Comedian Uncle Roger banned on Chinese internet

The Malaysian comedian got banned on Chinese social media after he made jokes about the Chinese government.

Nigel Ng, the standup comedian and YouTuber famous for his Uncle Roger persona, has been banned on Chinese social media platforms, days after the UK-based Malaysian posted a video, where he cracked jokes about China’s global surveillance effort and its territorial claim over Taiwan.

Netizens in China found out on Friday that Ng’s Weibo page was added a banner that says the account has been banned from posting for violating “relative laws and regulations”. A similar banner was added to Ng’s Bilibili page.

Neither Weibo nor Bilibili explained publicly why Ng’s accounts were banned. But some netizens have pointed to a recent video Ng uploaded to several social media platforms inaccessible in China, including Twitter, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

The video is a short clip from Ng’s to-be-released standup special. In it, Ng, after learning that one of the audience members in the front row was from China, immediately responded with “China, good country, good country,” which was followed by an exaggerated facial expression of caution from Ng, who then said “we have to say that now, correct?”

Ng then went on to make a joke about China’s technological surveillance ability.

“All the phones listening, all the phones listening,” he said. “This nephew got Huawei phone. They all listening.”

Looking down at the phone case on his belt while patting it, Ng said “long live President Xi, long live President Xi.”

The second half of the clip started with Ng asking if anyone in his audience was from Taiwan. Hearing cheering from the back, Ng said “Not a real country, not a real country”.

Swaying his left arm at the audience member from China, Ng looked at the Taiwanese fans and said “I hope one day you rejoin the motherland. One China.”

At the end of the clip, Ng joked that he would face consequences from the Chinese authorities.

“Uncle Roger gonna get cancelled after tonight,” he said. Looking at the Chinese audience member, Ng told him to “go write good report for Uncle Roger”.

Imitating handwriting a letter as if to dictate its content, Ng said “Dear CCP, Uncle Roger good comrade. Good comrade. Don’t make him disappear please.”

The clip has garnered nearly 390 thousand views on YouTube and over 4.5 million views on TikTok.

Ng didn’t post the clip on his Chinese social media accounts. But the jokes nevertheless angered some Chinese nationalists online.

One popular Weibo post accused Ng of supporting “Taiwan Independence” and repeating “rumors and biases that the West has used to surround and suppress China”.

Nationalist commentator “Creamy Banana” asked Ng in a post “I don’t think the Chinese government or the Chinese market has done anything to you. Why are you so vicious?”

Ng isn’t the first comedian that got into trouble on China’s social media recently. Just last week, a Chinese standup comedian was slammed by netizens and state media for comparing his dogs to Chinese soldiers. Li Haoshi, the comedian, is now under police investigation. His studio has been fined for nearly 2 million dollars.

Ng was a data scientist before switching to working as a full-time comedian in 2019. According to an interview with WIRED, he studied at Northwestern University in Illinois and moved to the UK in 2015. Three years ago, his popularity exploded after a video of his went viral. In it, Ng, in his Uncle Roger persona, criticized a BBC tutorial on making egg-fried rice.

Ng hasn’t always been critical of China. In 2021, he deleted a video after finding out that Mike Chen, the YouTuber featured in it, was critical of Beijing’s human rights violations.

Ng even posted an apology on Weibo: “This is my negligence, and I will be more careful when I make content in the future.

“As an Asian who grew up in Malaysia, I love Chinese culture, which is why I started my channel. Moving forward, I want to keep making even better videos to entertain you!”