Humour as exposure: Niko Omilana and the Racism Epidemic

Earlier this year, Mehdi Hasan appeared on Jubilee’s Surrounded show, in an episode titled “1 Progressive vs 20 Far-Right Conservatives”. During the discussion, Hasan asks one guest whether he believes in democracy. Wide-eyed and smiling, Connor replies that he prefers autocracy, identifies as a fascist, idolises General Francisco Franco, believes that free speech should come only after the establishment of a Catholic nationalist ethnostate, and declares, “I frankly don’t care being called a Nazi.”

Later in the show, Hasan reveals that he is an immigrant, prompting the guest to reply, “get the hell out […] I don’t want you here,” and, after shaking Hasan’s hand, proclaim, “you’re going to have to go.”

An exasperated Hasan ends the exchange with a cutting remark: “the only good thing about this fascist moment we’re in is that you guys are so open about it.”

Across the Atlantic in London, that same distinct feeling of despair can be felt while watching Niko Omilana’s new video, “I Exposed Racists in London.”

This is a successor to his 2018 video “UNDERCOVER As A RACIST for 24 HOURS,” which famously captured the viral exchange:

“they are taking our houses; they are taking the lot!”
“and they took your teeth as well?”

This is the mocking of casual racism for which Niko, as he is known by his fans and viewers of the most recent season of The Traitors know him, has become so popular on YouTube.

After this video, Niko founded the satirical ‘Niko Defence League’, even trolling Tommy Robinson, co-founder of the racist ‘English Defence League’, into promoting his NDL merchandise while undercover as a ‘racist old man’.

In 2020, things escalated further when Niko attended a far-right march wearing a mask to disguise his race.

 When people realised what he was doing, they threatened to fight him and called him a “black [expletive].”

By 2025, the situation had worsened. Niko infiltrated the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march, led by Tommy Robinson. Robinson proudly proclaimed, both in the lead-up to the rally and during the event itself, that “[the media] lie and smear us, calling us racists and Islamophobic”.

In one viral clip from the video, Niko – his race now concealed with makeup – speaks to a woman at a bus stop. She proudly declares, “I think Islam should be banned […] all the f***ing Muslim foreigners, f*** off”.

Pressed further, she adds that, if she could, she would “get rid of all of the [expletive] [black people],” and that her favourite immigrant is “a dead one”. That same woman later claimed “I am not racist and neither is my husband. I have never been racist and never will be”. 

Elsewhere at the march, a brown woman is chased by a crowd shouting “smack her, smack her,” despite her repeated pleas that she was “born in this country.”

Another man, just as aware of the camera as Connor on Hasan’s show, argues that Britain should “sink the boats […] take their life jackets off them […] kill [illegal immigrants] on the beach.” He concludes chillingly: “you pay someone to shoot them on the beach, take a picture and send it back home”.

Later, Niko sits on a curb with a woman who confides that she doesn’t “like blacks either” as this “is a white country [so] we don’t need them.” Perhaps most terrifyingly, she proudly tells him about the “three knives” in her bag, including “a Chinese knife that will cut your artery”.

She finishes with, “my dad’s from Mauritius; I haven’t told him I’m racist.”

Views like these have always lurked at the fringes of the far right. What makes Niko’s latest video so harrowing, however, is how comfortably and openly they are now expressed. In 2018, Niko could simply turn up and mock their absurdity without a disguise. Now, he wears a mask or makeup just to blend in.

Britain, like the United States, has inadvertently created spaces where explicitly racist rhetoric can flourish unchallenged. Importantly, Niko also highlights that not everyone at the march is overtly racist.

In one interaction, Niko states that he hates black people, to which a man – standing on a rooftop waving a massive Union Jack and seemingly unaware he is being filmed – rebukes him: “you cannot say that what have they done to you? […] you live over here, you’re proud to be British – we’re all pink on the inside”.

However, by standing alongside racism – knowingly or not (the man cites his opinion that the Labour government doesn’t like the Union Jack as the reason for him attending the march) – it blurs the boundaries between the fringe and mainstream. Rhetoric that was once politically radioactive now circulates freely, shaping public discourse and emboldening those with even more extreme views.

At the most chilling end of this spectrum are those who frame the current political climate not as a debate, but as a war. Elon Musk, one of the most influential people on the planet, spoke at the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally, declaring:

“Violence is coming to you, you either fight back – or you die.”

Whether it’s a smiling young man on YouTube declaring his love of fascism, or an ordinary Briton casually discussing ethnic cleansing at a bus stop, or a billionaire tech mogul warning of civil conflict, these are not isolated incidents. They all reveal a culture that risks becoming comfortable with hate.

Britain, and America, cannot afford to look away.