Malaysian-born comedian Ronny Chieng pissed off American conservatives by introducing our traditional sport, sepak takraw while also schooling them on voting rights.
The Daily Show featured a short clip titled, “Sepak Takraw: The Perfect Sport for Conservatives” where the Malaysian Senior Correspondent stated “Are you tired of these woke sports leagues? It’s time to start watching sepak takraw!”
This is clearly a diss to American conservatives complaining about their traditional sports such as basketball and baseball becoming “woke”, due to some players standing against racism and sexism.
The US-based comedian also stated, “You think they give a sh*t about Brian Kemp suppressing the vote? Hell no, all they care about is kicking the ball over the net.” Last month, the Georgia state governor signed a bill that added new restrictions on mail voting as well as greater power on the way elections are run, which is what Chieng was referring to.
He then proceeded to say, “And look at this sh*t. It’s literally more impressive than anything Tom Brady can do,” dissing the popular American football quarterback.
Later in the segment, Chieng took a bolder approach as he promised his American audience that watching a single game of sepak takraw will soon have them screaming “mengundi itu hak asasi manusia!” which means “voting is a human right!”
Chieng then continued explaining how disillusioned Republicans will be relieved that sepak takraw players are probably not familiar with US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Furthermore, he mentioned that the players don’t usually speak English so Americans will have no idea if there’s any political discourse going on or not.
More significantly, the 35-year-old also brought up racism that Asian people face in America, exclaiming, “If that’s not enough, maybe caring about the culture of Southeast Asia will help mitigate your guilt about supporting a racist president who demagogues China, leading to increased violence against AAPI people in America. And if not, hey check it out, they can do trick shots!”
The Johor Bahru-born comedian felt proud in bringing up sepak takraw in his video. Even more impressive, Chieng tweeted his statement in Bahasa Melayu while promoting the sport. “I’m happy to promote the sepak takraw sport to the world! It’s also cool to practice a bit of Bahasa Malaysia,” he tweeted, while giving a shoutout to Malaysian comedian Jason Leong.
https://twitter.com/ronnychieng/status/1382048130959507456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1382048130959507456%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcoconuts.co%2Fkl%2Flifestyle%2Ftired-of-woke-sports-leagues-the-daily-show-recommends-sepak-takraw-video%2F
Of course, Malaysians took to the comments section to react to Chieng’s video. Take a look:
For those who don’t know, sepak takraw is a sport based in Southeast Asia and is normally played in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, the Philippines, and Laos. The sport involves teams of three players each. These players will usually use their feet, knees, and head to hit the rattan ball over a net.
All in all, it feels great seeing Chieng mentioning shining the spotlight on Malaysia and the Southeast Asian sport, even if it’s used to educate some racist conservatives from America.
Sources: Coconuts, The Rakyat Post.
