At kakiseni.com.my , a ribut (storm) had been blowing over Amir Muhammad's wicked review of Gerak Khas 3 . It's a fine return to form for Amir, as I've mentioned to him the other day, and may we see such wit in his NST columns to come.

The film itself is not what I wish to comment on; I think Amir has done a good job on that, so if you're a purveyor of the quintessentially British sense of humour a-la Douglas Adams, you should go find the article and read it. (It's in Malay, though.) What I am interested in is the response to it, as judged from the comments that people had left under the review.

The thing about this style of self-deprecating humour is that it is usually but a thin veil for truth, and that truth is often painful to hear or read for certain types of people.*

It's true, I have found that making something funny lets you get away with a lot of things, mainly because if people think it's a joke then it must be harmless. This is why humour, to me, is the best medium for social criticism.

But at the same time, you will also get a handful of people who will take even more offense at something as smug as Amir's review, because to them it smacks of the superiority complex that 'Westernised Malays' supposedly have for their 'kampung' brethren.

You will often find that the reverse is actually true: it is these so-called 'defenders of the kampung' types who have an insecurity complex.