What Korea’s 2020 Mega-Hit “Fake Men” Has Taught Us

After being entangled in numerous controversies, Korea’s mega-hit YouTube entertainment show, “Fake Men,” has went on hiatus on October 16, 2020, and is likely never to be aired again.

Unlike season 1, season 2 was faced with a flood of intensive criticism on social media, especially with its overly aggressive content and the spread of vindicative scandals of the program’s instructors. The operator of the show, known as Egg Kim, announced on October 16 that he feels “deeply responsible for the current controversies” and “will take all moral responsibility and stop all activities to take a moment to reflect upon [himself].”

“Fake Men” is a parody of Korea’s major broadcaster MBC’s variety show “Real Men,” which featured well-known celebrities experiencing general military training. However, unlike the original show, “Fake Men” was a collaboration between the YouTube channel “Physical Gallery” and a group of discharged Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) instructors, where YouTube stars and streamers underwent extreme special force training.

With YouTube’s comparatively less stringent violent content standards, the show presented vicious training scenes along with adequate humor, gaining explosive attention and popularity. In less than 3 months, the show took Korea like a storm, accumulating more than 56 million views on YouTube.

Jason B., a sophomore at AISG who enjoyed watching the show, says that he is “deeply sad” about the possibility that it would never be aired again. He added that today’s netizens are “very harsh” on what they see and hear and “did not expect the show to come to a sudden stop.”

Alex K., a junior at AISG, also expressed his surprise at the controversies regarding the show, commenting, “I thought the show was perfectly fine and appropriate.” He further highlighted that this is a UDT/SEAL military-based content and would “inevitably include some violence.”

In the midst of endless criticisms to the show itself and the cast members for their controversial past, one of the program’s instructors, Logan, posted on social media that his wife has miscarried due to extreme stress and depression.

This issue has allowed people to realize that popularity is followed by heavy responsibility, and overly criticizing someone online is nothing different from personal abuse.