Race too touchy a topic? Not for these girls

IT'S astonishing how the smartest comedians are shifting the tone on racial discussions in Singapore. As the authorities, intelligentsia and media continue to tiptoe around race with uncertainty and reservation, our comedians are picking up the slack and going boldly where no discussion on race has gone before.

Directed by Selena Tan and written by Alfian Sa'at, the new revue Meenah and Cheenah stars sassy comedians Siti Khalijah Zainal and Judee Tan. It parodies stereotypes of Malays and Chinese with such flourish and abandon, the only possible reaction is to laugh with and at them.

As the show's meenah (a variant spelling of minah which means a low-class Malay woman), Siti Khalijah is sensational. She makes mincemeat out of stereotypes of Malays being lazy, underachieving and having too many kids.