Bus uncles and aunties
A few years back in Hong Kong, somebody filmed an older guy (referred to as ‘uncle’ in Cantonese) going ballistic when a young man on a bus told him to tone down his loud mobile phone conversation. This video was put on YouTube, and the Hong Kong “Bus Uncle” became famous overnight.
His catch phrase from the video, “You’ve got pressure, I’ve got pressure” become an instant meme. There were Bus Uncle t-shirts and coffee mugs. The Sony Ericsson phone that the other passenger used to film the video became a top seller in Hong Kong overnight.
The media had a field day. Bus Uncle’s face was plastered all over HK tabloids. Psychologists and professors were interviewed and said Bus Uncle’s outburst was a symptom of the stress of life in HK, and that the city was full of these “ticking timebomb bus uncles.”