It was a special moment for Finance Minister Zafrul Aziz: starring in a snazzy trailer for the very unsexy duty of presenting next year’s annual budget.
But when it was uploaded yesterday, instead of being praised for his talent, sweet FX, or snazzy suit, Zafrul was immediately the butt of a thousand memes.
The video opens with Zafrul’s back to the camera in what appears to be his office. As neon computer graphics that may have looked futuristic in the ‘90s float in space over what sounds like a 1977-era R2D2, he slowly turns to say, “You don’t have to look for me, because I will be in parliament [Friday] to present the 2022 budget. Watch it live on the TV1 channel.”
It doesn’t really make sense unless one also, for some reason, watched a prequel to the trailer released earlier this month in which several news presenters embarrass themselves by “acting” like they are on the hunt for Zafrul.
Terence Dass, Hazel Desmond, Akmal Hafiz Ruslan, Hafez Dolson, and Munawar Azmie also appear with the 48-year-old minister in yesterday’s video. They strut toward the camera with him, attempting an Avengers-esque assembly, but manage to turn the cringe up even higher with poses only their moms are going to think look cool.
On Twitter, it was compared a 2004 trailer for Siti Nurhaliza’s Lagu Rindu music video, which used a similar aesthetic; teen spy comedy-cartoon Totally Spies; and textbooks for primary school children.
“Oh my god I am cringing so hard right now,” Monarch_Black tweeted in response to the trailer.
“For real tho, this hyper futuristic aesthetic look has been our theme since the early 2000s, fucking move on from this,” UntoldHero chimed in.
Zafrul, whose role with an offshore boutique bank in Labuan came up earlier this month in the Pandora Papers expose, will present Malaysia’s 2022 budget proposal on the RTM government news channel in two one-hour slots starting at 9pm on Friday and Saturday.
Next year’s federal allocation is said to address the foreign worker shortage and focus on rebuilding the COVID-19-ravaged economy.
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