PETALING JAYA: Brexit proponent and UKIP leader Nigel Farage is probably the happiest man after they won the vote for United Kingdom to leave the European Union last week.

But what may wipe that smug look off his face and even serve as some consolation to ‘Remain’ campaigners is the fact that his party’s acronym has a rather unfortunate meaning in this part of the world.

In a recent photo of Farage at a press conference, the UKIP banners placed side by side on the wall inadvertently spelt ‘PUKI’, an offensive Malay term used to refer to a woman’s private parts.

Malaysians were quick to notice the fact, and the picture went viral as netizens shared it on social media mostly to offer comfort to their UK counterparts who had voted to stay in the EU.

In no time, the hashtag #BrexitMyPUKI was being used to voice dissatisfaction at the ‘Leave’ vote.

“Going viral now back in Malaysia. Will leave you guys to Google translate 'PUKI' in Malay,” said Twitter user James Wong.

Filipinos also saw humour in the photo as “puki” means vagina in Tagalog, which is the country’s national language.

The unfortunate association was not confined to this region alone, as some Europeans got in on the fun by pointing out that puki meant ‘fart’ in Hungarian and Polish.

“And in Hungarian, puki means fart. This is getting better and better…,” wrote Susanna Mihalik.

UK’s Independent and other news outlets in the country also published reports on the priceless image, explaining the very awkward and hilarious reasons for it going viral.

They even ran the word ‘puki’ through Google Translate to confirm that their Eastern counterparts weren’t pulling a fast one on them.

“We checked on Google Translate and they're correct (and the translation from Malay is ruder - we'll leave you to search that one),” the Independent reported.

What will add to Farage’s woes is finding out that his last name sounds a lot like faraj, which is the Malay word for - you guessed it - vagina.

Twitter user Zainah Zain-Ismail summed it up pretty well: “No wonder @Nigel_Farage hates foreigners. Puki means (redacted) and Faraj (Farage) means vagina in #Malay lol.”

Just goes to show that when you opt to pull out, things can go south rather quickly.