• The Ultimate List of mentions of Malaysia in American Television and Movies

    December 7th, 2007. Filed under: Articles, Cool Stuff
    Tags: , , , ,

    If I don’t do it, nobody else will! My home country of Malaysia is sometimes mentioned in Hollywood, often in the wrong context! It seems that the name is somewhat attributed as “far away” or “some really foreign place” kinda effect. As a Malaysian watching American shows, I feel that it is my duty to document all of such instances in one place.


    How I Met Your Mother (TV) *new*
    Episode: Slap Bet
    Barney finds an embarassing video of Robin from a guy in Malaysia.
    Link

    The Colbert Report (TV)
    Episode: August 13 2007, White Guy
    “I’m a little off tonight. I have been on prescription painkillers for my shattered wrist for about two and a half weeks now. Ah, nothing heavy duty, uh, over the counter pills. Ah, over the counter in Malaysia . . .”
    Malaysia, underground supplier of painkillers? I think not.
    Link

    House (TV)
    Episode: Airborne
    House and Cuddy face a widespread outbreak on their plane back from a symposium in Singapore while Wilson and the team treat a woman with constant seizures.

    The airplane they were in belongs to a fictional ‘Malaysian Pacific Air’ complete with fake logo. Wouldn’t it be nice of Malaysia Airlines have a competition? That flies direct to New York?



    The logo appears about one minute in.

    Zoolander
    Starring: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson
    Zoolander is a male model who is tricked into becoming an assassin. The target? The Prime Minister of Malaysia who is a bald Chinese man in traditional clothes. Go figure.


    Its brief, about three seconds in. Can somebody find a better picture/video?

    The Letter (TV)
    The wife of a Malaysian planter kills an employee of her husband one night, but her motive begins to appear not entirely truthful.
    Link

    Entrapment
    Starring: Catherine Zeta Jones, Sean Connery
    Part of the film takes place in Malaysia, particularly the Petronas Twin Towers.

    Link

    Turtle Beach
    Starring: Greta Scacchi, Joan Chen
    Reporter Judith Wilkes leaves her husband and two sons in Sydney and goes to Malaysia to cover the story of the Vietnamese boat people.

    Link

    Man of the Year
    Starring: Robin Williams, Christopher Walken
    Malaysia was mentioned in a live newscast towards the end, before Robin Williams appeared.
    Link

    24 (TV)
    Episode: 1 of Season 1
    The very pilot starts off with a few shots of Kuala Lumpur, then possibly fake shots where a suspicious looking man appears.
    Episode: 14 of Season 2
    CTU dug up a profile of a mercenary who had once led an assassination in Malaysia.
    Episode: N/A
    Apparently it is an interesting piece of trivia that Jack Bauer killed so many bad guys, the number 5 CIA most wanted list is a dude in Malaysia who downloads movies.
    Link

    The Daily Show (TV)
    Episode: May 24, 1999
    Jon Stewart makes fun of a cruiseship tragedy. *Check out how different he looks 8 years ago!*
    The Simpsons (TV)
    Episode: My Big Fat Greek Wedding
    Principal Skinner’s mother tells him he looks like a Malaysian transsexual while he wears a catwoman costume.
    Link *Thanks to Fira*

    Episode: She Used to Be My Girl
    Tom mentions Kuala Lumpur before he shyly asks Chloe out.
    Link

    Seinfeld (TV)
    Episode:The Scofflaw
    Elaine buys a pair of glasses from a man who got them from Malaysia, to get back at her ex-boyfriend
    Link

    30 Rock
    Episode:The Natural order
    As his replacement during a rehearsal, Tracy Jordan sends a gibbon, which said to reduce the insect population in Malaysia.
    Link

    The Condemned
    Starring: Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones
    Kreston Mackie escaped custody in US on drug and murder charges, then flees to Malaysia where he is sentenced to death for drug trafficking.
    Link *Thanks to PJ*

    And now, stuff that took place in Malaysia

    Anna and the King
    Starring: Jodie Foster, Chow Yun Fat
    Some scenes were shot in Malaysia.

    Link

    The Beach
    Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio
    Scenes were shot in Tioman Island, Malaysia.

    Link

    Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (TV)
    Episode: Malaysia: Deep into the Jungle
    Chef goes to Malaysian jungles.

    Snake Wranglers (TV)
    Episode: Mission to Malaysia
    Link

    Voxtours (TV)
    Episode: Malaysia
    Link

    If you spot any inaccuracies, or have anything to add, please leave a comment! This list is subject to expansion, I will be on the lookout.

    24 Responses to The Ultimate List of mentions of Malaysia in American Television and Movies

    1. hahaha this was a good post! :P

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      Claire

    2. Haha, thanks Claire.

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      Justin Wong

    3. You need to add the Patriot Games!

      They shot the movie in front of the Malaysian embassy in London.

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      Hafiz

    4. Really? Thats cool! Unfortunately, I could not find any proof of that in text, pictures, or video. It’ll be great if you can! Thanks.

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      Justin Wong

    5. Hmm. I am sure there are more than just that. No James Bond movies mention? I am surprised. Zoolander is certainly one fo the more popular ones, simply because we banned the movie because of that! LoL.

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      tomatoinc

    6. Haha.. yeah. I couldn’t find any mention in James Bond movies, due to the fact that I didn’t watch any, save for Casino Royale. If you can pinpoint one, that’d be awesome. Thanks!

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      Justin Wong

    7. Yay! I get a mention hehehe…

      Another Simpsons mention is in the episode ‘Bart Gets Famous’ where Kent Brockman cant pronounce Kuala Lumpur.

      Kent Brockman: [reading] “Tragic news tonight: 120 dead in a tidal wave in Kuala Lala
      – pure. Kuala Lum — per…”
      [crosses it out] “France!”
      [ http://www.snpp.com/episodes/1F11.html ]

      Also, shot in Malaysia: The first Survivor, Amazing Race, I Don’t Want To Sleep Alone, ..

      Some more mentions here, under fiction and popular culture :)
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petronas_Twin_Towers

      Yay for obscure mentions of Malaysia that makes us proud. Hehehehe :P

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      Fira

    8. Yup, hehe.. thanks for the contributions! They’re great!

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      Justin Wong

    9. I like House. :)

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      Jayce

    10. you’ll find many more mentions in fiction books, yet those are more “real”,

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      Gray

    11. just had to come back here haha, in the book Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, theres a mention on Orangutans, and Malaysia and KL hehe.

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      Fira

    12. Ooo… I just realized I’ve been creditted. Woohoo!

      Haha…

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      PJ

    13. there were a fwe mentions at some other shows about kuala lumpur such as numb3rs and a couple of other shows I don’t remember. I think Chuck also mentioned Kuala Lumpur also.

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      sam

    14. [...] Apparently, someone did blog about it. Check out Wong Keen Hing’s Ultimate List of mentions of Malaysia’s in American Movies and Dramas. [...]

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    15. [...] Click here for his ‘The Ultimate List of mentions of Malaysia in American Television and Movies’ [...]

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      Random People Online. « All Jazzed Up

    16. great blog. :) proud to be a malaysian!

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      n.

    17. i like the idea of solving crime using Mathematics that is why i love numb3rs.~:-

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      Alfie Davies

    18. I love the movie of Ben Stiller which is There is something about mary, nice love story and comedy.~,:

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      Joshua Brown

    19. Numb3rs is very unique because they crack case by means of mathematics.’..

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      Hailey Hall

    20. numb3rs has a very good storyline and i love all the characters in this tv series-’*

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      Anna Begum

    21. i recently watched slap bet, HIMYM and Barney mentioned Malaysia somewhat regarding Robin’s porn video tape which revealed wasn’t. I don’t if it is a good or a bad image for Malaysia.

      In Desperate Housewives, episode 1 season 7, there is a conversation between Susan and this woman mentioning Malaysia in such a bad way.. like Malaysia is a country that famous with porn

      check out this: http://blog.penyubiru.com/2010/10/apabila-kuala-lumpur-disebut-dalam-desperate-housewives-musim-7.html

      it’s hard to not be mad when Americans talk bad about malaysia, even though we all know how they like to make fun of other countries and only think they’re the best.

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      jee

    22. there’s one japanese drama series, Fighting Girl (tak best pun). it was shot in front of Malaysian Embassy in Japan.

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      reader

    23. I’m an American who has lived in KL for almost 8 years. KL feels like home and I rushed to the link containing this page to see all the media that mentioned “my 2nd home”. This is a really nice post. Thanks for taking the time to compile it.

      As for the Desperate Housewives portrayal… well the name says it all.

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      ummahzy

    24. Thanks Justin as a Malaysian living in Australia I’ve been looking for a list like this, just to see how Americans/the international media potray us!

      Towards the end of House Season 6 Episode 5 titles Instant Karma we saw Thirteen (Olivia Wilde’s character) leave for Bangkok using an airline whose name started with Malaysia (the full name of the airline was not shown)

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      Michelle