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Mediacorp Actress Jernelle Oh Says She Channeled Her Inner Ah Lian For Viral 2013 Crimewatch Clip

The 2019 Star Search finalist says she landed an audition for the now iconic role through her police officer uncle who knew the producer of Crimewatch.

After 35 (and counting) seasons, Crimewatch is finally getting its time in the sun. At least among Gen Zs.

But forget the iconic “The Woman Was Too Stunned To Speak” clip, which has gone viral around the world, this time, it’s this scene from the 2013 season of the show, featuring Star Search finalist Jernelle Oh, 27.

The 30-second scene was first posted on Twitter on Dec 21 and soon amassed over 10.7k views.

In it, Jernelle and another actress play gangsters, or well, ah lians, who are embroiled in conflict, trading insults and refusing to apologise.

Eventually, they decided to square off against each other “tomorrow, 4pm at Pioneer Mall”.

"You better say sorry"

When 8days.sg caught up with Jernelle over a phone call, the actress revealed that this isn’t the first time the scene has caught the attention of netizens.

As it turns out, the same episode was featured in a video by local content creator Sneaky Sushii in Oct 2020.

“It went semi-viral, and my friends sent me that too,” Jernelle said, before going to share that the audio of the scene is gaining traction on TikTok now. Local meme pages like SGAG have also reposted the video.

"People started using the [audio] to recreate the scene in their own ways for situations that they find funny. For example, there will be people saying like 'When you want to watch a movie with your friend, but she has already watched it with her other friend’, and things like that,” she said.

Jernelle also hopped on the trend, doing her own recreation of the scene after eight years. The TikTok video, which was posted on Dec 15, has since garnered close to 950,000 views.

A follow-up video by the other actress, Shanice Koh, has around 300,000 views on TikTok too.

    Jernelle went on to share that she landed an audition for the role as her police officer uncle knew the producer involved for the series.

    And no, she’s not affected by how people are calling it a “cringeworthy" scene.

    “I thought I did okay when I saw it eight years ago. But now that I'm rewatching it again, at the start, I did find it cringey. But the more I see [the scene], the more I become immune to it, 'cos the cringe part doesn't affect me anymore,” she said.

     

    She's not just the girl from the meme video

    She's not just the girl from the meme video

    "I think everybody has a side that is more loud and rude, it's just whether or not you'll show that side on a daily basis. So, while I was acting as that role, I really let go, and became the ah lian that I can find deep inside me,” Jernelle added.

    In any case, one main takeaway that Jernelle has gotten from this is that she now gets recognised not just for her role of Chai Lai in The Heartland Hero, but also as “the girl in that Crimewatch meme”.

      The Heartland Hero airs weeknights, 7.30pm on Ch 8. You can also watch episodes on meWATCH.

      Photos: Jernelle Oh/Instagram, meWATCh

       

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      Jernelle Oh Crimewatch TikTok Meme

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