Mediacorp Actor Herman Keh, Whose Recent TikTok Got Over 16 Million Views, Says He’s Okay With Being Known As ‘The TikTok Guy’… For Now

With his recent TikTok video going viral, it would seem that Herman Keh, 26, has cracked the code to becoming social media-famous. After all, this is not his first clip that has received so much attention.

When 8days.sg spoke to the Star Search 2019 runner-up on the phone this morning (June 7), it was three days after he posted his new massively popular TikTok.

The vid, which featured him and his What’s Wrong Doctor? co-star Kiki Lim, 20, dancing to the 'Jiggle Jiggle' TikTok trend during a break in between scenes on the set of the drama, has already amassed 16.8 million views and 2 million likes.

When asked about how he feels about the clip going viral, the actor basically bellows in our ears with his foghorn-of-a-voice, "Actually normal lah, my video [blew] up before (laughs)" before adding that he never expected it to be so popular.

He first thought that the clip was doing “not bad” when it hit its first million views. Then it started getting over 10 million views.

“Actually I think it reached a lot of countries, like Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea 'cos I couldn’t understand some of the comments. Honestly, I was shocked,” Herman finally admits.

Well, honestly, we're shocked too. Here's the clip:

The 'Jiggle Jiggle' trend, or dance challenge, which has already found fans in superstars like Shakira and BLACKPINK, sees TikTok-ers dancing on beat to a rap song called, well, 'Jiggle Jiggle'. 

In their TikTok, Herman and Kiki are dressed as their characters in What’s Wrong Doctor?, a doctor and a terminally-ill patient respectively. They start dancing but halfway through, Kiki faints. 

The punchline? Seeing A TikTok dance to the end is more important than attending to a patient.

While some people thought the video was hilarious, others weren’t sure if Kiki was a real patient and got the shock of their lives. (Well, props to the hair and make-up team.)

Some also felt the video “wasn’t cool” and left comments saying that it was “not funny at all”.

When we ask Herman what he thinks about those comments, he says his manager had already warned him that "these kinds of videos could backfire".

"That's why I put a disclaimer on the video to say we're filming and that people shouldn't take it too seriously ['cos] it's just a joke," he adds. 

So how does he deal with the haters who don't like his TikToks?

“Usually I’d be affected lah. After watching the video, they might [comment] ‘Actually it’s not funny lah’ [or] ‘You think you very funny hor?’ But I wouldn’t delete the comment, unless it’s very hurtful or too much... Everybody is entitled to their own opinion,” says Herman.

He has, however, removed a video because there were too many harsh comments. 

“There was one video where I acted out a scene based on a set of lines that has already been recorded. So I did all the facial expressions and the comments were like ‘You very fake lah’ and ‘Don’t try to act lah’. I took the video down.”

Although Herman, who tells us that he has always been playful and mischievous, clearly has a knack for coming up with viral TikTok ideas, he has no interest in pursuing social media as a full-time gig.

Besides joking that he "hasn’t been able to earn any money" from TikTok, he says he would choose acting over TikTok anytime because it is what he's "passionate" about. In fact, he doesn’t think he would ever stop being an actor.

When we ask him what he thinks his 'brand’ is, Herman pauses for what seems like an eternity before saying “Multi-talented”.

But not, really.

“Actually... multi-talented is too ‘step’ [Ed: that's Millennial for 'pretentious']. I want everybody to know that I can actually do a lot of stuff, not just funny stuff,” adds Herman, who, may we remind you, once told us he wanted to be "Singapore's first Mr Bean". 

“[I can do] serious stuff too, but I must say it’s not easy to be funny as well!” he quips. 

So why post crazy TikToks when he wants to be taken more seriously? 

"Because I show a more serious side on IG," he says. "So on TikTok I want to let loose a bit. Actually most of the time I don't really find my videos funny (laughs). I want to understand from [my viewers why they think it is] funny."

But is he worried about being known as 'The TikTok guy' from now on?  

"To know me for something is not bad and slowly from there I can do other stuff. Eventually maybe there will be more labels and not just 'The TikTok guy'," he laughs. 

Photos: Herman Keh/ Instagram, Herman Keh/ TikTok