In the past few days, you may have noticed Singaporeans posting pictures of local landmarks, famous people, and food with the wrong description.
If you had avoided all news outlets during that period, you may have thought that another contagious virus had emerged, one that robbed you of your ability to accurately name things.
But the actual reason for the posts was far more simple: on 14 June, a Facebook user by the name of “Aye Shaun” shared a picture of the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) hotel, but wrongly described it as “Downtown Chattanoga, Tenessee”.
While many netizens roasted him for making such a blatant mistake, it turns out that the whole thing was a joke.
US Teen Who Said MBS Was in Tennessee Confirmed It Was A Joke
19-year-old Shaun Fontenot, the man behind the now-famous post, confirmed that he just wanted to give the people in his city a good laugh because “we have nothing like that here”.
Many didn’t get the joke, however, and left rather unkind comments on Facebook .
One man even called him a “dog” in a private message for being so “dumb”. The rude man claimed to be the owner of the photograph and demanded that Fontenot credit him in the post.
Fontenot didn’t do so, however, as he though the man was rude and was unsure if his claim was true.
Netizens Started Responding With Funny Memes
Fortunately, the comments starting becoming more light-hearted as the post made the rounds on Facebook.
Netizens started posting pictures of people, landmarks, and dishes from Singapore and captioning them with an American equivalent.
Here are some examples:
There was one that was at least partially accurate:
“I received many hate comments and messages at first but many people were happy to respond with memes, which was really awesome. I’m glad that so many people found humour in the post rather than hate!” Fontenot said.
Even the Ministry of National Development (MND) joined in the fun, posting a photo of the Punggol Waterway and captioning it “Canal of Amsterdam”.
Fontenot’s favourite meme was a photo of Singapore’s Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam with the caption “Barack Obama”, something he found “absolutely hilarious”.
Started A Fundraiser so He Can Travel to SG
Fontenot said he didn’t expect to get more than a few shares at first, but his post has since garnered over 15,000 shares and 18,000 comments.
What started as a joke has now turned into a desire to actually visit the luxury hotel featured in the OG post, MBS.
The Tennessee resident recently created a fundraiser on Gofundme to raise US$10,000 (S$13,400) so he can travel to Singapore to visit MBS when the pandemic ends.
He said he got the idea after several users suggested he visit the country.
“The Marina Bay Sands hotel looks so beautiful that I’d just love to see it in person,” he said.
“Regardless of whether anyone would like to donate, I appreciate all of the love and support from my brothers and sisters in Singapore and I hope to be able to visit their country sometime in the near future!”
If you do come along, Mr Fontenot, don’t forget to try our world-famous Tiramisu:
Feature Image: Facebook (Aye Shaun)
Here’s the REAL reason why everyone is hanging plushies on their bags, simplified for you:
