The Ultimate List of mentions of Malaysia in American Television and Movies
December 7th, 2007. Filed under: Articles, Cool StuffTags: film, hollywood, malaysia, movies, television
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.
hahaha this was a good post!
Claire
December 11th, 2007 at 11:00 amHaha, thanks Claire.
Justin Wong
December 11th, 2007 at 10:39 pmYou need to add the Patriot Games!
They shot the movie in front of the Malaysian embassy in London.
Hafiz
December 11th, 2007 at 11:30 pmReally? Thats cool! Unfortunately, I could not find any proof of that in text, pictures, or video. It’ll be great if you can! Thanks.
Justin Wong
December 11th, 2007 at 11:36 pmHmm. 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.
tomatoinc
December 12th, 2007 at 2:18 amHaha.. 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!
Justin Wong
December 12th, 2007 at 5:39 amYay! 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
Fira
December 12th, 2007 at 1:15 pmYup, hehe.. thanks for the contributions! They’re great!
Justin Wong
December 13th, 2007 at 7:01 amI like House.
Jayce
December 17th, 2007 at 8:12 pmyou’ll find many more mentions in fiction books, yet those are more “real”,
Gray
December 21st, 2007 at 1:37 amjust 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.
Fira
January 13th, 2008 at 3:53 amOoo… I just realized I’ve been creditted. Woohoo!
Haha…
PJ
January 27th, 2008 at 12:06 amthere 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.
sam
July 11th, 2008 at 1:02 am[...] Apparently, someone did blog about it. Check out Wong Keen Hing’s Ultimate List of mentions of Malaysia’s in American Movies and Dramas. [...]
sam.tehais 《平安的冰茶》 » Blog Archive » ‘Series’ly Malaysia
July 11th, 2008 at 1:35 am[...] Click here for his ‘The Ultimate List of mentions of Malaysia in American Television and Movies’ [...]
Random People Online. « All Jazzed Up
November 12th, 2008 at 1:23 amgreat blog.
proud to be a malaysian!
n.
September 27th, 2009 at 5:23 ami like the idea of solving crime using Mathematics that is why i love numb3rs.~:-
Alfie Davies
June 30th, 2010 at 10:21 pmI love the movie of Ben Stiller which is There is something about mary, nice love story and comedy.~,:
Joshua Brown
July 9th, 2010 at 9:03 pmNumb3rs is very unique because they crack case by means of mathematics.’..
Hailey Hall
July 27th, 2010 at 11:33 amnumb3rs has a very good storyline and i love all the characters in this tv series-’*
Anna Begum
September 13th, 2010 at 10:24 ami 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.
jee
April 23rd, 2011 at 9:46 pmthere’s one japanese drama series, Fighting Girl (tak best pun). it was shot in front of Malaysian Embassy in Japan.
reader
February 3rd, 2012 at 2:48 pmI’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.
ummahzy
March 19th, 2012 at 6:35 pmThanks 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)
Michelle
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