August 29, 2011, marks the one year anniversary of the series 5 Things I LOVED in Kpop This Week. It’s been fun sharing with you all what 5 things that happened in Kpop every week that I thought were just a little bit more special than the rest. To commemorate the past year of 5 Things, for the next few days I’ll be reminiscing over The Best of 5 Things. Today’s Best of 5 things is all about variety, Kvariety.
From the very first 5 things post, a variety show that would prove to be one of the top recurring shows in 5 Things, Running Man.
The Rubber Band Game
Yoo Jae Suk‘s new variety show Running Man is freaking hilarious. Although at times the action lags, Running Man is starting to fill my Family Outing void. Whoever the PD or writers for the show are they must be slightly sadistic with a whole lot of funny.
Week 4 brought a clip from one of Kvariety’s longest running shows and one of my faves We Got Married. The Adams, the Gogumas, and Khuntoria were probably the show’s strongest couples since the initial year of the show.
Skinship inducing Haunted Fun
The three couples on We Got Married went on a trip together for a sports competition and with the added bonus of a haunted school task or what I call “Yong-hwa‘s chance for some skinship.” All three couples had to carry out tasks in a darkened school building while actors tried their best at scaring them. Seo-hyun and Victoria were definitely the biggest scaredy-cats while all the boys did well protecting their wives. The most contact Yong-hwa had was in the above pic while the other two couples got much closer, that’s why guys always want to take girls to scary movies, duh. The funniest bit though, was Kwon confronting a classroom of staring zombie school girls and taking them down with his kkapness.
From week 11, one of the best variety shows starring your favorite girl group idols that ever existed. Too bad the show started going down hill when the girls all one by one started to leave due to their group commitments.
Why Hara rules on Invincible Youth
Ko Joo-won was on this week’s episode of Invincible Youth also, I was kind of wondering why he was making all these appearances, and then bam, news of his upcoming enlistment. To help the G7 harvest their rice and celebrate their first anniversary Sunny, Hyunah, and Kim Tae-woo returned to visit. Also visiting were: Secret‘s Ji-eun; Victoria’s kids Sulli, Krystal, and Luna; and KARA‘s Ji-young along with some of the G7’s favorite volunteers. In this vid, all the visiting girl group members greet everyone with a little song and dance.
Goo Hara rocks because even though she’s a little thing, she is tough as nails. In this vid, she shows everyone how it’s done and drives the tractor (?) that harvests the rice. Way to go Hara.
From week 12, a great little variety show that didn’t last long Actress Butler.
Actress Butler in the House
I don’t know how I could have missed the first episode of this the week previous, I was waiting for this new variety show MC’d by Ryu Shi-won and starring Se7en, Noh Min-woo, Lee Hong-ki, Noh Hong-chol, Son Dambi, and a whole bunch of other actors, actresses, comedians, and singers I barely know. I did catch up and it was hilarious watching the poor butlers catering to their actresses: painting toenails, going shopping, doing yoga with, and cooking for. The following videos include Hong-ki serenading everyone to Lady Gaga‘s “Poker Face” while cooking his kebabs and what has got to be one of the funniest dinners I have ever seen on any show (lobster juice anyone?). And Hong-ki, what was he thinking of when he was making the kebabs…. guys, will be guys.
From week 14, the beasts take on the dream team
2PM vs the Dream Team
This episode of Let’s Go Dream Team Season 2, was one of the best I have ever seen. The boys of 2PM take on the Dream Team in basketball, dancing, and ssireum. While the whole episode was pretty classic (if you’re a 2PM fan the whole episode is a must), the dance off was the best bit ever. Chansung can barely Breathe, Taec Beat Ricky Kim who gave a valiant effort, and poor Junsu got pwned by Lee Hyun (but come on, Junsu how could you not do the E.T. move, duh). Jinon almost killed it with his ahjusshi moves, but Woo-young has definitely got the motion of the ocean down and I think he has been Single a little too long. Junho tamed the Goddess of Love taking out a good effort by Lee Sang-in. Sangchu tried his best (he should stick with exercising), but Nichkhun just killed it to Livin’ La Vida Loca and channeling some Rain. You have to watch it all for yourself, hold on to your sides.
Another of favorite short lived Kvarieties 100 out of 100, from week 16.
A smelly situation in School
During a break in filming on the set of 100 out of 100 (aka Oh! My School), Lee Hong-ki and Minho were playing around when Minho accidentally slammed Hong-ki into the wall. Minho tries to say sorry, but instead of forgiveness Hong-ki gets revenge. Hong-ki ‘chambers’ a fart in his hand and then gifts it to Minho. Eeew, stinky. Boys, will be boys….
Week 20 brought DBSK to Running Man.
Running Man meets the gods of the East
Yunho and Changmin were the guest of last week’s episode of Running Man. They switched it up a little by having the cast search for their guests at the Seoul Opera House amongst a whole lotta Phantoms. Yunho and Changmin were able to find the Running Man balls to eliminate all the cast from the competition except for Kim Jong-kook and Song Ji-hyo, two of the toughest competitors. Check out this clip when Jong-kook notices that one phantom in particular had some really nice shoes.
Dang, Changmin really booked it outta there (I guess with the amount of fans they have, being able to run fast is a matter of life and death) although in the end Jong-kook tackled Changmin to the ground, ouch. Check out what happens when Yunho met Jong-kook.
So, with the help of fans Yunho was able to get away and find the last ball winning the first game. The most hilarious part of the show though, has got to be when the cast and guests break up into two teams to play a version of Pictionary/telephone. OMG, it was literally hilarious. Joong-ki and Yunho, luckily everyone doesn’t love you because of your drawing capabilities.
How adorable is Yunho here, at least he recognizes that he has no skills whatsoever when it comes to drawing.
The ending of the show was a bit of a disappointment with the whole cast having to learn a dance routine with the help of Yunho and Changmin, but the rest of the show was so WIN, I’ll let it pass this time.
On Week 23 we see that it’s not always happy times on Happy Together.
Not Happy Together
Last week’s guests on the Korean variety show Happy Together were Yunho & Changmin, Onew, and Luna, Krystal & Sulli. On the show, head MC Yoo Jae-suk lost a round of gawi-bawi-bo and had to be Onew’s “helper” at showing off his talent- having an iron finger that he can crack walnuts with… yikes. Of course Jae-suk got Park Myung-soo to be a victim too.
Being the leader of SHINee, I wonder if Onew developed this skill while keeping his donsaengs in line?
From week 38, the Actress special on 1N2D.
Now That’s an Actress
This episode of 1N2D‘s Actress Special was a lots of laughs, but the best part was during the punishment for the losing team of Kang Ho-dong, Kim Jong-min, Lee Seung-gi, Kim Soo-mi, Lee Hye-young and Choi Ji-woo. Na PD did promise that the losers would be going in the water and he wasn’t kidding.
And that is why Lee Soo-mi is still acting. Dinner was also another adventure for the cast and guests, with some of the actresses rebelling against the meager fare and ultimately getting busted for…
Yup, sneaking the ramyun.
A Flower Boy on Running Man
Kim Hyun-joong was the latest guest on Running Man and it was one of best episodes ever. The PDs and writers switched things up a bit by letting Hyun-joong pick one of the cast as a spy to help him catch the rest. His pick of Haha to be his accomplice was the right choice as Haha fooled everyone and lead them all to their end in various Kyobo Bookstores. Check out this clip as Haha sets up their first victim where the Grasshopper gets taken down by the Flower Boy, I could barely breathe when I watched this episode because I was laughing too hard.
Don’t feel too bad for Yoo Jae-suk, because Hyun-joong got taken for a spin too when he and Haha tried to take down the last Running Man standing, Kim Jong-kook. It had looked like Hyun-joong and Haha would be assured a win as they meticulously took down member after member, but they underestimated the strength of Jong-kook.
They could have TOTALLY won if Hyun-joong didn’t chicken out and run away when they first confronted Jong-kook. I really don’t know what he was thinking by running away because Jong-kook was the last member and they lost out on the element of surprise. In the end, Jong-kook manhandled Hyun-joong and Haha and successfully removed Hyun-joong’s guest band. Hyun-joong will also be the guest for this week’s episode and I look forward to seeing what’s next.
Those were my top Kvariety moments from the past year, what were some of yours?
