Idiot-Proofed Recipe - Singapore Edutainment

Notice how we have so many serials on telly in recent years that are sponsored by various organizations? Usually with an objective for spreading and passing information, these edutainment programs have become the staple of local stations. Itching to make one of your own? Follow the standard formula and you cannot be far off from devising a Singapore brand edutainment!

1. Divide number of cast by 2 to know how many people suffer from disease X. In this way, everyone in the show is/will know someone who is a/an X disease sufferer.

2. Square the number of cast to get the number of times the goodwill of the sponsor is brought up or misunderstandings about it “dispelled”.

3. Add a kind hearted soul(s) that helps you be optimistic even though everyone around you is dying. He/she/they will also be the person(s) who is/are the ambassador(s) for the sponsor.

4. Throw in a crazy senior member of the family who has old wives tales about how to cure disease X that will usually send sick member into hospital. But fear not, the sicko will not die.

5. Include at least one of the following (They can be repeated for better “impact”):
a) Untimely death(s)
b) Infidelity/extra-marital affair(s)
c) The relationship(s) that never should have been
d) Disobedient child(ren)
e) A mentally slow person(s)who can also be the optimistic one(s)

Remember your condiments! Screams, tears, hysteria, fights and shouts!

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It is not that I am not sympathetic to the patients' plights but where is the subtlety in these shows? Why must there be statistic-defying number of people suffering from the disease to prove a point?