Unapologetic and unfazed, comedian Jocelyn Chia has only one regret after MH370 joke backlash

“How long do you wait before you can use tragedy as comedy?” That’s the question asked by New York-based stand-up Jocelyn Chia, who has been the subject of an international backlash after a video of her joking about the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 went viral.

As well as being heavily criticised online and threatened with an Interpol red notice by the government of Malaysia, Chia says there has been an “unprecedented” campaign to pressure comedy clubs into banning her, as well as cyber-attacks on the websites of the companies she has worked for.

Speaking in an interview with The Independent, Chia remains unapologetic about a routine that, she says, seeks to “find humour in something sad”. “A tragedy”, she adds, “that’s nine years old, for reference”.

Chia is a US citizen who grew up in Singapore, and says the subject of her routine was the historical relationship between Singapore and Malaysia, rather than the 2014 flight that vanished with 239 people on board. Nonetheless, the 89-second video of her performance at Manhattan’s popular Comedy Cellar has been condemned by the governments of both Singapore and Malaysia, with the latter calling for Interpol to assist with her arrest on incitement charges.

Chia says that by refusing to back down over the routine, she is not only standing up against people who tried to end her livelihood over a joke but also against bullying and cancel culture.

Chia says the only real regret she has about the incident is that she will never be able to visit Malaysia again – as well as the extra time she now has to spend researching extradition laws in other countries she wants to travel to.

“The most unfortunate thing is that I won’t get to go to a country that I actually love. I actually love going to Malaysia and I have lots of good friends in Malaysia and I love performing for the Malaysian audience,” she says.

The comedian is keen to focus on the positives of the past few weeks, quipping online about how much media attention she has received and saying in this interview that it has only given her new material for upcoming shows and a comedy special.

Chia says she was sitting pooolside overlooking splendid mountain views in Colorado when the viral video blew up online, and she started receiving messages from friends worried about how she was doing.

“You know, sometimes people’s lives are worse than what it looks like on social media,” she says. “And then people’s lives can also be a lot better than what it’s looking like on social media.

“The rebel in me wanted to post a photo of me of that moment from my holiday and being like, oh my god, life is so hard after being canceled by Malaysia and I really wanted to do that just to show them that, hey, you didn’t win,” she says.

What’s not amusing, she says, is the “vitriolic” campaign to end her career that has followed the furore.

“They tried to take away my livelihood by threatening the comedy clubs where I performed. The Comedy Cellar website got hacked and it was review bombed after they co-posted my video. The attackers were trying to launch cyber-attacks on websites of companies where I have performed in the last four years to take me down,” she says.

“It was something the US comedy clubs had never seen before.”

MH370 went missing in March 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The disappearance of the plane with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board has remained one of the most puzzling aviation mysteries to date.

Despite an extensive four-year search in the Indian Ocean involving multiple countries, no trace of the aircraft was found. On the 9th anniversary of the disappearance of the plane, Netflix released a three-part docuseries MH370: The Plane that Disappeared.

Touching upon the historical rivalry between Singapore and Malaysia, former British colonies which were once part of the same country, Chia picked out an audience member at the club who turned out to be Malaysian during her 7 April performance.

She said Singapore has become a "first-world country" while Malaysia remained "developing", adding that Malaysians cannot visit Singapore because their “airplanes cannot fly” in reference to the 2014 disappearance.

“What? Malaysian Airlines’ plane going missing not funny huh?” Chia asked the audience. “This joke kills in Singapore.”

Describing the day of the performance as similar to any other, Chia says that before hitting the stage she usually gets at least a little nervous, particularly if it’s in a venue as big as the 250-seater Comedy Cellar in Manhattan. She typically puts on some Eminem music or Alicia Keys’ Girl on Fire to get pumped up, but certainly wasn’t thinking on the night in question about whether the content of her show would cause an international incident.

“The script of my performance that day was very much tried and tested previously and I am not the first comedian to crack a joke about Malaysian Airlines. It is not a taboo topic,” she says.

“I think it’s highly frustrating that I’m being vilified for doing – not even a joke about the missing airplanes. I just referenced it [MH370].

“That’s not really the essence of the joke. The essence of the joke is about the breakup followed by a glow-up of Singapore versus Malaysia.

“And then the second part of it is a comedian saying something inappropriate and then winning the audience back.”

It’s a classic emotional rollercoaster used by countless comedians to get a laugh from the audience, she says, but the wider context is less obvious from the edited clip posted online.

After the video went viral, Malaysia’s national police said they would seek Interpol’s help in tracking Chia down for questioning. The global agency has said they have received no formal request yet, and Chia also says she has received no formal communications from the Malaysian authorities or any other agency so far.

Singapore’s minister for foreign affairs, Vivian Balakrishnan, distanced himself from Chia and condemned her for the joke. He apologised for her “horrendous comments” in a tweet and said: “She certainly does not speak for Singaporeans.”

Malaysian foreign minister Zambry Abdul Kadir said Chia’s act “showed a total lack of sensitivity and empathy” toward Malaysians and the MH370 victims’ families. “This video also clearly depicts behaviour that is contrary to the values of Asian countries that are known for their manners and morals.”

The reaction to the joke is a reflection of the broader issue of free speech and comedy in Asia, and a reminder of the uphill battle faced by comedians and artists seeking to freely express themselves.

In July 2022, Malaysian authorities arrested comedian Rizal van Geyzel for posts that allegedly inflamed religious and racial tensions. The Crackhouse Comedy Club was vandalised by a charged crowd and its co-owner was also charged.

In India, a comedian was arrested for a month and charged for “hurting religious sentiments” for a joke he was supposedly “about to make”. Munawar Faruqui was manhandled by right-wing Hindu vigilantes who crashed his show over jokes about Hindu deities.

Last month, Malaysian comedian Nigel Ng was banned on Chinese social media days after he published clips from a live show which poked fun at China’s heavy censorship and authoritarian government.

Popularly known as “Uncle Roger”, Ng joked that he was “about to get cancelled” even as he delivered the set.

In 2021, Ng apologised and deleted a collaboration video featuring another YouTuber who had previously criticised the Chinese government for its treatment of Uyghur Muslims and pro-democracy protestors. Ng said he hadn’t been aware of his collaborator’s “political thoughts and his past incorrect remarks about China”.

Chia says there is a long way to go before Asian comics feel free to perform without some level of censorship.

“I do see that in Asia comics have a narrower leeway for freedom of speech than they do in America,” she says. “There is a difference between American comedians and Asian comedians because we even make fun of our president.”

Chia says she never expected such a blowback to her joke, as even though she grew up in Asia she evolved as a comedian in America – and was delivering the set in the heart of New York.

“I am very much an American comedian. My sensibilities and sensitivities are going to be very Americanised. We literally have over 1,000 jokes about 9/11 just on the internet, right? So that’s how common it is in America to make fun of tragedies,” she says.

This article was amended on 5 July 2023. It previously conflated two separate incidents involving Nigel Ng.