QUIRKY or ridiculous?

The jury is still out on Miss Singapore Universe 2011 Valerie Lim's performance at the Miss Universe pageant's official online Q&A video interview.

The statuesque 1.79m beauty queen has left netizens agog with her unusual replies.

The same three questions were posed to all 89 contestants this year.

When asked if Lim believes in life on other planets, the well-spoken 26-year-old said: "I know the moon is not a planet, but I think it's made of cheese, and so mice live on cheese."

She paused momentarily - possibly to allow time for viewers to chuckle or groan - before adding with a giggle: "The moon cheese!"

For the next question - What advantages do women have over men? - Lim recycled her reply she gave at the Miss Singapore Universe finals held here in July.

The behavioural therapist, who works with autistic children, answered that the advantage is being able to strut down the Miss Universe stage in a bikini.

Women can also flip their hair over their shoulders - which she promptly demonstrated with a laugh.

Lacks substance

Compared to replies by the other Asian contestants, Lim's answer is certainly funnier - but it also lacks substance.

Miss Philippines believes women have sharper intuition.

Miss China and Miss Indonesia replied that women can bear children.

Miss India said men are easy and if women wanted to, they can easily control them.

Miss Malaysia felt that women are more nurturing, emotional and connect with people on a deeper level.

She added eloquently: "To me, it's not about having advantages over men. It's about working together and having equal opportunities and rights. Not all women in the world have that."

The last question the women were asked was what animal they would choose to be.

Lim's choice? An eagle because it's "majestic and graceful, and even though it looks beautiful, it can also be very deadly".

But netizens are especially divided over her "moon cheese" answer, with comments ranging from "breath of fresh air" to "unfunny" and "stupid".

The 52-second video, which was uploaded to file-sharing website YouTube, had about 19,000 hits, with 110 dislikes and 80 likes.

Netizen Ula2905 posted: "(She's) self-confident, funny, and she looked at the camera. Who cares if she believes in life on other planets?"

Another netizen, Wannaknowit from Hungary, thought Lim was one of the smartest contestants.

But while many praised her for her witty retorts and felt her personality showed through, there were others who thought she was trying too hard.

Jabbeecrosby87 wrote: "I've never seen anyone try her hardest to be funny until I saw this video. Such a failure for Miss Singapore. Good luck with your moon cheese."

Another netizen, Jradetzky, joked that the local pageant organiser should have sent disgraced Miss Singapore World 2009 Ris Low instead because "at least she said boomz".

Lim is in Sao Paulo, Brazil, preparing for the Miss Universe finals, which will air over Channel 5 on Sept 13 at 9am.

When The New Paper spoke to her on the phone, the National University of Singapore graduate sounded hoarse. She said she had just completed the preliminary rounds and lost her voice.

She admitted she wasn't feeling well and had been drinking lots of water and taking lozenges for her sore throat.

Of her video interview, Lim said: "The questions were for you to show your personality and have fun. People can say what they want. Everybody is multi-faceted - when the time calls for it, I can be serious."

She denied intentionally taking a humorous slant to set herself apart from the rest: "It came naturally...being natural and witty. Everyone has her strong points."

Local fashion designer Hayden Ng, 45, who's the creative director of Miss Singapore Universe, stood by Lim.

He felt her responses were creative and caught people's attention.

In person, she is very intelligent, he added.

"Valerie's very nice, grounded and filial. She's very aware of what's happening in society and can communicate well with both the young and elderly."

Miss Singapore Universe 2010 Tania Lim, 24, told The New Paper that contestants have to make sure they stand out among so many beautiful women.

"Valerie used humour to differentiate herself," she said.

She recalled how she and other contestants at the last year's international pageant were given only one minute to think of the answers.

"There wasn't any time to plan your answers and it's really about being spontaneous. I think each girl was given around two retakes...

"It's good that Valerie stayed true to herself," she said.

Entertainment lawyer Samuel Seow, who has judged about 20 beauty pageants like Miss Singapore World and Miss Singapore Earth in the past five years, said Lim comes across as strong, confident and funny in the video, and was clearly being tongue-in-cheek.

But he didn't think her answers were exceptional and said he was more concerned about her make-up because it wasn't pleasing.

Mr Seow, who's in his 30s, added: "I didn't like her answer to the last question. I don't think Miss Universe should come across as deadly."

This article was first published in The New Paper.