Satire and community in the time of COVID-19: An analysis of Ernest Ng’s Covidball Z

ABSTRACT

This article examines how a sense of community is evinced among readers of the satirical Malaysian webcomic Covidball Z, in which the author Ernest Ng uses satire to give voice to common responses and experiences around which his readers can gather for moments of levity, as a group, united in their ridicule of their leaders and themselves. Ng’s comic opens up a space of sharing where netizens can see their worries and fears represented, while also allowing them, through Facebook, to take part in wider discussions. The analysis of the comic and of the comments by Ng’s readers argues that building or supporting community is a significant part of satire as a form of commentary. Ng’s political satire is calibrated to allow himself and his readers to respond to and critique the Malaysian situation, while shielding themselves from prosecution, within a community enabled by the network society.

KEYWORDS:

• Satire
• community
• Ernest Ng
• Covidball Z
• Malaysia
• manga

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In recent years, Malaysian cartoonist Zunar and graphic designer/street artist Fahmi Reza have both faced punitive legal action for their satirical work. Their work is discussed in more detail later in this article.

2. This strategy is quite frequently deployed in Malaysia: comedian Douglas Lim, for example, posted a video on May 26, 2021 in response to the appallingly fumbled response of the chairman of Prasarana Malaysia Berhad (a corporate body charged with running transport infrastructure, including the Light Rapid Transit or LRT system) to an LRT train crash which injured 213 people, some very severely. While Lim lampoons the chairman, he does so through a very thin veil of allegory; also, much like Ng, he does not go beyond what actually happened. His video is essentially a slightly exaggerated version of the actual events. That it resonated deeply with his audience is evident from the fact that it amassed one million views within one day (https://www.facebook.com/thedouglaslim/posts/330438091773452). Again, as with Ng’s comics, Lim’s video serves to gather a community around shared outrage, without any further incitement to action. The goal seems to be creating awareness of and commenting on the reprehensible behaviour of the chairman.

3. This references the fact that the Prime Minister did actually go golfing that weekend, despite the increasingly worrying COVID-19 situation.

4. Again, we can draw a distinction between Ng’s artwork and that produced by Zunar and Fahmi Reza.

5. Air suam means “warm water”, while the phrase no jutsu is frequently used by characters in manga such as Naruto. Jutsu means something like “technique”, so to shout it out during a fight is a way of saying what fighting technique the hero is going to use.

6. Makcik means “aunty”, and is a polite term used to refer to an older woman, while “Kiah” is a shortened name. By using the term makcik, together with the diminutive of a longer name, the Prime Minister sought to appeal to something cosy, familiar, and unthreatening.

7. A Japanese anime character, very popular in Malaysia.

8. Rina was castigated for glossing over the fact that many women were actually in greater danger of abuse from family members during lockdown because of constant enforced proximity, while Dr Noraini received backlash for not seeming to be aware of the multiple serious mental and logistical issues faced by university students stuck either at home or on campus as universities struggled to find ways to cope with the situation.

9. Menteri means “Minister”.

10. This translates roughly as “Come on, let’s Tik Tok.”

11. Sinar Harian calls him “Manusia paling popular di Malaysia” (The most popular man in Malaysia), while The Star calls him “Dr Noor Hisham – the Man of the Hour” (https://www.sinarharian.com.my/article/77386/PROFIL-DI-SEBALIK-BERITA/Manusia-paling-popular-di-Malaysia; https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/04/18/dr-noor-hisham—the-man-of-the-hour).

12. Multiple comments focused on trying to identify the manga inspiration behind the coat. There is, in fact, another community being built in these comments – fans of anime and manga, who are able to identify the multiple intertextual references Ng makes. Ng himself says: “I also realised that many people are very into Japanese manga and they tend to get all the (cheeky) references I put in the panels … I find that very enjoyable” (quoted in Toh 2020, n.p.).

13. This sword is drawn to look like the sword in the Dettol logo – a reader noticed the reference and commented on it, with the author responding that he was happy someone had picked up on it.

14. Noor Hisham sent the girl a letter thanking her for the bracelet. In the letter, he tells her that “I am not doing it alone” – echoing the notion that the whole country must fight. The exchange between the two touched the hearts of the public (see Sivanandam 2020).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan Philip

Susan Philip is an associate professor in the English Department, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya. She has several publications on theatre, in journals such as the Asian Theatre Journal, World Literature Written in English, Australasian Drama Studies, and Journal of Commonwealth Literature. She has published on digital media in Asiatic, on community theatre in Kajian Malaysia, and on crime fiction in SARE and International Journal of Indonesian Studies. She also has a chapter in the recent book Making Heritage in Malaysia (ed. Sharmani Gabriel), as well as chapters on theatre in numerous other books.