Keep screwing up egg fried rice. It makes Uncle Roger happy

Keep screwing up egg fried rice. It makes Uncle Roger happy

Transcript¹

You can tell by the way Uncle Roger is sitting how badly someone goofed². The popular YouTuber usually sits in his chair with one leg propped³ up on the seat, elbow resting on his knee. It's the ideal talking trash position for so many Asian uncles. It's kind of comfortable, somewhat relaxed, but loaded like a spring. So that when something truly wild happens – like say, Jamie Oliver uses soba noodles to make ramen – Uncle Roger can drop his leg and act like it's an affront⁴ to human decency⁵, and give one of his signature "hiyas" to signal how much it hurts to see someone so famous for cooking mess up ramen so badly.

Throughout the pandemic, Uncle Roger has built an audience in the millions across platforms – 2 million on Facebook, 4 million on TikTok, 5 million on YouTube. They come for his roasting of mostly Western chefs botching Asian cooking, and defending the sanctity of woks⁶ and MSG.

The person behind Uncle Roger is London-based Malaysian stand-up Nigel Ng. He's currently in the middle of a huge world tour (his first headlining tour ever as a comic), driven by the massive popularity of Uncle Roger. Which he's grateful for. But he wants folks walking away from the shows thinking about Nigel.

Ng's been grinding it out at open-mics, clubs, backs of bars, wherever, for over a decade. He's a former data scientist who quit his day job and committed to doing comedy full time in late 2019 – great comic timing⁷. By 2020, the only outlet⁸ he had for his comedy was the podcast he co-hosted with his comedian⁹ friend Evelyn Mok, Rice to Meet You. One day they're riffing, and bouncing ideas off of each other, and coming up with characters. A couple were stinkers – the smutty late-night DJ was "too dirty for everyone," said Ng in an interview. Another miss was the right-wing Asian conspiracy¹⁰ theorist Nunchuck Jones. But the one with the most promise was the one least removed from reality.

"I started doing an Asian accent. And then with that accent I threw in some attitude to kind of mimic¹¹ my older generation Asian uncles" said Ng. It's a familiar kind of Asian uncle. He's kind of a jerk, but a funny one. He talks a big game, but is loveable enough to call everyone niece and nephew. He's a bit of a cooking know-it-all, even though he's not out here in a kitchen day in and day out. The rest of the character developed from there. The name Roger is a nod to the type of Anglicized name that's a by-product¹² of colonization¹³ in Malaysia (kind of like Nigel, come to think of it). And the look arose after Ng DM'ed all of his friends to text him pictures of their dads. So now, Uncle Roger always wears his signature orange polo (buttoned up to the top), with a huge phone case attached to his belt. When we met for this interview in the middle of four sold-out shows in New York City, I'd forgotten to ask if he wanted to bring his orange polo for the photo shoot. He brought it with him anyway.

Ng tried doing a few things with the Uncle Roger character, but what really popped off was reacting to a BBC video of presenter¹⁴ Hersha Patel making egg fried rice. A Rice to Meet You fan had sent it over, and Ng was going to do a react video to it anyway, but why not take this new bit on a test run? The BBC way of making egg fried rice, to put it gently, deviated¹⁵ from the norms of how an East Asian person might make egg fried rice. To Ng, it was hilariously¹⁶ bad and primo content for an Uncle Roger takedown. "Why you measure water with cup? Just use finger! Finger! You put rice, put water, until finger – first joint¹⁷, the finger. That's how you measure the water. Not with British teacup. Hiyaaaaa." The clip went viral, and the video currently sits at over 29.5 million views on YouTube.

"Looking back on it, I realize I've combined three things that not many people have combined – the YouTube idiom 'the reaction video,' the character comedy and something relatable like food."

Ng took that formula and ran with it, and suddenly no food media personality was safe from Uncle Roger – from established Food Network alumni like Jamie Oliver (a favorite target of his), Rachel Ray, and Nigella Lawson, to newer stars on the scene like Matty Matheson and Joshua Weissman.

"MSG is the king of flavor."

Past the accent and the easy dirty jokes, there's almost a public service to these Uncle Roger videos when it comes to correcting the record on things Western chefs constantly get wrong about Asian cooking. Take MSG, for example. Uncle Roger has big love for it (at a recent show, Ng, as Uncle Roger, brought a bag of MSG on stage with him), but it's absent from a lot of Western cooking. "That's been one of the big culture war points of contention," says Jenny Lau, who runs Celestial¹⁸ Peach, a platform dedicated¹⁹ to telling the story of Chinese food. "It feels like there still needs to be a lot of education around the fact that MSG is not bad for you, and that it's actually in everything, including a lot of Western foods," she said.

The facts about MSG are that the FDA labels MSG as "generally recognized as safe." It occurs naturally in foods like tomatoes and cheeses. There are a number of articles about how Western attitudes about MSG is just anti-Asian propaganda. But facts are boring. Lau says Uncle Roger has a way of communicating these things in a funny way, where he doesn't come off as a pompous²⁰ "boba liberal," as Lau puts it.

And then there's technique. "You watch some of these chefs," said chef Brian Tsao. "And honestly, they could have done a much better job if they just did a little bit more research."

Tsao is behind the upcoming Mission Sandwich Social in Brooklyn, NY. He's also got his own YouTube cooking react channel. And he finds it disrespectful when someone is "bringing to their audience of how many hundreds of thousands or millions of people that – this is egg fried rice. And it's clearly not well executed. And now a bunch of people are going to go on with their day thinking, 'oh this is how it's done,' and further ruining the cuisine," he said. He sees Uncle Roger as a way of pushing back against what someone could call "cultural appropriation²¹." But not Uncle Roger.

"The day Uncle Roger comes out and says the words 'cultural appropriation,' just smack²² me in the face and tell me to stop doing comedy," says Ng. "That's how I know I failed."

So, about that accent.

Celebrated²³ chef, cookbook author, and fellow food YouTuber J. Kenji López-Alt wrote about Uncle Roger in the video description of his own egg fried rice video, "I don't like that his schtick seems to give a free pass to people to imitate stereotypical²⁴ Asian speech patterns and pronunciation (especially as it's almost always non-Asians doing the imitating). It's ugly, it's yellowface, it's not funny, and it promotes anti-Asian racism²⁵ at a time when Asians are already being heavily discriminated²⁶ against."

Lopez-Alt declined to speak with me for this story, but it's a common critique of Ng. Both Lau and Tsao said they felt similar trepidation²⁷ when it came to the character, but ultimately came around to it. "I think this is the curse of being asked to be fully²⁸ representative of an entire community," said Lau, who is Chinese. "I think people expect him, because he's so famous, to somehow speak for and represent the entirety of the Asian community. Which is completely unrealistic."

Tsao, who is Asian, stopped watching Uncle Roger videos for a while. "Because, I was like – should I be supporting this? Is this pushing forward a stereotype²⁹ that I don't really want out there for the rest of the world to judge us based on?" But as he looked past the accent, he came to accept the character as an ally in the fight against Western chefs giving Asian cooking a bad reputation. "Uncle Roger calls out the bulls*** in the exact accent that's meant to demean us," he said. "So in many ways, I feel like it's empowering."

"The way his English is broken, that's how I spoke³⁰ English growing up," said Ng. "When a friend puts on that accent, it means they are being friendly. They're trying to be funny." And he's had Malaysians come up to him saying the accent reminds them of home. And it reminds him of home, too. "Because that's how we talk to each other when we let our guards down."

"The worst thing about getting punched is when the police show up at your house, they don't take their f***ing shoes off."

Of course, folks in the Asian diaspora have had their guards up more than usual recently, for good reason.

Ng is aware of this. During his set, as Nigel, he makes a joke about how he was attacked just as Uncle Roger was getting famous. "I got punched, man, in London. This is real," he starts, a little more down-tempo than the rest of his set. It was on his street, he was almost home. "This guy was on a bicycle. He saw me, he jumped off his bike and just walked towards me really aggressively." A pause. A deep breath. "And at first I thought...he wanted a photo."

He came out of it relatively³¹ unscathed, following up the joke about the attack with one about dealing³² with the police right after, because they didn't take off their shoes in his house. All a setup to the line – "I got punched, but this is a hate crime."

It's a welcome deepening from the rest of his material, which touches on his recent divorce, dating and of course, cooking. It's also different from the small box of material Uncle Roger has to draw from. But Ng still puts on the orange polo to be Uncle Roger to start the show, even before the opening act. Because he knows that's what people want to see. He's not a stand-up purist – one of those road dogs dedicated to duking it out with the audience in front of a brick wall for the rest of his career. "I like pleasing the masses, you know. And my fans, I know what they want. I give them what they want," he said. But he does want to contain Uncle Roger a bit. Make sure the crowd leaves thinking about Nigel. "I want people to leave knowing I'm not just a funny character."

I asked him if he's thought about retiring Uncle Roger, at least live. "It would be nice. It means I would work less. I don't have to carry extra orange polos around. Although I do want to get a T-shirt gun," to shoot orange polos into the crowd, he said. Because he's here to sell tickets. And, as he reminded me, Uncle Roger and Nephew Nigel share the same bank account.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 goofed   

v.弄糟( goof的过去式和过去分词 )；混；打发时间；出大错

参考例句：

• Sorry, guys. I goofed. 对不起，各位。我搞砸了。
• We just goofed around till the train time. 在火车开车前我们只是闲荡了一阵。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

3 propped   

支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He sat propped up in the bed by pillows. 他靠着枕头坐在床上。
• This fence should be propped up. 这栅栏该用东西支一支。

4 affront   

n./v.侮辱，触怒

参考例句：

• Your behaviour is an affront to public decency.你的行为有伤风化。
• This remark caused affront to many people.这句话得罪了不少人。

5 decency   

n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重

参考例句：

• His sense of decency and fair play made him refuse the offer.他的正直感和公平竞争意识使他拒绝了这一提议。
• Your behaviour is an affront to public decency.你的行为有伤风化。

6 woks   

n.锅，炒菜锅( wok的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He woks on the even surface. 他在平滑的表面上工作。 来自互联网
• Inverter loop PID controller woks not very well if PID controller parameters are not designed well. 分析表明如果设计方法欠佳，PID控制器不能发挥优良调节能力，使逆变器单环控制系统性能不很理想。 来自互联网

7 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

8 outlet   

n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄

参考例句：

• The outlet of a water pipe was blocked.水管的出水口堵住了。
• Running is a good outlet for his energy.跑步是他发泄过剩精力的好方法。

9 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

10 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

11 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

12 by-product   

n.副产品，附带产生的结果

参考例句：

• Freedom is the by-product of economic surplus.自由是经济盈余的副产品。
• The raw material for the tyre is a by-product of petrol refining.制造轮胎的原材料是提炼汽油时产生的一种副产品。

13 colonization   

殖民地的开拓，殖民，殖民地化； 移殖

参考例句：

• Colonization took place during the Habsburg dynasty. 开拓殖民地在哈布斯堡王朝就进行过。
• These countries took part in the colonization of Africa. 这些国家参与非洲殖民地的开发。

14 presenter   

n.（电视、广播的）主持人，赠与者

参考例句：

• Most people think being a television presenter is exciting.很多人认为当电视节目主持人是一件刺激的事情。
• The programme dispensed with its most popular presenter.这个节目最受欢迎的主持人被换掉了。

15 deviated   

v.偏离，越轨( deviate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• On this occasion the plane deviated from its usual flight path. 这一次那架飞机偏离了正常的航线。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His statements sometimes deviated from the truth. 他的陈述有时偏离事实。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 hilariously   

参考例句：

• Laughing hilariously, Wu Sun-fu left the study and ran straight upstairs. 吴荪甫异样地狂笑着，站起身来就走出了那书房，一直跑上楼去。 来自互联网
• Recently I saw a piece of news on the weband I thought it was hilariously ridiculous. 最近在网上的新闻里看到一则很好笑的新闻。 来自互联网

17 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

18 celestial   

adj.天体的；天上的

参考例句：

• The rosy light yet beamed like a celestial dawn.玫瑰色的红光依然象天上的朝霞一样绚丽。
• Gravity governs the motions of celestial bodies.万有引力控制着天体的运动。

19 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

20 pompous   

adj.傲慢的，自大的；夸大的；豪华的

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities.他有点自大，自视甚高。
• He is a good man underneath his pompous appearance. 他的外表虽傲慢，其实是个好人。

21 appropriation   

n.拨款，批准支出

参考例句：

• Our government made an appropriation for the project.我们的政府为那个工程拨出一笔款项。
• The council could note an annual appropriation for this service.议会可以为这项服务表决给他一笔常年经费。

22 smack   

vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍

参考例句：

• She gave him a smack on the face.她打了他一个嘴巴。
• I gave the fly a smack with the magazine.我用杂志拍了一下苍蝇。

23 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

24 stereotypical   

n.常规

参考例句：

• Personas should be typical and believable, but not stereotypical. 人物角色应该是典型和可信赖的，但不是一成不变的。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Anything could be stereotypical, so I guess it could be criticism. 任何东西都可以变的老套，所以我猜那就是一种批评。 来自互联网

25 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

26 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
• Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视？

27 trepidation   

n.惊恐，惶恐

参考例句：

• The men set off in fear and trepidation.这群人惊慌失措地出发了。
• The threat of an epidemic caused great alarm and trepidation.流行病猖獗因而人心惶惶。

28 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

29 stereotype   

n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框

参考例句：

• He's my stereotype of a schoolteacher.他是我心目中的典型教师。
• There's always been a stereotype about successful businessmen.人们对于成功商人一直都有一种固定印象。

30 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

31 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

32 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。