Almost Banned

Fakkah Fuzz became the first Singaporean comedian to secure a Netflix special with this hour of cross-cultural observational comedy. Filmed at the Capitol Theatre in Singapore in late 2017 and released in early 2018, the set is heavy on regional specificity, focusing on the friction and shared quirks between Singaporeans and Malaysians.\n\nThe title refers to a real-world incident in 2016 where Fuzz (born Mohammad Fadzri Abdul Rashid) made a joke comparing Malaysia’s Prime Prime Minister Najib Razak to a thief, sparking calls for him to be banned from the country. Rather than steering clear of the tension, he uses the stage to talk about cultural divides, his upbringing as an outspoken Malay man in Singapore, and the oddities of local racial stereotypes.\n\nWhile the local crowd eats up his regional slang and highly specific Singlish references, the special struggled to translate for global audiences. The Wrap ranked it near the bottom of their 2018 Netflix comedy roundup, noting that the hyper-local comparisons feel repetitive if you do not live in the region.