Do you know who Uncle Roger is?
The character, who always sports an orange polo tee, a black belt with a phone holder clipped to it and who radiates “uncle” vibes, is well-loved by many online.
Played by Malaysian-born comedian Mr Nigel Ng, Uncle Roger made waves on the internet back when he criticised how a BBC chef cooked rice (by draining it in a colander).
Now, Uncle Roger is once again setting tongues wagging by insulting Cambodian and Laos food.
Here is what happened.
Uncle Roger Criticised the Food From Laos and Cambodia
In a video posted on the YouTube channel @mrnigelng earlier this month, Uncle Roger teamed up with “Auntie Leah” for a video titled Uncle Roger Make Adobo (8M Subscriber Special).
“Auntie Leah” is none other than Filipino-American chef Leah Cohen.
In the viral video, which has garnered over 2.7 million views at the time of writing this article, Uncle Roger and Auntie Leah cook adobo, which is a Filipino braised pork dish.
While the pair interact on-screen, Uncle Roger quips that “not all Southeast Asian countries have good food”.
He then elaborated on his earlier sentence, saying, “you don’t want food from Laos and Cambodia”.
During this exchange, Auntie Leah appears shocked and uncomfortable, asking Uncle Roger not to say that.
However, Uncle Roger continues to press the point. He even goes as far as to insult Laos food, saying that it is a “s*** version of Thai food”.
Wow, was that called for?
Since Uncle Roger’s antics made its rounds on social media and online platforms, Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism spoke up about this matter.
The Khmer Times reported it felt “extremely disappointed after seeing a video that wrongly evaluates Cambodian food on social media on a YouTube channel named Nigel Ng, published on 30 July”.
The Cambodian English daily reported that Uncle Roger’s thoughtless quip about Cambodian food damaged the “prestige and identity of Khmer food, and his assessment seriously affected Cambodian food tourism”.
Talk about undesirable consequences.
Since the fiasco, Uncle Roger has not apologised for his insensitive comments.
However, on his public Instagram account, he challenged people to cook Laos food for him to change his mind and said that Asians always insult other Asians, which should be seen as “just a way of life”.