KUALA LUMPUR: Keluar Sekejap duo Khairy Jamaluddin and Shahril Hamdan have called out comedian Jocelyn Chia for her appalling joke about Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Khairy said it was not right for Chia to make MH370 a subject of her jokes, especially when the plane was still missing.
"And when she was attacked, she said that tragedy plus time equals comedy. I want to provoke a little bit. Let's put aside the fact that she is or was a Singaporean.
"Can you make fun of a tragedy after time and call it comedy?
"I think in the western world, there are red lines (boundaries). I have not heard, but if there were, it would be condemned greatly in the western world. I do not hear jokes about the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jews during World War 2.
"No matter how 'woke' you are, I do not think that is acceptable. Although the Holocaust and MH370 are not 'apples to apples', they are both tragedies," he said during the podcast aired yesterday.
To this, Shahril agreed, saying that there were lines that must never be crossed.
Shahril added that it was not Malaysian culture to joke about a tragedy unlike in the United States where there have been jokes about the Sept 11 attacks.
"We are not like the US. I do not think our socio-culture allows and enables this kind of response because we are not built that way.
"We have a culture that life is sacred; a tragedy saddens us and we mourn it and (it) cannot be belittled.
"There is still no closure to MH370. There is still sadness and many questions surrounding it. I do not think it was appropriate at all," he added.
Chia sparked controversy when she described Malaysia as a developing country and lagging behind Singapore, a first world nation.
She went on to ask if it was not funny that Malaysia Airlines had gone missing, adding that "some jokes" do not land, referring to MH370 that vanished on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing.