Tao Quan 2019: Laughing till tears with Vietnamese language reform

On the evening of January 25, the first rehearsal of the 2019 Tao Quan program took place at the Hanoi Friendship Cultural Palace with the participation of comedians Quoc Khanh, Tu Long, Cong Ly, Xuan Bac, Van Dung, Quang Thang, Trung Ruoi, and Minh Tit.

The program started at 8:20 p.m. with the opening performance of two actors Trung Ruoi and Minh Tit in the role of Pho Thien Loi, followed by a parody performance by Nam Tao (Xuan Bac).

With a duration of more than 5 hours, many hot topics and current events in the education, transportation, and economic sectors such as: exam cheating in Ha Giang, slapping students, trucks killing dozens of people, public vehicles used for personal purposes, Vietnamese language reform... through a humorous lens were presented by the artists, surprising and delighting the audience in the first rehearsal night.

This year's performance of Trung Ruoi and Minh Tit also received a lot of applause from the audience. Both of them had funny juggling acts when scaring the Traffic Gods (Tu Long) and trying to get gold and money from the Economic Gods (Quang Thang).

Another funny point in the 2019 Tao Quan rehearsal was the performance of the Traffic God (Tu Long).

Still improvising and sublimating with Xuan Bac, besides his forte singing, Tao Giao Thong made the audience laugh to tears with lines about reforming the Vietnamese language.

All the words "road" must be mispronounced as "o ho". Roads are called "o ho sa"; traffic jams are called "tac o ho"; main roads are called "o ho" o ho chinh chinh, tea o ho, diarrhea o ho...

According to the Traffic God, traffic jams in the lower world are caused by people participating in illegal parking lots with a lack of awareness, sometimes they even go into one-way parking lots. People compete to go, causing collisions and fights in the middle of parking lots. People consider parking lots as their own homes...

What's new this year was kept secret by director Do Thanh Hai until the last minute. The final part of the script is the scene where the Kitchen Gods are forced to look in the mirror to reveal their bad habits and bad deeds of the past year.

Pushed by Nam Tao to look in the mirror, the Traffic God received many rounds of applause with his silly acting, the Traffic God made jokes to avoid facing the truth. Or the witty lines that were created and refined by the artists one by one made the whole audience laugh non-stop. It can be said that this is the part that got the most laughter and received the most rounds of applause in the 2019 Tao Quan script.

This year, Tao Quan not only made the audience laugh but also moved them and brought them to tears with the ironic story of a poor household that still had to apply for a certificate of poverty in order to receive subsidies from the State.

The image of a farmer in patched clothes looking for her grandson to be the Kitchen God just to have him confirm that he is a poor household so that he can receive an additional 220,000 VND in monthly allowance. 110,000 VND is for medical treatment, and the remaining 110,000 VND is for food for the whole month made the whole audience feel down.

It was even more heartbreaking when the old lady confessed that she wished she could get sick many times a month so she wouldn't have to eat, which would save money... this made many viewers cry, and actor Cong Ly, who plays Bac Dau, also sobbed and turned away because of emotion.

In addition to the issues that attracted audiences during the year, prominent cultural, sports, and cinema incidents were also exploited by artists with humorous and witty statements that made the audience laugh with delight, such as: "Nowadays, only officials take people's money, people taking officials' money is a very big crime..."; "In the big room, the Jade Emperor whispered small stories, small stories about big issues".