What I Miss When I Miss Comedy Night, Under One Roof

Living in our current ‘unfunny times’, I wonder about my nostalgia for local comedy shows of the 1990s.

- Ho Ai Li

Mention Moses Lim, who died in February at age 75, and you may immediately think of Under One Roof, Singapore's first English local sitcom which started airing in 1995.

“Moses Lim is Tan Ah Teck,” goes the song at the start of the sitcom about a middle-class family in Bishan headed by Lim’s dad character.

But you might also remember him from another 1990s TV programme, the Mandarin skit show Comedy Night, which made household names out of Lim and his co-host Jack Neo.

Lim’s passing made me search for Under One Roof and Comedy Night videos online recently. Watching these, I marvelled at the shows’ general bonhomie, how their physical gags have not aged, and the roster of talented comedians who appeared on the shows.

The prosperous-looking Lim usually played the authority figure. In a segment called Office Politics on Comedy Night, Lim often played a boss vexed by his staff. In one scenario, workers keep going up to him to ask him to decide on everything from toilet paper to petty cash.

Viewing one of these clips, I was surprised to hear excited shrieks.

The reason was revealed when Hong Kong singer Aaron Kwok, in his floppy-fringe heyday, appeared as a guest star in the skit; the show was such a big deal back then that popular overseas celebrities like Kwok would appear on it.

Comedy Night was also very influential – some of its catchphrases, well, caught on. In those days, when you said something that sounded vaguely knowledgeable, your friends might suan or rib you by exclaiming sardonically, “Wah, you mo shui.”

Literally, it means to be in possession of ink; in other words, being learned. The catchphrase was, in a way, the show’s cheeky response to criticism that it was low-brow.

EXCITING TIMES