In July 2020 Malaysian comic Nigel Ng went viral overnight. In the video that sparked it all for him, his character, "Uncle Roger," watches aghast at a BBC Food egg fried rice recipe, where cooked rice is drained through a colander and other rice-related sins are flagrantly committed. That video, and those that followed, quickly struck a chord with Asian people around the world as a comedic take on the way Asian culture is frequently denigrated and re-versioned to suit the vision, needs, and profit margins of others.
Ng, who is based in London, had quit his job as a data scientist to do comedy full time when the pandemic hit and he lost all his gigs. And while the Uncle Roger character started as a lockdown project, it is now firmly part of the quarantine cultural canon with 221 million views and counting. Going viral has its costs, though. Ng has received mixed feedback from viewers, with some calling Uncle Roger a stereotype in a time of heightened attacks against Asians around the world. Ng himself was recently attacked in a possible hate crime, and pushes back against the argument that Uncle Roger perpetuates a stereotype. "I do that accent sure, but one that’s faithful to what I grew up with," he says. Ng's plan is to keep pushing boundaries when it comes to talking about race—even if it hits a nerve with Western Asians. Esquire caught up with Ng about what it's like to have his world turned upside down so many times in the span of a calendar year, and how he thinks Uncle Roger is lifting up the culture.
ESQ: How would you describe your comedy style? Maybe like East meets West?
NN: East meets West encompasses it well. My comedy is a reflection of my life. I’m born and raised Chinese Malaysian, and moved to the U.S. for college and work, then moved to the UK in 2015. It’s observational comedy through an Asian lens. Everyone has a different perspective, [mine] is ‘why is Western bokchoy so much bigger than Asian bokchoy? Comedy is always the best when you talk about little things people don’t notice, but you notice and find the humor in it.
Some jokes are more universal than others. You have to figure out what people respond to, see where the limits of their knowledge lie, especially when it comes to our culture. If I perform to an audience in rural England, they might not know what ‘mochi’ is. They’re like "Really? Is bokchoy different here?" It takes explaining.
Are there ever cultural misunderstandings?
Not sure about misunderstandings, but here’s an example: people have heard of Thai massages right? I love getting a Thai massage in Malaysia. But in the West, there’s a difference of perception of what Thai massages are about, with sex workers and ‘happy endings.’
I have a joke where I talk about the masseuse, hammering away at my bones, hurting me with their elbow and stuff. The crux of the joke is, people think of Thai massages, happy endings etc. But if it’s a good Thai massage, you don’t want a happy ending because you’re scared of the masseuse. You just felt what the masseuse did to your whole body, ‘no no no, don’t come anywhere close to my dick.’
How did Uncle Roger the character come about in lockdown?
I had been riffing on the idea on my podcast, ‘Rice To Meet You,’ with my co-host Evelyn Mok. What if a grumpy Asian real estate agent was showing people houses? You know those Asian uncles—they’re a bit scammy. (Puts on an accent) “Don’t worry, blood on the wall, someone died here before. Very cozy.”
How would these grumpy middle aged uncle types react to certain things in life? I started putting together all the things I remember from my childhood, like the one leg on the chair. I asked my Asian friends to send me pictures of their dads who are always wearing polo shirts and cargo shorts. And then took the phrases ‘haiya, fuiyoh’ and the slightly broken English, that’s how I spoke sometimes growing up in Malaysia.
A fan of the podcast sent in that BBC Food video, "Hey Nigel, I know you like to talk about rice a lot. Have you seen how this person messed up egg fried rice?" I looked at it and thought wow this is so funny. I would have made a reaction video to it as myself, but at the time I already had Uncle Roger bubbling in my head. When the BBC fried rice video came along, Uncle Roger was ready.
How did you pick the name "Uncle Roger"?
"Uncle" is how Asians address middle aged men to be polite. Women are aunties.
Roger, Nigel, Elaine, Evelyn, these are the middle-aged names you go with when you give your Asian child an English name. It’s a funny byproduct of colonization. The UK had Malaysia until 1957, when they left, they didn’t give us the new updated version of their English names. So all the names we use are from that era: Charles, Keiths, Tobys, Ians. My brother’s name is Gary.
We didn’t know Kevins or Marks existed. How many Rogers do you know nowadays?
No 5-year-old Rogers running about.
Or an Asian Nigel. When you grow up in Malaysia you don’t think any different. When you search Facebook for Nigel Ng, tons of people have this name. After you move to the West, no one has this name anymore.
When did you realize that Uncle Roger was going viral?
I made the video, cool I have this character now, maybe break him out sometimes. After a week, I was very happy like oh 10k views nice! And then slowly it picked up on 9Gag, Reddit, Twitter, then suddenly everything went viral. Oh my god, people seem to like this character and think this is funny! When I finished editing the video, I didn’t find it funny anymore because I've been staring at it for hours and hours and hours. But now when I go back and watch it. I just watched it two weeks ago and still laugh, oh yeah that’s funny.
Everyone I knew had seen your video. I heard your voice ‘HAIYA!!!’ emit from my dad’s phone, even my Dad was laughing at your video. What did your parents make of your viral video?
It’s the only thing they’ve ever laughed at. They’ve seen me do stand up comedy before, but when I do standup, I speak like this, quite neutral, quite fast. They didn't grow up speaking English, so it can be a bit hard for them to understand. The accent and the way I speak as Uncle Roger helps them understand what I’m saying.
At first my mum texted me “Wow everyone's been sending me this video. That’s Nigel, that’s my son!” Then my sister filmed my family sitting there together on the sofa cheering me on with the little board with "Uncle Roger" written on it. I actually teared up a bit. I’ve never seen them that happy together and it made me feel good.
We’re millennials, so a lot of the things we do, our parents will never get. I tell my parents "I'm a social media manager," they are like "Wow what is that? Content creator, what’s that?" So the fact I can do something they can enjoy that feels great. Every Asian parent knows when someone f*cks up rice.
Did you ever expect fans to get attached to Uncle Roger so much? I see in your videos people really light up when they see you.
I didn't expect Uncle Roger to take off as it did. It’s a great feeling. I was in Sweden filming some videos and people showed up after I said on social media "Wear a mask and come." I was going to be at a bubble tea shop. They came out to support me: Swedish Asians, international students, local Swedish people to see this character in real life. Now that stand up comedy shows aren't going on, this is the closest you can feel to an audience.
I’ve seen the Uncle Roger toys, street food vendors with your catchphrases on their carts, and sexy Uncle Roger costumes. How does it feel to have reached a level of popularity where your character has got sex-ified?
Sex-ified?!
You know, like a p*rn version of something.
I find it funny that people are going to do sexy Uncle Roger for Halloween. I think that’s part of the internet, there’s always going to be a sexy version of something. Dressing up as sexy Roger, that’s tough man, you got to find an orange polo shirt that hugs your figure…or strategic cut outs on the polo shirt.
I’ve seen some comments online from people, specifically Western Asians who say that Uncle Roger is a stereotype with an accent, but then people in Asia don’t see the same issue. What do you think about this discrepancy?
Like most things in life, you have to look at things with some level of nuance. You can’t go "Asian accent equals stereotype," there are just so many factors that go into what a stereotype is.
I do that accent sure, but one that’s faithful to what I grew up with. To me when I speak to someone like Uncle Roger, there’s a sense of closeness there. "I trust you, I’m familiar with you to use this slang," instead of this formal, corporate English we’re speaking now. In Malaysia if you work in an office, you can’t just go ‘aiya,’ you have to speak properly. This is informal commoners’ language, it’s how I spoke to friends at school. The accent amps up the humor.
And some nuance, please—the character Uncle Roger calls Western people out for messing up egg fried rice. Chefs who don’t do research and try to profit from our food, publish it in a cookbook or whatever. When you actually listen to the content, everything Uncle Roger does is to raise the culture up. I can say that with complete confidence, there’s nothing I said in my videos that is negative towards my own culture because I'm proud of being Asian.
"Everything Uncle Roger does is to raise the culture up."
What about when you said there are co*ckroaches in Asian kitchens?
[Pause, Laughs] Yes, well okay. I stand corrected.
In Asia we have this pride where we eat at dirty places because we know the food is good...so I would still say that’s positive. Let’s be honest, places in Asia will not be as clean as places in the West for many reasons that we don’t have to go into. We eat street food, we think okay yeah f*ck those people who only go to restaurants, we only go to the authentic places. That’s how we travel, right? We want to explore. What did I say about the co*ckroach? I forget now.
You went to a kitchen and you were like ‘ah, not dirty enough.’
[Laughs] Yeah I can see myself saying something like that. It’s also kind of true isn’t it? You go into a kitchen, supposedly Asian, and if it’s too neat, it sort of takes away from the feeling. A nice place can be a modern, trendy restaurant but still have a little bit of that open plan, fire, grease, charcoal, people’s hands a bit black, and chef uniforms a bit dirty. That gives a place a bit of gravitas.
Western Asians are more touchy because they’re not familiar with the culture, they didn’t grow up around Asians from Asia. So when they see someone do an accent, they can’t tell. "Are they doing an accent to mock me?"
They go on the defensive because most of the time when they hear people do an accent it’s usually racist. I think a little bit of traveling might help them. Go to Asia and then they see, Oh people sound like this! They’re not speaking like that to mock me, they just...actually sound like this.
You’re doing really well, and then suddenly you’re on the news for a different reason.
In October 2020 Nigel was attacked by an assailant in London in a possible racist hate crime.
That was a sh*tty thing that happened, but as a comic it becomes material. It is my way to try to raise awareness of this issue without it devolving into jargon and activism. My message was "This happened to me, so this could happen to you too. Let’s look out for each other."
I was coming back from the dentist, I’m having dental work done now that I’m doing Uncle Roger. I was walking on my street, which is a decent street in London! I always feel safe. This guy saw me, jumped off his bike, walked towards me really aggressively. At first I thought he was a fan and wanted a picture. Then nope, he didn’t want a picture, he just wanted to punch me.
I was still holding on to my groceries, I didn't think to throw them down. I could feel he wasn't prepared because his punches weren’t really landing and I was blocking with one hand.
I thought, Oh please don’t hit my teeth. I'm a vain person, I just didn’t want him to ruin my dental work—so I called for help. Fortunately two people were around, he stopped punching, and cycled away.
Did you call the police?
Two police officers came by, and they took my statement all seriously, investigating a possible hate crime, then ‘By the way...are you the fried rice guy?’
The police kept their shoes on when they came in. I didn't know how to tell them, like "Hey? This is an Asian house!" I was flapping my socks at them, "Hey you see? Shoes off? Take a hint? See the pile of shoes when you come in? Your shoes need to join that pile of shoes." Come on, I’m already a victim, please. I got punched in the face. I don’t want to have to vacuum after you leave.
As a comedian you try to find the funny in it, right? I think if you have a message to tell people, making it funny allows it to spread more. The attack was tragic but funny.
What do you think about #StopAAPIHate? I heard you have some ideas about the branding of the movement on your podcast.
I'm not a politician, you know it’s a comedy podcast. I prefer #StopAsianHate. Before that came along, I said why don’t we just use #YellowLivesMatter? Time is of the essence here, let’s use #YellowLivesMatter, people get it. While we’re thinking of a better slogan, let’s go with #YellowLivesMatter
It sounds like The Simpsons though.
I said it jokingly, but I still think I have a point. With #StopAAPIHate you have an acronym, you’ve got to stop and explain what the acronym is, kind of detracts from the conversation. "What’s AAPI? Asian American Pacific Islander." Then the conversation becomes, "Where are the Pacific Islands? I don’t know what that is, are they considered Asian? Oh, so only Asian Americans are getting hated on? What about Asians from Asia? What about Asians in Europe?" The conversation gets sidetracked. #StopAsianHate is very clear and catchy.
Can you see why #YellowLivesMatter would be a problem?
Yes, I can see why. [Sighs] You don’t want to be co-opting #BlackLivesMatter, covering up their voices. Again #YellowLivesMatter was a joke, don't listen to me for policy advice.
[Pause] It’s worth triggering some people if it’s funny. Getting them mad adds an extra layer to it.
I’m too much of a comic. [Groans] But it’s funny though! #YellowLivesMatter itself is funny. Calling us yellow is funny.
It’s absurd to me. Why are you angry at me for not wanting to get punched? I’m just using this slogan before something better like #StopAsianHate comes along.
People are probably recalling the propaganda surrounding Yellow Peril.
‘Yellow Peril’ describes the racist and cultural stereotypes that followed Chinese workers when they immigrated to the West (Australia, Canada, U.S, New Zealand), where their willingness to work for lower wages and work ethic provoked backlash from the local white communities.
Yeah, a lot of racism when they used ‘yellow’ like that. But #YellowLivesMatter is a joke coming from me. [Takes a deep breath] Sometimes pissing people off is worth it. If you’re confident enough in your joke, it’s worth it. I pissed Jamie Oliver off. No regrets.
Who is a dream chef that you’d like to work with in the future?
Gordon Ramsay for sure. He’s a bit grumpy too, and hates vegetarians. He really fits Uncle Roger’s vibes. I’m happy to work with anyone I have reviewed, even Jamie Oliver. It would show people that he has a good sense of humor, win win.
What would a Gordon Ramsay and Uncle Roger video look like?
Oh, there are so many ways to do this. He can be my boss: hire Uncle Roger for the day as his maître d. I’d yell at customers and he yells at me for yelling at his customers. Or he could teach me to make his Beef Wellington dish. I can roast him, he can roast me back. Go into his restaurant, and bitch about his restaurant. Or a travelogue, Gordon Ramsay and Uncle Roger visit Malaysia.
Is Uncle Roger ever going to get a new outfit?
This is Esquire so if you want to help me pick something nice. As long as it has an element of orange, I'm down for anything. Maybe an orange bow tie on a tuxedo?
