Malaysian YouTuber: Why are people making sexual memes about Upin & Ipin?

Upin & Ipin has been a staple of many Malaysian households’ weekend routines, with the famous twin brothers’ Kampung lives drawing over 10 million subscribers onto creators Les’ Copaque Production’s YouTube channel. The family-friendly kids show has, however, been the subject of lewd memes online that depict some of the show’s protagonists in compromising positions.

Akhi Fairuz Al-Jengkawi, a Malaysian YouTuber, has criticised the creators of such memes in a Tweet. Fairuz also highlighted an Instagram account that shared the lewd images, questioning “why” these users are even creating these memes—a sentiment that I certainly share.

The offending photo shared depicts Susanti, one of the characters from Upin & Ipin, holding (what looks like) a vibrator and asking Kak Ros for instructions. It’s a pretty disgusting way to sexualise an otherwise harmless cartoon—have a look yourself:

The replies to his Tweet, meanwhile, appear to show that the majority of followers agree with Fairuz’s criticism, with 4.2k likes and 3.2k retweets on the post. Some even suggested that the sexualised memes are a way for creators to draw in the views. “It’s like there isn’t any other kinds of content that can be made”, wrote one user, while others called for Les’ Copaque to be more vigilant in reporting and taking down such posts.

Fairuz earlier shared his thoughts on the issue on a YouTube video titled, “Dear Indonesian, mari berama kami melawan Upin Ipin yang ditukar menjadi PORNO!!”. In another Tweet, he questions if these creators even have lives of their own, calling for viewers to instead focus on the values that the original cartoons are supposed to have.

Les’ Copaque has also thanked Fairuz for pointing out the issue, while calling for the public to report any offensive memes that surfaces. Les’ Copaque’s channel, for some context, is the first Malaysian YouTube channel to achieve 10 mllion subscribers—and a large portion of those subs are from fans of Upin & Ipin.

The main concern here is the (very real) possibility of children coming across the lewd content. A quick search reveals that there is a vast variety of inappropriate, Upin & Ipin-themed content on YouTube—some of which are recreated on Minecraft and GTA V (with mods, presumably). Regardless, the onus also has to be on YouTube to help prevent these videos from staying online—especially when they purport to be child-friendly content.

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