A TV prank in which 13-year-old Autumn Allen was fooled into thinking she was going to be reunited with her mom, but met a man in drag instead, has been slammed by social media users
PHNOM PENH – A television show in Cambodia has sent out a mea culpa for a cruel joke it played on a 13-year-old girl, bringing her on the set under the presumption she was going to meet her long-lost mother – and then recording her reaction for the nation to see when they brought out an imposter.
Instead of her mother, the girl, Autumn Allen, was greeted by a comedian dressed in drag, Phnom Penh Post reported.
Allen was initially invited on the Penh Chet Ort show – “Like it or Not” – for a special on Mother’s Day. She was then informed by the hosts she was going to be reunited with her mother, whom she hadn’t seen for seven years.
“[It’s a] dream come true,” she told the audience, with tears in her eyes.
But then the sick punch line: The “woman” who was brought to the stage was a local male comedian, Chuop Rolin, decked in a dress and wig.
One host even demands Allen kiss her mock mother on the cheek, but she refuses. Many viewers expressed outrage at the TV trick, and sent Allen messages of compassion.
One wrote: “I watched the clip of this MyTV show. The producer was stupid and brainless and heartless by playing around with the mind and heart of a 13 year old girl in this way. They lied to this girl that her mother she hasn’t met for a very long time will be reunited on live TV, only to be presented with a cross dressing comedian. The joke of the cross dressing is also a sickening joke of people of LGBT and it is just all too common on Cambodian TVs.”
Allen posted to Facebook, shortly after the show: “Thank you for the enormous show of support regarding the ‘Mother’s Day show.’ I am sure there was no harm intended and I had fun on the show.”
The show, meanwhile, sent along a letter of apology, which Allen also posted to her Facebook page.
Allen’s mother reportedly left Cambodia with her father to live in America seven years ago.