AFTER a comedy club got into trouble over a lady’s sketch that was deemed insulting to Islam, veteran stand up comedian Harith Iskandar took to social media to share his views on the matter.
And Harith made it clear that what the lady did had nothing to do with the art of making people laugh!
“That girl is not a stand-up comedian and what she did was not stand-up comedy,” he said, in a slightly over two-minutes video posted on social media.
With that said, Harith lashed out at certain quarters who called for action to be taken against the comedy club just because one person had misbehaved during an open mic night.
“She could have walked into a restaurant, claim to be a chef, boils a basketball in a frying pan and share a video saying ‘look at my cooking’”.
“Do you then say all chefs are stupid and call for a ban on all of them? Not all chefs are stupid, perhaps one or two,” he mentioned.
Yesterday, a 54-second video went viral on social media, featuring a woman wearing a headscarf and a baju kurung, claiming to have memorised part of the al-Quran during an open mic night at the comedy club.
Soon after, she took off her hijab and clothes on stage, revealing the comedian as wearing a mini dress underneath. Her act received cheers and laughter from the club’s patrons.
An open mic night is where anyone who are interested to show their stand-up comedy skills are allowed to take the stage.
Earlier today, Astro Awani reported Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Jalaluddin Alias as saying that the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has closed down the comedy club.
“We will not compromise on anyone who inflame racial and religious sentiments. I hope such incident doesn’t happen again in the Federal Territories or any parts of the country,” the deputy minister was reported as saying.
Don’t blame the club
On that note, Harith defended the comedy club saying that out 1,000 people who participate in an open mic night, 999 of them “are not mental like the lady”.
“All she wanted to do was to shock and draw attention to herself.
Elaborating on stand-up comedy, the veteran artiste said that at the end of the day, every skit boils down to one’s intention and not everyone will understand certain jokes made.
“It’s all about one’s intention. Is the sketch about making people laugh or to offend? Therefore, what the lady did was not stand-up comedy,” he remarked. – July 22, 2022
