Joke About Running Around In Swimming Trunks If Tan Kin Lian Keeps His Deposit Goes Viral
The 2023 Presidential Elections (PE2023) concluded on 2 Sep, with Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam emerging as our country’s ninth president.
Despite losing the race the second time in a row, Mr Tan Kin Lian managed to keep his deposit this time around — exceeding the expectations of some surprised doubters.
One Facebook user who was particularly sure he’d lose his deposit joked that if Mr Tan did manage to keep it instead, he would run around Orchard Road in swimming trunks.
The post has now gone viral, with many eagerly waiting to see if he would indeed keep his promise.
Man jokingly posts dare if Tan Kin Lian keeps deposit
While the presidential race was heating up near the end of August, a man took to the Complaint Singapore Facebook group to diss candidate Tan Kin Lian.
In the post, he declared that if Mr Tan managed to keep his deposit after the election, he would run around Orchard Road in just a pair of swimming trunks.
Source: Facebook
This was obviously in reference to what occurred after the presidential election in 2011, in which Mr Tan received only 104,095 or 4.91% of votes.
As it was less than an eighth of the votes polled, he subsequently lost his deposit, in accordance with the rules under the Elections Department of Singapore (ELD).
Thankfully, such wasn’t the case this year, with Mr Tan gaining 390,041 or 13.88% of votes and thus, keeping his deposit.
Netizens wait to see if man will fulfil his promise
Needless to say, sleuths on the Internet were quick to dig up the man’s post and point out what he had promised earlier.
Reposting an image of his bold statement, another Facebook user demanded to know the date and time on which he was going to run around Orchard in his swimming trunks.
Source: Facebook
The post quickly garnered hundreds of comments from others who enthusiastically chimed in too.
One commenter told the original poster (OP) to be a “man of his (your) words,” and stick to his promise.
Source: Facebook
Another netizen quipped that he was more than willing to conduct a Facebook livestream of the stunt for the man.
Source: Facebook
Others, however, were more sceptical of the man’s ability to keep to his promise.
Source: Facebook
A user pointed out that he would probably have a huge number of excuses ready as to why he would suddenly be unavailable — and we can’t exactly blame him, either.
Man finds innovative way around promise
As it turns out, the man had an incredible response ready in the event Mr Tan did manage to keep his deposit.
Taking to Facebook on 4 Sep, he posted an Alamy stock image of a man running in a pair of swimming trunks. He also appeared to have updated his earlier post with the same picture.
In the latest post, he claimed to be “a victim of cyber-bullying” as multiple Facebook users have evidently been chiding him for not fulfilling his promise.
Source: Facebook
“Anywhere I post I get scolded for not fulfilling my promise,” he bemoaned. “I already posted proof of myself running in swimming trunks on Orchard Road.”
With over 100 comments, it’s fair to say that yet again, he managed to grab netizens’ attention.
Despite his alleged proof, however, one keen-eyed user pointed out that the photo in question was actually a stock image — in case none of us got it right away.
Source: Facebook
And to make matters worse, it didn’t appear to have been captured in Orchard, either.
Another commenter slammed the OP for going back on his promise, stating that it would have been best to keep quiet in the wake of the backlash.
Source: Facebook
There were those, however, who took it more light-heartedly, with one even commending the OP’s sense of humour.
Source: Facebook
An ultimately humorous situation
Indeed, this is certainly one of those situations whereby it becomes abundantly clear that keeping our thoughts to ourselves would have been a better route to undertake, instead of posting them online.
Nevertheless, the man probably handled it the best he could in light of all the backlash.
After all, he clearly intended everything as a joke, so let’s take his posts in the spirit of good fun.
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Featured image by MS News, photography by Cliff and adapted from Facebook.
