“We are machas. We go to mamaks. We like hip-hop. So we made a music video. A really, really, really high-budget one (it features a Porsche, yo!).” – That Effing Show.
If you haven’t yet seen this internet sensation music video that’s been making the rounds on Facebook and Twitter, watch it here now! Their message is simple: “When in doubt – don’t fight, don’t destroy places of worship, don’t cane people, don’t say ridiculous stuff the rakyat is gonna make fun of in the internet. Just do the “Macha-rena” (see below), and all will be well”.
LoyarBurok caught up with Ezra Zaid, host of “That Effing Show” – home to the “I Am A Macha” video. We asked him about how the video came to being; he shares with us the idea behind the music video and the reason behind the “macha” theme.
Ezra Zaid on That Effing Show
“I Am A Macha” is currently the 4th instalment of That Effing Show, the newest programme on Internet television platform PopTV – The Fairly Current Show and The Wkend Sessions also ada.
That Effing Show is your standard liberal-progressive, news cum socio-political commentary thingy but peppered with random (and often so-lame-it’s-great) humour.
The bunch of us behind the show are “young adults” who care a great deal about what goes on in our country and feel that is our responsibility to make some sense of it; to ourselves and hopefully also to others through this platform especially when these important and crucial matters aren’t being discussed in an honest and intelligent way.
Humour, comedy and sober observations – are what we hope will keep everyone’s feet on the ground and their heads tuned in to what is and what isn’t ridiculous that is happening in this country. Perhaps it will also spur other Malaysians to participate towards making a difference in their own way.
On The Macha Music Video
As for the music video, the initial idea was to shoot a bad-ass music video (ala what Adam Sandberg and the people at Saturday Night Live do) as one of our skits. We then realised that we needed more than just an idea; we needed a song, a theme, some music and lyrics, a group dance and we needed it to be funny. Hip-hop and especially the music videos of that genre leaves us with a lot of room, lyrically and visually, to be funny and creative in telling the story.
Seeing that we had a “macha” song, it had to be accompanied by the Macha-rena. The principles behind the original Macarena dance were useful for us; get a big group of people, do some simple gestures while moving in place, change direction, repeat ad infinitum, annoy people. We asked one of the top dancer-choreographers in the country, Elaine Pedley, to come in and work with our machas. Don’t play, she has worked on Malaysian Idol and in Germany, UK, France, China and Singapore; but never before in a mamak!
On That Facebook Group Supporting The Right For All Malaysians To Refer To Each Other as “Macha”
The “macha” theme came about as identifying something that bound us as Malaysians that had some street-cred attached to it, not with something that was pasted on billboards and commercials. Also, more than 10,000 folks joined the “macha” Facebook group – that is just hilarious, honest, and impressive all at the same time, and that strengthened the idea. This Facebook group came to being as a reaction to the “Allah” issue; one of the comments posted on the group’s wall quite aptly sums it up, “Comedy is a funny way to address serious issues.”
Machas and mamaks go together like roti canai and dhal curry, and it was time somebody captured that relationship in a music video in a fun and (hopefully!) funny way.
LB: If you’re having trouble viewing the video embedded here, click on the hyperlink above. If that doesn’t work either try hitting your computer.
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