The ‘perfect’ Taiwanese Margaret Thatcher-lookalike ad

Move over Meryl Streep, there's a contender in town for impersonating the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – and he's "perfect."

A YouTube video is currently doing the rounds, which shows a Lady Thatcher lookalike proclaiming the superiority of Panasonic air-conditioning units. The advertisement, from Taiwan, is for the 3C computer chainstore, in which three people – Thatcher, an ancient Chinese king and Sisy Chen, a popular Taiwanese television talk-show host – argue the merits of manufacturers, Hitachi, Daikin and Panasonic, and their different air-conditioning units. Lady Thatcher is played by Shu Jyai-wei, a Taiwanese male actor and comedian who is well known in his country for impersonating promonent people. In the ad, “Thatcher” declares, “Panasonic is perfect!” in what the Huffington Post claims is “a resolve befitting of the Iron Lady”. During her time as British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader, Thatcher earned the “Iron Lady” sobriquet because of her no-nonsense approach. In February, Meryl Streep won an Oscar at the 84th Academy Awards, for her portrayal of Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady. Of the impersonation, the Guardian has this to say: “Move over Meryl Streep and make way for this very different impersonation […] Or should that be unlookalike [impersonation] of Margaret Thatcher?” Meanwhile, according to plogspot101, a British ex-pat now living in Washington, DC, reckoned this: “Hey, she, er, he, doesn't sound like a grocer’s daughter from Grantham. Wait. Neither did Maggie.”