Ken Jeong 'Still Embarrassed' He Didn't Recognize Best Friend Margaret Cho on 'The Masked Singer'

Margaret Cho competed on season 1 of The Masked Singer in 2019

Either Ken Jeong doesn't know his best friend Margaret Cho as well as he thought he did, or those Masked Singer costumes are really that good.

During an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show Tuesday, Jeong opened up about the most surprising reveal he's witnessed as a panelist on the hit Fox show.

"Nicole [Scherzinger] and Robin [Thicke] have that perfect ear where they can recognize [the masked celebrity]. I don't," said Jeong, 52. "My favorite reveal was in the first season where it was the Poodle being Margaret Cho, one of my best friends in the whole wide world."

To this day, Jeong can't believe didn't recognize Cho, 52, underneath the mask.

FOX's The Masked Singer - Margaret Cho
FOX Image Collection via Getty

"I remember that moment and the look on my face was pure embarrassment, because I knew I would not be able to live that down for the rest of my life. And I haven't," he continued. "She even said on the show and off the air, 'Out of all people, I would have imagined it would be you guessing it.' She had all the inclusion from San Francisco when she did stand-up comedy, and I'm just like, 'I don't know! I don't know!'"

The Community alum added: "I was just such an idiot. And to this day, I'm still embarrassed."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

In fact, Jeong and Cho go back over 20 years.

"I wrote a part on my sitcom Dr. Ken for her," he said. "She played my sister on Dr. Ken! Like, I know her so well. And she had an amazing voice [on The Masked Singer]. She did so good!"

ABC's "Dr. Ken" - Margaret Cho, Ken Jeong
Ron Tom/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Cho competed on The Masked Singer's debut season, which aired in 2019. She ended her run as the Poodle in ninth place; T-Pain won the season as the Monster.

Following her elimination, Cho told Entertainment Weekly about "the worst part" of competing on the series.

"I was claustrophobic the entire time. The worst part was that somebody, I don't even know who it was, somebody was talking to me a lot in the mask, through the snout, and he had really bad breath which got stuck in the snout," she said at the time. "So I would end up breathing recycled bad breath from somebody else for a long period of time. That was not something I signed up for."

As for Jeong's failure in recognizing her, Cho said: "I thought if anybody was going to guess, it's him! I was really surprised he didn't."

The Masked Singer returns with a special two-night premiere on Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.

Related Articles