Radio DJs tend to have the gift of the gab but what happens when they must perform stand-up comedy in an unfamiliar language?
In an episode of Mediacorp YouTube series Scaredy Cats, local jocks Pin Juen and Ting Fong from YES 933, along with Lin Xuan from Capital 958 were challenged to do just that – perform stand-up comedy in English – in front of a stone-faced audience.
Scaredy Cats see local personalities take on challenges that involve their fears, often with hilarious outcomes
Of course, we see know the jocks can converse in English, but we wouldn’t consider them very fluent by any chance.
Ting Fong also admitted that he “used all the English words [he] learned in [his] life”, so we knew we would be in for a laugh, though not necessarily because of his jokes.
From Pin Juen’s jibe at how he is used to “sit down comedy” as a radio DJ as opposed to “stand-up comedy”, to Ting Fong’s jokes on how he learned English from Disney characters, and Lin Xuan tearing up his script on stage before taking out another piece of paper also drew a couple of laughs.
Especially in front of the hard-to-please crowd who often looked bored and unimpressed.
After the three DJs had their turns, they were brought up on stage again where the audience were asked to vote by pasting yellow post it notes on who they thought did the best.
In the end it was Lin Xuan who won over the tough crowd.
Pin Juen, who received the least number of votes was forced to do a Michael Jackson impersonation with no music for a whole minute.
Hey, at least the YES 933 jock finally managed to get a few more laughs in.
Overall, we think it is a good effort on their part, but maybe they can attempt it in Mandarin the next time?