'Died hearing this': Singaporean character in Thai Netflix drama triggers locals with wrong usage of 'lah'

They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery, but maybe not so much in this case. 

A Thai Netflix drama has received quite a bit of flak from Singaporeans over one of the characters' Singaporean accent. 

One of the scenes from the series was uploaded to TikTok by user Poorkaikai on Tuesday (10 May). "Didn't know Singaporean accent is just 'lah'", the user wrote. "Died hearing this." 

Poorkaikai also mentioned in the comments that the clip came from The Judgement, a 2018 drama about a young college girl who was sexually assaulted while at a party. 

In the 39-second clip, the Singaporean character approaches the female lead after taking a picture of her from afar, speaking in what is supposed to be a Singaporean accent: "Hello lah, I'm Singapore ah. I'm a photographer lah." 

@poorkaikai Hello lah, I’m Singapore 🇸🇬 #singlish #lah #funny #fyp #joke ♬ original sound - Poorkaikai

Poorkaikai's video has garnered over 116,000 views and almost 300 comments from peeved netizens who pointed out the character's inaccurate usage of the beloved Singapore slang.

In response to a netizen's comment telling the show to "try better", Poorkaikai felt that the actor's attempt to pass off as Singaporean was better than Zoe Tay's attempt at playing a Thai character in the Mediacorp drama The Heartland Hero. 

ALSO READ: 'Why did Archer reference my childhood home address?' Bukit Batok condo address pops up in US animation

claudiatan@asiaone.com