nanoomi

The Korea Herald had a blurb on its front page that North Korea had opened a YouTube channel.  Now, this is very, very interesting news to me, because a North Korean propaganda channel on YouTube is/could be…

1. Unintentionally hilarious
2. Unintentionally frightening
3. A fascinating convergence of backward-looking thought with new media
4. In danger of being blocked by the Korean government
5. Loaded with hilariously bad English

Here we expat bloggers have been moaning that South Korean promotions people have been failing to reach their audience because they’ve been publishing/producing stuff THEY like instead of stuff that’ll actually reach their audience… How much do you want to bet a North Korean YouTube channel will raise that hilari-out-of-touchness to a degree we may never have seen before?

…If the intended audience of the YouTube channel is the international world, and not just South Korean sympathizers/potential sympathizers, that is.

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Now, I know we’re all fond of K-pop – honestly, it’s taken me five years or so, but K-pop is starting to grow on me. Really grow on me – basically, because within the limitations of what it’s trying to accomplish, it succeeds eeeextreeeemmmelllly well.

And let’s be honest: we all have a soft spot for trot music, the cheesy, accordion-rich music the old taxi drivers listen to when they drive us from place to place, loaded with overdone vibratos and yodel-y voice-cracking vocalization techniques.  It’s silly, it’s fun, and it’s unlike ANYTHING from back home… admit it. You like it.  I know you do.

So let’s combine them.

Watch the first two minutes of each of these videos if you don’t know the original song, and then watch the howlingly funny “trot” remakes:

Lollipop – from a phone ad a little while ago.  Featuring TWO K-pop megabands: Big Bang AND 2NE1.  That’s right. How many K-pop teen idol band sensations are promoting YOUR phone?  TWO? I didn’t think so.

The trot version:

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Former Kpop/current Hollywood star Rain, owner of the most preposterously self-congratulating album cover I’ve ever seen:

Was voted “biggest badass” for “Ninja Assassin” at the MTV movie awards… and his acceptance joke TOTALLY bombs.

“They told me I was nominated for the badass award, so I’ve been working out…. (crickets chirp, two fangirls scream) why so serious?”

But we shouldn’t be too hard on the man.

It was a noble effort, but his delivery was off: he would have gotten a better laugh if he’d turned around and lifted up his jacket tails or something.  This IS an MTV crowd, after all.  Frankly, I sympathize: delivering a joke in one’s second language, especially a verbal joke (bad ass award – our man is PUNNING on national television!) is hella hard.  Good attempt at a recovery, too, with the ‘why so serious’?

Anyway, congratulations, Rain.  Sorry about that flubbed punchline, but I hope you have lots of success, and more opportunities to show off your sixpack in Hollywood movies.

And in case you think Rain don’t do funny, I refer you to the Stephen Colbert/Rain dance-off, in my opinion, one of the high points of the show, and of Kpop relevance in America.

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