Harith Iskander blasted the performance of a woman who had allegedly insulted Islam at a comedy club in Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) for not being “stand-up comedy”.
The comedian said this was due to the woman's actions where she had allegedly mocked Islam by taking off her clothes and headscarf while making a performance - which was deemed to be inappropriate.
“Some people say that laughter is the best medicine. To me, it is because scientifically, it releases endorphins and alleviates pain.
“However, watching this girl on stage was painful to watch - and more importantly, there was nothing funny about what she said or there wasn’t a joke,” Harith (above) said.
He added that a show is intended to make people laugh, therefore, comedians should tell stories in their own way to make the audience laugh.
“Comedians tell stories or jokes in an amusing way, and then we laugh, we take a common situation.
“We look at it from a different point of view and the reason you laugh is because you recognise or relate to what a comedian is saying and you laugh because what they said caught you by surprise,” he said on social media last night.
Previously, a video of a woman who took off her headscarf and baju kurung on stage at the Crackhouse Comedy Club in TTDI had gone viral on social media.
Immediately, after introducing herself, the woman then opened the hijab and baju kurung worn in the 53-second video.
She was then left wearing clothes that exposed part of her chest as well as wearing a short skirt that exposed part of her thighs.
Crackhouse Comedy Club said it banned the woman and her partner from the venue immediately after her stand-up performance and proceeded to lodge a police report.
The female comedian has since been arrested.
She has since been remanded for three days starting July 10 to 12.
According to the police, the woman is being detained at Brickfields district police headquarters while investigations are still ongoing.
The video drew the attention of Deputy Federal Territories Minister Jalaluddin Alias who announced that the licence of said entertainment premise has been suspended due to the aforementioned controversial video.
Jalaluddin said the police are also understood to have conducted an investigation through the Classified Criminal Investigation Unit, Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department.
He said the investigation papers had been opened under Section 298A of the Penal Code, which covers action on religious matters that can cause an atmosphere of disharmony, division or enmity or malice.
Further, Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) is also conducting an investigation into the video.
Tarnished credibility of other comedians
According to Harith, the woman's actions have completely tarnished the credibility of other comedians.
"She might as well have walked into a restaurant and claimed she wants to be a chef, cooked a meal, boiled a basketball in a frying pan and uploaded a video of her saying ‘Look at me cooking!”.
"Do you then say, ‘Chefs are stupid, ban all chefs!’? Not all chefs are stupid,” he said.
Harith also commented on the question of why the comedy club had allowed the woman to perform.
He said it is an open mic comedy night - which provided an opportunity to perform for anyone who wants to be a comedian.
"If there are 1,000 people who have come to open mic night, 999 of them have not been ‘mental’ like her. She wanted to shock and bring attention to herself,” he said.
“Most, if not all, comedians in Malaysia are smart. People whose only desire is to craft a small, funny story and have the audience laugh so please do not lump her and what she did into what we and other comedians do.
"At the end of the day, she obviously needs help and I hope the medicine she gets by going to true stand-up comedians,” said Harith cynically.
He added that not all stand-up comedy has to be funny to everyone.
"Everyone has different tastes. (...) How do you judge? I judge by intention.
“Was it the intention of the comedian to make you laugh or to offend you? Her intention was to shock and offend therefore she was not doing stand-up comedy,” he said. - Mkini
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