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It’s official — Najip Ali is out of Malaysian show

KUALA LUMPUR — Freelance artiste Najip Ali has been dropped from Maharaja Lawak Mega (King Of Comedy), following inappropriate remarks he made about Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on a Mediacorp Channel 5 comedy show last week.

Malaysian TV channel Astro is replacing Singaporean freelance artiste Najip Ali with Malaysian TV host, Aznil Nawawi on its reality show, Maharaja Lawak Mega. Photo: Facebook / Astro Gempak

Malaysian TV channel Astro is replacing Singaporean freelance artiste Najip Ali with Malaysian TV host, Aznil Nawawi on its reality show, Maharaja Lawak Mega. Photo: Facebook / Astro Gempak

KUALA LUMPUR — Freelance artiste Najip Ali has been dropped from Maharaja Lawak Mega (King Of Comedy), following inappropriate remarks he made about Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on a Mediacorp Channel 5 comedy show last week.

He will be replaced by Malaysian TV host, Aznil Nawawi. Malaysian satellite television channel Astro made the announcement on its Astro Gempak infotainment channel’s Facebook page on Friday (April 7). Its move comes after Najip, 50, made inappropriate remarks about Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on a Mediacorp Channel 5 comedy show last week.

Maharaja Lawak Mega is one of Astro’s flagship programmes and, according to Starhub, the reality show is one of Astro’s most popular offerings. It also airs in Singapore on cable TV channel Astro Warna (StarHub TV Channel 118) on Fridays at 10pm.

Najip and the production team behind Mediacorp Channel 5’s comedy show, OK Chope!, had issued an apology on Wednesday to the Malaysian leader. The show’s host, Ms Vernetta Lopez, and Mr Najip — a Singaporean comedian who was among those who made the offending remarks — also apologised on television in a recorded broadcast.

The episode in question included a segment about the Malaysian Prime Minister where participants — including Mr Najip — were asked to complete a sentence that read: “(PM) Najib slams ... for threatening Malaysia’s progress”.

On Thursday, in response to further media queries, Channel 5 said its production team “continues to reflect on the incident and learn from it”.

“We also hope that Najip will be given the space he needs to manage through this difficult period,” it added.

Apologising on Wednesday, Najip had said that he had reflected on his comments and realised “how insensitive and callous I was”. He added: “I would like to apologise unreservedly to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. I beg his forgiveness and that of my viewers and friends.”

He reiterated on Thursday that “those of us who participated in the show regret the episode and are truly sorry to those we have let down”. He added: “The show sees the funny side of current events and happenings and it was in that spirit that we made those remarks. In hindsight, our comments were in poor taste and offensive. ”

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