US comedian’s joke creates furore in Singapore and Malaysia; Interpol's help sought

A Singaporean-American standup comedian has been drawing backlash in Malaysia and Singapore after people took offence to one of her comedy skits where she could be heard joking about the disappearance of 2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

Malaysia has now decided to prosecute her, with Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani saying that the police would request Interpol’s assistance for their investigation on Wednesday.

Jocelyn Chia, a Boston-born woman, had performed a comedy sketch at Manhattan’s Comedy Cellar back in April.

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The joke

During her performance, Chia said that Malaysia had “dumped” Singapore, referring to the separation of the island state from Malaysia in 1965, but said Singapore had the best “break up revenge” as it had become a “first world country” while Malaysia was “still a developing country”.

She then equated the separation of the two countries to a romantic breakup and imagined Malaysia trying to woo Singapore back, saying that it hadn’t visited because “my airplanes cannot fly,” she said in the video clip, adding: “What? Malaysia Airlines going missing not funny?”

She then quipped, “Some jokes don’t land.”

Strong backlash

Though the joke drew chuckles at that time, but when the clip was shared on social media nearly two months later, it was widely criticised.

According to New York Post, Comedy Cellar's website was hacked and nearly 4,000 one-star reviews were posted on Google. Another venue, the West Side Comedy Club, said they were threatened with bad reviews after offended parties from the other side of the world found Chia had performed there.

“You can get away [onstage] with saying stuff that’s kind of outrageous,” Comedy Cellar ownerNoam Dworman told the New York Times.

“You can’t put that same moment into a small screen that you’re watching over morning coffee.”

The joke was removed from TikTok and labelled “hateful behaviour,” in violation of community guidelines.

Reactions

On Friday, the United Malays National Organisation, one of Malaysia’s biggest political parties, lodged a protest at the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

Meanwhile, Singapore has distanced itself from Chia, who held dual citizenship until adulthood.

“The Singapore government does not condone words or actions that cause harm or hurt to others and Chia,” said Vanu Gopala Menon, Singapore’s High Commissioner to Malaysia, in a statement.

“[Chia] does not in any way reflect our views.I sincerely apologise to all Malaysians for her hurtful remarks.”

‘Won’t back down'

Chia has remained steadfast and said that she completely backs herself, adding there is no malice behind the bit.

“I do stand by my joke but with some caveats — I stand by it in its entirety, when viewed in a comedy club. Upon reflection, I do see that having this as a clip that gets viewed out of a comedy club context was risky,”Chia told CNN.

Chia said she remains unbothered.

“I didn’t want the haters to think they had won and got me to back down. Audiences at the Comedy Cellar see the best comedians and they love it, so how can I be embarrassed by it?” she said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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