Jerome Polin, an Indonesian social media influencer, was in the midst of a controversy related to his dance on TikTok by wearing doctor’s attributes around the end of February 2023. In his tiktok video, Jerome and his 2 friends were dancing to a kpop song with a teks “Mohon maaf, Kami sudah berusaha semaksimal mungkin” (We are sorry, we’ve tried our best).
Not long after the post got backlash from netizens and even also doctors. His TikTok content was perceived as unemphatic or insensitive because the sentence is usually used by doctors to patients’ families when delivering bad news.
Like seriously, can you believe it? Doctors? Those people in white robes who are perceived as highly educated professionals but triggered by dance on TikTok. Let me put this straight, there is nothing wrong with Jerome Polin’s dance and caption. Not at all.
Everything in this world is always able to be turned into a comedy, including a tragedy. Are doctors not aware of this fact? The fact that a joke is everywhere, a joke can be hurt, and a great joke is always crossing the line.
It takes a great mind to understand a great joke. But a lot of us always think that doctors are great. So, how should we perceive the profession moving forward if doctors are unable to understand jokes or simply take jokes as jokes? Or if it’s hard to understand jokes, you can always perceive the video as a criticism toward the doctor’s profession.
And there is nothing wrong with that, there is nothing wrong with critics. Doctors as a profession are also not free from criticism and it is always okay to be criticized. It’s a free country guys, be an adult and stop being oversensitive.
Let’s take it both ways. Jerome Polin who has an image as a highly educated social media influencer took down the post and said sorry for the controversy. Why should he be sorry? Of course, it is to save his image as an influencer.
But because of that, we can state that Jerome is a full-time influencer rather than a smart citizen who can argue for his action and statement. His post to convey his sorry is proving that he is unable to protect or argue for himself in front of the public.
So it is fair to say that Jerome Polin is not as smart as his fellow influencers said and it is also fair to say that many doctors are oversensitive toward a TikTok content. Be a person that is able to bear your responsibility and pressure instead of being an anti-critic. Be open to jokes and comedy, so what if they are triggering and sensitive? That’s how a great comedy is supposed to be.
By: Putu Radar Bahurekso