Uncle Roger has made millions chuckle across the world with his overwrought, OTT and often hilarious reactions to cooking clips – a larger-than-life caricature, played for laughs perhaps, but based on a grumpily plain-spoken character many of us might have met in real life, likely in our own families.
So who’s the comedian behind the browbeating traditionalist? You might have heard than Uncle Roger’s creator, Nigel Ng, caused a stir recently after deleting a video from Chinese social media platform Weibo featuring a YouTuber who has been critical of China, Mike Chen, later apologising for creating “bad social impact”.
But politics aside, what else do you know about the 29-year-old Malaysian comedian behind the comically critical middle-aged Asian uncle character?
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His claim to fame was … fried rice
The London-based comedian went viral last summer with his breakout video mocking a fried rice recipe from the BBC. Ng appears as his signature character, Uncle Roger, cringing and contorting in disbelief as the host Hersha Patel makes an apparent series of major Asian culinary faux-pas – like draining cooked rice in a colander and using an induction cooker, not a rice cooker. The worse part? She washed the rice and measured it with a cup, not her finger! The eight-minute video currently has clocked more than 20 million views on YouTube and counting, and was so popular that Patel even good-naturedly joined Ng for a follow-up video.
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Out of character, he’s a successful stand-up comedian
Although he’s most widely recognised for his curmudgeonly uncle character, Ng has actually been performing his own comedy routines since 2011, and even bagged a nomination for the best newcomer award at 2019’s career-making Edinburgh Fringe Festival. That same year, he left his day job as a data scientist to pursue comedy full-time, earning himself the opening spot for Asian-American comedian Ken Jeong’s first ever European show. In 2020 he hosted a sold out week-long run at London’s Soho Theatre.
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But, wait for it … Uncle Roger was someone else’s idea
The crazy part? The idea for his now-viral persona wasn’t even Ng’s. It originally came from his comedy partner, Evelyn Mok, who pitched the idea to him as a character in a sitcom script she was working on. She created the character of a middle-aged Cantonese uncle who worked in real estate with Ng in mind. Ng developed the character further in TikTok and Instagram sketches, eventually expanding into his own wildly popular YouTube channel.
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He’s divorced in real life
Uncle Roger occasionally makes reference to his ex-wife, the fictional Helen, in his videos – but it appears that Ng might have some real-life inspiration for the character. Ng told fellow YouTuber Shu that he was divorced in a food travel vlog posted in April 2020.
His sister is a professional harmonica player
Ng’s sister Yoki appears on his Instagram too from time to time, but she’s pursuing a different creative path than her funnyman big brother. The 20-year-old is a professional harmonicist (yes, that’s a thing), making a name for herself back home in Malaysia’s musical scene.
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There’s a restaurant in Malaysia dedicated to him
Since he was born and raised in Malaysia’s capital city of Kuala Lumpur, Ng’s new-found fame is a source of pride for many Malaysians; there’s even a restaurant that pays homage to him. Haiyaa Breakfast (named for Uncle Roger’s famous catchphrase) is a food stall in Sarawak featuring a cartoon caricature of Ng in his signature pose. But the menu serves mainly Western breakfast foods – not fried rice.
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