Malaysian comedian Uncle Roger criticised for insensitive tweet about Ukraine

Malaysian standup comedian Nigel Ng (pictured), popularly known as Uncle Roger, has been criticised by netizens for his insensitive tweet about Ukraine. The tweet, which has since been deleted but is now circulating online, read: "Adding some Ukraine dates to my HAIYAA world tour! Stay tuned..." This was accompanied by a laughing emoji.

After the heat faced, in a follow-up tweet, Ng said: "Oops! Sometimes what's funny in your head isn't that funny in real life."

https://twitter.com/MrNigelNg/status/1496817094754975745

When a netizen advised him to be careful and ensure that this incident does not repeat itself, Ng did not seem remorseful but instead said "there definitely will be a next time", adding that netizens should know he says some "crazy shit" if they listen to his Haiyaa podcast. A check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE found that Ng has yet to apologise for his initial tweet about Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/MrNigelNg/status/1496817728803553280

One netizen remarked that the least Ng could do is apologise "and not whatever this half-assed tweet is" and asked the comedian to clarify how the joke was even funny in his head. Another netizen called this a "poor attempt at an apology" for joking about actual people being murdered. One netizen also called him "disgusting and atrocious with a complete lack of awareness of what's going on in the world". MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Ng for comment.

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https://twitter.com/TomSydney4/status/1496833528965005312

https://twitter.com/AforAlexia/status/1496836632833826816

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Ng made headlines in 2020 after criticising BBC Food host Hersha Patel for rinsing cooked rice with a colander in her recipe video for egg fried rice. Ng said in his video: "How can you drain rice with colander? This is not pasta. I've never seen anyone drain rice." This prompted brands such as Shopee and Domino's Pizza Malaysia to trendjack on social media and poke fun at the incident. He currently has 127.6k followers on Twitter and according to Live Nation, is conducting his HAIYAA world tour in nine locations in the UK and 40 countries internationally, including Toronto, New York, and Melbourne.

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