SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO. SKETCH APPEARS AT 0:30 AND 2:10
KUALA LUMPUR: When fire-starting rebel Fahmi Reza naughtily unveiled a caricature of former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in clown face in 2016, he may have foreseen his graphic statement going viral and becoming an icon in Malaysia’s ostracised counterculture.
Never in a squillion years, however, could the transgressive graphic designer and dissident political activist have imagined that his subversive artwork would be casually appropriated by mainstream, feather-light, tooth cavity-causing K-pop culture.
But such a circus sideshow act is exactly what has happened, World of Buzz reported.
Fahmi’s infamously profane sketch of Najib has, indeed, bizarrely found its way into a dreamy (or nightmarish?) music video for K-pop singers Woo Jin Young and Kim Hyun Soo’s single, Falling in Love (true story).
The cartoon image appears as a framed artwork hanging on a brick wall in a room possibly decorated by a lovelorn Disney princess. The chamber is one of several locations in which Woo and Kim pout and lip sync in the most unmanly manner imaginable, while aping tough-guy rapper gestures with the authenticity of Monopoly money (what clowns!)
Meanwhile, our make-up-heavy former prime minister is intermittently seen glowering disapprovingly at the duo (thus justifying the caricature’s existence in the music video, in my opinion).
It is not known if Woo and Kim are aware of the provenance of the artwork, for which Fahmi was sentenced to a months’ jail and a RM30,000 fine after being found guilty (surprise, surprise) of “spreading content online deemed obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person.” (My guess is, they don’t.)
In a tweet on Sept 22, Fahmi expressed bemusement over the hilarious inversion of his weighty creation by the Korean equivalent of Sesame Street characters.
No word from Najib, though, on his K-pop stint or his unauthorised comparison to Pennywise (which just makes no sen).