Earlier this year, we learned that a local comedic sketch show, Chestnuts, had a 40-minute segment of its show axed by the Media Development Authority:

At the time, the MDA explained its actions thusly:

"MDA only received the final script for Chestnuts 50 on 4 Sep. Despite the late application, we processed the content expeditiously. There were however several problematic segments concerning an ongoing court case which could not be processed in time. After Artsolute dropped the segment, MDA issued a license for the rest of the performance to proceed."

It was, however, as a statement from Chestnuts creator Jonathan Lim shares, able to check and pass two other segments of the planned show:

"Yet in the same amount of time, a sketch referring to certain megachurch pastors and the ongoing City Harvest court case AND a sketch parodying the biographical musical about LKY were."

But anyway, that isn't what we're here to tell you about. What we're here to tell you about is, the axed portion is going to be made into a video musical mini-movie anyway. Why was the segment removed? It's because it involved Amos Yee and his on-going court case.

Will MDA be able to stop the showing of the mini-movie? It would be tricky if it is uploaded on free-to-access platforms like YouTube and Vimeo. Do the producers even have to run the script through MDA? If they do, what about all other YouTubers who make videos on a regular basis?

And that's exactly what the people behind Chestnuts are planning to do by making the mini-movie available online. But this time, since they can't sell tickets for it anymore, they are crowdsourcing for funds to make it happen:

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Indeed, some of the songs featured in the film are likely to come from popular ones:

1. "Marry You" by Bruno Mars

Here's the original song:

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(we embedded a nice wedding proposal video because the original video doesn't seem to exist on YouTube)

And here are the lyrics from the musical:

"It's the funeral night

I'm looking for something dumb to do

Hey maybe, I think I'll slander Lee Kuan Yew."

2. "Love in the First Degree" by Bananarama

Here's the original song:

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And here are the lyrics from the musical:

"Sorry that we slammed SG

Now we're guilty (Guilty!)

Guilty as a boy can be

Sorry for defaming Lee

We stand accused

of love in the first degree!"

3. "Moves like Jagger" by Maroon 5

Here's the original song:

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And here are the lyrics from the musical:

"It's clear that the system is shitty

So how do we make it past fifty?

We need moves like Amos

His banana so famous

We all need moo-oo-oo-ooves like Amos!"

4. "Let it Go" by Idina Menzel (from the Frozen soundtrack)

Most of you should know the original song, but here it is anyway:

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And here are the lyrics from the musical:

"Let it go, let it go

They'll never delete my dream

Let it go, let it go

Let my face become a meme!"

If you want to make this mini-movie happen, you can visit the crowdfunding campaign page for more details here.

Top photo by Eisabess Chee

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