Online chatter around Crackhouse Comedy Club video goes viral with 100k engagements

Crackhouse Comedy Club has stirred up plenty of chatter online after it was embroiled in a video featuring an open mic night participant removing her baju kurung and hijab went viral over the weekend. In the viral clip, the woman introduced herself by saying that she had memorised 15 chapters of the Quran and proceeded to strip down to skimpy clothes underneath. She has been identified by media outlets as Nuramira Abdullah and has also been alleged to have insulted Islam.

DBKL has since ordered for the club to temporarily close, adding that the club had been running with a restaurant licence instead of an entertainment licence. Meanwhile, Crackhouse Comedy Club also previously lodged a police report against Nuramira, who was also arrested separately by the police.

According to Kelvin Koh, commercial director of Truescope Singapore (a Dataxet partner company), engagement for the issue far exceeds over 300,000 across multiple social media platforms including Facebook, Forums, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

Traction for this issue started on 9 July, reaching its peak on 11 July with over 100,000 engagements on Malaysian social media. The issue is still brewing at the time of writing, with news of Nuramira pleading not guilty of insulting Islam being surfaced.

Many netizens criticised Nuramira, opining that she should be investigated and arrested. According to Koh, some netizens also praised DBKL’s action of suspending the club. On the other hand, a number of netizens also opined that the premise or the organiser should not be blamed for the actions of Nuramira. At the same time, netizens also felt that action must be taken to anyone who insults other religions.

Meanwhile, Meltwater told A+M that the total mentions of the issue from 7 to 13 July hit 1.08k, likewise peaking on 11 July. The top keywords associated with the issue were "kesian juga aku tengok crackhouse comedy club kena suspend", "buat masa ini", "operations owner", "establishment", and "content creator". The majority of sentiment towards this issue was negative (53%) while 41% was neutral. Only 4% was positive.

Meanwhile, in a latest statement on social media, Crackhouse Comedy Club said it was "sealed without prior written notice given to the management" on 11 July. While the club accepts that the authorities have to investigate the actions of the woman in the viral video, it said that the individual committed "an unacceptable act" during the purported performance. The club added that the performance was recorded and released by the individual on her own social media accounts without the knowledge and/or permission of the Crackhouse Comedy Club.

"This is an act of sabotage," the statement said, adding that the club's reputation has been damaged by this individual who appears to have her own agenda. "The club was neither party to this nor did the management condone it," it added.

The club has not only banned her from the premises after informing her that she had violated its rules and regulations, it also gave full cooperation to the investigators when the video went viral.

"The management of the Crackhouse Comedy Club has never courted controversy," it said. The club is known to have famous comedians such as Harith Iskander, Ronnie Chieng, Kuah Jenhan, Nizam Jentik-Jentik, and Peter Berner, among others, grace its stage. It also strongly urged the authorities to revoke the suspension of the club's licence, describing the action to be "heavy handed and without due process".

When the issue first came to light on 9 July, Crackhouse Comedy Club said it strongly condemns the contents of the viral video.

Meanwhile, Malaysian producer Afdlin Shauki also spoke out against the temporary closure of the club, explaining that comedians usually present their jokes to the public to test of their content is good enough for standup comedy. He likened comedians to athletes who have to practice until they are well-versed in their sport. "Are we going to close the swimming pool because a swimmer is on steriods? It's the swimmer's fault not the pool's fault!" he said. His post has since garnered 13k reactions, 6.8k comments and 470 shares at the time of writing.