A shopping trip to Ikea turned out to be a chance for Yeo Tze Hern to have some fun and document his adventures in a new city by creating a video of himself making Singlish puns with the names of Ikea products.

The Nanyang Technological University undergraduate then uploaded the video on his vlog YEOLO (tinyurl.com/goyeolo). Before he knew it, the clip has gone viral. It has been viewed more than 12,000 times since it was shared on the Facebook page of Cool Singapore Bureau on Monday.

“It was just a way for me to document the experience of a local Singaporean exploring a new city and I included the clips as part of my daily video entries (vlogs) for the duration of my student exchange,” Yeo told TODAY.

“There wasn’t a deliberate process behind it. I believe my inner Singaporean instincts kicked in and I channeled the way an ‘auntie’ or local Singaporean would shop at IKEA back at home to get the phrases I came up with. It was a lot of improvisation so I’d like to think my background in the drama club back in junior college helped. I also got good training in how to pun at my internship at (pr agency) The Hoffman Agency.”

Yeo, a student at NTU’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communications and Information who is currently on a six-month exchange programme at the University of New South Wales, added that he had made the video for friends who would get his sense of humour and was “taken by how it resonated with so many people”.

He is aware of a similar video made featuring a guy annoying his girlfriend with Ikea puns. “I was reminded of that when I arrived at IKEA. I saw it as a good opportunity to put a local spin on it and just went with the idea,” said Yeo. While he felt the affection for Singlish was expected, he’s more surprised by the public’s love for puns. “There are users sharing this to tell their international friends what Singlish is. The comments have been largely positive and I’m glad that people can identify with it. It goes to show how Singlish transcends borders!”