Tan Chuan-Jin Corrected His Own Instagram Mistake on Facebook in the Best-est Ownself Check Ownself

Everyone makes mistakes.

If you used your instead of you’re in a WhatsApp message to your girlfriend, she might make fun of you for a minute or so, and then the matter would be forgotten.

But if you were a politician who made a spelling or grammatical error in a social media post, netizens will probably remember it and continue to make fun of you until you die.

So, what do you do then?

Make fun of yourself, of course.

Tan Chuan-Jin Corrected His Own Instagram Mistake on Facebook in the Best-est Ownself Check Ownself

On National Day (9 Aug), Marine Parade MP Tan Chuan-Jin shared this patriotic post on Instagram:

In the photo, Tan is seated with his fellow MPs, including Pritam Singh and Sylvia Lim from the Worker’s Party (WP), at the National Gallery just before the morning parade at the Padang.

Eagle-eyed netizens, however, noticed an error in Tan’s caption, which said:

“Greetings from National Galley with our fellow MPs…getting ready for our Morning Parade@Padang! Happy National Day!”

Yes, the 51-year-old said National Galley instead of Gallery. For those who don’t know, a galley is quite different from a gallery.

It can either refer to a type of ship that is propelled mainly by rowing, or the cooking area aboard a ship.

Image: Wikipedia
Image: Wikipedia

Instead of avoiding social media out of embarrassment, Tan poked fun at himself in another Instagram post.

“Ahoy there me mateys! We have a new National Ship in our midst!”, he quipped.

The MP also shared the spelling error in a Facebook post with the same caption.

In the comments section of his Facebook post, Tan addressed a humourous apology to the National Gallery of Singapore, where he continued to use the spelling error and called it the “World best galley”.

Image: Facebook (Tan Chuan-Jin)

Some netizens praised Tan for laughing at himself, while others joined in on the fun.

Image: Instagram (@chuanjin1)
Image: Instagram (@chuanjin1)
Image: Instagram (@chuanjin1)
Image: Instagram (@chuanjin1)

A History of Self-Deprecation

What’s admirable about Tan is that he’s always the first to ridicule himself for his gaffes in the public eye.

When he was caught on camera fiddling with his mask during his swearing-in ceremony, the Marine Parade MP shared another amusing post.

In his post, Tan said he learned a few lessons from this faux pas:

  • Donut fiddle with mask
  • Make friends with cameraman
  • Always practise your knots
  • Always bring a spare donut

No one knows why he chose to use a donut pun, but one thing is for sure: if more politicians made fun of themselves like Tan did, politics would certainly be a lot more tolerable.