Oh, dear. Where to start? Malaysia’s most well-known comedian, Harith Iskander, has taken to his Facebook page to make his first public statement regarding alleged unpaid dues from the event holders, The Laugh Factory, who put his comedic prowess on the global map when he won their competition.
Back in 2016, Iskander won a contest that sought out to find the “funniest person in the world.” The prize? Bragging rights. Forever mentions, and constant superlative. Most importantly though was a sweet US$100,000 (RM400,000) prize, and Iskander is claiming that he’s only been paid US$30,000 of what was due.
https://www.facebook.com/713532326/posts/10156000943947327/
Entertainment industry tome The Hollywood Reporter covered the story back in December; however, this is the first time that Iskander has made it known via his personal page through screencaps of the original article on the advice of his California lawyers.
Not only is he asking for the US$70,000 balance that he’s due, he’s also suing for promissory fraud, breach of contract, unfair competition and misleading advertising.
Wait? So… does this mean that we shouldn’t be calling him “funniest person in the world”? JOKES!
He’s also asking for his travel fees and immigration costs to be borne by The Laugh Factory. Oh — and a US comedy tour, organized by the defendants, or it’s cash equivalent.
Explaining that while the win placed Malaysia [Ed. Note: And him], on the radar, he adds that a lot of time and effort and expenses went towards the victory, and he’s simply asking for what’s due.
Fair enough, and while we hope that the organizers come through with their promised prize, we’ve resigned ourselves to never getting our time back from watching Mr. Iskander’s Netflix comedy special.
Jokes! Kinda.
