Stand-up comedian fined for inappropriate remarks and jokes

The stand-up comedian at Fun factory Culture has caused an uproar after his jokes were accused of being disrespectful to the People’s Liberation Army. The China Culture and Tourism Administration announced on Monday that it had imposed an administrative penalty of more than 13.35 million yuan on Xiaoguo Culture, warned and confiscated more than 1,325 yuan of illegal gains, and “decided to suspend all performances of the company in Beijing indefinitely”.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday that the Culture and Tourism Administration of China, after receiving complaints from the public, had launched an investigation into the controversial jokes and found that the company and its actor, Li Haoshi, had tamper with their performances and “seriously insulted the people’s army” during two shows of the comedy talk show on Sunday, causing a bad social impact.

“We will never allow any company or individual to wantonly denigrate the glorious image of the people’s army on the Capital Stage, harm the deep feelings of the people for the army, or turn serious subjects into entertainment,” the ministry said in a statement.

In response to the punishment, Xiaoguo Culture issued a statement on Monday, saying that the team has learned its pain and is willing to accept the “serious punishment” from the government, and immediately terminate the contract with actor Li Haoshi. The statement read: “We have paid a heavy price for the close call in our thinking and the critical gaps in our management. The entire team is deeply saddened and ashamed. We sincerely accept the harsh criticism we have received from all sectors of the community and once again deeply apologize.”

“On May 13, stand-up comedian HOUSE(Li Haoshi) used inappropriate metaphors during his performance, which caused controversy among the audience,” the company said in an apology on its Weibo account on May 15. We hereby express our sincere apologies to the public.” The statement said HOUSE had been “seriously criticized” at the first time, and demanded that he reflect on himself and suspend all future performances indefinitely. Li also apologized on his Weibo account, saying that he used an inappropriate metaphor in the performance, which caused bad feelings and associations for the audience. “I will take responsibility for this, stop all performing arts, deeply reflect on myself and study again.”

On the same day, Beijing Evening News posted a message on its Weibo account, specifically addressing the “inappropriate metaphor” mentioned in the company’s apology. “A netizen recently revealed that when watching a performance by comedy company Xiaoguo in Beijing, he found some very inappropriate expressions. An actor talked about adopting two wild dogs who, while chasing squirrels, reminded him of eight words: ‘Good manners, win battles’. The stand-up comedian and Laughingstock have both apologized and admitted their mistake.

However, although both Li and Xiaoguo have apologized, the incident is far from over. “The reporter learned that the Beijing Cultural Law Enforcement Corps said it was informed of the incident through an online patrol on the morning of May 15 and has registered an investigation against the company concerned,” the Beijing Evening News wrote in the same report.

The state-run People Daily commented on the incident, saying, “The company of a stand-up comedian has been placed under investigation for allegedly offending the People’s Army. Blurt mo derailment, play stem must have degree. One-sided pursuit of laughter and not hesitate to step on the line, into a misunderstanding. Fear, caution, action, this should be the professional bottom line, but also become the industry consensus. Stand firm in your values, and your words and deeds will not deviate.”

On Weibo, netizens left mixed comments on the report. One person wrote, “Ban the laughing-fruit culture and make an example of others.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army is the bottom line. Let the laughingfruit disappear.” It’s so irritating! Is this a joke?! It’s illegal!”

Others asked, “What law is broken?” “Others left comments such as” Shanggang is online “and” guilty for speaking “. “This kind of talk show about the environment can’t actually be performed,” one netizen, who identified himself as “a retired soldier,” wrote: “Personally, I don’t feel terribly wrong. Why are we so sensitive? Dogs in a dog squad can be agents. Dogs in a cat fight can be intelligence agents. You can have a dog chef, a dog scientist, and so on. And then the dog can’t have the character to win battles and be good?”

According to public information, Xiaoguo Culture Media Co., Ltd. was founded in May 2014, headquartered in Shanghai, is an artist management company and comedy industry company in China. The company has produced variety shows such as “Fun Conference”, “Talk Show Conference”, “Offend the Family”, “What to Do! Talk Show Special”, “The National Bubble Superman”, which has been listed as “Top Ten Cultural Enterprises in Shanghai”.

In recent years, there have been at least two serious negative incidents involving Laughingfruit culture. In 2020, comedian and entertainer CAM was detained on drug-related charges. The company later apologized and decided to suspend CAM indefinitely. In 2021, Xiaoguo Culture Company was “fined 200,000 yuan for not fulfilling its duty to review” an advertisement by its artist Li Nian, which was accused of vulgar content and degrading women’s dignity. Li Dan is the originator and shareholder of Talk Show, and has led artists to tour talk show in the United States for many times.

According to Jiamu News, an affiliate of Hubei Daily Media Group, a staff member who claimed to be a writer of Xiaoguo Culture told Jiamu News that the content companies where stand-up actors perform will always approve and report to relevant authorities. As far as he knows, the controversial content in the HOUSE performance was not included in the pre-reviewed text. At present, the Weibo account of HOUSE(Li Haoshi) has been banned.