut, produced by my friend Shamaine Othman, where 42 comedians, new and haggard, were involved in. That’s 42 comedians okay-ed for the Malaysian TV masses!
As a storyteller, comedian, person, one of your most accessible yet valuable possessions are your stories and experiences. The writer wants to hear them all— BUT CLEAN! I think that is non-starter approach to comedy. My favourite comedian, Mike Birbiglia, said, “All jokes are offensive…to someone.” in his special ‘Thanks God For Jokes’ which by the way, is an ESSENTIAL viewing for the writer (it is on Netflix and I implore you to watch it when you find the time). Birbiglia was addressing the Charlie Hebdo incident where 10 satirist/comedy writers were murdered.
Comedy always has a victim. Wait, victim is a strong word but I can’t think of another at the moment. Sorry. Anyway, I’m going to prove this fact. The writer names Jim Gaffigan, Michael McIntyre, and Jerry Seinfeld among others who has achieved immense success without the need to be offensive. Great list of comedians. In Gaffigan’s latest (and very good) special, Nobel Ape, (available on Spotify), he has a fantastic bit on massages. It goes, “What do we really know about massage therapist? They like to rub strangers for money, while listening to the Avatar soundtrack. That’s a red flag. Those are the traits of a serial killer.” In this joke, the target, TARGET! That’s the word I was looking for, not victim. The target in the joke are massage therapists but even when put in the context of a comedy show, told by a wholesome father of five, can anyone guarantee no one will find it insulting (offensive)? Not a chance. Micheal McIntyre has a bit on the sport of tennis and cricket having too much ‘faffing’ and goes into a potent physical act-out of all the ‘faffing’ that goes on. The target there are tennis players and cricket players. Comedy always has a target.
Seinfeld swore on stage early in his career but decided to stopped. He discussed this in yet another ESSENTIAL viewing for the writer— HBO’s ‘Talking Funny’. On the flip side, Pete Holmes, another comedians refrained from swearing on stage to be ‘wholesome’ and ‘clean’ but finally found his stride when he let loose and started swearing (like a sailor). He discussed this on Mike Birbiglia’s recent podcast, ‘The Old Ones’.
I have seen crude, racist, dirty or insulting comedy on the Malaysian stage. I don’t agree with all of it but I understand because I started there too. I thought a joke was more likely to land when you draw from a shared pool of knowledge. For me, the shallowest, closest part of the pool would be our multiculturalism— Chinese are like this, Malays are like that, Indians are forgotten.
Eventually I grew out of it, and pride myself a clean comedian for many years. But this year, I caught myself swearing on stage. I was a bit upset but it also felt natural to me. Swearing existed in my psyche, in my thoughts, so why shouldn’t it exist in my words given the right circumstances like a comedy show marketed to 18-and-over only? Did it hurt anyone? I don’t know. Is it a big deal? No, I don’t think so.
Maybe the comedians the writers had watch here were aspiring comedians like myself, 10 years ago. Green and unsure of their voices yet. That’s okay. But I want to assure the writer that while the stand-up comedy stage is the closest semblance to freedom of speech, we draw lines that cannot be crossed. I have seen people get thrown off the stage for performing chauvinistic, bigoted material. Back when I started and operated the once-a-month comedy show, there was a bigot who’s whole set was women-bashing and so we pulled him off the stage. Months later he came back, told us he had a ‘new set’ and that he learnt his lesson. We let him back on stage and he had replaced women-bashing with Muslim-bashing. Alamak!!! What did we do? We banned him from ever performing on our stage. (Comedians of 2010s, remember this buttface?!)
I really like that the writer is a comedy fan. I don’t even know all the comedians he’s named! The vastness of knowledge is such a beautiful thing.
But I have to say that this difference in opinion is in some ways our doing as well. Whenever someone says “comedy in Malaysia”, the sad sad truth is what it really means is “comedy in KL/PJ”. After all, Crackhouse is in TTDI KL, Joke Factory is in Publika, KL. The myriad of open-mic shows are all in KL/PJ. Why haven’t we in the last 10 years been able to built a sustainable route to more cities around the country? This is a conundrum that upsets me and one I hope to fix.
I do want to do my part so here’s a promise: The one-hour show that I wrote this year, Electric Butterflies, has been booked to perform in Adelaide and Edinburgh in 2019 but I have also started putting together a national and regional tour route. I promise the writer, I will bring the show to Kuantan! Please come! But, be warned, comedy always has a target!
Till next year, don’t stop watching comedy. Trust me, like the rest of the world, you WILL grow to like our jokes.
Jenhan
同時也有1部Youtube影片,追蹤數超過1萬的網紅Melissa Celestine Koh,也在其Youtube影片中提到,Last month, we travelled to Bali together as a team. We worked hard and played harder. It was so much fun bonding over good food, late night suppers ...
tennis club singapore 在 Kimberly的熱血人生 Facebook 的最佳貼文
我們家也有個熱血爸爸~超級網球迷,只要他在家電視放的永遠是博斯網球台節目,雖然不是台灣人卻熱愛台灣這塊土地,一起關心台灣基層網球發展,2012年起每年春季我們舉辦「美傑仕OPI盃全國青少年網球錦標賽」好快喔..今年已邁入第七年!每年賽事集結全台最有天賦的12~18歲青少年網球選手,是全國最高等級的A級賽事,這幾年下來挖掘了不少頂尖好手,剛獲得澳網青少年女單冠軍的梁恩碩也曾拿下OPI盃冠軍寶座喔!感謝上帝過去這週天氣美好,賽程在昨天圓滿落幕,恭喜新一屆網球種子誕生,期盼有更多了不起的年輕選手站上國際舞台幫台灣發光發熱✨✨✨
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🎾更多賽事新聞👉海碩運動應援團 OEC Sports Fan Club
tennis club singapore 在 Lee Hsien Loong Facebook 的最佳貼文
The weather has been stormy lately, but a good deed always brightens the day! Last Wednesday, four bowlers from the Singapore Sports School were on the way to a competition when their bus met a fallen tree across Rifle Range Road, blocking the way for both people and vehicles.
For the four teenagers the decision was easy – make a path for people to get through! Using their Outward Bound Singapore ( OBS ) experience, they soon made an opening through the branches, enough for people to pass through. At the risk of being late for their competition, they stayed to help others through the path they’d created.
As icing on the cake, two of the student-athletes won the gold medal in the doubles’ competition. Well done, Aidan, Jarred, Han Qin, and James! – LHL
#OneKindDay
Singapore Kindness Movement
It was a cold and dark morning. Thunder, lightning, strong winds and heavy rain swept over most parts of Singapore. In a bus sat four male student-athletes and their bowling equipment, and their coaches, heading for Temasek Club to compete in the National Schools Bowling Championships "A" Division Boys' Doubles event.
About 200 metres from the competition venue, the bus slowed down... and rolled to a stop. A huge tree had fallen across the road and caused the rest of Rifle Range Road to become impassable to man or wheels.
The team alighted and joined members of the public who were starring at the fallen tree and talking among themselves.
"Why don't we break the smaller branches and create an opening?" Jarred asked his teammates after assessing the situation.
A member of the public overheard him and suggested that there were ants and they could be bitten. A policeman said that NParks had been notified and help was on the way.
It was approaching 7.30 am and the team had to report at the bowling centre by 8 am or risk being disqualified.
James agreed with Jarred's idea and together with Aidan and Han Qin, looked around for a suitable spot to start clearing the debris.
They twirled some branches, they "tunnelled" through and soon, the four bowlers found themselves on the other side of the fallen tree.
"Luckily, we went to OBS and learnt a thing or two," James laughed out loud.
The four student-athletes returned to the other side of the tree and started to bring their bowling bags through the clearing, and then helped the public get past the debris.
The Aidan Poh-Jarred Lim Jia Le pairing finished their combined 12 games with a total of 2,458 pinfalls, while the Oh Han Qin-James Stuart Lowe Heng Leong partners knocked over 2,377 pins on 19 April 2017. They had done their best, and being unseeded teams, had to wait until the late morning of 24 April 2017 for the seeded teams to finish their games before knowing the final results.
Deservedly, Aidan and Jarred won the gold medal; Han Qin and James came in 6th behind three pairs from ACJC and one pair from ACS Independent - just 39 pins from the bronze medal team.
Kimberly Neo Kah Min and Charmaine Chang Yu Quan also did well to win the gold medal in the Girls' Doubles event after an uncharacteristic start of a combined total of 285 pins in their first game. Difficult though it was to catch up, they did not give up and fought frame after frame to finish with 2,290 pinfalls - ahead of TJC (2,267) and ACJC (2,206). Our second pair of Rachael Tan Soo Hui and table tennis player Angeline Tang An Qi finished 13th.
In the earlier Singles competition, Aidan and Charmaine won bronze medals.
The two-block Team events start today with the girls bowling in the morning and the boys in the afternoon. The second block will be played on 26 April 2017. And then, we wait... Until the seeded teams finish their turn on the afternoon of 26 April 2017 before we know the final results.
Words: Shirley Tan, Team Mum
Video: Catherine Kang, Coach, Bowling Academy
tennis club singapore 在 Melissa Celestine Koh Youtube 的最佳貼文
Last month, we travelled to Bali together as a team. We worked hard and played harder.
It was so much fun bonding over good food, late night suppers and the very well-deserved massages.
Always so immensely grateful that work presents us an opportunity like such and I'm so incredibly proud of how much we accomplished over the trip.
Head over to my blog to read a review of our favourite cafes in Seminyak:
http://www.melissackoh.com/whats-good-seminyak/
The cafes featured in this video are:
FISH BONE LOCAL (newly opened, highly recommended)
LUIGI'S PIZZA (delicious hot pizzas)
MOTEL MEXICOLA (insta-worthy location!)
CHACHARA (great hang out location with table tennis!!!)
KYND COMMUNITY (great vegan food)
LA BRISA (pretty but crowded and overpriced beach club :()
CABINA BALI (cool beach club with floating breakfast)
LA LAGUNA (nice sunset spot with super chill vibes)
SISTERFIELDS (perfect brunch food)
MILK & MADU (Not bad but not my favourite)
ULEKAN (super yummy local food!)
POTATO HEAD BEACH CLUB (nice vibes, great food!!!)
SEA CIRCUS (insta-worthy store front, good food but slightly overpriced)
For a more consolidated review (based on location), stay tuned to my upcoming blogpost(s) on www.melissackoh.com
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Disclaimer: This video is not a sponsored video.