In Good Company
“With everything that I do, funny is the most important thing” —NIGEL NG
NIGEL NG
‘Right place, right time’ just about sums up the springboard of which Malaysian stand-up comedian and content creator Nigel Ng’s international fame trajectory was set. In 2020, just as pockets of the world slid into the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ng doubled down and found his niche for his YouTube content. His portrayal of Uncle Roger, an orange polo tee-donning, middle-aged Asian man roasting BBC Food host Hersha Patel’s questionable egg fried rice video instantly went viral.
Maybe it was his over-exaggerated portrayal of the typical Chinese uncle or maybe it was his usage of familiar Manglish (Malaysian English) expressions such as “Haiyaa” or “Fuiyoh”—either way, it clicked, and Uncle Roger became larger than life.
“I came up with Uncle Roger by improvising on my Rice To Meet You podcast (co-hosted with Swedish-Chinese comedian Evelyn Mok). I was like, ‘What if there’s an old Asian uncle who’s a real estate agent?’ I started doing Uncle Roger showing houses and
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